The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases
Post by Chris and Eric HELP!
14-Ric Flair has a flair for the dramatic. Credit wonkette.com
Let’s get right to the point. Misusing words makes you look less intelligent than you really are. If you misuse words in your writing, it can damage your credibility and diminish the point you’re trying to make. Even worse, it could completely change the meaning of the sentence.
What follows is a list of the 32 most commonly misused words and phrases.
1. Accept/Except- Although these two words sound alike (they’re homophones), they have two completely different meanings. “Accept” means to willingly receive something (accept a present.) “Except” means to exclude something (I’ll take all of the books except the one with the red cover.)
2. Affect/Effect- The way you “affect” someone can have an “effect” on them. “Affect” is usually a verb and “Effect” is a noun.
3. Alright- If you use “alright,” go to the chalkboard and write “Alright is not a word” 100 times.
4. Capital/Capitol- “Capitol” generally refers to an official building. “Capital” can mean the city which serves as a seat of government or money or property owned by a company. “Capital” can also mean “punishable by death.”
5. Complement/Compliment- I often must compliment my wife on how her love for cooking perfectly complements my love for grocery shopping.
6. Comprise/Compose- The article I’m composing comprises 32 parts.
7. Could Of- Of the 32 mistakes on this list, this is the one that bothers me most. It’s “could have” not “could of.” When you hear people talking, they’re saying “could’ve.” Got it?
8. Desert/Dessert- A desert is a hot, dry patch of sand. Dessert, on the other hand, is the sweet, fatty substance you eat at the end of your meal.
9. Discreet/Discrete- We can break people into two discrete (separate) groups, the discreet (secretive) and indiscreet.
10. Emigrate/Immigrate- If I leave this country to move to Europe, the leaving is emigrating and the arriving is immigrating.
11. Elicit/Illicit- Some people post illicit things on message boards to elicit outrageous reactions from others.
12. Farther/Further- Farther is used for physical distance, whereas further means to a greater degree.
13. Fewer/Less- Use fewer when referring to something that can be counted one-by-one. Use less when it’s something that doesn’t lend itself to a simple numeric amount.
14. Flair/Flare- A flair is a talent, while a flare is a burst (of anger, fire, etc.)
15. i.e/e.g- I.e. is used to say “in other words.” E.g. is used in place of “for example.”
16. Inflammable- Don’t let the prefix confuse you, if something is inflammable it can catch on fire.
17. It’s/Its- It’s= it is. Its=a possessive pronoun meaning of it or belonging to. Whatever you do, please don’t use its’.
18. Imply/Infer- A reader infers what an author implies. In other words, when you imply something, you hint at it. When you infer something, you draw a conclusion based on clues.
19. Literally- If you say “His head literally exploded because he was so mad!” then we should see brains splattered on the ceiling.
20. Lose/Loose- If your pants are too loose you may lose them. That would be almost as embarrassing as misusing these two words.
21. Moral/Morale- Morals are something you want to teach your kids. If your team’s morale is low, you need to do something to boost their confidence.
22. Percent/Percentage- The word “percent” should only be used when a specific number is given. “Percentage” is more of a general term.
23. Stationary/Stationery- You are stationary when you aren’t moving. Stationery is something you write on.
24. Then/Than- “Then” is another word for “after.” Incidentally, the word “then” makes for boring writing. “Than” is a comparative word (e.g. I am smarter than you).
25. There/Their/They’re- There are few things as frustrating as when I look at my students’ writing and they’re misusing these words in their writing.
26. Unique- Something can’t be “kind of unique” or even “very unique.” It’s either one-of-a-kind or it isn’t. There is no in between when it comes to unique.
27. Your/You’re- If I had a nickel for every time I saw this one… yeah, you know the rest. “Your” shows ownership and you’re is a contraction meaning “you are.” Get it right.
28. To/Too/Two- Two is a number. “To” is used in instances such as, “I am going to the store.” If you are supposed to use the word “too,” try inserting the word “extra” or “also.” If one of those fits, you need to also add the extra “o” to make “too.”
29. Lie/Lay- After you lay the books on the table, go lie down on the couch.
30. Sit/Set- Set your drink on the table and sit in your chair. Got it?
31. Whose/Who’s- Whose is the possessive form of who. Who’s is a contraction meaning “who is.”
32. Allude/Elude- When someone alludes to something in conversation (indirectly references), if you aren’t paying attention the meaning may elude you (escape you).
Which misused words drive you crazy? Share them in the replies.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:13 am
Great article! I’m usually very attentive to grammar and proper word usage, but I did discover mistakes that I’m still making (e.g. stationary/stationery, further/farther).
One thing, though:
“Of the 35 mistakes on this list, this is the one that bothers me most.”
According to the title and the actual number of examples given, there are really only 32 mistakes on the list. English win = counting fail? Haha… just messin’, but I figured I’d just let you know so you can fix it.
-Kev
March 11th, 2009 at 3:17 am
haha thanks for pointing that out. I originally had 35 on the list, but I cut 3 of them. Good job helping me out!
March 11th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
This is good! You should do a guide for people who mispronounce words. For instance, “supposably” instead of supposedly; “axe” instead of ask; etc. Drives me NUTS! Lol
March 11th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Thanks for the comment Mindy. I’m right there with you on people mispronouncing words. Here’s one for you. People who say “excetera” instead of “et cetera”
March 11th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
I like reading the embarrassing moments. Maybe I
March 11th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Great post, I always mess up effect/affect
March 11th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
The only other one that irks me beyond belief is the complete misconception that ‘drug’ is the past tense of ‘drag’. I’ve even seen TEACHERS using it! It doesn’t give me confidence in the education of the next generations.
March 11th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I love this list! It should be required reading every time you log on the internet. I knew the correct usage of fewer/less but hadn’t been able to find proof of it until now.
For the mispronunciation list: expresso for espresso
March 11th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Wow…any article that makes me spell check and grammar check my comments is a great article! Talk about perturbation! And now I’m wondering if I misused the dots…
March 11th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
2. Affect/Effect- The way you “affect” someone can have an “effect” on them. “Affect” is a verb and “Effect” is a noun.
…except, confusingly, for the times when “affect” is a noun (as in psychology) and “effect” is a verb (as in “to effect change”). Cruel.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
@ Karen- “expresso” ahhhhhhhhhhh! kill me now.
@Liz- Good additions for the affect/effect section. Thanks!
March 12th, 2009 at 5:31 am
Bare/bear. Please _____ with me.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:45 am
‘Affect’ is also a noun, pronounced AFF-ect, and refers to observable emotional demeanor.
March 12th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Actually, the poster said ‘affect’ is *usually* a verb. mea culpa.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Very helping article, I have a doubt on pronounciation.
when you say often, ‘t’ is silent or not?
March 12th, 2009 at 10:22 am
you left out:
insure / ensure / assure
I’ll leave the rest as an exercise for the reader, along with our mutual friend google to do the real work.
March 12th, 2009 at 11:48 am
You forgot people using the word ‘irregardless’.
March 12th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Great list! But are Accept and Except really homophones? They aren’t pronounced the same.
March 12th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
ROFL @ this one “3. Alright- If you use “alright,” go to the chalkboard and write “Alright is not a word” 100 times”
March 12th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
“Literally” drives me crazy. So many people misuse it. If someone says “I am so hungry, I would *really* eat a horse,” that’s fine. But if they say, “I am so hungry, I would *literally* eat a horse,” they better be ready to eat that horse!
March 12th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Sigh.
Drug is an alternate past tense of drag. It’s called dialect, y’all.
And “alright” is most certainly a word. It is a non-apostrophized contraction of “all right.” Would you somehow prefer “al’right”?
English is not French — don’t act like the Academy.
March 12th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
[...] press releases, pitch letters, biographies and media questions on a daily basis. I found this great article about the 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases. [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
“beg the question” and “isn’t it ironic”
March 13th, 2009 at 2:53 am
irregardless! how I hate that word!!!
March 13th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Maybe your next list could advise people to stop saying “same exact” thing. One or the other would be all right
but the use of both is redundant.
March 13th, 2009 at 3:18 am
This is a really great article as I will soon be a teacher (elementary). Grammar is a tricky thing for many people, so thanks!!
If you get a chance, I also have a teaching/education blog, http://www.teachinglife.today.com
March 13th, 2009 at 3:19 am
Heard just today, and it reminded me how annoyed I get whenever I hear it said, “I borrowed him the money”. No, you dweeb, “you LOANED him the money”. He BORROWED it FROM you. /sigh
March 13th, 2009 at 3:20 am
One of my biggest language irritants is the “word” irregardless. It actually make me cringe when I hear someone say this.
March 13th, 2009 at 3:27 am
@DazzlinDonna–Did you watch Judge Judy today? I saw some girl saying that over and over haha.
March 13th, 2009 at 3:33 am
I had a boss who would write that something was a “mute” point. Aargh! It’s a *moot* point… not a “mute” point.
This is a great blog. I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to link to it from my grammar blog (http://fanihiman.blogspot.com) and Squidoo lens (http://www.squidoo.com/parts_of_speech).
Oh, by the way… on your item 1, those two words *sound* alike.
