Let's start a blitz on bad grammar - nationwide

I just wish that people would use 'th' rather than 'f' in words, such as 'fing' instead of 'thing' 'fum' not 'thumb' etc. Or am I being a little bit more than pedantic?

I can highly recommend the book 'Eats, shoots and leaves' by Lynne Truss. A pedant's delight, if ever there was one and a very entertaining read into the bargain.

Why do so many people speak of dates in this century as 'two thousand and nine, two thousand and ten, two thousand and eleven' etc? 1999, for example was never said as 'one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine' 'Twenty eleven' is so much briefer and less laboured.

I am pleased that my earlier entries on the misuse of less/fewer, different to/from and have/of are shared by so many!

I am delighted also to find so many like-minded haters of misused apostrophes!

A forum for pedants, my idea of heaven!
How about 'refuge sacks' instead of refuse sacks? The mind boggles. Or two that I saw in a local market some time ago: on the flower stall some St Paulias were labelled as 'St Pauls Ears' and some holly wreaths as 'Holly Reefs'.
You're right DjangoDog, they are about misuse of vocabulary - but they are amusing!

'Are you fed up of?' equals 'bored of' in dreadfulness. My local health centre, please take note.

And another one - the misuse of the word "hopefully". does this annoy others as much as it does me?

I hate children being referred to as kids
Kids are the offspring of Goats

Oh dear, I'm just the same! I haven't done the marker thing, but only because I'm not organised enough!

It was learning Latin that really made me understand grammar, and it certainly helped when I did German a year or two later. Many years later, at university, I encountered young people struggling to learn foreign languages without a basic understanding of their own grammar. I had to help them, teaching them basics that they should have been taught at school.

As far as I'm concerned the education system had let them down to an unforgivable extent.

As a retired English teacher, I abhor the 'non-teaching' of pure English grammar. Not to mention spelling and sentence construction. As with all things, perfection is based on correct construction, and as we all know, there is a vast difference between Sociolinguistics and correct form. In fact it is necessary for one to learn what I call the 'nuts and bolts' of the grammar of one's mother tongue in order to be able to learn another language.
Let me add here, I carry a board marker so that when I see an omitted (or wrongly added) apostrophe, I can add or delete as necessary! I blame my age.

I've just this minute joined and it's so lovely to have somewhere to moan! If I make an innocent remark to my youngest daughter about her misuse of lie and lay for instance, she just laughs and says "oh you're such an old granny!" I can't really argue with that, so hello to all the rest of you. I apologize in advance that my spelling is deteriorating like the rest of me, it's been such a long time since I used it much!

And what about all the people who say "bored of" instead of "bored with".

This is just a pet hate, Christmas being called Xmas...

I am surprised that the response to 'How are you?' being 'I am good.' doesn't get more comment (only 1 that I found) - so I will add my hatred of this to the list.
Another one I dislike is 'Take care' instead of a simple 'Goodbye' or worse 'See you soon' - which, as has already been mentioned, bears no relation to whether one will or not.
This is such fun... and I had thought I was in the minority!

I certainly agree about the use of 'like' to denote quoted speech. It is horrible, but it seems to be confined to young people - for now.

I thought thread was for sewing buttons onto a garment.
Regarding vocabulary and swearing - swearing is a sign of having lack of vocabulary (or is that less)

I agree with everyone and can think of a few more 'gripes' but thank you for making me laugh, just what I needed

How do we feel about using 'like' instead of 'said'?
Eg She was like 'Want to go to the shop?' and I'm like 'Don't have any money' so she's like 'I'll lend you some' and I'm like 'Ok. Let's go'.
Where did this start?

AND another rant!

Q. How are you? A. Yes I'm ok.

A question beginning with HOW doesn't need a yes/no answer.

I am very much enjoying the opportunity to meet people who are as nit-picking about grammar as I am! It's wonderful to have others agree with our pedantic points instead of being met with the raised eyebrows and shrugged shoulders.

Oh I think there are different 'threads' on this subject so apologies!

Why can't people say sixth anymore? Yes that's one really annoys me. I find myself yelling at the tele (tele?) IT'S SIXTH FOR HEAVENS SAKE!!

Forum threads? Shouldn't that be forum posts? Threads are the different subjects. . (unless this website is different of course!).

What's wrong with asking for two coffees or two sandwiches ?

Dear Gigi,

I agree about "get" as in could I get a coffee. I think it's American. However whats wrong with asking for "two coffees" or sandwiches ?

Best wishes,

Granty

I love this! Between us we have come up with an incredible range of pet hates. I must add one more of mine, something which makes me want to scream every time I hear it. TV presenters (mainly sports) are the guilty parties - they say Chelsea V Arsenal when it should be Chelsea VERSUS Arsenal. Just because it is WRITTEN like that it doesn't mean that you SAY it like that!!

...just thought of another one
He GOT beaten up - NO- he WAS beaten up

Is using the expression "110%" a sign of a limited vocabulary or simply a person’s inability to understand percentages? Whatever the answer, the use of the term is annoying.

I went 'and' did something instead of I went 'to' do something