Let's start a blitz on bad grammar - nationwide

Just read the 6 pages I missed in my delight at finding this thread. Yes, yes again! Train station is horrible but railway station is where you catch the train. What about the nasty "meet with" instead of "meet"? I work with medical notes and there is an amazing number of doctors and medical secretaries (and therefore proof-reading doctors, one would suppose) who write about "loosing" rather than "losing" weight. Always knew I was a pedant but it is very encouraging to find that there are so many more of you!

Sorry, I meant to say 'apostrophe in front of the 's' in every word ending in 's' in my above post. They say pride goes before a fall. I know I'm not perfect and have forgotten much of the good grammar I was taught at school. My only excuse is that I left school nearly 40 years ago and my memory is not as good as it was then.

Oh how wonderful! I'm so glad I've joined Gransnet!! Yes, yes, the apostrophe - today I noticed "scoop's" of icecream but "flavours" on a price list and I do think if you're going to add apostrophes where they are not needed, you should at least be consistent. The less/fewer problem is one that drives me mad and I have been hounding my sons-in-law about it for as long as I have known them, with good results, I'm pleased to say.

When I am World President nobody under the age of 30 is going to be allowed to use the word "like" at all, except with permission (applied for in advance) for the occasional use where the word "love" would be too strong.

I've just spent a happy half hour reading the comments and I'm so glad I am not alone in finding so many irritating errors in the use of language. One of my pet hates is when someone says 'I seen'. I once overheard a mother chastising her little boy for some misdeed that she had witnessed. I still cringe when I recall her saying loudly, 'I seen you do it! You were saw!'
I also must confess that when I pass a local fruit stall and see the stalholder's chalkboard with an apostrophe in front of every word ending in 's'. I can't resist quickly rubbing them out with my finger when I know no one is looking.

When did people become individuals? I thought I would add my pet hate to the list.

Sorry, my computer did a hiccup and posted this in the previous thread I was reading instead of the menopause one!

I have always been a 'hot' person, never feeling the cold, so when hot flushes came I was streaming with sweat every half hour! After 10 years I only experience this a few times a day, but always on getting into bed, despite sleeping with only a sheet for covering. I do use cotton sheets and use lovely crisp starch, so there is always a cool spot to find for my feet.
For getting to sleep on waking at 4 am I think of a category and go through the alphabet for words starting with each letter. I usually fall asleep before I reach the difficult ones such as 'X'.

I am liking it (usually on TV house search programmes) and deceiving instead of deceptive.

Oh Hazel, I couldn't agree with you more. "Haitch" is my pet hate too, especially when people with an aitch in their surnames are spelling their names to someone over the telephone and why is it that other people tend to copy them ? My other pet hate is "think" as in anythink, somethink, nothink !!!

...and, 'I, myself, personally...'

One that really annoys me is 'at the end of the day' which tends to pop up in almost every conversation.

When someone says this I feel like replying 'is the night' but haven't ......yet !!

...sounding like 'forred', methinks.

What about 'the proof is in the pudding' instead of 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating' ? This is often used on television cookery programmes.

Should forehead be pronounced as it is spelt or , as I was taught, sounding like 'forred' ?

It is fun to see so many of my pet hates mentioned.

One that really annoys me is 'comprises of'!

My mother in law, now aged 88, has always said and written "would of" instead of "would have". Hate it, but it's certainly not a new grammatical error!

I hate "issues around..." instead of "problems with...". It's particularly beloved of politicians, presumably because as long as they are skirting "around" an "issue" they don't have to actually deal with it.

On the subject of misused and made up words...along with bad grammar

would 'of' ' and some'think'. really bug me ,and confuse our five year old grandson .

Quantum leap. Do they understand how small a quantum leap really is? As for 'going viral' words fail me.

Joan said
My pet hate is 'between you and I'. They seem to be scared of using 'me' because of they way some people incorrectly say 'so and so and me did something'.

How do you explain why it is wrong though, when they have no idea what a preposition is, or what the subject or object of a sentence is?
We were taught to take out the other person and see what sounds right.

e.g. You and me went to the park. Take out the 'you' and it's clear that it should be I not me.

Drawring instead of drawing, toe curling.

I would like to add 'up for grabs' - in the recent local elections I was nearly hurling something at the television as each reporter seemed to come on and report that 'such and such a seat is up for grabs'

Agree with all the comments above too - particularly 'can I get?' - having just come back from the States that is what we heard, but pleased to report that 3 year old grandson asks 'please may I have some more milk'

"my BIL is German and his English grammar is faultless"

Well, compared with German grammar ours is so easy! For instance, they have 16 different ways of saying 'the'. (four cases, three genders = 12, plus 4 cases in the plural, which is the same in all genders, =16)

Oh, and to make things even more complicated, their three genders are largely random. Why is a table masculine, a door feminine, and a window neuter? Some words have a specific ending which tells you the gender, but there are not enough of them.

They have their arguments about grammar too. For instance, the word/acronym 'Modem' is neuter if you think of it as a foreign word, but if you think of it as a phrase ending in 'Modulator' it is, I think, masculine.

We have it so easy, but still so many of us get it wrong. Why oh why?

Wish I had a pound for every time I heard ` could of` `would of` as a primary teacher. Also frequently heard `somethink`, `everythink` etc instead of something and everything. Still do, even from adults on the radio and t.v!

I agree with your husband milliej, my BIL is German and his English grammar is faultless

lol I think it partly depends where we come from! When I moved to where we live which is only the next county to where I originate from (Newcastle) I was told in no uncertain terms that some of the words I pronounced were incorrect!
I am not mispronouncing words, I'm saying them as I think they ought to be pronounced or taught..... but not as a local ;)
My husband is from the south and he says 'baath' I say bath which to me is the correct pronunciation if the 'a' were lengthened it should have an 'e' added....but but then it would be bathe but ...that's the English language.
No wonder many foreigners find it hard. Although my husband disagree's he says that these days foreigners speak and pronounce English better than the English!