Regards,
Dave
March 13th, 2009 at 3:35 am
the one that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up is “irregardless”..i’m with Judy!
March 13th, 2009 at 4:14 am
@Dave–Please feel free to link to us. Also, thanks for pointing out the typo; got glossed over in editing!
March 13th, 2009 at 5:53 am
you forgot about my three favorites: troll and trawl; and also breach and broach; lastly chomping vs. champing [at the bit]
March 13th, 2009 at 6:36 am
what about “invariably” doesn’t that mean “without variance:, yet everyone seems to think it means “quite a lot” or frequently
March 13th, 2009 at 7:39 am
I use the “10 items or less” lane at the grocery store when I’m buying a gallon of milk or fewer.
If a mountain peaks (or peeks) your interest, you could always climb to its pique.
If you want to be on the Honor Role in school, you should be a good roll model.
Just between you and I, you and me should have lunch together.
When someone uses “axe/ax” instead of ask, I mentally shut out everything else they say. I can’t help it - that’s just so wrong.
Recently I’ve heard “prolly” (meaning probably) in real life conversations among high school students. Ugh.
“Irregardless,” this is a good post - thanks for sharing!
March 13th, 2009 at 11:18 am
“For all intensive purposes…” — ARGH! To quote Joey from Friends, it’s “mind-bottling”!
March 13th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Different FROM…. different … different FRO … different FROM ..FROM … Repeat 10 times, and remind everyone you hear (because folks are almost always using the incorrect ‘than’ — listen for it and fix it !!!
March 13th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
A couple words are being mangled more and more, even by professionals:
For/Fur: For is being slurred into Fur as: “Fur the heck of it”
Just listen and see how many pro announcers are doing it.
Photography: PHO-TOG-RAPHY is being mangled/slurred into FUR-TOG-RAPHY. ARRGH!
March 13th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Great article, it really has an affect* on me. HAH!
I can appreciate the injustices to grammar, but let’s leave pronunciation out of this. Different dialects, drawls, and flat out laziness can lead others to what some people feel to be improper pronunciation.
Unless everyone is prepared to speak the Queen’s English, then I think people have to calm down about how people say words. (if they know how to spell it, that is)
March 13th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
You’re not going to mess with “who/whom”, I take it? I suppose “whom” has become pretty much obsolete in modern language, but it does still pop up from time to time, almost always in the wrong places…
March 13th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Great Article! The one that annoys me the MOST is the whole than/then scenario. I see this NONSTOP on the internet.
I hate when people confuse affect and effect too . . . Could of is really weird; I’ve always used the contraction could’ve so I’ve never realized that people think they’re using the word of.
Speaking of add you forgot add/ad (To summate/an advertisement)
Ooh and, as many have said, irregardless! …. My god the firefox spell checker didn’t underline irregardless! WHAT THE HELL FIREFOX? IT’S NOT A WORD!
March 13th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
Untrue. Alright is a word. “All right” and “alright” are both acceptable.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Calvary- The hill where Christ was crucified
Cavalry- The branch of the military using horses (now tanks and helicopters)
While some mistakes (like this one) do bother me, since they actually affect the meaning, I think others are simply the evolution of the English language. “Alright”, for example, can be found in any dictionary.
March 13th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Alright is alright –m-w.com says so.
What is this ’suppose to’ mean?
Doesn’t anyone know ‘grammer’ anymore?
March 13th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
A lot of people mispronounce “perception” as “PREE-ception”. They’ll mostly do this with other ‘per’ words as well. I know this isn’t an example of a misused word or phrase, but it really bugs me!
March 13th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
expecially. . .libary. . .mirra ***shudders***
March 13th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
which capitol or capital is in reference to money for an investment?
March 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
capital with an “a.”
March 13th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
It irks me when people pronounce ‘schedule’, SHED-U-AL. I do NOT care if that is the correct pronunciation, you sound stupid. I have also notice people tend to spell it ’schedual’, myself included sometimes (hehe - sheepish grin :})
March 13th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I absolutely cringe when I hear someone say the word anyways. There is no s on the end. It is simply anyway. Grrrr!
March 13th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Thanks for reminding us to be precise in our speaking and writing.
Most frequently botched in my book: Bring and Take. The word take has evidently dropped from the face of the earth. About 20 years ago I was incredulous when I heard a librarian say to a student (while standing in the library), “…bring the package over the the bookstore” (which was in another building and the librarian had no intention of walking along with the student). Since that time it has been all down hill. I now hear the error about a dozen times a week. Take appears to be defunct and most people I mention it too don’t seem to understand the distinction.
Another that I’m starting to see crop up is pore and pour. About a half dozen years ago, in the editor’s letter at the front of the “Writer’s Digest,” the editor spoke of spending some time pouring over information–almost a crime for that publication. Three times since the new year I’ve seen pour when it should have been pore. That won’t be the last time; keep an eye out for more.
And finally, September 1979, the “Writer’s Digest” published an article titled, “Baby Puppies,” by Frederick C. Dyer. It’s a wonderful list of approximately 200 tautologies, or redundancies. Over the years I’ve kept an eye (and ear) out and added to the list. Example: A March 10, 2009 Wall Street Journal headline, “Dow Drops To 6547.05 As Dim View Spreads Out.” What’s wrong with just plain spread? Can some things spread in? Great fun!
March 13th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
What about “well” and “good”? What about “hopefully”?
One of the problem and interesting things about a living language is that, as people misuse words, the new meaning comes into common use, and eventually, if it is widely used, will be added to the dictionary, firstly as slang, but then, decades later, as common usage.
March 13th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
How about enema. Sounds like that’s what a lot of you need. I’m more annoyed by people who speak from their grammatically superior pedestal. We all make mistakes, things like this help us learn.
For the record, irregardless is a word that happens to mean the same thing as regardless, ravel and unravel mean the same thing too, although they seem like they would be opposites.
March 13th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Oops. Change that too to to. Oh how easily we can all mess up!
March 13th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
The one that always kills me is ‘orientated’. Cringeworthy. The word is ORIENTED. “I oriented myself with the map so I could find my way to the orientation meeting.”
I don’t care if m-w recognizes it as a word, m-w also recognizes squeegee bandit, for f*’s sake.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
The merging of all and right to form the one-word spelling alright is first recorded toward the end of the 19th century (unlike other similar merged spellings such as altogether and already, which date from much earlier). There is no logical reason for insisting that all right be two words when other single-word forms such as altogether have long been accepted.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Fewer/less… don’t forget about over/more and under/less! There were more than 30 seagulls over the bay. There were less than three cans of oil under the counter. Under and over imply positioning, not numerical values. AAAAAAARRGGHH!
March 13th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
This should have been in that list: Beside/besides
BESIDE
1. by the side of or near or close to:
e. g. She sat beside her sister.
2. compared with:
e. g. She looks ugly beside her sister.
BESIDES
1. in addition to:
e. g. Is anyone coming besides John?
2. also:
e.g .These shoes are expensive – besides, they’re too small.
BESIDE ONESELF is an idiom meaning: to be in a state of very
great, uncontrolled emotion
e.g She was beside herself with excitement as her holiday
approached.
BESIDE THE POINT is also an idiom meaning: to be irrelevant
e.g. You will have to go. Whether you want to go is beside
the point
March 13th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Having spent many years in the Insurance business I always notice the use of Insure (provide Insurance for or Indemnify) in place of Ensure (make certain). Assure generally means to make people more confident, but in the UK it differentiates between two types of “Insurance” - ‘Property Insurance’ and ‘Life Assurance’
March 13th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I agree with the earlier comments about ‘alright.’ Unfortunately, amateur purists find it hard to see the forest for the trees when it comes to how the english language evolves. Like, no foolies, yo.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
I didn’t read all of the comments to see if someone else posted this, but when people write ‘alot’ I go crazy.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
What’s just as annoying is when something is written stylistically or with a dialect - e.g. a poem, story, dialogue - and is critiqued for making the “booboos” on this list. I wrote a poem with the words “done gone,” which was consistent with the tone of the poem, and it was eaten alive in critiquing just for that one line.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
Thanks for the grammar clues! Here is another, typically Oregonian, mis-word: acrost, as in, “She lives acrost from the park.”
March 13th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
The one that kills me is got/have. I read through all these comments and was amazed that no one said anything about this common mistake.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
I like knowing there are smart people in this world. My friend, she says “set” instead of sit. E.g. (I learned that) “I’m going to go set down.” It drives me up a wall, figuratively (I learned that too).
March 13th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I cannot stand ghetto slang!!!!!!!!! Please learn to speak proper English… It’s not “dat” it is “that” also you will not get a proper job, speaking the way you do.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
“Irregardless” drives me bonkers, too! Unfortunately, Merriam-Webster says that it’s perfectly acceptable. It is awkward and much less preferred to “regardless”. Sort of like how “flammable” and “inflammable” are the same.
On topic, my biggest peeve is eager/anxious. I am EAGER for Christmas to arrive. I am anxious about my dentist appointment. Anxious implies anxiety, which I don’t typically associate with exciting events!
Happy grammar slamming!
March 13th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
I had a teacher send me to detention because I told her that the past sewing with a needle and thread was in no way relating to the word sow.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Oregon and Baltimore must have some intellectual relationship (or intellect-lacking relationship). Counting starts from onest. It’s a number and an ordinate all in one.
