Grammar and language issues that drive you utterly berserk - Pet peeves

Preferred Penne said:
When people say "till this day" instead of "to this day".

For example, if you said "I enjoy this TV show till this day", that would indicate that something happened today that changed your opinion.
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A similar one that bothers me, and is common to European ESL speakers, is "I'll do it until Friday" to express something I would say as "I'll do it by Friday." It's so common that I wonder is there some dialect of English where it's correct. I know in German it's a literal translation (bis Freitag). But to me it sounds like, "I will do this thing every day and stop on Friday whether it's done or not," rather than, "On Friday it will be done and we don't have to worry about it anymore."

Like, if someone said, "I'll wear my coat until Friday," surely that means they're wearing it Monday through Thursday and then something else on Friday (ridiculous example but I hope it illustrates my point). NOT that they'll wear it at some point during the week and it will have been worn come Friday.
 
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AnOminous said:
One of them that is really pissing me off is people using "disinterested" to mean "uninterested."

Disinterested is a good thing. It means impartial and not prejudiced against either side of an argument. Someone can be disinterested, and have no personal "interest" in the case as in beneficial to them, while being very "interested" in the issue in terms of wanting to pay attention to it and get the decision right.

Uninterested means simply not caring about the issue at all.

You would want a disinterested judge who has not already decided the case against you.

You would not want an uninterested judge who isn't even paying attention. Unless you were on the wrong side.
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That's a pretty autistic thing to care about. Damn I fucking hate pedants. Aslong as you understand what the other party is trying to say that really shouldn't piss you off.

Something that makes no sense and royally pisses me off are gendered articles like "Le", "La", "Un", "Une" in French and "Der", "Die", "Das", "Den", "Dem", "Ein", "Eine", "Einen" and "Einem" in German. I can never get these pieces of shit right, just call everything with a masculine or neutral article if it's not a living gendered thing like in English. Fuck for crying out loud animals are "It" if you speak English right, which makes grammar even easier.
 
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This is the perfect thread for me.

I've seen most of my pet peeves already listed in this thread, but I don't think I've seen anyone talk about the incorrect usage of the words 'amount' and 'number'.

'Amount' is used for things that are hard to quantify, like water or salt:
"That dude drank an absurd number of water." :left:"That dude drank an absurd amount of water."

'Number' is used for things that can be easily quantified, like people or apples:
"There were an amount of people waiting in line at the store." :left:"There were a number of people waiting in line at the store."

I often see people use phrases like "amount of people", and it causes me great psychological distress because of my atsimu.

edit: This user's post describes a related issue.
deputydogshit2.0 said:
Using ‘’less than’’ when it should be “fewer than.”

It’s not hard to keep straight. If it’s an identifiable number of things use “fewer”. If the number cannot be counted “less than.”

“I have fewer M&M’s than you do”
“There is less candy in this jar.”
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Peep Plops said:
Everytime I see someone write "x be like y" or "y'all" I get the urge to reach through the screen and throttle them. Fucking pavement apes and the retarded zoomers that emulate them need to be purged.
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excuse me, i use those phrases. just because i'm a grammar-nazi doesn't mean i can't use hip and cool online lingo.

amirite, fellow kids?
 
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Peep Plops said:
Everytime I see someone write "x be like y" or "y'all" I get the urge to reach through the screen and throttle them. Fucking pavement apes and the retarded zoomers that emulate them need to be purged.
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Every time I see something like this, I break out my nigger impression:

"I IS BE LIKE 'ENNNGH' AND DEN IT DA BE DA 'ENNNGH'"
 
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Kiwi & Cow said:
Something that makes no sense and royally pisses me off are gendered articles like "Le", "La", "Un", "Une" in French and "Der", "Die", "Das", "Den", "Dem", "Ein", "Eine", "Einen" and "Einem" in German. I can never get these pieces of shit right, just call everything with a masculine or neutral article if it's not a living gendered thing like in English. Fuck for crying out loud animals are "It" if you speak English right, which makes grammar even easier.
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Learn Finnish. All that crap is dispensed with. No "muh pronouns" crap is grammatically possible in Finnish. Just don't say Thaimaaseen when you mean Thaimaahan and all will be well.

(Admittedly I say hän about my cat and se about all humans, so maybe don't take my advice)
 
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Kiwi & Cow said:
Der", "Die", "Das", "Den", "Dem", "Ein", "Eine", "Einen"
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These wouldn’t be particularly difficult concepts except German is fucked in that there is sometimes no clue of the gender of a noun based on how it is written/spoke . In Russian, and I assume most Slavic languages, you can almost always denote the gender of a noun based on its ending: if it ends in “а” or “ая” (a or aya) it is feminine or if it ends in “о” or “е” (o or ye) it is neutral. Almost all other endings are masculine. There is also “ь” or “soft sign” (мягкий знак) that can get tricky though.

I hate when people write in English “Meantime, xyz happened…” It sounds and reads retarded because it is and I blame the UK.
 
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RussianParasite said:
I’ve only see British people and Pajeets write that way. Heard it in BBC a few times as well. Haven’t seen or heard it anywhere else.
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Meantime and Meanwhile can be used interchangeably, but a native English speaker is unlikely to do so and would preferentially use meanwhile as an adverb and meantime as the name for the interval between two points in time. The problem might be that they both superficially mean the same thing; while is derived from the old english word for time, and both have historically been used as an adverb and a noun. The outcome is that a non-native speaker might just use meantime when they mean meanwhile, because they don't understand the subtle cultural influence that decides which goes where. If you see someone using "meantime" where "meanwhile" makes more sense, then they're most likely not a native English speaker. Either that, or they're consciously adopting non-native speaking habits to try and appear more cosmopolitan, which would explain why you heard it on the BBC.
 
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I've said this once, and I'll say it again: I despise the idiots who use "unironically" when they mean "seriously."
 
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