In general, I think you’re right. But the first time I went into the Whole Foods at Columbus Circle in NYC, I was extremely impressed by the sign above one checkout aisle that reads: “10 items or fewer”.

The biggest mistake I see, especially on the internet is loose vs. lose. You don’t “loose a game” or “loose money in market”. It just drives me crazy for some reason. It’s so bad that I think I’ve seen loose used more often than lose.

“Loose” instead of “lose” just kills me.

I love people that mention how great spell check for word documents is. They always say ‘Sum won tolled me that you dew knot knead two learn how too spell because of spell check’. Yup, that is great.
Individuals should just re-read their own work.

My personal peeve is people who say “HIV Virus.” The word is already in the abbreviation — hearing people say the equivalent of “Human Immunodeficiency Virus Virus” makes me crazy!

Wow, there are so many. Top of the list, though, has to be the improper use of the apostrophe. The sign in front of your castle should not say “The Bing’s.” Grrrrrr.

While we’re at it? Can we possibly extend this campaign from written peeves to verbal annoyances? Because there’s this trend? And it’s creeping into the workplace? It’s called uptalk? And I blogged about it here?

http://ckpcreative.com/lohad/?p=687

Can we, like, totally cut it out? Please?

This is more of a spelling peeve, but it needs to be said: DON’T PLURALIZE WITH AN APOSTROPHE!

How many times do we come across signs, handwritten or printed straight off the LaserJet and slapped on store window saying things like:

“We’ll beat the competitions price’s in 60 second’s or its FREE”

I thought it was merely the work of individuals at the mom-and-pop store level who forgot that an apostrophe indicates a possessive, but I was wrong. The other day, I saw a giant billboard for a residential building company advertising:

“New condo’s starting at $350,000″.

Somebody’s spell-checker did the proofing at the ad agency, not the head of copy. Whatever – the offender’s should be whipped in front of many people’s for their sin’s.

“less” has been used with count nouns for a thousand years. This is not a new development.

http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxlessvs.html

My current beef is the confusion between “then” and “than.” For example you may hear “Be here no later then six.” Its becoming ubiquitous and I don’t think I can comfortably leave this life until I get everyone squared away.

I get some sphincter tightening at the constant misuse of the personal pronouns “me and I” — as in “the marketing report was written by Frank and I” or “Jeff and me are going to let the air out of the SVP’s Hummer.” Not too big a fan of the abuse “more than and over” receive, either. The SVP’s Hummer doesn’t get over 4 miles per gallon, it gets more than 4 mph (if it gets that).

My peeve is when you hear ads that say something is “for free.” It’s not “for” anything. It’s just “free.”

My other one is “at this point in time.” “At this point” says it all and infers you’re speaking about time.

Less and fewer is another one. Fewer means a number. “Fewer” calories. We count calories, don’t we?

And what ever happened to the adverb? One of the computer companies had an ad that said “Think Different.” Sorry, it’s “think differently.” Now some other has come out with “Act Different” instead of “Act Differently.” Maybe it doesn’t sound to them as “snappy” but what they’re saying is gramatically wrong and hurting school kids and immigrants trying to learn the language. I personally won’t buy a product that is advertised with bad grammar.

Nice plug for your employer. I’ve read my very own subscription copy of Fortune Magazine every two weeks (except the no-print weeks) since 1983. One of the things that motivates me to continue to plow through each issue cover to cover as I perch upon my Porcelain Throne each morning is the delayed gratification of the last essay in nearly every issue. I have noted in recent years that it takes fewer time to get there than it used to though. I wonder if that’s because the articles are being internet-sized these days, or if there are less things to write about.

To Craig in Horsham, I too am driven wild by “up talk” but I must point out that your two examples were, in fact, both legitimate questions that deserved the question mark. (Re-read them and see if you don’t agree… or…should I say, see if you do agree?) A better example is the person who answers the phone by saying “Hello, this is John Watson?” By God, if he doesn’t know who does?

To Jeff in Beaverton, I’m not an expert on the use of the apostrophe but I do know there are exceptions to using ’s to signify the possessive, e.g. “It’s all right.” Also, “The bird has feathers on its head” is correct. The trouble with english is that there are very few absolutes.

