If you're like me, your inner editor is constantly working overtime. Hey - don't be ashamed. We writers just can't help ourselves. It's in our DNA.Other than my kids, I don't correct people in the middle of conversations. But oh...is it tempting! I have to concentrate on not cringing every time someone says "Me and him" or "Where are you at?"
Ugh.
Now, I'm in no way saying I'm perfect. There are plenty of grammatical rules that confuse me. So please. Feel free to correct me if I ever get any wrong. And a side note of thanks to my critique partners who keep me in line.
Here is my biggest grammar pet peeve:
I vs. Me. Besides the example of putting Me before I in the opening paragraph, here are two ways people misuse these two words:
Using I instead of Me, as in a sentence like "Some friends came over to visit with Rob and I." Nope. Not right. You'd say "Some friends came over to visit with Rob and Me." Think of it this way: would you say "My friend came to visit I"? Of course not. You'd say, "My friend came to visit me."
My biggest peeve comes when someone says something like, "Rob and I's house is for sale." Um...I-apostrophe-S is not a word. The correct way to say it would be "Rob's and my house is for sale."
So there you have it.
What grammar misuses totally make you cringe?
9 comments:
I know there are a ton and usually I find them in writing and not spoken. Do people really say that?? with the Is??
Ugh! My biggest pet peeve- using don't where it doesn't belong. "He don't know what he's talking about." "She don't go to the gym 'cause she don't have time." Makes my blood boil! I tell my kids- "It is such an amazing privilege to be born in this country and know the language. We should be proud of where we came from and speak accordingly."
Good one, Sherry! I hate that, too. And I know lots of people who say it.
Terry - yes, they really do say that. I just saw another writer actually write it that way the other day. Ugh. LoL
"Lay" and "Lie"--not from other people, but in my own use. I must have been absent from school the day that was covered, because my teachers focused on grammar. Can't figure out why I can't remember the rule. Come to think of it, I need to look it up again. ;-)
Had to chuckle over the grammar pet peeves. One that really sticks in my "craw" is using "it's" instead of its. It's, of course, means, IT IS. But one sees this used incorrectly all the time. Its...no no NO, It's frustrating. ha! Sincerely, Susan from writingstraightfromtheheart.blogspot.com
LOL. My biggest pet peeve is when someone uses the word defiantly in place of definitely. It's not the same word, people! :)
Pretty much all of the ones in your graphic. LOL.
I must be an odd writer in that I don't really have too many grammar pet peeves. Probably because I'm horrible at anything grammar related; I think that side of my brain isn't wired correctly.
I have a difficult time speaking grammatically correct. I hardly ever do, especially with the whole me vs. I thing. I find that I talk too quickly for my mind to keep up with whether or not I'm saying something grammatically correct.
But I'm easily irritated when co-workers don't take the time to form a proper sentence in an email. It only takes a few extra seconds to make it sound professional! Sometimes I'll get emails without any punctuation and I have to spend forever trying to read a huge paragraph with no periods in it.
One I keep hearing a lot on the HGTV channel makes me cringe each time I hear it. The host announces herself by saying "Hi, I'm a staging expert..." and then goes on to answer questions from the audience by saying "Her and her husband think..." Ugh! The first time I heard that I thought it was just a one-time mistake. But I hear other hosts saying it that way all the time too. Somehow it takes away from the claim to "expertise..." We all make mistakes, but that one grates on me each time I hear it. Maybe it is a regional way of saying it?
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