March 13th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Sadly, it still needs to be taught that “learned” is not an alternative to “taught”. Personal experiences. Yes, that’s plural.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
What about
Manual/ manuel: Manual as in instruction…Manuel as in a name
Adapter/ adaptor
Yesterday/ yesturday
Library/ Liery
Filling/ feeling
Misspell/ Misspel
I am always correcting everyone…I have grammar/spelling OCD.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
“Alright” is a word.
@ Isabel: save your comment and read it again after you’ve taken a class on grammar.
March 13th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
regimen / regime
They are not synonymous!
regimen: a systematic plan
regime: a set of cultural rules or norms
March 13th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Great list for a topic dear to my heart.
Expression can be difficult, even for the most articulate of us.
I have always believed that precise language helps communicate both the meaning and the intent (ideas and emotions) of what I have to say. Our internal nexus of lexicon and grammar determines our ability to express pure thought using words.
Simply put, clear language leads to clear understanding. Nuanced language leads to nuanced understanding.
My personal linguistic pet peeve is when I hear people say Anyways not Anyway. I can’t think of any other instance in which a word modified by “Any-” is also pluralized. It sounds very strange if you do:
“Hey, what do want for lunch?” “Oh anythings will do.”
“How much should I donate?” “Any amounts will be fine”
“Who should we give extra ticket too?” “Anyones who is free.”
“When do you want to leave? “Anytimes”
Hence, I find it strange when people use anyways where anyway serves the same purpose and retains congruency.
I realize life offers many different paths, but we can only walk down one, anyWAY you choose.
Anyways, loved the post. Cheers.
=)
March 13th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Another one which ‘gets my goat’ is:
I will try and read the book.
‘And’ is a conjunction. What is actually being said is “I shall try to read the book AND I will read the book.” Why not just say “I will read the book”?
March 13th, 2009 at 10:12 pm
What about Lay, Lie, and Laid?
I lie down on my bed.
I lay there on my bed.
I had lain there all morning.
I lay the pencil on the desk.
I laid the pencil down.
I had laid the pencil down.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Just browsing through the rest of comments I see other errors that have not been mentioned. I show someone an article (e.g. a book)and I get the response “I’ve got that book!”
No you haven’t. You’ve got one similar to, or even identical to, my book - but you do not have MY book.
“That book belongs to my brother and I”. Leave out ‘my brother and’ and if the sentence still sounds right then it probably is. “That book belongs to I”. That doesn’t sound so good does it, so the original sentence should have been “That book belongs to my brother and (that book belongs to) ME”
March 13th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I remember learning about the difference between May I/Can I. Such as “May I go to the restroom?” “Can I have the book?” I don’t know. Someone enlighten me? (And is that how you spell enlighten?)
March 13th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
What about when people say ‘pacific’ instead of ’specific’. That is one hat annoys me a lot. Also ‘I could care less’ instead of ‘I couldn’t care less’ is massively annoying.
March 13th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
i.e. doesn’t mean “in other words”, its an abrreviation of id est, literally “that is.” It simply allows you to restate yourself. So the effect is the same, but there are other applications of the phrase as well.
Great article. A few pet peaves and mistakes I didn’t realise I was making in there. “Could of” drives me nuts ><
March 13th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
Marina… if you knew anything about linguistics, you would understand that “ghetto slang” as you so kindly put it, is actually “African American English Vernacular” and originates from the time when slaves were forced to learn English words while still using African grammar. Indeed, all dialects are equally “correct;” it’s just that one particular dialect has been chosen as the standard for everyone (thanks, elitists, for shoving your language down the throats of all!). Rant - over
March 13th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
This is a great list! However, I don’t think that it is appropriate to make fun of the pronunciation of axe/ask. It is part of African American Vernacular English. It’s a dialect.
March 13th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
unconscious/subconscious: You only do something unconsciously if you’re asleep or passed out all the while, if an urge comes from a level of your psyche below the surface, it is subconscious.
March 13th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
the “thier, there, they’re”, misuse bugs me. the you’re vs your mistakes also annoy me. allpf these grammar rules seem like things kids are supposed to have learned in elementary school and yet I still see adults who have no idea how to properly use thesewords
March 13th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
Nothing pisses me off more than the misuse of “than/then, there/their/they’re” so on and so forth. Didn’t we learn this in elementary?
March 13th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
At FFB, #18 - I suppose it depends on where you’re from; they sound the same out of *my* mouth. LOL
March 13th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
I just encountered something quite weird today in an email I received. Instead of using the word “while”, my friend wrote, “Why’ll I was waiting,”.
Others that you could include on your list:
Eminent (Ddistinguished) and Imminent (Impending)
The eminent one’s departure was imminent.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:34 am
Your/you’re makes me crazy. If my Czech students of English have it figured out by the time they’re at an pre-intermediate level, there is absolutely no excuse for a native speaker to make this mistake beyond the second grade.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:35 am
Please add “on accident.” I hate that. It’s “on purpose” and “by accident.”
Also hate: “Noone” instead of “no one,” “whelp” instead of “well” (”Whelp, I better be going now.”), and “probly” or, especially, “prolly” instead of “probably” (the least you could do is use apostrophes).
JO: I think in psychology “unconscious” is used for “subconscious,” or something along those lines. Here it is (dictionary.com): “the unconscious, Psychoanalysis. the part of the mind containing psychic material that is only rarely accessible to awareness but that has a pronounced influence on behavior.” A psych. major can explain this better, perhaps?
SHARK BLANK: “May I” is asking for permission, like, “Am I allowed?”
“Can I” is more like, “Is it possible?”
So, when someone says, “Can I go to the bathroom?” you should ask him if he can, because how should you know if he is capable or not? Is he constipated? Does he have an infection? Is there some sort of blockage? Unless it’s you that’s asking if you can go, how should you know? (You might if you were a doctor, I suppose.)
“May I go to the bathroom?” is appropriate when asking permission to go to the bathroom. As in, “May I go to the bathroom, or will you beat me upside the head with a book if I venture to the lavatory?” But you know that you’re capable of urinating, bowel movements, or even just meandering down to the potties.
March 14th, 2009 at 1:37 am
Also, how the vast majority of native speakers don’t know the past participle of the verbs ‘to swim’ and ‘to drink’ escapes me.
FYI: had swum and had drunk
March 14th, 2009 at 1:55 am
What’s this rubbish about “alright” not being a word? It is indeed a word. Don’t get all snitty just because you don’t like the contraction of “all right”. People once said the same thing about “already” and “altogether”.
And it adds clarification. if someone said, “The children are all right”, it could mean that each child is correct, or that the children are unharmed.
So “alright” can mean unharmed (”The children are alright”) and it can mean an acknowledgment of a request (”You want me to scrub the septic tank? Alright.”) Don’t bash it when the exact same thing has happened to words before.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:10 am
One misused word that I hate is “Anyways”
Anyways is not correct, it’s “Anyway”.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:12 am
The misused word I hate the most is irredargless. The suffix and prefix together make a double negative that actually means to regard, rather than what the word is ‘trying’ to portray.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:20 am
Great list! Loved it. To add: “say your piece” - not “say your peace”.
Bryn: I always thought “orientated” was a word accepted in the U.K. instead of “oriented”, in the same way that they use “aluminium” in place of “aluminum”. I’m no expert, but it’s what I’ve always assumed.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:32 am
as a millionaire blogger, this has been the most relevant post I’ve seen in a long time, a seriously long time.
March 14th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Here’s one I don’t think I’ve seen mentioned:
Toward vs. Towards
By and large, the latter is reserved for British English. In almost every instance imaginable in American English, only the former is correct.
You drive TOWARD the store.
The check came TOWARD the end of the month.
I’m glad to see that others have pet peeves with the misspelling, mispronunciation and misuse of Latin phrases like exempli gratia (e.g.), id est (i.e.), and et cetera (etc.). I think there would be much less misuse of these phrases if everyone had taken basic Latin like I had. If you know what the letters stand for, you are less likely to mix up e.g. and i.e. and you are less likely to write ect. or say “excetra.”
Lastly, and this is along the same lines as “literally”:
Don’t overuse “BASICALLY”
There aren’t many situations when you actually need to say “basically.”
I’ll allow it if you are using it as a substitute for “fundamentally” or “for the most part:”
“Entry-level computer programming courses are basically weed-out courses for engineers.”
“The hip-hop of today is basically rap without the R-rated material.”
“What did I do last night? I basically did homework until bedtime.”
Those are OKAY…but really you should limit yourself on how much you use the word. Basically, I’ve heard a lot of people who basically use it to start or fill basically every sentence.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:01 am
@somemonkey:
“Invariably” can be used to mean “without exception”, so it’s not a stretch to use it metaphorically to mean “usually”.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:11 am
I’m really torn. While it really bothers me to see terrible spelling or terrible grammar, when I see other people pointing it out, I can’t help but think they’re being just as ignorant of the great beast of English language.
English contains nearly five times the words it contained in Chaucer’s day. i believe that many, many people today would say that the English of Chaucer is incomprehensible.
