New FFF.net Grammar Brigade...join here!

For the longest time, I wrote in a much more intelligible manner than I spoke. I think that's starting to reverse itself.

My biggest pet peeve (and I know I'm playing Mr. Obvious here) springs up almost every minute on just about any message board I frequent. I can get over people typing in all lowercase or, depending on my mood, all caps. I cannot, however get ovr ppl who spell some words without a few letters in the misguided thought that it saves them some time or *shudder* makes them look cool. And I'm not really talking about multi-word phrase abbreviations (IMO for in my opinion, etc.), but to an extent, I guess I am - like the ones who go nuts with it. Teenage girls who start a post with "OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!OMG!" before jumping into a mass of unintelligible baby-babble. Makes me want to toss my head through my monitor.

Wow. I'm a mean old man.

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An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. You would never seen an "Escalator temporarily out of order" sign, just "Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience."
- Mitch Hedberg, 1968-2005

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Knibblet:
http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscribe.html

I love Anu Garg's, "A Word A Day". Subscribe and get a tasty word every morning.

What bothers me isn't so much improper grammar as the complete lack of an attempt at grammar.
I'd rather see someone try to construct a sentence than someone who just throws a bunch of random words out in the black.

If you try and get it wrong, that's sad.
If you don't even try, that's simply lazy and stupid.

"I'm gonna rip you a new puppet hole, bitch!"

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First, thanks for the link to wordsmith.org!
Second, an Amen for "If you don't even try..."
Third, where is that great quote from?!

As I said, what with TV, radio, printed media, there is NO excuse to EVER use "seen" incorrectly.
It shows that you're either uneducated or lazy...or using it for effect. Like swearing.
(I don't swear as a rule, unless I'm doing it for effect. If I swear seriously, it's Hammer Time.)
I believe Joss chose to show that Kaylee may be undereducated--"I seen it when I was on my back..."---but she's gifted and brilliant in other ways.
Mal as well. Zoe may drop and "ain't", but her grammar seems to be spot on. (Thank you, writers. I am personally happy not to see black people be grammar morons on TV.)
Simon (obviously),Inara and Book are the only deeply "book-learned" onboard.
But hey, it's all good. This is lots of fun, though.


"Take me, sir. Take me hard." -- Zoe

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Thank you for Grammar Brigade!
I was just fuming about people who write "then" when they mean "than". Now I feel better.

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Quote:

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I believe Josh chose to show that Kaylee may be undereducated

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Not to be a turd head, but since we are talking about grammar and pet peeves, it's "Joss" not "Josh". I'll wager that's one of his pet peeves, since it happens so often.

I'm with Zoot on the apostrophes. It makes me unreasonably irritated when I see an apostrophe used to pluralize. I always tell my students, "When you were in elementary school, how did you learn to pluralize words? Add 'es' or 's'. So why would you ever think it needs an apostrophe?"



"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."

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I'll join. As someone working on their Masters in English as well as their Secondary Ed. teaching cert., I'd be happy to take my place in the front lines of the grammar wars (or Grammar Wars, as they will be written down many years hence, after we win them ).

My personal, end-all, mind-wrenching pet peeve? 'Alot.' For the love of Pete, it's not one word, it's TWO. 'A lot.' What is going to drive me really batty (and since there's a linguist posting on this thread, he'll know what I mean) is when it becomes accepted usage. When that happens, and the Descriptivists consider it acceptable, I will officially surrender my pencil and chalk.

Two words, people, two words. A lot.

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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.

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Quote:

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Originally posted by Tallgrrl:
Oh! There's also "good" and "well".
Ay caramba!!
Doesn't everyone know the difference?
One feels well.
One does good.

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That's not entirely correct. For example: I did well on my exam. Good vs Well all depends on the useage of the word; I could "do good" when "good" is used as a noun.

I hates grammar anyhow.

无 党派 人士

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What really drives me crazy is almost all related to the written word and not the spoken.

"Your not being fair", for example. I see 'your' and I take it to mean that I own 'not being fair'. How can a person own 'not being fair'. It's YOU'RE not being fair.

"There grammar is awful." No, it's really not. THEIR grammar is awful.

Its/it's, your/you're, their/they're/there, are probably THE most misused.


How about the misuse of lent/borrowed? "Can you borrow me your pen" or "Can I lend your pen?" The person who's GIVING lends, the person who's TAKING borrows. So it would be "Can you lend me your pen" or "Can I borrow your pen."

I'm a grammar nut, I never cease to point out such mistakes to people.

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People who don't know the past tense of "lead" is "led" bug the bejesus out of me, for some reason. (And now I'm like Buffy, puzzling over what "hand over fist" means after she's used it. What's a bejesus anyway? Well, guess I'm off to google an answer to that.)

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