# Yet another grammar rant...my eyes are bleeding! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 24, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308 "2004-08-24T18:22:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/101 "2004-09-05T07:31:12Z")
> [@cazzle](#): > > I just wanted to say that I’ve recently been disturbed to see people substituting the word “anymore” for “now” or “nowadays”. Examples: Anymore, things have changed; The things you have to go through anymore! Related to that, and with equal result to me, is the seemingly opposite meanings that when and whenever are gaining. “Whenever I was 17, I used to just walk home straight from school” and “When I get to a yellow light I speed up” illustrate this decently enough, I think, though the (criminally, to this pedant) egregious use of whenever really gets on my nerves. Also, -age on a word. I’m aware that it’s becoming increasingly common to the point where it will soon be accepted by most folks, and that language changes, often to accomodate those who don’t know better. However, could we please eliminate the -age in usage, percentage and other words perfectly legitimate (have to add that final -e on to usage after removing the -age) without it? Use. Percent. Words - verbiage doesn’t make you look smart, it makes you look like you sat at a dictionary a minute ago to try and sound smart. Lineage, far as I know, doesn’t commit this heinous transgression, and mercifully my mental list of other such words is at its end for now. Quote vs. quotation vs. quotation mark and cite vs. citation vs. site vs. sight (and cyte, I guess, though the folks who make the previously-mentioned mistakes usually don’t know cyte to misuse it). Oy. The AP Style Guide Common Mistakes sheet I got from the campus newspaper, and soon after edited so it wasn’t error-riddled, made mistakes with quote/quotation/mark at least three times. Also (and I got email about this from a friend who was confused about all the stupids doing this), ending sentences with the wrong punctuation mark. Questions ended with exclamation marks (or periods), regular sentences ended with qmarks or exclamation marks (we went to the store! And bought a loaf of bread! With cheese grated on top!), especially if they’re actually sentence fragments. Beginning a sentence (not a question but an affirmative sentence) with and, or, however, so, which, that, who, … all becoming increasingly accepted. In these cases are where I often make the vast bulk of my use errors. Abusing apostrophes and commas gets on my fucking nerves. If I had a never-ending bottle of white-out, the fumes would never fully dissipate. People who can’t sustain/match verb tenses. Reading fanfic aggravates this annoyance, but I’ve seen it enough otherwise. I’d love to find out how people go from “I went to the store and bought a loaf of bread” to “…buy a loaf of bread” who are native speakers of the language and do not have any diagnosed difficulty forming correct sentences, in writing or otherwise. The “myself” problem, which seems to be a mark of faux intelligence, is up to now only minorly aggravating, but look for that to increase. A guy with whom I’ll be working uses that word in place of “me” with such distressing regularity that I wonder if it isn’t becoming “accepted” much as infer and imply have gradually become listed synonyms of each other. I won’t even discuss lie vs. lay or sit vs. set, go vs. come, bring vs. take, in vs. into, on vs. onto, anymore vs. any more, who vs. whoever, forward (NO S!) and backward (NO S!) and beside (NO S!). Former roommate would frequently say “…but that’s besides the point.” He also claimed to be highly educated especially in English grammar. Bugged me the fuck out every time he said it. The really sad thing is that there are plenty of other things we haven’t mentioned yet. …why yes, I _am_ a pedant. Whatever gave you that impression? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/102 "2004-09-05T08:07:40Z")
> [@avabeth](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever posted a grammar and spelling rant before, but it’s absolutely necessary right now. > > To whom it may concern: > > It is not ‘pasted’. It is PASSED. > > It is not ‘losted’. It is LOST. > > It is not ‘costed’. It is COST. > > Fucking A, people, you’re making my goddamn eyes bleed out of their sockets! Please stop, unless you want me to go blind! > > (And I’ve only noticed these things in the last month or two, but I’m noticing it more and more, and it’s driving me fucking crazy…). > > Ava We here use “costed” to indicate a price derived \*\*\*after \* \*\* adding up all attendant \*costs \* of an item. :eek: 😃 for sale. ---