I can’t stand to hear my language “spoken poorly”, but if we demand rigid definition and order, we might as well be speaking Esperanto. Esperanto estas tre preciza, sed ĝi estas malbella kaj rigida, ne?
March 14th, 2009 at 3:23 am
Thanks for a great list, and here are a few more:
“Where are you at?” No, “Where are you?” — “Where” implies “at.”
“The car needs washed.” No, “The car needs to be washed,” or “The car needs washing.”
“based off of” No, “based on”
“Aloud” for “allowed”
And — believe it or not, lots of students at my alleged university make this mistake, which any third-grader ought to know how to avoid — “where” for “were.” Good thing I’ll be dead before any of these people get their hands on anything important….
March 14th, 2009 at 3:24 am
One funny anecdote about verb tenses of words. I was with a group of friends (at the university I go to) and one guy honestly thought that “smote” was the past tense of “smitten”. When I heard him use it I just burst out laughing, and it took several minutes before I could explain it with out starting to laugh again every other word.
But I’ll admit to having trouble with affect/effect even now, for some reason its very hard for me to keep them straight. And I agree that we should leave pronunciation out of it, it is very much a regional and evolving topic.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:39 am
Wow! i feel good about myself right now - gotta thank high school teachers for doing a great job year in and year out
March 14th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Wow, it’s just language. You guys are making way too big of a deal out of this.
I understand that some of these things could be annoying to a certain extent, but seriously… get over yourselves.
Just because you’re a grammar elitist doesn’t mean you have to shove it down everybody else’s throat. People will pronounce stuff how they want to, and just because they don’t know the ‘past participle of to swim’ (there are more important things one can do with their time) doesn’t make them inferior to you.
ANYWAYS, spelling is another thing, but lay off people’s grammar.
kthx
March 14th, 2009 at 3:46 am
I use “all right” and “alright” interchangeably, though I prefer the former. I think of the latter as a contraction, a cognate of such common words as “always” and “almost”.
I dislike “orientated” because it’s doubly past, just as “phenomenas” is doubly plural—or even worse, “cherubims”.
The practice of appending “s” to the end of a word is perfectly logical: it’s the only way we have in our orthography of denoting the natural falloff from certain consonants and semivowels. Most commonly, these are retroflex “d” (as in “afterwards”) and palatal “y” (as in “anyways”). In the former case, the “s” is appended because final “d” is palatised; in the latter case, because the final palatal approximant creates stress that is easiest to resolve with a linking consonant. It’s the same as linking “r” in English, or linking “t” in French (e.g., “parle-t-elle?”).
A language, since it cannot ever truly be fixed, should merely be documented in its changes and allowed to evolve as languages must.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:29 am
Do people really say “I’m going to set down on the couch?” I don’t believe that one. You must of got it wrong.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:40 am
forte: when used as “a strength” (most common) it should be pronounced fort. when pronounced the “e” is pronounced it
is a musical term. this one bugs me when people pronounce
the “e” when they shouldn’t.
also, it bugs me when people pronounce the silent “t” in the
word often!
March 14th, 2009 at 4:48 am
Fun List.
To all the dullards who are knocking the grammar “elitists,” please stop. I spent the day trying to infer the meaning of several dozen documents written in non-standard styles and dialects. My head hurts now. Dialects are spoken not written, the idea behind using Standard English is so all English speakers can understand what the writer is attempting to communicate.
Finally based on today’s labors:
A pox on those that employ the word ‘utilize.’ Use is ALWAYS the better choice. Disagree? Then show me I’m wrong.
Remember that one should remain consistent in verb tenses within a sentence.
There are many many more but if I type any longer, I’ll hate myself.
March 14th, 2009 at 5:18 am
“Nuk-u-lar” instead of nuclear. It drives me nuts, and we have our past president to thank for it!
March 14th, 2009 at 5:28 am
You missed one that bothers me immensely whenever I hear it. I’m not sure why - it’s just a strange pet-peeve thing. It’s the word “momentarily.” The word “momentarily” means FOR a moment, not IN a moment - as it seems to be most commonly used.
So, when you hear, for example, a radio show host say something like: “We will return momentarily.” What they’re actually saying is: “We’re leaving now, then, at some point in the future, we’re going to return. But, our return will last for only a brief moment and then we’ll be leaving again.”
They should say something to the effect of “We will be gone momentarily.” That would make sense.
March 14th, 2009 at 5:47 am
1)Lose/Loose. That drives me crazy. Especially when I see it on FB statuses intended to insult people. News for ya - when you tell someone that “UR A LOOSER”, that is an insult fail.
2)Alright is a word! It’s in the OED!
3)Nothing wrong with regional dialect, you can’t blame people for it.
4)And schedule = sked-ule or shed-ule? I never really figured it out.
March 14th, 2009 at 6:11 am
Stumbled on this great post. I’ve always been told that e.g. indicates more than one example in an incomplete list (although I’ve seen it used for a single example). I don’t know which is correct. Also, whoever said i.e. doesn’t mean “in other words” is being picky. Yes, it means “that is,” but it doesn’t mean you’re just going to repeat yourself. It means you’re re-stating your point “in other words.” Perhaps they’re more specific words, but they are still OTHER words.
Also, “axe” in place of ask is something white people (usually lazy children) say. And, while all dialects may be acceptable as such, I think it’s misleading to say all are equally “correct.” That’s like saying all styles of clothing are equally correct at a job interview. It may be that a person’s style is beyond objective reproach, but there are certain conventions under which subjective evaluations are necessary. It is not “elitist” to establish a standard, so get off your soap box. However, I agree that it’s one thing to criticize how people misuse language versus how they mispronounce it, since pronunciation may be merely an idiosyncrasy. There is also a huge difference between people writing the way they speak (probably vs. prolly) in informal media and the problem of people actually misunderstanding the meanings of words (affect vs. effect).
Aside: Irregardless has not been in the dictionary very long (less than 15 years, I think) and I still cringe when I hear/read it.
March 14th, 2009 at 6:27 am
I have a few. I hear people use the phrase ‘ A whole nother thing’ often. I wonder if a half nother would be less annoying.
SEEN IN AN EMAIL LAST WEEK:
What follows is a list of mandatory training that is gone be conducted next week.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:55 am
I.E means “in example”
E.G means “Example given”
=] happy grammar-policing
March 14th, 2009 at 7:56 am
I absolutely hate when people say “On accident”. It is BY accident! BY ACCIDENT! By the means of accident
March 14th, 2009 at 7:59 am
“I could care less”
This is something people say all the time, I even hear it in movies and it drives me crazy. The saying is “I couldn’t care less.” because they care so little about something it is impossible for them to care less than they already do.
Another one that gets me is “For all intents and purposes.”
The real saying is “For all intensive purposes.”
March 14th, 2009 at 8:30 am
every time I see one of these, my brain hurts a little(almost literally.) There were a few I actually had forgotten about for which I have thoroughly chastised myself. The one that really burns me is “If I would have tried a little harder…” instead of “If I had…” It became so painful for me because I read an entire novel by a writer whose work I enjoy in which that mistake was made on almost every page. That means that not only did the writer not notice it, but neither spell check nor the editor(s)caught it before printing.
March 14th, 2009 at 8:37 am
one tiny addition…it’s funny to read back over all of these and see the grammar mistakes made by the very same people who seem to get upset at the mistakes of others. Oh, in case you’re wondering, MYSELF INCLUDED
March 14th, 2009 at 8:45 am
@Shark Blank:
Both “May I” and “Can I” are used as beginnings to ask permission from a person. However, “May I” is more acceptable when asking permission from an elder person or someone whom you regard highly or someone who has a high position like your boss, the president, or even the “lady” you’ve just met.. as it is more polite.
With ur buddy u can just say: “Can I borrow your car?”, or “Can I come tomorrow?”
But you would always hear these phrases:
“May I have this dance?” or “May I, Sir?” or “May I have this honor of…”
I hope I had “enlightened” you. Yes, you spelling is correct.
March 14th, 2009 at 9:03 am
May and can are different. Can means is it possible for me to whereas may is asking permission to do something you know your able. The biggest one that bugs me is when people say I learned him or that’ll learn ya. My grandpa uses it all the time GRR.
Great list tho =]
March 14th, 2009 at 9:55 am
many people write thankyou as one word when it really is two words.
Thank you.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:21 am
This blog is about misuse of words, not mispronunciation. Mispronunciation is in no way as bad as misuse of language. Just because a person speaks in a certain way doesn’t mean they don’t understand what they’re saying, that’s better than someone who over enunciates but has no clue what they’re talking about.
March 14th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I teach English to high school kids in France. There level is pretty good, but they wanna write things they hear people say and I hafta tell them that just cause they hear it doesn’t make it a word. I dunno if they will ever believe me, even if I take points off each time they write words like wanna, hafta and dunno.
For some reason they have a hard time when I use “yes Ma’am” because Ma’am is the contraction of Madam and Madam is only used for a married woman. They can’t understand that “yes Ma’am” or “yes sir” just comes from 8 years of service in the US Marine Corps where we were always polite (until we had to not be polite).
March 14th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
My pet peeve is neither/either. Neither:not either
Either: being the one and the other of two
March 14th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Thanks to Tiberius for pointing out the legitimacy of “alright,” which was already in use by the end of the 19th century and is altogether acceptable as far as I’m concerned.
