Thursday, June 4, 2009

Pet peeves, what are yours?

My lovely ginger friend, Jen, recently posted about incorrectly used Spanish language phrases. Let's just say they really bother her. This got me thinking. What bugs me when I read? Well, most of my big pet peeves are not ones that you would find in a published novel (not unless the author was allowed to write unchecked by an editor.) Which words and phrases get under my skin and make me cringe?

"should of" - Just because we are lazy here in America and butcher the pronunciation does not mean the word "have" has suddenly morphed into "of."

"orientated" - It's oriented. Just... ugh.


What about you? Which words, phrases, or misspellings make you want to pull out your hair?

5 comments:

Lori said...

Oooh, I abhor orientated! Interestingly, when I called a London colleague on it, he mentioned that in the UK, it's perfectly acceptable. Wow, shocked the heck out of me.

I hate it when folks can't get the use of their, there, and they're correct. Or when they use to, too, and two incorrectly. I also find that nobody uses the semicolon anymore; everyone uses the comma incorrectly where the semicolon should be used. See? All the books I read would have used a comma there.

This one isn't usually written, but I can't understand why people say "supposubly" rather than supposedly. Needless to say, my kids often go around saying things like, "Supposubly, we are going to be orientated tomorrow." Little stinkers.

Mollie said...

their vs. there
it's vs. its (and all other incorrect contractions)
alot vs. a lot

Also, I see a lot of my students using texting lingo (u, c, 2, l8r,gtg
omg etc.) in formal papers.

Le sigh.

Bridget Locke said...

Oh....pet peeves. *taps finger on chin*

Conversate! *headdesk* It's converse or have a conversation. What kills me are the people who use the word. Most of the time it's people who are supposedly educated. Ha!

Supposebly. Um, no.

I live in Oregon and we don't really have an accent here, but one thing I notice we do is drop the "g" off words. Goin', comin' seein' etc. Don't have a clue why.

I have more. Too many really. It's sad.

Carolyn Crane said...

Orientated! Yes! I also dislike the word 'gift' used as a verb as in, I will gift you a necklace. We gifted him flowers for his birthday.

Shannon said...

Lori- Really? I would have thought orientated would be a BIG no-no in the UK. huh.

Mollie- I am right there with you! I mark my students down for using text lingo in school assignments. They get mad, but I tell them they need to learn. If they write like that in a business setting, they won't be in business for long.

Bridget- We have that Midwest lack of accent here in Chicago (unless you are from the Southside, then you sound like our Mayor Daley or Gov. Blogo.) Our regional grammatical attrocity is "Can I go with?" It drives my best friend absolutely insane.

CJ- That just sounds wrong and pretentious.