Hey, this isn’t a grammer issue but has anyone else noticed Eastern and Western being pronounced as Eastrin and Westrin? “Before they went under I used to fly Eastrin Airlines.” There goes another tuft of hair I just tore out!

I just finished reading your Fortune Magazine article from Aug. 20. Hysterical! And it’s so true. Sadly, the decline of the verbal and written language drives me absolutely crazy. I would be labeled a grammar Nazi if I hadn’t simply resigned myself (this is the correct usage, right?) to people’s ignorance.

And I admit that I too fall victim to laziness. I once sent an e-mail to my boss to discuss his travel itinerary. I spelled it itEnerary. He replied with the correct spelling and added the comment: “BTW, your the greatest.” I responded back: “Thanks for the correction. Also, it’s YOU’RE the greatest!”

To Marianne….

What if you’re talking about a point in space?

To you Trekies out there…

What if you’re talking about a point in the space-time continuum?

What’s the feeling about misuse of you’re vs your? (not to mention yer, yuins, yore, etc.)

I used to be very guilty of using a nonexistent word. Incentive is not a word. You can incent somebody, or give incentives, but you can not incentivize. So that’s something new to upset me.

But, unnecessary quotation marks have always bothered me. Why, for example, would you put quotes around “Our bread is the best in town,” when that sentence is on your bakery sign?

Finally, there is one grammar rule that I’ve finally decided I don’t care about. I’ll end clauses with prepositions if I want to. Try going a whole week without ending clauses with prepositions. You will have to use 10% more words.

This one drives me batty: cashiers who say “Can I help who’s next?” To which I always want to reply, “No, but you can help the next person in line.”

Yeah Aaron, obsessively trying to avoid ending sentences with prepositions is the kind of crap “up with which I will not put.”

BTW Aaron, incentive is, of course, a word. We’ll chalk your error up as a typo. Incentivize, also, is a word according to my on-line dictionary, though of fairly recent vintage ( 1965-1970 Americanism).

“Very unique.” You hear it everywhere. Something is either one-of-a-kind or it’s not. – SawyerSpeaks.wordpress.com

@Ken: The mix of actual questions and execrable uptalk? It was, like, totally intentional? Because the trend is insidious?

This seems to be a growing trend particularly among 30something ad agency and new media types, and there’s not much of a male/female distinction.

Fingernails on a blackboard.

Oh, and there’s this one:

“I could care less.”

So: You really DO care?

I assume, by the way, that most readers of this blog are familiar with “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.”

Ok, now I know I’m among friends, so I feel a bit safer posting what I really wanted to post: I’m originally from the South, and in casual conversation I say “y’all.” I find it more descriptive, more definite, and less formal than the plural “you.” And it’s what I grew up saying, so I’m comfy with it and I like it.

BUT it makes me CRAZY when people spell it “ya’ll.” In any contraction, the apostrophe replaces the letters removed from the larger phrase. “Y’all” is short for “Y[ou] all” and not “Ya [a]ll” — and “ya’ll” looks like it should be pronounced to rhyme with Cal.

(For everyone who’s about to mention “won’t” — that’s a bizarre artifact of Middle English pronunciation that’s somehow survived to the present. Consider it a little museum piece in your everyday speech.)

(Yeah, I was a linguistics major.)

Bing, you’re a slacker. No posts on Friday? Where the hell are you?! I demand to know your whereabouts at all times! You didn’t ask if you could skip a post today. And, if you did, I would have said no, because that’s the way I am

And, Mr. Bing, I hope you’re not smoking that big fat ugly cigar in your office. Smoking is a pet peeve of mine. I HATE IT! It drives me crazy, it stinks, and it’s a sign of weakness. You’re not weak, are you Bing?

“…back in the 1970’s!”

“Well, sometime in the late 70’s or early 80’s…”

Way to go, buddy.

In speeches and writing so many people will insert the expression “…in fact…” and then go to state something that happened. My point is that if such-and-such occurred there is no need to supplement it with “in fact”.

Does anyone know how to use the apostrophe? Apparently it is necessary to use it to denote the plural, as in all the boy’s do it!

