My dad does this all the time: “between you and I”. Augh! You wouldn’t say “between I and you” (I hope), so what’s so difficult about “between you and me”? It’s the object of a preposition, for heaven’s sake.
I think this bothers me even more than “Me and him are…” because at least then it smacks of honest uneducation, not as a half-assed attempt at correctness by someone who somehow got the idea that “me” is wrong anyplace but after a verb.
I tell you don’t nothin’ get my goat worse’n folks misusing terms and spellin’ stuff incorrectly.
My pet peeves come from folks confusing the followin’:
its and it’s
they’re, there, and their
were and we’re
woman and women (like when folks say “a women”)
Oh, and matt_mcl, yes, that “Between you and I” mess.
I’m sure there are many more, but these are the ones that stick out the most over the years of reading student essays and whatnot, and it just gets on my nerves ‘cause now those misspellin’s start cropping up in my own writin’, and sometimes I can’t catch ‘em good. Tricky little bastards. 
But, I was talkin’ with a colleague ‘bout the ol’ contraction vs. possessive vs. expletive confusion, and she was sayin’ how she could see the day when English evolves to the point where we don’t use apostrophes to note the difference between a contraction of a subject and verb and a possessive pronoun. [shudder] Can you imagine?
This thread is something every person who’s had to suffer through reading imprecise language needs to print out and make copies of to distribute to those offending parties so that they may learn the error of their ways and sin no more.
"A whole nother"? No, a whole other.
I’ve heard it used a lot in reference to horses.
That’s slang.
I hope! :eek:
Do you see this written much? Because I think it’s a mis-hearing of the contractions: * would’ve should’ve could’ve * . Although I don’t know if those are even considered acceptable contractions in the way * don’t * and * isn’t * are.
While I take your point, you really should wear a napron while eating a norange; the juice is running all over your shirt!
Which is to say that the language evolves, wist ye sae or nay. An ye protest, “a whole nother” will be acceptable English by 2100.
Yes, I thought of that. But I figure it falls into the error category, just because I can’t think of any other use for the new word “nother.”
Poly, to the contrary I took instant notice of what I thought to be a misuse of the word “comprise” in the title. I’d always been taught in English courses to use it when discussing what a larger whole is made up of; as in: the Bill of Rights comprises 10 amendments. m-w.com adds this to the mix:
So, it would seem that Hunter’s and your preferred use is actually the one more likely to be attacked as wrong (though it is accepted). I guess it’s kinda like how I think it sounds wrong to hear “myriad” used a noun rather than an adjective, even though it’s also accepted.
It isn’t slang, it’s a common developmental error. “Another” is a contraction of “an other”. When adding the word “whole” for emphasis, instead of splitting the contraction and deleting the unneeded “n” from an, resulting in “a whole other”, less sophisticated speakers will split the word at the break between the first two syllables (a-nother), and insert “whole” there. When a child makes this mistake, it’s a normal developmental stage. When an adult does it, it’s a lack of proper education.
Comprise/compose:
The parts compose the whole.
The whole comprises the parts.
The whole is composed of the parts.
“is comprised of” should be avoided.
And while I’m at it:
responsible/accountable
The person who controls a situation is responsible.
The person who receives credit or blame is accountable.
You cannot hold someone responsible, but you can hold someone accountable.
rise/raise
Both mean to move up. Rise is intransitive and refers to the movement of the subject; raise is transitive and refers to the subject moving the object.
I will rise to the occasion and raise my grades.
Certain adjectives come in pairs, one positive and one negative, such as tall/short, old/young. The positive member of the pair is the only one that can take a numbered measurement, and when it does, it is a quantitative description, not a qualitative one.
You can be 50 years old, but not 50 years young. Being 50 years old does not make you old.
My personal pet peeve:
“Ima” used to mean “I’m going to”.
Used primarily by elementary school students and every athlete at any level who appears on television.
All of this I knew perfectly well. My point was that I gave most people who said this the benefit of the doubt, and assumed they were making the error knowingly and deliberately, as I have been known to do once or twice.
I agree with Stoid on “nother”. I assume when I hear it that it is done in the same spirit as my dad asking me if I want “another coffus” when my coffee cup is empty, or the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers advertising that they have “millions of gruntled customers”.
If we’re wrong, and the users don’t know any better, that’s truly egregious.
Like nuckin’ futz and tig ole bitties are said for humorous emphasis.
And every other grammatical and spelling mistake I make is done on purpose, I swear!
When intentionally done for humorous effect, it’s slang, I’ll grant you that. Unfortunately, I’ve read papers by my college students with “a whole nother” written in a context which could not be considered for stylistic purposes. I also have seen “for all intesive purposes” used much more than the correct version.
Getting away from the “a whole nother” subject for a moment, I’d like to cast a vote for the misuse of the reflexive case (unless I’m really meaning "reflective case). It drives me up the wall when I hear someone using “myself” improperly, and it seems that they usuually do it when they want to sound like they’re too smart to use “me” properly.
Example:
“As the supervisor, I’m responsible for getting all of this information in to the management team, so I’m asking you to fill out your paperwork and hand it in to Mr. Smith or myself by Friday.”
I’m tempted at times to submit a new definition of the word “self” to the lexicographers.
self: n person, esp. one owned by the person in question ex. (1) “Give the paper to my self.” (2) "The bird dropped a load of guano on his self."