Let's start a blitz on bad grammar - nationwide

What matters is whether the person is communicating their ideas properly, surely? Anything that gets in the way of that is a problem, I think.
My pet hate is also the grocers' apostrophe-or do I mean the grocer's apostrophe? Oh, and also multiple punctuation marks!!!!!!?!!!!

And what about 'I done' instead of 'I did' all the time, this is on the TV alot.

Just a sec, bear with me, when all`s said and done, at the end of the day - we are all unique!!

I agree with HarrisonsGran's comments.

Whenever an assistant says, "Seeya later..." my husband is tempted to reply..."About what time? This sounds tempting..."

I loathe the expressions 'gob-smacked' and 'bricking-it'. Ooer, methinks that I'm inviting trouble...

My current pet hate is 'til. We already have two perfectly good words, till and until, and don't need a spurious abbreviation. This is all over the place these days; even spotted it in Harry Potter - Bloomsbury should know better!

...and compared WITH...

Supernana, I can remember my dear Mum being totally confused when someone said to her "see you later" instead of goodby. She said, "Oh are you coming back then".

I must admit I really can't stand the way people say "Get" rather than "Please may I have. What about people who say " I so shouldn't have done that",etc. Grrrrrrr.....

I agree with the posters above about less/fewer. Every time I hear 'less' used wrongly I find myself shouting at the television or radio. And what about 'staycation'? Grrr.

Language is dynamic, so as much as we may dislike some of the changes, it must change in order to survive. Even misuse of vocabulary has occured over the years and has frequently become the acceptable norm. Saying all that some things drive me mad such as "fit for purpose" Where did that ghastly phrase come from?

Major irritations: less rather than fewer; confusing 'me' and 'I'; use of the word 'kids' - kids are young goats not children; I read in the Daily Telegraph this week "This was a favourite of Prince William's." - Prince William's what, I ask? Also, misplacing of the word 'only'. Also, confusion of 'infer' and 'imply'. I work with young graduates and their grammar, mis-use of words and spellings are terrible.

Yes, we Aussies are crap at using the right word in the right situation. I think it's a mix of slack teachers who were never taught proper grammar and usage when they were at school, and the drift of Americanisms into (Australian) English. Kids use confusing Americanisms like "lucking out" (which to me should mean running out of luck") or "it being downhill from here" (which to me should mean that things are getting worse), but language does change, for better or for worse.

Joan, when I was in information technology I enjoyed the words, acronyms and phrases that were coined to describe computer stuff. The old pre-USB scanners and external drives that plugged into the printer port were said to be "TWAIN compliant". TWAIN was Technology Without An Interesting Name! My favourite was when the original Palo Alto group invented the mouse they wanted an expression to describe the relationship between the distance the mouse moved on the mouse-mat to the distance the cursor moved on the screen. They called it the "Mickey ratio".

In order to survive language must be dynamic, and therefore constantly change. This will include the use/misuse of vocabulary and grammer. However much we may dislike some of the modern use, some of it will become normal and acceptable. Saying all that, where did that ghastly phrase "fit for purpose" come from - I shall rip then next person's head off who says it!

And what about "inside of" / "outside of". Both expressions make me cringe and they are in very common use on the BBC quite apart from just about everywhere else.
I am a linguist too and languages do evolve and English is the most accommodating of any to foreign, and, in particular, American imports.

Forgot to mention the dreaded 'haitch' - a bit of an Essex habit that has spread. Not only does it sound wrong but, sorry folks, the 'h' is silent (aspirate) when spoken as an individual letter of the alphabet.

Another bugbear is ' for free' eg you can have it 'for free'. Let's just think of it being free, free of charge or gratis.

We were always told by the teachers at my C of E school that saying "haitch" was the sign of a middleclass Catholic education. I must say it really grates to hear it coming from radio announcers or politicians.

My pet hate is 'your' instead of 'you're' - I think it will take over soon.

Oh how I agree with almost everything ! My biggest hate, in case no one has mentioned it yet is the misuse of the apostrophe - drives me to distraction !

My pet hate is "instore" (or "inbranch" etc.). What is wrong with "in one of our shops" or " in your local branch"?

It saddens me that education has such low standards that people making these grammatical errors make not know they are wrong. I still wish they wouldn't though.

Having had a 'middle-class Catholic education' in which the pronunciation 'haitch' was frowned on, I'm a bit surprised that PoppaRob's teachers thought it was a mark of such an education. I wonder whhat gave rise to the idea?

Raggygranny, the middle class Catholic education use of "haitch" is what I have always believed too. I don't know where I heard it but it's been an ingrained belief for a long time.

I have absolutely nothing to add to this thread as all my pet grammar and vocabulary hates seem to have been covered.

Train Station. What happened to the railway station?

So many of my pet hates here. I think "less" being used instead of "fewer" is the one that really grates when I hear BBC reporters say it. They should know better. I also hate "haitch". I think the use of "mine" for my house originated in Australia and has been imported via the Aussie soaps, as has uni.

Don't you have to double check for mistakes on this thread!