While discreet/discrete certainly belongs on this list,”secretive” is a marginal synonym for discreet. Discretion is more about tact or caution than secrecy.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
I know that this is me just being pedantic, but why do most people forget that both rs in February are pronounced? On that note, it is incorrect to use an apostrophe when referring to multiple letters, e.g. it’s rs NOT r’s.
As a point of clarification, in engineering jargon while both flammable and inflammable liquids and gases can burn, only flammables can auto-ignite. For example, Diesel fuel, a flammable liquid, ignites under pressure (there are no spark plugs in Diesel engines) while gasoline, an inflammable liquid, requires a spark.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
If you use “alright,” go to the chalkboard and write “Alright is not a word” 100 times.
Wrong! I agree with Matt: alright is an acceptable variation of all right. See: “always”.
Desert - DeSSert: the two s’es are in the one you keep coming back to for more. However they are two badly spelled words: should be “dessert” [dry place] and desert [accent on 2nd syllable]and as when you run away.
Loose and lose always get me. They are also badly spelled.
Loose should have that that long OO sound as in “soon” and “moon” and should rhyme with “goose”.
Lose should rhyme with “rose” but doesn’t. It’s mad.
How about: loose & looze?
Stationary/Stationery: this is a piece of nonsense too. They both come from the same origin - Stationery comes from “His Majestery’s Stationery Office”, the administration that stayed behind, stationary, in London, while the King moved about his realm on his rounds.
Having irrational spelling conventions is part of the problem here. These change over time and we shouldn’t panic if they change to become more rule orderly.
March 14th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I wonder if people are trying to start philosophical conversations when they say, “I’m not for sure.”
This one kills me: “That’s a whole nother story.”
“Another” is a contraction of “an” and “other.” There is no such word as “nother.”
“Eachother” is less of an irritant, but it’s still not a word. It’s correct to say “each other.”
Here’s one that someone had to correct me on several years ago, and of course, it has now become my burden: the accepted definition of “nauseous” is “causing nausea; sickening.” If you describe yourself as nauseous, you’re being too hard on yourself. If you are exposed to something nauseous, you may be nauseated, as you will be by the misuse of that word from now on.
The other day at work, I heard someone say, “Do you mind if I put you on hold why I research that?” Apparently, some people are completely unaware of the word “while.”
I’ve encountered a few people who consistently use the word “once” as a substitute for “when” or “while,” as in, “I lived there once I was a kid.”
I’m glad someone mentioned “and I” verses “and me.” I never hear anyone use “me” in that phrasing. Most people seem to believe that “I” is simply always correct.
Someone touched on “who” versus “whom,” but implied that “whom” is no longer needed. That is absolutely untrue. It’s just that so few people realize how easy it is to determine which one is correct. It’s a matter subjectivity versus objectivity. If they’re doing it, it’s “who.” If it’s being done to them, it’s “whom.”
As for the much-debated “alright” and “irregardless,” the dictionary contains both words and describes them as nonstandard. Simply put, they are fake words that are in such common use that they warrant an explanation. While you can get away with using “alright,” this is said about “irregardless”:
“an erroneous word that, etymologically, means the exact opposite of what it is used to express…”
March 14th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Oh, and why have people suddenly started using apostrophes in every plural word that ends in “s”? My god!
March 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
1. Moral/Morale- Morals are something you want to teach your kids. If your team’s morale is low, you need to do something to boost their confidence.
If morale is low, you need more ale.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
This article cleared up some of my confusion for a lot of words.
Anyone want to elaborate Gray vs. Grey?
I’m very confused with that one.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Who/whom?
I’d say 5% get that right.
March 14th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Good vs. well eeewwww
March 14th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
@ Amanda
Grey=British English
Gray=American English
March 14th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
grey/gray - one is a colour, one is a name
March 14th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Left out “I could care less”. It makes no sense unless one says “I couldn’t care less”. I hear it said incorrectly 100 times for every 1 time said correctly
March 14th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Healthy / Healthful
One of the most commonly misused words is “healthy”.
When referring to a meal, chances are that it’s not “healthy”. If it were, it would try to defend itself against you eating it.
Healthy refers to the state of one’s health. e.g. “The doctor said that I am healthy.”
Healthful refers to how conducive to health a meal is. e.g. “A well balanced meal is always the healthful choice.”
March 14th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
I hate when people say, “Stand there and let me take your pitcher.” I also hate when people pronounce “Datsun” with a short “a” vowel sound! Also, grey and gray are completely safe.Oh, and the fact that some people are driven completely insane by mispronunciations and misuse of vocabulary makes me purposefully mispronounce and misues words. I love stirring up a fight or making someone’s blood pressure rise with a single word or phrase!
Anyone with me out there?
March 14th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
All of these errors are negligible in comparison with the three most annoying speech habits in English today:
1) The use of “I’m like” instead of “I said,” “I was thinking,” “I felt,” etc.
2) The use of “Oh my God” instead of “That’s incredible/awful/scary/funny/delicious-looking/hard to believe,” etc.
3) The use of “And I’m like ‘Oh my God’” instead of “I’m so inarticulate and lazy that I can’t put together a thoughtful response instead of this cliché that flows out of the mouth of every semi-literate person who feels compelled to give a reaction yet can’t be bothered expressing it in an original way.”
March 14th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Webster:
healthy (adjective) 3: conducive to health
Oxford:
healthy adjective (healthier, healthiest) 1. having or promoting good health.
March 14th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
“Your” and “you’re” are annoying as well.
March 14th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
[...] HERE is a list of the 32 most commonly misused words and phrases. [...]
March 14th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
RJH
>Stationary/Stationery: this is a piece of nonsense too. They both >come from the same origin - Stationery comes from “His Majestery’s >Stationery Office”, the administration that stayed behind, >stationary, in London, while the King moved about his realm on his >rounds.
See “etymology (folk)”
March 14th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
An interesting article. Thank you!
My pet peeve is when certain people insist that since English is an evolving language (the truth), anything goes. We are referred to as ‘purists’ because we point out common errors. This is ridiculous because although English as a language is evolving there is really no excuse for sloppy writing. When we write (or speak for that matter), we are communicating and the message may be subtly altered when we make errors. There have to be rules and if we wish to communicate accurately we should know the rules.
I’m an Editor and have a great love of the English language and I hate it when people slaughter it with their ignorant misuse of words. Another example I read often is ‘here here’ instead of ‘hear hear’ when agreeing with another’s stated point of view.
With regard to apostrophe use. An apostrophe is used to indicate possession e.g. “Jenny’s hair” or “Paul’s tie” The only exception to this rule is the word “it”. In its possessive form do not use an apostrophe. “it’s” is only used to replace the words “it is” (i.e. a contraction). I know this is confusing but that’s (that is) the nature of this language.
An apostrophe is also used to take the place of missing letters (to create contractions as I’ve already shown) e.g. “they’ll” replaces “they will” and “would’ve” replaces “would have”. Place the apostrophe where the letters have been removed. I often read articles that contain words like “would’nt” instead of “wouldn’t” so know that people find it confusing.
An apostrophe should not be used to indicate a plural (more than one of something) but there are exceptions. e.g. There are 4 s’s in the word “mississippi” (This can also be written: There are 4 “s”s in the word “mississippi” but it’s quite acceptable to use the former with an apostrophe.
I might add that I also make mistakes but I love it when these are pointed out. It enables me to develop and hone my skills.
March 14th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
“In essence”, “actually”, and “at the end of the day” will do it for me. Literally (i.e. my head seems to want to explode).
March 14th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
erm…a good example of showing ignorance by example. ‘There have to be rules’ is incorrect and should be ‘There has to be rules’ or rather ‘Rules are necessary’
March 14th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
What about could/couldn’t care less. I always end up laughing when one of my friends says they “could care less” about a topic when they mean they “couldn’t care less”. I end up explaining to them eventually, but they keep making the same mistake over and over again.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Take/Bring
Take that object away from me.
Bring that object to me.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
America: please stop saying “Obligated”.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
WEGRIT: “Drank” is also the past tense of “drink.”
TOM O’BEDLAM: Sometimes you just have those things that really annoy you. I only point out terrible grammar or spelling if I want to be a jerk though, or if I’m correcting something.
DAVE WILLIAMS/DAVE: I always say, “based off of,” but I guess “based on” makes more sense. I’ll try to keep that in mind and correct myself! Thanks!
BILL: No, people really say that. I think it’s people without the opportunity for a better education. I’m not saying they’re stupid, but just that they don’t know it’s “sit” not “set,” because they’ve never learned it. My grandfather says “set,” and I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a great education (he doesn’t read very well either).
TOMMY: The “t” is not silent in “often.” It can be nowadays, but it doesn’t have to be. Originally the word was pronounced with a “t,” then people stopped saying it. Today, either way is okay.
DAN: Why is “use” better than “utilise.” I use both interchangeably (almost), just so I don’t have too many of the same words.
AMETHYSTSOULD: Schedule: “sked-ual” is American, “shed-jual” is British.
