Common usage of words that drive me nuts.......

I heard of someone who was in a town in Holland and was looking for the railway station.
She asked a passerby, "Do you know where the railway station is?" He replied "Yes" and walked on .

I agree with "can I get a coffee/beer" etc being annoying.

It seems that nearly all younger people now say this, instead of "can I have a coffee please". It has happened over maybe the last 8 years or so. I just wondered where it came from - possibly an American TV show?

I suppose if that's all we have to worry about, things can't be too bad!

What really gets me is when a sentence spoken ends on the up. Difficult to explain. It became fashionable to do this a few years ago. My two teenagers at that time were always picked up on it. I'm relieved to say they do not do it now,aged 23 ,21 and 41. There was a guy on radio 4, during an interview, every sentence.I had to turn it off.

Bet your two teenagers watched 'Neighbours' at the time eccentric? The 'Aussie uplift' at the end of sentences drives me nuts too... but not as much as people who say 'nuculer' instead of 'nuclear'. When President Obama was elected, a snippet from a speech that he gave came on the radio as I was driving to work, and I actually cheered to hear the word pronounced correctly after 8 years of drawled mispronunciation

The use of a decade instead of ten years. Also "In point of time" used on the BBC. "We was" instead of we were."

My bête noire are the phases so often heard "me personally" and
hosspitaal

Saying an item is on the floor instead of on the ground when outside.

I enjoyed reading this so much. Perhaps someone should start a thread re punctuation, especially on signage?

Have a look on Pedants' Corner - www.gransnet.com/forums/pedants_corner , AdeleJay. There are lots of threads on pet hates. Yu will probably find one on punctuation there (particularly the Grocers' apostrophe)

Within the confines of political correctness imposed by our local trendy cretins. Teachers are unable to correct bad English because to do so might give the poor little dears feelings of inadequacy.

How about "It looks like it's going to rain"? What happened to "as if" - I never hear it nowadays? "Y'know" every few words - sportsmen are the worst at this. "Sticks in my craw", "up for grabs" - horrible expressions.
I don't care much for "drives me nuts" either, but then I'm a pedant.

Wonderful!! Thank you Elegran. I'll enjoy reading all those when I have an afternoon to spare.

My DH, who has thoroughly enjoyed reading this forum, insists that I point out the constant use of the word "absolutely" instead of the simple "yes". I apologise if this has been brought up before on another forum, but it has now become so widespread that it is driving him up the wall. Unfortunately for me, he repeats the word every time he hears it, thus putting me through double the irritation.

My pet hate is 'different to'. How on earth can anything be different TO? Might as well say 'similar from' but we wouldn't, would we?

Quite! I won't say "absolutely" in case I annoy Sue162's DH. Apparently "different to" is taught at school now, but if you're different you are moving away "from" something surely.

I have just used 'different to' on another thread without thinking! As soon as I'd posted I was glad it wasn't on this thread...

I should "of" - NO NO NO !!! Where did this come from as the wrong use of "have" ?

It is 3 a.m. in the morning: it is 10 p.m. in the evening. EITHER use a.m. or P.M. by themselves or don;t use them and just say morning or evening.
GRRRR !!!

I think in this case the verb, ( drive/ drives ) relates to usage, ( the subject ) therefore drives is the appropriate tense.

I recently participated in an online course in proofreading. I had a telephone 'tutorial' with the teacher, during which he told me that I 'overcorrected' the lack of punctuation in the given texts. He obviously didn't attend the same schools as I did. Some people do not understand how punctuation, or lack of it, can completely change the meaning, and/ or, the understanding of text.

"It were us money" instead of "It was our money"

I found a rather nice statuette of a Hare in Next. Then I found that it's printed label said it was a "Laying Hare" I so wanted to tell one of the assistants that I had always thought it was the Easter Bunny that laid the eggs, but I had a feeling I would be met with a blank stare

Also driven mad by "Would of" "Can I get" "Different to"

My daughter's don't have wash basins they have sinks. It irritates me. Also I cringe when I hear my colleagues asking customers if they want something rather than would they like something. I feel like sounds nicer than want. I wouldn't make comments regarding grammar as I'm sure mine is far from perfect.

If only this thread was on Pedants' Corner.

Or even, 'If only this thread were on Pedants' Corner'

I think the 'would of' happens because very few people actually say 'would have' and 'would've' sounds very like 'would of'. I have wasted hours of my life explaining to the children I worked with precisely why what they think is 'would of' is actually written as 'would've' but I think I was on a loser...

I think that much of the reason for inaccurate and erroneous word usage is the one mentioned much earlier; teaching grammar went completely out of fashion for a few decades. Consequently we have a generation of teachers who have a rather shaky grasp of it themselves. That, and the democratic notion that dialect usage should not be seen as inferior to 'correct' English. I'm not saying that all modern teachers have poor grammar but I have followed enough teachers' forums (fora?) and blogs to know that quite a few have.

Of course, much is defended with the 'language changes' argument but I don't think it changes as fast as people would have me believe.