# Ways in which you are annoyingly pedantic
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 1, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676 "2024-04-01T14:12:18Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 12
### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/221 "2024-04-13T13:59:53Z")
Then they should have used “whoa”. Isn’t this thread about being pedantic? Don’t try to excuse them!
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### Author:  [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/222 "2024-04-13T14:24:37Z")
What is “literally now”?
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### Author:  [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/223 "2024-04-13T17:51:11Z")
Alas, we do not use that term. But I do admire your thought process.
I think the term “right now” fits in, but also implies the event is seconds from starting or has already started.
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/224 "2024-04-13T18:15:52Z")
I regret to inform you that “woah” has an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary; it is listed as “variant of whoa” and has five quotations, two from 1790 and one each from 1906, 1999 and 2009. Google’s [ngram viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=woah&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=0) shows a dramatic increase in use starting around 1990, but there are a nonzero number of uses in almost every year back to 1800.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/225 "2024-04-13T18:19:58Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> Then they should have used “whoa”.
In this particular thread I feel entitled to point out that the period belongs inside the end quotation mark. Unless you’re a Brit, in which case, carry on, my valued ally.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/226 "2024-04-13T18:23:10Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#):
>
> In this particular thread I feel entitled to point out that the period belongs inside the end quotation mark. Unless you’re a Brit, in which case, carry on, my valued ally.
I am so ashamed.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/227 "2024-04-13T18:24:44Z")
> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> I regret to inform you that “woah” has an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary; it is listed as “variant of whoa” and has five quotations, two from 1790 and one each from 1906, 1999 and 2009. Google’s [ngram viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=woah&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=0) shows a dramatic increase in use starting around 1990, but there are a nonzero number of uses in almost every year back to 1800.
As a pedant, I refuse to acknowledge this.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/228 "2024-04-13T18:27:55Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> I am so ashamed.
Go, and sin no more.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/229 "2024-04-13T18:59:26Z")
A few more ways in which I am annoyingly pedantic:
I refuse to acknowledge “alright” as an alternative spelling for “all right.”
I insist on the distinction between the adjective “everyday” and the adverb “every day.”
I hate it when people use apostrophes incorrectly, especially when they end a word with **'s** when they mean **s’**.
If you write “alot,” I will imagine it in the [Hyperbole and a Half](https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html) sense.
[ ](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4udVHuXDgP16rVcCbjQ34AVYDuSgVAX4Bb2Ofa3n8pWVjAELrDn-hN5VJFOycKxuNvp9IPtvbGsBLMjva0iY5Wh9l8Nq4mVIHzAhAQkKVNBoxCs7tC1ubEghTtAjBbFhhKTDpbIVAIhc/s400/ALOT2.png)
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/230 "2024-04-13T19:28:39Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#):
>
> In this particular thread I feel entitled to point out that the period belongs inside the end quotation mark. Unless you’re a Brit, in which case, carry on, my valued ally.
Putting the period outside the quotation mark is the standard style on Wikipedia, which calls it “[logical quotation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#LQ)”. It’s more common in British English, but I’ve become convinced that it indeed makes more sense than the American style, and despite being American I now use it exclusively in my writing, as I did in the first sentence of this post.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/231 "2024-04-13T19:40:00Z")
> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> It’s more common in British English, but I’ve become convinced that it indeed makes more sense than the American style, and despite being American I now use it exclusively in my writing, as I did in the first sentence of this post.
Looking for logical consistency in English grammar and punctuation is folly! Down that path lies madness.
Seriously, I thought computers would be what changed this convention. In field one, type “enter.” Wait a minute! What should I type, exactly? Computer programs care not a whit for style. They want “literal.” Put inside the quotes exactly what you want typed, everything else outside. So far, America stubbornly hangs on to its preference.
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### Author:  [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/232 "2024-04-13T19:42:25Z")
This is why, even in my most pedantic life stages, I always ignored this particular convention.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/233 "2024-04-13T19:52:20Z")
> [@markn\_1](#):
>
> I’ve become convinced that it indeed makes more sense than the American style
I’m pretty sure the reason behind the American style is typographical rather than logical. Since Americans use double quotes where Brits use single quotes, putting a period outside quotation marks leaves a big gap between the word and the period, so that it looks like it’s floating out in space, unattached to the rest of the sentence.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/234 "2024-04-13T20:00:12Z")
Interesting, I had never heard that. Honestly, I assumed it was just contrariness.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/235 "2024-04-13T20:38:09Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> As a pedant, I refuse to acknowledge this.
Many people here refuse to acknowledge alternate spellings or pronunciations. They way they spell it or pronounce is is the **One True Right Way, and everyone else is wrong.** Even when their own spelling is listed as 'alternate".
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/236 "2024-04-13T20:41:37Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Many people here refuse to acknowledge alternate spellings or pronunciations. They way they spell it or pronounce is is the **One True Right Way, and everyone else is wrong.** Even when their own spelling is listed as 'alternate".
Woah, you act like that’s a problem or something.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/237 "2024-04-13T21:38:02Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> Generally, “fewer” is used with discrete countable quantities, “less” with continuous ones.
The way I remember it is “less sand, fewer diamonds.”
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/238 "2024-04-13T23:12:31Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> Woah, you act like that’s a problem or something.
Well, on this and many other message boards, FB etc- since it is so common, how could it be a “problem”? 🤪
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### Author:  [@TheKingOfSoup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheKingOfSoup)
#### Post date: [April 13, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/239 "2024-04-13T23:49:34Z")
I used to positively relish being pedantic. Less/fewer, flaunt/flout, decimate/destroy, everything else: I enjoyed my self-awarded superiority for many years, and I still do about many things. For example, I am old enough to have seen the effect of the internet on proofreading, and I am still trying to get over it. One of the things that helps me is something an old woman born in St. Vincent said to me. It was, “If you understand me well enough to correct me, maybe the correction wasn’t necessary.” And you know what, I think that’s true.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2024, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ways-in-which-you-are-annoyingly-pedantic/999676/240 "2024-04-14T00:40:56Z")
> [@TheKingOfSoup](#):
>
> One of the things that helps me is something an old woman born in St. Vincent said to me. It was, “If you understand me well enough to correct me, maybe the correction wasn’t necessary.” And you know what, I think that’s true.
Too many people need a little talk with her.
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