**Author:** ![williamweigand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b3f665/32.png) [@williamweigand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williamweigand)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/103 "2004-09-05T08:23:57Z")
I was going to start my own rant thread but decided posting one of my pet peeves to this one would suffice… The words **media** , **data** , and **criteria** are plurals of , respectively, medium , datum and criterion! Please stop using them with singular verbs! ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/104 "2004-09-05T17:19:24Z")
> [@iampunha](#): > > Related to that, and with equal result to me, is the seemingly opposite meanings that when and whenever are gaining. “Whenever I was 17, I used to just walk home straight from school” Ooh, igh, yes. I’ve seen this lately, and whenever I do, it leaves me both confused and annoyed. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/105 "2004-09-05T18:26:09Z")
> [@williamweigand](#): > > The words **media** , **data** , and **criteria** are plurals of , respectively, medium , datum and criterion! Please stop using them with singular verbs! Unless someone has committed the incredibly heinous error of saying “Could you data that up for me?”, I think you might be looking for noun there and not verb;) I found out a few months ago that agenda (plural of agendum) is actually a plural, but considering my two grammar maven parents didn’t even know that, it’s a fairly acceptable mistake. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/106 "2004-09-05T18:28:12Z")
And of course I read “with” and mentally substituted “as”. I’ll just be over there with the dunce cap firmly applied to my head… [sub]In my defense, I’m told that data can be used singularly or plurally. OK, that really isn’t a defense…[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/107 "2004-09-07T14:00:44Z")
Two I heard this weekend while watching TV: 1. On the new show _Hawaii_, a reporter is talking about a hostage standoff in a bank. Not once, but twice, she says, "Behind of me, in the bank… " **Behind of me**? It may be a regionalism, but it just sounds so wrong. True, we say ‘in front of me’ but ‘behind of me’ is just wrong. 2. In one of those McD’s ads for their new chicken strips (all of which are stupid - the one with people defending their chicken from unseen assailants), a young woman has brought them on a plane trip, and the flight attendant is coming around collecting trash. As he approaches her, she looks at him and says, “You better don’t!” Ugh. Just shoot me now. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/108 "2004-09-08T03:25:51Z")
How about people that don’t know the difference between **affect** and **effect**? They can both be nouns or verbs (although I’m prepared to forgive people that don’t know the meanings of the noun “affect” and the verb “effect”, since they’re less common), but the four combinations have distinctly different meanings! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/109 "2004-09-08T10:04:59Z")
Ack! Another one that seems to be used incorrectly more often than not: **poring/poring**. “He spent hours pouring over the documents.” No he fucking didn’t! Not unless he was trying to make papier mâché, anyway. Here’s another: **defuse/diffuse**. “Specialists were called in to diffuse the bomb.” Huh? What were they, _osmosis_ specialists? It’s your _own_ language, numbskulls. LEARN IT! ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/110 "2004-09-08T11:47:18Z")
> [@dmartin](#): > > How about people that don’t know the difference between **affect** and **effect**? They can both be nouns or verbs (although I’m prepared to forgive people that don’t know the meanings of the noun “affect” and the verb “effect”, since they’re less common), but the four combinations have distinctly different meanings! ‘Affect’ and ‘effect’ are in the same category as ‘then’ and ‘than’ and are slightly (only _slightly_!) forgiveable, since they sound nearly the same. I blame the misuse on the fact the no one reads any more. If people would pick up a book once in a while (I’m not talking about any one here, of course), they would be able to use them correctly. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308/111 "2004-09-08T12:26:14Z")
> [@Nordic](#): > > Great book! [**Eats, Shoots & Leaves**] Should be mandatory reading. Did anybody else read the LONG and detailed NYTimes article about how many grammatical mistakes there are in this book? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-grammar-rant-my-eyes-are-bleeding/261308.md?page=5)