CDOG: Only white people say “axe” instead of “ask?” Think you’re wrong there. Anyway, I’ve only heard children pronounce it that way, either because they don’t know any better or they hear you say “ask” and it sounds like “axe” to them. They’re still learning!
BRIAN: It’s “a-whole-nother.” “Whole” is interrupting “another.” This actually has a name, but I can’t remember it right now. Sure someone else knows!
MIZDI: See my post above. “Can I” is incorrect, but, yes, used more commonly among friends. It’s still incorrect though.
AMANDA: “Gray” is the American way of spelling it, “grey” is the British. Both are equally correct.
STUMBLER: I say “like” all the time. (Haha!) A ninties thing, perhaps? Makes it sound funnier to me, even if it’s not technically correct. But your number three is a bit over-the-top, as not everyone is capable of such amazingly put-together sentences, like yourself.
More annoying things: When people spell “libary” instead of “library” (when people say “libary” it irks me as well), “Febuary” instead of “February,” “Wensday” instead of “Wednesday,” and “sunami” instead of “tsunami” (the mispronunciation of “tsunami” bothers me too, but I usually try to let it slide since “tsu” is not common in English, so people think the “t” is silent, when it’s not).
Something else is when people put apostrophes where the shouldn’t be: It should be “CDs,” not “CD’s” and “’90s” not “90’s.”
(Wow, I have no life. Go me.)
March 14th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I loved your article. I’m a bit of a grammar nut and really enjoyed reading this. “Than/then” and “could of” are the ones of of your list that really get me. However, the thing that annoys me the most is when people say “good” when they should say “well”. Also, when people say that they could care less, meaning that they already care a little bit.
March 14th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
One I see all the time is “for free.”
Free is a state of being. Something is either free or it isn’t.
When you start with the word for, you need to follow that with a quantity.
So it’s either, “I got the car free” or “I got the car for nothing.”
March 14th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
A desert isn’t necessarily a hot, dry patch of sand…Antarctica’s a desert…
March 14th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
@Jay Coleman — Sorry, you’re wrong. The wording IS “intents and purposes”, not “intensive purposes”.
March 14th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
When I was in high school we would irritate our English teacher by saying “ustacould”. Yeah, I don’t know what it means, either.
March 14th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
“I seen” instead of “I’ve seen” or “I saw” that one kills me!
“opposed to go” as opposed to “supposed to go”
March 14th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
You’re vs. Your; There vs. Their; to vs too
March 14th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Wow. OK. Lots of comments.
Firstly - people learn language (their first one at any rate) by copying and experimenting; they say what they think they hear others saying, then they write phonetically what they think they have said. This is how errors and alternative versions of the same words and phrases are born, and lack of correction enables them to spread. As long as they make sense and can readily be understood this is fine. Often (audible “t”!), the error just makes the speaker or writer seem stupid or badly educated.
By the way, “axe” is the original Anglo-Saxon pronunciation of the word “ask”. It seems to have been lost and re-discovered.
@Marchingbando - That’s not really funny; it’s the active vs. the passive form of the same verb. I smite, yesterday I smote, the day before I was smitten. Not a huge error…
@Someone - i.e. (always lower case and punctuated, BTW!) means id est; i.e., “that is”.
e.g. means “exemplar gratis”, literally a “free example”.
“i.e.” clarifies and defines the foregoing statement. “This and only this.”
“e.g.” gives a specific example of a general case, but does not exclude other similar examples. “This, but possibly also other things.”
@Jay Coleman - 100% wrong, I’m afraid. It really is, “for (or “to”) all intents and purposes.” I think it was originally from the legal profession.
@SquareTraveller - it’s “versus”, not “verses”. But you know that…
@BoggyWoggy - What’s wrong with short vowels? Datsun. Dat. Sun. It’s a (Japanese?) company anyway, so should have short vowels.
@Bluemoon - Rules is necessary? Is they? Is they really? Rules are plural, and the verb should agree. One rule is necessary; two or more rules are necessary.
@momo - Abso-bloomin’-lutely right! Interruption of a word by a-whole-nother word is called “tmesis”.
March 14th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Yes, please make a pronunciation guide! I’m so sick and tired of hearing “drawling” in place of drawing and “lags”; “aggs”; and “malk”. Also, my boyfriend calls a room “rum” but I think thats partially because of an accent; he really does try.
March 14th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
It’s not a misused word, per se, but ending a sentence in a preposition always bothers me. It’s a common practice these days, but after studying other languages, it just doesn’t feel right. “Who are you hanging out with?” may be the worst sentence ever.
March 14th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
My old history teacher used to say “set” instead of “sit” and constantly referred to “Sitting Bull” as “Setting Bull”. It didn’t bother me too much until I saw classmates writing in their notes “Setting Bull”, then I’m pretty sure my head exploded.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
You forgot “alot”. “Alot” is not a word, it should be “a lot”, meaning many.
Another common mistake that really chaps my hide is the growing misuse of the apostrophe. It denotes possession, not plurality. It is not “Mass on Sunday’s” (as I recently saw on a church billboard), it should be “Mass on Sundays”.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
haha thanks for pointing that out.thanks Good job helping me out!
March 14th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
HARV: Thank you so much! It was bothering me. I wrote “tmesis” down; hopefully I won’t lose it,–or maybe I can just remember it (Yeah, okay).
Another thing that bothers me is when people put commas where they shouldn’t be. Well, not all of the time: It really annoys me most when they interrupt their sentence. A comma can go after “is,” yes, but that’s in instances such as, “It is what it is, but it’s not what you think;” however, if I had started this paragraph off by saying, “Another thing that bothers me is, when people put commas…” that would be incorrect. I think it has to do with teachers telling students to use commas to indicate a stop in the sentence. Here I would use an ellipses, but I don’t know if that’s technically correct; an em-dash might be more appropriate, perhaps.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
Lately I have noticed some people mix up borrow and loan. I have heard them say “he borrowed me the money” instead of “he loaned me the money
Also you missed irregardless
March 14th, 2009 at 11:51 pm
Halloween: Generic name for a series of slasher movies.
Hallowe’en: Holiday celebrated on October 31st.
The apostrophe makes a difference when doing a Google search.
________________________________________________
Oh… and there is no ‘A’ in Cemetery.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Expecially is not a word.
If referring to a decade by its numbers, there is no need for an apostrophe. “Back in the 90s,” not “back in the 90’s.”
Don’t spell definitely “definately.” The root word of definitely is “finite.”
The past participle of drink is drunk, not drank. E.g., I have drunk a lot in my life. Not “I have drank a lot in my life.”
Unbelievably, I’ve seen “mine as well” in attempt to convey “might as well.”
March 14th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
This one really annoys me. Here, hear, hare, and hear! But what is really annoying is when ‘heir’ is also pronounced the same way. Somebody correct me if I,m wrong but isn’t ‘heir’ pronounced ‘air’, as in ‘the heir to the throne’. I am totally willing to be corrected on this one but believe I’m correct.
March 14th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Oops, wrote hear twice. Sorry!
March 15th, 2009 at 12:04 am
Have you considered placing “that” vs. “which” on your list?
March 15th, 2009 at 12:24 am
my keyboarding teacher in 6th grade used to say “excape”
i wanted to shoot her by the end of the year
March 15th, 2009 at 12:26 am
Great list. I didn’t know about discrete/discreet or stationary/stationery. But for the record:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=define+alright&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
I would assume that much like the word “today,” which originates from the word “to-day,” it’s one of those things that has slipped into English due to pronunciation and for the sake of ease and simplicity, not to mention the fact that the majority of people have adopted it. I think the next one to go will be a lot. “Alot” is not a word — yet.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:29 am
To Lloyd:
I think that the expression is meant to be sarcastic and ironic — at least in origin. However, I would concede that most people probably miss that fact.
Also, this is probably an obscure one, but the word is Theorem not Theorum! Bugs me in math because I hear it pronounced the second way more often than not and it took me awhile to realise how it was actually written.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Desert/dessert CAN be confusing for some: He received his just deserts by missing dessert when he didn’t desert the desert. (He got what was coming to him by missing sweets when he didn’t abandon the arid place.)
March 15th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Your definately peaking my interest with the mother load of miss used words.
My examples bug me more than most others.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Am I the only person who is bothered by the word got?
I got to go instead of I have to go.
or
I got new shoes instead of I bought new shoes.
or
I got to talk to you instead of I need to talk to you.
I dont think any use of “got” cannot be replaced by a proper word.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:51 am
Whether / weather is one people mess up a lot.
WEATHER (with an A) is related to CLIMATE (with an A. No H.)
WHETHER (with no A, extra H) is implies a CHOICE (H, no A.)
WHEATHER (A, 2 H’s) is not a word, even though I accidentally typed it three times during this comment. Whoops
March 15th, 2009 at 12:55 am
One that i still haven’t got down is practice/practise. Though practise only exists in the UK and Canada.
Practice: Noun. An event. To go to band practice. “We need to put these ideas into practice.”
Practise: Verb. To practise something. “To learn English well you have to practise”
March 15th, 2009 at 12:58 am
I expected the usual prescriptivist BS, but found instead some good tips to improve clarity. The comments that followed were the usual prescriptivist BS, but that’s to be expected. I think further and farther are a bit less absolute than you claim, based on my dictionaries, but all in all a useful list.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:01 am
Great list. Mostly great comments. Thank you to those who corrected Jay Coleman about “for all intents and purposes.”
