Of course, Second Runner-Up: People who try to force the language to evolve in useless ways… and then defend their misuse of words by claiming it’s just language evolution. Arrrgh.
LL
What is incorrect about “hopefully”?
ladybug wrote:
“I didn’t mean to start a fight.”
Hey, we’re not fighting each other, we’re fighting ignorance!
Between the three of us (Sauron, get in here), and anybody else who wants to help, we can get to the bottom of this.
More to come…
“Hopefully” means in a hopeful manner and is an adverb. Therefore, it is incorrect to use it to mean “it is to be hoped” or “I hope that.” So, “Hopefully, he will be here by seven,” cannot be used to mean, “I hope that he gets here by seven.”
Oh, and I forgot to mention another grammar peeve. It really starts to annoy me when people say something like “There’s eight people here.” Eight is plural and requires plural verb.
Ok, here is mine and, well, it frustrates me to no end: People who leave out the r in frustrate, pronouncing it fustrate. Sigh.
My two pet peeves are “axed” instead of asked and intentional mispellings on billboards and tv (i.e. lite). I guess you could say my pet peeve is spreading ignorance. I don’t mind so much from those who don’t know any better, but it really “picks my ass” (trying out my Canadian friend’s favorite phrase) when people do it on purpose.
OK, how about this word: coupon
Is it pronounced coopon or kyoopon???
I say “coopon” simply because…
We eat soup. Soop, not syoop
Coupe, a 2 door car. Coop, not kyoop
Toupee, Grey Poupon, etc., and other words of French origin.
So all words with “OU” as their second and third letters are pronounced “oo” and not “yoo”. So what’s up with kyoopon?
The word “Incidences”. Dammit, it is “Incidents”. How hard is that?
Using present tense when it should be past tense. “Yesterday, I’m at the store. I see my friend. He says hi.”
My ex used “actually” to start almost every sentence. grrrrr
“oreintate”… shuddap
As others have mentioned, the gratuitous use of quotation marks on signs, probably intended for emphasis, irks me. Kyoopon is also a killer.
Gently, I beg to differ – but yes, I think it can be used that way (and often is). Other introductory adverbs are often used to describe the manner in which what follows is being said. “Happily, he recovered after surgery,” doesn’t mean “He recovered in a happy manner,” but something more like “It was a happy fact that he recovered.” “Sadly, he is no longer with us” doesn’t mean “He’s no longer here and he’s sad,” but “I’m sad to say he’s not here.” There’s no reason, IMHO, that “hopefully” can’t work the same way.
The “hopefully” that rightfully annoys, in my opinion, is the misplaced-modifier version: “He’ll hopefully be here by seven,” “We’ll hopefully win the game.” That’s the one where “in a hopeful manner” is being replaced by an attempt at “I hope” or “we hope.” And even then, editorial iconoclast that I am, I might stet it if it had a couple of commas – “He will, hopefully, be here by seven.” (Actually, I’d probably change that, if only to avoid the appearance of impropriety ;))
Not pronouncing the first ‘c’ in arctic or antarctic.
I once saw an ad adding the “silent ‘c’” to a word: “exoctic [sic] cats for sale.” Talk about useless changes to the language!
Rest assured, I only wished to ensure I was insured for the water damage. My agent says PP is what the john is for. And “john” should be retired from the English language.
People who say ek cetera instead of et cetera. I’ve also heard revelant when the person meant relevant.
Shirley - I think disrespect as a verb started with the police. At least, the first time I ever heard it used that way was a police officer giving a lecture on gang behavior and he was using it as a criminal gang behavior term. “The gang member would disrespect another gang member by shouting ‘Crips Rule’” :shudder:
A lot of my pet peeves are spelling-related. A large part of my job is reading over what my co-workers have written and trying to decipher it.
For example, there are people here who don’t seem to know the difference between access and assess, and spell both assess.
Other examples:
affect when they mean effect
advise when they mean advice
loose when they mean lose
sporadic, spelled by the same person at least 10 different ways! (spuratic, spuradic, speratic, sprattic)
I.E. when they mean E.G.
And they looooooooove to pluralize with apostrophes, as in:
“The word’s are misspelled.” Aaaargh!
‘FOR SALE’ signs. Let’s see, your car is all polished up, and parked facing the road. Looks nice. How much?
That’s my number one question: How much?
What do you choose to tell me? It’s FOR SALE.
I know it’s for sale. How much?
If you put the price on it, you do three things: 1)You tell me it’s for sale. 2) You tell me how much. 3) You pre-qualify all potential buyers.
With that stupid sign, all I know is that you’re trying to sell it. If I’m lucky and you put the phone number on the sign in big letters, I might call you.
What’s the one thing every caller wants to know? How much.
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.
Put the price on in 4" orange letters. Put a small sign in the side window listing features, mileage, and your phone number.
I hear perifial all the time in place of peripheral. Others include:
versing/versus
incidences/incidents
thereforthwith/therefore
gendre/genre
ruins/runes
In written language, I hate when people use possessives every time they have an s on the end of a word. He want’s to go to the store … she let’s him, etc.
I’m also keeping a list of items I see that seem to be people’s written version of they way they say certain things (i.e. wrong), rather than typoes. They are:
movie/moving (I’m not movie an inch.)
then/than (More then one person.)
beckoned/beck and (I’m not at your beckoned call.)
use/used (Get use to it.)
congradulations/congratulations
I hate it when people say, “I got my dog spaded today.” This is so moronic. (For the benefit of the poster who wanted the correct usage, the past tense of the verb spay is spayed.)
Nucular instead of nuclear.
The banner sign down the street for a new side of the road type restaurant: The Feed Troft
ARGGGHHH! Trough! People try to spell the way they speak, but they don’t know how to speak, either! If I went into a sign-maker’s store with a mis-spelled order, don’t you think the sign-maker should say something? Tactfully, of course. That is, if the sign-maker knows.
<sigh>
It is our duty to stomp out ignorance.
An apostrophe does NOT mean “here comes an s.”
I also despise people who cannot type the “yo” that comes before the “u” . . . and people whose little pinky fingers are so weak and delicate that they cannot use the shift key.
And sentence fragments in formal writing.
Oh, you people!
Yes, yes, YES! (Imagine whatever sound effects make you happy. ;)) I am not alone!
Polycarp - is it just my imagination, or has that renter problem increased greatly of late? I don’t remember it being so ubiquitous until recently.
Another one - ‘woman’ used as an adjective. Woman doctor, woman lawyer. Erch! Makes my teeth itch.
One that’s local to my workplace - ‘pneumonic’ instead of ‘mnemonic’.
Gauntlet/Gantlet. You thrown down a gauntlet. You run a gantlet. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!!!
Cavalry/Calvary. “Call in the calvary” is common here. I always get a flash of this giant cross coming over the hill to the sound of trumpets…