Completely random pet peeve out of nowhere...

[telophase]

For heaven's sake, people, when you react to something with a frisson of fear or disgust, you shudder, not shutter! If you happened to shutter in horror, that means you reacted to whatever it was by closing all the shutters on your house, not by shaking!

</grump>

So ... anyone else want to vent about linguistic pet peeves?

Comments

[plasticchimera.livejournal.com]

Their, there, they're.

Need I say more?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I knew a guy in undergrad who told me that he had an English teacher in middle school who insisted that their, there, and they're had different pronunciations and refused to use them in sentences on the spelling test.

[blissfish.livejournal.com]

"I need to loose some weight."
-Is it going to go on a rampage through the streets? Do I need to carry water guns filled with surfactants and enzymes? Ew.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hate the loose/lose mixup.

And I've seen "hoard" and "horde" mixed up for so long that now the correct usage looks weird to me and I have to double-check when I use it.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Reins =! reigns.

[the_rck]

"He could not bare it."

Seeing this always makes me snicker rather than feel sympathy for the character. I think of refusing to do a promised striptease rather than unbearable angst.

[blissfish.livejournal.com]

Also "baring a burden" and "pairing things down".

Oh, homophones, you gall me so.

[ellen-fremedon.livejournal.com]

And 'towing the line.'

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

Lightening strikes!

*mutter grumble*

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Last month I ran across one of worst errors I've seen yet--a fic writer had confused 'ministration' and 'menstruation'. I'd like to think it was just a mistaken spellchecker replacement, but given the state of writing today....

[blissfish.livejournal.com]

I can't find it online, but in the comic strip Bloom County, there was a sign that said "Dandelion Patch - no malapropisms" (if I remember correctly) that would be perfect for that.

Excellent excuse to go through my Bloom County books to find it and scan it into photoshop.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

I am probably a weirdo and it isn't really an error, but I dislike the words "lighted" and "hanged". I think "lit" and "hung", despite the potential for snickering and jokes, sound much better.

[estara.livejournal.com]

I teach my students that you use "hung", when you put something on the wall and "hanged" when a person gets killed by hanging by the neck. Is that wrong?

[lady-noremon.livejournal.com]

Than and Then, I used to make the mistake a lot, because I pronounce them differently, and was going by what sounded the best in each place, 'eventhough' I know one to be for time and the other for comparison ^^;

I also combine words which don't get crammed together like 'atleast'.

It's vs. Its

[emtigereyes.livejournal.com]

Maybe it bothers me because I had it beaten into me early in life, but still... the distinction is made.

It's = it is
Its = belonging to or being possessed by it

[emtigereyes.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I must add one that I had to personal fight to break the habit of (still don't know where I picked it up):

Irregardless. ><

Oh, the joy of the double negative.

[celestriad.livejournal.com]

um... i've got lots. its/it's, your/you're, there/their/they're, effect/affect, then/than...

yeah, you name it, it probably bothers me. -_-;

[kate_nepveu]

Forward != the introductory bit at the start of a book.

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I know it isn't quite what you meant but when I'm reading a story and I stumble across sentence fragments that could have easily been tacked onto the previous sentence with a semi-colon I get twitchy.

Word usage that makes it obvious the writer has only heard a word and never bothered to look up the correct spelling for the context drives me a bit insane too.

[octopedingenue]

I would love to see a disgusted house shutter in horror.

[inkblot14.livejournal.com]

From college days[1]: corps, core and corpse.

In battle, I suppose I'd be happy to be in the core...it's probably safer than the edge. However, I'll do everything I can to avoid joining the corpse.

That's illegal, even in this state.



[1] Specifically, Texas A&M.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

urggggh....I think the worst ones urrently are people "laying" in bed (I mean anchor persons and the like on TV, who really ought to know better) and dangling modifiers.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Using "draws" in place of "drawers".

Verbing-weirds-language business-speak. Using "office" as a verb makes me want to kill...

And let us not forget the classic greengrocer's apostrophe.

[thawrecka]

'Per say' drives me batty, though not as much as people saying 'try and' instead of 'try to'.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

A drive-by comment: "Try and do something" is perfectly normal in British English, so though it would be out of place in a very formal register, in a lot of contexts its's entirely acceptable.

[mechamel.livejournal.com]

This has "peaked" my desire to post. :P

[ebony14.livejournal.com]

"baited breath" (which should be bated breath, as in "abate")

I could see someone "shuttering" their gaze in horror, but it's sort of an oblique way of saying that they shut their eyes.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

"Baited breath" is perfectly correct.

At least, it is if you've been eating worms. :-D

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

People have already mentioned my pettest of peeves:

She layed in bed, awaiting they're entrance with baited breath.

I also loathe, detest, and despise the word alright.

[emtigereyes.livejournal.com]

To quote an amusing LJ icon I've seen:

"Your throws of ecstasy send me into throes of amusement".

"Thru is only a word if you're referring to getting a hamburger in your car"

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

A "hoard" of barbarians killing the dragon and stealing its "horde".

(Oops, that reminds me of another pet peeve--the inability to distinguish between "its" and "it's".)

[sparkylibrarian.livejournal.com]

Effect and affect. Can't people pay at least a teeny weeny bit of attention to this? It really torques my twinkies.

[cawingcrow.livejournal.com]

brakes vs. breaks -- I've seen the latter used for the former way too many times in print by folks who should know better.