Apostrophe misuse and abuse is one of my pet peeves (BTW, two EEs, please, in peeves).
I stopped my subscription to the local paper after I read “had drank” once too many times.
I am American but I have lived in Britain several times and was trained as a copy editor there. British English still retains the different spellings for the noun and verb forms of practice/practise, licence/license, etc. Orientate is considered correct there, although I have a feeling it may be a back formation from orientation (similar to the incorrect use of quantitate for quantify). Grey and gray are simply different spellings; it has nothing to do with names vs colors. (Almost typed colours there!)
Schedule (like Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, which is Dutch), is pronounced with an SH in Britain and Australia/New Zealand, although school is pronounced as it is in the United States (Canadians, I have been to Canada but don’t know how you pronounce schedule, sorry!) I also speak Swedish, so I have to say that the way in which the languages descended from Germanic roots handle the SK/SH spellings and pronunciations is too complex for this post.
Also, the ’s’ in places where Americans use a zed (’z') comes into British English from French. Most words that end in -ize (as is common in American usage) actually should because of their Latin origins. There are some exceptions, such as surprise and comprise (the misuse of which drives me right round the bend). However, words that commonly end in -yze in American usage are INCORRECT (analyse, not analyze) for the same reason.
The use of the letter A to represent the schwa in ‘definitely’ makes me want to hit people.
My son is in 3rd grade. The fact that he has a better grasp of both grammar and spelling than many of the adults with whom I work depresses me.
To #182 and so: This story is untrue. Please look the word up in any reputable dictionary and you will find that it is a very old work of Germanic origin that is difficult to pin down because of the understandable taboo about writing it out in full. It has NOTHING to do the control of peasant populations by kings. Generally, kings preferred large populations of peasants, since they tilled the land and often provided cannon fodder (once there were cannons, of course) for wars.
That reminded me of canon vs cannon, yet another!
Lastly, I would like to agree with the poster(s) who pointed out that written language serves a different purpose (clear communication amongst all the speakers of a language) than does spoken language.
Am I the only one left who still pronounces the following homophones differently (ie with the aspirated H)?
which/witch
where/wear, ware
whale/wale, wail
when/wen
why/Wye (as in the river), Y (as in the YMCA)
March 15th, 2009 at 1:05 am
I just read through all 186 comments and can’t believe that the misuse of “myself” was not mentioned. That is my number one pet peeve…and it is heard by news commentators all the time. The correct useage is when one is doing something to oneself: I hurt myself, I scratched myself, I wrote a note to myself. NOT: Talk to either him or myself, she and myself are going out AARRRGGG
Also, the difference between waiting for and waiting on: if I wait for someone, they are doing something and will be with me in a moment. If I am waiting on someone, I am their servant.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Harv, I really do know that it’s “versus” and not “verses.” I’ll explain that mistake by misusing the term “typo.”
By the way, I’ve only encountered this once, years ago, but I’ve not yet recovered. In a review, instead of saying “might as well,” someone actually said, “minus well.” How could he possibly have thought that meant what he was attempting to say?
March 15th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Is this the wrong forum to get into comma splices? Some people have no idea where to end a sentence and start a new one.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:25 am
A good, concise list of misused words & phrases. Thanks!
March 15th, 2009 at 1:25 am
You might include wonder and wander….
I here these words mixed up all the time.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:28 am
[...] a handy list of misused words & [...]
March 15th, 2009 at 1:44 am
Re: affect/effect
They both appear to be becoming obsolete, being replaced by ‘impact’. The ubiquitous and erroneous use of this word drives me nuts!!!!! To my knowledge, the only things that get ‘impacted’ (verb form) are teeth and bowels, neither of which is pleasant. “IMPACT” IS NOT A VERB!
March 15th, 2009 at 2:18 am
What about principal and principle? Especially when you’re talking about investments.
March 15th, 2009 at 2:46 am
I absolutely love this list! I didn’t read all the comments but another mistake that is commonly repeated is “who vs. whom.”
March 15th, 2009 at 3:09 am
Add *”In one foul swoop” instead of “In one fell swoop.” The original is a quote from “Macbeth.”
March 15th, 2009 at 3:17 am
If someone says “I could care less,” answer “How much less could you care.”
But the worst one which no one has mentioned (as far as I could see) is to use the word “real” as an adverb. E.g., “I did that real quick” instead of “I did that very quickly.”
March 15th, 2009 at 3:39 am
Can I just add the pluralizing of pronouns? Maybe it’s just something said and done in Canada, but I actually get angry when I hear people say and sometimes write:
you’s, them’s, they’s, we’s, us’s, I’s, etc…
March 15th, 2009 at 3:54 am
It should be “CDs,” not “CD’s” and “’90s” not “90’s.”
Can I be a pedant? If the cover belongs to the CD or the haircut is of the era between 1990 - 1999…do they get an aposrophe? Just playing devil’s advocate, it’s okay.
I have noticed lately the following and would like thoughts; I’m not sure if they are incorrect and we’re just used to them now, and editors are allowing them into books etc. or they are actualy correct.
“shined”… as in “he shined my shoes”. Should it be “shone” or is this actually in some ways correct?
“gotten”.. “he could have gotten that if he was earlier”
oh there are many more but these two are in a book I read recently, so are current in my mind.
I also hate “could care less”, it makes me laugh…
And I work in a library and shake my had at my peers who say “liberry” or “liberrian”
hanks fo the article, it brought many nods of agreement and shudders of recognition.
Oh and lately I’ve been reading lots of posts (not here of course) where people insist something is “defiantly” correct. Is it angy? Or is it “definitely” correct.
Ah, grammar, we love you, especially when you’re baking cookies in the kitchen like all good grandmothers do.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Alright is most definitely a word.
So is already and altogether.
March 15th, 2009 at 4:19 am
I love this blog. Thankyou. In reading through the comments, I saw one person wrote “for F* sake” it made me laugh. I remember our 10th grade teacher teaching us the real meaning of this word. Good ole England back in the 13th century got concerned with the peasants overpopulating, so they devised the
“F* contract”. It’s a abbreviation for “Fertility Under Consent of the King”. So to stay true to form when we say “F* you” to someone it generally means you want to have their baby. Makes you feel a little awkward now doesn’t it?
By the way this eventually became what we know today as a birth certificate.
Giggles!
March 15th, 2009 at 4:52 am
The grammatical error that absolutely drives me over the edge is one that I hear each and every day, multiple times a day. That error is “where are you at?” Does no one in the world these days realize that all you have to say is “where are you?”
March 15th, 2009 at 5:04 am
There’s an old poem that did the rounds once and is now back again. It illustrates the sometimes ridiculous, but very rich English language, it’s ambiguities and some strange spelling. Here goes:
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word,
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead – it’s said like bed not bead –
For goodness sake don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt)
A moth is not the moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.
And then there’s dose and rose and lose –
Just look them up – and goose and choose.
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart –
Come, come I’ve hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive.
I’d mastered it when I was five.
March 15th, 2009 at 8:53 am
A man who works for me says “assummably”(I’m not even sure how to spell that!) when he means presumably.ARGH! I’ve refrained so far from calling him on it.He’d be quite embarassed,but I do grit my teeth when I hear him say it.
March 15th, 2009 at 10:07 am
If you think about it, something CAN be “very unique”. Otherwise, that argument can be made for almost any adjective in the English language. (e.g. “Very special”, “Very big”)
Presuming that there is a status quo, “very unique” could be used to reference how far away from that standard something is. Either way, “very” is a crappy word.
Excellent article, I really enjoyed it!
March 15th, 2009 at 10:12 am
‘Alright’ is a word. It’s an adverb. It has derived from slang but still recognised. Would be interested to hear thoughts on ‘text massage slang’ i.e. LOL, LMAO, UR GR8 etc…. i fink if u use it u shood be stabed in da brain
March 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
irregardless.
not a word
March 15th, 2009 at 11:17 am
When someone is brought up to speed, I say they are “oriented”, not “orientated”. Any expert confirmation out there?
March 15th, 2009 at 11:27 am
I agree that most of these words do get confused quite often. However, for those that are talking about how people pronounce things differently (not incorrectly) or how people turn everyday words into slang, you sound so mean. For example, I studied out of the States and heard ad-ver-tis-ment as opposed to what I’m used to ad-ver-tIZE-ment. It happens, that’s linguistics and dialect for you and further more that’s slang for you. I think there’s a time and place for correct grammar, I’m still young and I’m not going to sound like an ‘old fart’ but slang still comes out of my mouth when I’m in bars or with friends.
I’m not teaching this slang in a class room so I think if it’s heard on the street it’s ok.. not the “yo bro u hea dat yo dat cant b reallll” that’s is just stupid talk.
And as far as text messaging goes, it’s easier to type that way, to an extent. i.e. u for you or ur for your, it’s what the younger generation has grown up with, we cannot help it.
One more thing about dialect, people from different regions will pronounce things differently than you. People from Western New York say crick instead of creek, it bothers me but it’s a regional thing, and I think other people should take that into account.
