Which grammatical mistake do you find most annoying?

[Pillager]

So, which grammatical mistakes annoy you most? I've included only the ones that leapt up at me, so to speak.

For me it has to be people's inability correctly to use apostrophes. I even saw "Gentlemen's and Ladie's" in a shop window last week.

Yes, I am aware that some of the choices are punctuation rather than grammar....

 

[nixon]

Spelling errors, which you're unable to spot immediately, but after some time you realize that there's something wrong, and then I'll have to edit the post. Verdammt.

Somebody cure my disfigured genes!

 

[Padma]

I know it's pedantic, but one of my pet peeves is people who write "should of" instead of "should've" or "should have". There is no such phrase as "they should of gone ...". If it was non-English speakers, I could understand it, because that's what "should've" kind of sounds like. But it's almost exclusively native English speakers,who are just too lazy to learn their own language! </rant>

 

[Dralix]

Hard for me to pick just one. I think I can limit it to two.


1) They're/their/there and all variants (including your/you're, to/two/too)

2) Wrongly placed apostrophes. I think this one originally started with plural abbreviations, like PCs.

But now, it 'seem's that 'some people in'si'st on putting an apo'strophe before every 's they u'se.

 

[anarchywrksbest]

Spelling definitely! I despair at the education of America when I see just how bad some of you spell.

 

[Hitro]

As a stupid foreigner I don't care too much.
What I really hate is when people (not so much here) write things like "I luv u 2", "w/" or "g/f".

 

[Mephisto]

same here, i make mistakes all the time. so i actually enjoy seeing native speakers making mistakes, that make me feel better about myself.

 

[Greadius]

I don't know if it counts as grammatical errors, but the three things that annoy me the most:

1. Lack of paragraphs.
2. Lack of capitalizations
3. u instead of you.

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

 

[Richard III]

The thing that annoys me most - mostly because of 3 years service as a hack with the government - is the increasing government/political popularity of the word "ensure," which is EVERYWHERE despite the fact it is usually used in a meaningless way. I've seen some pols use ensure as much as three times in a sentence, or dozens of times in a single speech. "We must ensure the provision of adequate health care." "We must ensure a balanced budget."

Why not just balance the budget, and provide health care?

R.III

 

[amadeus]

Replacing "you" for "u" is pretty bad. Or replacing the word to, two, or too with "2."

 

[Mephisto]

Originally posted by Greadius

.....
2. Lack of capitalizations
.....

I don't know why it annoys me so much.

 

[stormerne]

My peeve over incorrect use of apostrophes is aggravated* by the fact that I have a hyphenated surname. Why? I'll explain. Most young people who have telephone/clerical jobs do not seem to know what a hyphen is. Often I've spelled out my name to someone on the phone only to receive a confirming letter the next day with an apostrophe in my name where the hyphen should be.

* Note correct use of the verb to aggravate.

 

[Wolfe Tone]

Incorrect puntuation and random capitilisation are two things that bother me. However when typing one would inevitably make a mistake, unless you check your post. Which most of us don't have time to do.

 

[Ohkrana]

The use and mis-use of plural and possessive apostrophe's!

 

[Pillager]

Originally posted by Padma
I know it's pedantic, but one of my pet peeves is people who write "should of" instead of "should've" or "should have". There is no such phrase as "they should of gone ...". If it was non-English speakers, I could understand it, because that's what "should've" kind of sounds like. But it's almost exclusively native English speakers,who are just too lazy to learn their own language! </rant>

No, that's not pedantic, it's a valid point. I'm with you all the way!

 

[Dralix]

Originally posted by Ohkrana
The use and mis-use of plural and possessive apostrophe's!

Was this meant to be ironic?

 

[Ohkrana]

It's 6.45 a.m. (here) I need some fun - while distracting myself from CISCO!

 

[Pillager]

Originally posted by stormerne


* Note correct use of the verb to aggravate.

Noted and appreciated.

 

[Akka]

I'm extremely intolerant to ALL language errors.
What annoys me the most is when *I* do mistakes, and as a non-native english speaker, I know that I *do* make a lot of them, be it spelling, grammar, expressions or anything.
But truly, I just can't bear any of them.

If I really had to chose one, I think that it's the lack of punctuation and formatting, when you have basically a big block of letters. Usually, I don't even bother to read such posts.

 

[Dralix]

Originally posted by Akka
If I really had to chose one, I think that it's the lack of punctuation and formatting, when you have basically a big block of letters. Usually, I don't even bother to read such posts.

I agree completely as to reading such posts. If it doesn't have enough white space (or turnip green space, if that's your thing), then I don't read it.