Comments on: My Biggest Pet Peeve: Spelling & Grammar Errors

By: Mireya

Mireya — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:46:32 +0000

Yeah, they make my head asplode.

By: Jason B.

Jason B. — Sun, 11 May 2008 21:53:24 +0000

Forget al this speling stuph. It iz to hard four me too do.
-Jas

By: Paully

Paully — Wed, 07 May 2008 17:34:30 +0000

I kant stand gramer erorrs.

By: chuckmo

chuckmo — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:44:55 +0000

Don’t you know that the Internet’s foundation consists entirely of spelling and grammatical errors? Without them, the Internet would become sentient.

By: Sybil

Sybil — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:37:25 +0000

The misuse of your for you’re, now that literally makes me “explode”!
Sorry Dan, I just had to!

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 May 2008 09:51:33 +0000

It drives me bloody nuts too ! Mind you, I do try to see the funny side of bad grammar. The use of double negatives can be amusing, so that if someone says “I don’t want none”, you can give them some !! My partner and I have a great time driving on motorways and looking for misused apostrophes on lorries - we saw one van advertising “Iron and Steel’s” - Steel’s what ??
(Regardless of the spelling, I definitely agree that G Bush is the worst US President ever !! How can you Americans put up with the man ?)
Another example is “He did real good” - to whom ? I could rant on and on but I won’t !!

By: Brad Haller

Brad Haller — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:23:58 +0000

YES! And when you’re in journalism, it makes your cringe on a daily basis!! How many times must we shout into our TV sets, or scream when we see a poorly written news release/poster/ad. What do we do Chris!?!?

-B

By: Daniel Browning

Daniel Browning — Wed, 07 May 2008 06:12:03 +0000

The first rule of grammar critique is that the critic will make a grammar error. Who will be the first to find Chris’?
Sometimes effect will be misused in a way that can still be grammatically correct, and the unintended meaning is very funny; e.g., “the legislator’s actions will effect many children.”

One that makes me laugh most often is the mis-use of literally as an intensifier, such as in “I was so angry, I literally exploded”. Every time it’s misused I literally dwell on the outlandish depiction.

Another mistake that stands out is the use of quotation marks as an intensifier (notice a trend?). For example, ‘I would “really” love it if people took a little care in their writing.’ What’s funny is that it has the exact opposite affect that the writer intended.