Excessive use of the word “robust.” It make me ill.

Where’s it AT?
Contain, when it’s not a container, as in “the book contains…”
3rd person pronouns, as in “She gave it to Mary and I.”
Anyways.
She’s over TO her Grandma’s.
Misused apostrophes on signs in front of people’s houses, for example “The Smith’s”.

Using “literally” as an emphasizer, making it its own opposite. “I literally exploded.” And yet here you sit …

On a related note, I actually heard this said on a bus: “Sorry if I’m being facetious, but that’s just how I feel.”

Maybe “literal facetiousness” could be a new field of study.

Irregardless.

How about how everyone in WI, when saying they went to visit family or a friend, says: “I went down BY my parents for the evening.” No, you went TO your parents.

THE ELEMENT’S OF STYLE:

I’d just like to point out the rules tend to have no rhyme or reason. This is the reason I fell asleep in school during these lessons in the first place. In addition to that, they tend to change at the drop of a hat. I love people who point out these rules… but it’s a rule? Says who –

By the way when in doubt today, just put this little mark in a sentence – and nobody knows what the heck rule to equate it to. You can get away with a lot!

No one wants to look dumb, but it feels like a wasted life to go back and try to decipher all these (really) useless rules. I’m glad somebody stayed awake in class. Good for you.

Generally the rules describe formal use. With the exception of the split infinitive rule, they are not arbitrarily dictated from the Ivory Grammar Tower (which is actually very cozy, by the way). Slang and argots have no less stringent rules. There is nothing morally wrong with breaking the rules, but hopefully there is a creative or rhetorical reason for it, particularly when writing.

“the both of” – a hideous bastardization of language.

“I could care less” – someone mentioned this one before but it really annoys me and warrants repeating.

..and to Aaron from Chicago, I can only respond with the immortal words of Chruchill (I think it was him) to demonstrate how ridiculous that rule is: “Improper grammar is something up with which I will not put.”

We have a VP in our organization who we fondly call “The Archie Bunker of Senior Management.” She regularly makes grammatical errors and mixes up analogies. One of her frequent expressions that causes me to grimace is that she uses “ducktail” when she means “dovetail.”

In a meeting, she will say that one event will “ducktail” nicely into another event. Everyone looks down at their laps to avoid an outburst of laughter.

What is the best way to address this? She has been chosen for a leadership development program and has an executive mentor. Would a friend point this out to her?

Yes, Thia, a friend WOULD point it out to her. Managers need people to tell them, if they will listen, how not to get laughed at behind their backs. Would you tell her if she was trailing six feet of toilet paper from the heel of her shoe? Be very private. Choose the right moment. Then tell her that her constant use of “ducktail” is cracking people up. Tell her to make a joke about it at the next meeting, perhaps pass out pictures of a duck and a dove and announce that yes, now she knows the difference. It’s like B.O. or bad breath. Real friends tell the people they care about when they need a bit of help. Focus on this gaffe first, since it’s the one that seems to be the worst. You can move on from there. Of course, you’re not going to turn her into a great and elegant communicator, ever. Baby steps, Thia.

Dear Mr. Bing:
Thank you for your “While You Were Out” article on “The Elements of Style”. It is a breath of fresh air. I thought I was the only one that noticed the decline of grammer. It is nice to know I am not. The worst offense I have seen and heard is the use of “to be”. Everyone seems to say such things as “she be”, “he be”, they be” and think nothing of it. You are also correct about correcting others. When you correct them, they become annoyed. If they want to be seen as professional, they should talk and write professionally.

My biggest grammar/usage peeve is this: I work for an English professor grading essays, and just recently he pulled me aside one day and told me to stop marking people off for incorrect pronoun usage. Apparently, now that it isn’t politically correct to refer to politician as a “he” since the politician could be either male or female in gender, students can now write, “The politition should write their speech on the topic of rising gas prices” or “Once the nurse hangs the IV bag, they must check the tubing.”
I’m very much for feminist movements, but I think when “he” becomes politically incorrect in refering to a person whose gender is unknown, we’re taking things a little too far. If nothing else, teachers should instruct their students to change the subject to a plural one so “they” and their” is correct.