What’s even worse is when people use “loan” as a verb [It’s a bit scary posting to this thread; this sentence looks very wrong].
I’m glad that Baker’s mentioned “lay” and “lie”, and people not knowing the difference; I’ve been irritated for a long time by that.
Writing “each other” as one word is something that particularly annoys many people. Unfortunately I make up the entire subset of people who make that mistake.
While I’m on, it’s not the right thread for this, but I get annoyed by people who think that “ignorant” means “stupid”. They are ignorant of the real meaning of the word “ignorant”.
There is nothing wrong with that. Allow me to quote from Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary:
loanvt. loaned, loaning, loans. To lend. usage: Loan, which has long been established as a verb, is equally as acceptable as lend in all contexts except in such figurative expressions as lend an ear and distance lends enchantment.
There’s nothing wrong with this either. While it does mean worried and distressed, allow me to quote from Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary:
Nonsense. An anniversary is a yearly observance. Sticking a word in front of “anniversary” modifies it. Therefore, it is totally clear that a six-month anniversary is a six-month observance. That’s why we have adjectives.
Complaining about that is like saying “a car is a large metal thing with an engine that people can drive around in. A ‘toy car’ is not a car. Therefore it is a misuse of the word car”.
I’m not certain I agree with this, either, although it’s somewhat subtle.
The words “red” and “green” are adjectives, not adverbs (just like “good” and “bad”). However, you could legitimately say “look, there’s a colorful rope that starts out red and ends up green”, or something of that sort. If you say “the book started out well”, then “well” is an adverb modifying “started out”. However, if you say “the book started out good”, then “good” is an adjective modifying “book”, with “started out” being a subsidiary clause of some sort giving information was to when it was that the book was good.
(I assume that what you were complaining about was the adverb/adjective issues, as opposed to the missing “but” before “ended bad”.)
Dictionary.com and my Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged both give stupider as the proper usage. The only thing stupider than bad grammar is aggressively promoting bad grammar as correct.
Speaking of people trying to sound smarter than they think they are:
The reflexive case should only be used when the actor is the same as the acted upon.
The word “Myself” does not mean “Me”. If I want to notify you that something will be done by a group that includes me, I will say “[Activity X] will be done by [Person Y], [Person Z] and me.” I will NOT say “[Activity X] will be done by [Person Y], [Person Z] and myself.”
The quick’n’easy* way to remember this convention is to recast the sentence with me being the sole actor, and using the version that doesn’t sound stupid. It isn’t too hard to select the stupider of the following two alternatives: “The dishes will be washed by me.” vs “The dishes will be washed by myself.”
[sub]* “quick’n’easy” is used in a humorous sense, above, and is therefore allowable[/sub]
The word “yourself” should be similarly restricted.
I’ve seen the following: MP writes report with high-falutin’ language and thereby says exactly opposite of what really happened. Offendor gets case dismissed by Military Magistrate because, according to the reporting MP, there was no offense!
Also: I got rear-ended by a dude dragging a boat on Lighthouse Ave in Monterey years ago. Cop used high-falutin’ language incorrectly and I had to petition to have the police report corrected. Report, before correction, had me at fault for rear-ending my own vehicle!
And this reminds me of we/us that I’ve seen from time to time.
For example:
“Some people think of we Dopers as strange.”
“Some people think of us Dopers as strange.”
The second sentence is correct, since “us Dopers” is the object. Drop the word “Dopers” and it makes more sense.
“Some people think we Dopers are strange.”
“Some people think us Dopers are strange.”
Now the first sentence is correct. Again, just drop the word “Dopers” and re-read the sentence.
And as for the “stupider/stupidest” thing, all I know is I was taught that was wrong in school. Common usage may have since gotten those words worked into acceptance, but I was going by what my teachers said. I’m sure I’m not the only one who remembers when “ain’t” wasn’t a word to be found in the dictionary, either. That’s what I get for having a public education, I guess. I blame my parents, of course.
Apparently the theory behind this is “whomever” follows “to” and thus should be in the accusative. That’s incorrect. Everything following “to” is the actual object; however, “whoever” is nominative as in “Whoever shows up first…”
Sadly, I’ve heard English teachers (I mean those who teach English, not teachers who just happen to be from England) make this mistake!
Oy vey. I’ve learned to not get too high and mighty about this sort of thing. I am still the anal-retentive grammar queen in my own mind, but I try to keep my mouth shut. There are SO many flaws in my own grammar and spelling, I’m really in no position to freak out over anyone else’s mistakes. At least not to their face.
I am learning a lot from this site, though. And this thread. I used to write “alot” and I had forgotten the difference between “its” and “it’s”. Thanks to the supreme efforts of the SDMB, I have cleaned up my act and no longer make these grave errors. So, I’m gradually improving.
The apostrophe thing really grates on me, though. Indiscriminate apostrophes are evil, pure and simple.