March 15th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
@ Julia: Got bothers me as well, although nothing bothers me more than the AOL line, “You’ve Got Mail!” You cannot put “have” and “got” together. The correct way to say it is “You Have Mail!” versus “You have got mail!”
Another bothersome word is definitely (or definitly, definatly, definately and so on.) The root word is finite, which does NOT lose its “e” when adding the suffix “ly”. (i.e. finitely)
March 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Due to it’s large amount of use I would say “Alright” has become a word. It’s used too often not to be adopted into the language.
Also, my biggest pet peeve is “I could care less”. You mean to say “I CouldN’T care less”. If you could that means you care somewhat about it. If you can’t care less than you absolutely do not care.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Sorry if somebody has already pointed this out, but I noticed a couple of things that could be clarified. “Effect” can be a verb as well as a noun, and “affect” is not “usually” a verb, but always one.
Next, in your “illicit/elicit” point, while “outrageous” makes grammatical sense, the more contextually accurate word would be “outraged”.
Finally, “then” doesn’t always mean “after” and is necessary, rather than boring, for a lot of writing. If it did not exist, THEN a lot of sentences would be awkward to phrase.
Sorry, just a few quick corrections from a pedantic 16-year-old. Very interesting list though.
March 15th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Another one that bothers me is when people say “seen” instead of “saw.” It drives me absolutely crazy!
“I seen that movie” should be “I have seen that movie” or “I saw that movie.”
March 15th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Amen on 7 and 25. English is not my mother tongue and I can’t believe I can write better than most Americans XD
Bad writers are common not only in forums but also in sites such as fanfiction.net and fictionpress.com.
I can’t believe the poor grammar quality most stories have, not to mention the spelling misuse.
Actually once I kept reading “could of” very often in stories on those websites that I almost believed “could of” was grammatically correct in British English.
I guess most people should go bac to grammar school…*sigh*
March 15th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
It really irks me when I hear people pronouncing/writing “deaf” as “death”. They are not the same thing!
March 15th, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I’m not a native speaker but can please anyone explain me this new trend saying “elz” instead of “else”? It’s all over movies and shows.
March 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
We are going to have to accept non-standard usage even through our gritted teeth: “I don’t know nothing”, “Tracy and me went . . ” and the split infinitive. These all grate on my ears but since they are not ambiguous in their meaning we might as well welcome them or at least be neutral about them.
After all being prescriptive about these things never got us anywhere. But I am sure we will go on being prejudicial about people according to their use of grammar.
[apologies for any spelling errors]
March 15th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
I hate it when I see someone write about “reigning in” spending. It’s “rein”, like in “reindeer”. You’re not the king of the budget, you’re the driver.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
I find you people pretty pretentious.
But I still hit I like it
Upon Stumble Upon.
March 15th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
“Heard just today, and it reminded me how annoyed I get whenever I hear it said, “I borrowed him the money”. No, you dweeb, “you LOANED him the money”. He BORROWED it FROM you. /sigh”
I am 35 years old, and have never heard this used before a few weeks ago. I couldn’t get through the conversation, I had to ask her three times what she meant!
Also:
unthaw, disorientated, moot/mute, butt/bud (as in “Nip it in the bud/butt,” pacific/specific
March 15th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
In elementary school I was so excited when I learned that the past tense of ‘hang’ was ‘hung’ that I wrote an entire paper about the Salem Witch Trials that hung witches.
A week later I got back a paper covered in red - apparently “hanged” is the appropriate term when referring to someone who died on the gallows.
At least now I’ll never forget
March 15th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
Irregardless drives me insane. To the guy who said it is a word much like unravel, no.. not it is not. It is not a word. It never should be allowed to become one.
Expresso makes me want to tear my ears off.
But the most annoying by far is definitely hearing people say presentate. This has been driving me mad since high school. I don`t even understand how the h*ll someone can make this mistake! I understand that they derive it from presentation - but it should be bloody obvious to anyone that presentation derives from present - even if they have never been taught this specifically. It should not have to be taught, it is so bloody obvious!
I will present my presentation.
I will presentate my presentation.
Honestly… is there excuse??????? I think not.
Invariably annoys me too. Again, it derives from variable, whose meaning has nothing to do with frequency and everything to do with consistency. This mistake is inexcusable. You don`t have to be an english major to understand simple rules like “the meaning of a word is provided by its roots.“
March 15th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Text and IM spellings drive me insane. I have no problem with LOL, GTG, OMG and so on. These are new forms of slang - they are acronyms, which make them perfectly acceptable in terms of grammar. What I cannot stand is the use of “u“ for “you,“ “r“ for “are,“ and the growing tendency of youth (including people my own age who didn`t have the internet until about high school) to misspell everything they write in and out of the classroom. I`m talking about things like the following:
- rite
- enuf
- fer
- its instead of it`s
- kno
- dun (instead of don`t)
- i no
- wut
- wif
- ive
- letz (using “z“ to denote plurality in general)
- yahuh
- the hole time
- bin (instead of been)
- could of and should of
- coulda and shoulda, for that matter..
- cud in place of could
Generally, if you write something like “yo i been gon fer like ever wutz bin hapnin? i ges i cud of axed fer yer fone number b4 i lef so i cuda tok to u the hole time i wuz gon but i dun kno i figgered it wud b enuf to jist tell u wen i got back wot i all did so letz go git sumthin to eat k?” I have no interest whatsoever in being your friend.
March 15th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I only skimmed the comments, so someone might have already posted this, but two things that irk me is:
Sentences being sprinkled with the word, ‘like.’ As in: “And then I was like, wow, that was creepy, and then she was like, oh my god!, and then we like drove to the beach and like….” That usage has cropped up in so much dialogue, I’m willing to bet just about everyone uses it in that manner and doesn’t even notice.
And I just want to pick up a baseball bat and bludgeon the person that has to say, “Anywho.” This person thinks he’s being classy and chic, but really he just sounds like an idiot. (and look, I actually used the word ‘like’ correctly.)
March 15th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I’m surprised you didn’t list the difference between it’s and its, the first a contraction of the two words it and is, and the second, without the use of an apostrophe, the possessive of it or belonging to it. So, “It’s (it is) correct to note that the language loses its (belonging to it) precise nature when we ignore its (the language’s) basic rules. Perhaps that is where people get mixed up: We know that you show possession with an apostrophe when you say something belongs to something else as, for example, in the case of “the language’s basic rules.” What some teachers have perhaps neglected to stress that its and it’s are exceptions to the rule!
March 15th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I’m an editor for a high school paper, and i also fear the direction education is going when i see these errors over and over. They drive me crazy. Most english teachers just don’t think grammar is important anymore. So I have a few additions to this great list:
1. it’s ‘different FROM’, not ‘different than’ (I know this is true, but if anyone has a precise reason, I’d love to know)
2. like the ‘could of’ one on the list (which drives my nuts), this one is also caused by how it sounds when we say it: one thing is better/darker/longer/warmer/(any other adjective) ‘THAN’ something else, not ‘then’.
Your where it should be you’re also drives me nuts. We can thank facebook, myspace, texting, etc. for that one.
March 15th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I hate “withdrawl”! There’s another A - withdrawal. Get it right!
March 15th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
[...] Source: Help Educational Blog [...]
March 15th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
there, their and they’re (not a difficult set of words!!)
but, the one that makes me cringe whether I hear it or see it written is : GOTS
I actually heard someone say in the store to her child: “I ain’t gots no money for that.”
March 15th, 2009 at 9:05 pm
The wonderful thing about language is that it is always changing. People find new and imaginative ways to express themselves. Language constantly evolves so that the meaning of words change over time. A good example is the quote from Shakespeare “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?”. Most people today would not understand the correct meaning of that quote.
March 15th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Bring and Take - Drives me nuts. People don’t have a problem with Come and Go and the distinction is the same.
March 15th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
This list left out the mistake I hear most often: Jealous vs. Envious
If I want what you have, then I am envious.
If I fell threatened because you want what I have, then I am jealous.
And nothing can ever be Partially Deflected.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:21 am
One that bugs me. Sorry women, this is one of your terms. “Full-figured”. Have you ever seen a half-figured person, or a partially figured person? Just admit you are plus-sized. Skinny people still have a full figure, just smaller. If being plus-sized is a problem, then do something about it.
Often is correct whether or not the ‘t’ is pronounced, according to Webster’s
March 16th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Very interesting piece! I enjoyed it! There are many words that we tend to use incorrectly and may never have a clue that we are doing so! Your post invited many other suggestions and uses of words in a wrong manner… Very helpful and useful as well.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:14 am
I’m quite surprised that no one has mentioned quite/quiet, bored/board and who/how. I grew up in a rough part of town, where many children were not particularly well educated, and to this day I still receive text messages from old friends telling me that they are “quiet board” and asking “how” I was with last night, or “who” I was feeling (oo-er!). It drives me up the wall. Lose/loose also inspire my homicidal fantasies.
I can’t even talk to my little cousin on MSN after she left me a message saying, “I Luff Yhoo”. She capitalises every single word. It makes me want to grate her face to mush and smash it repeatedly into a wall. (Rage issues? Me? No…)
My last peeve is the misuse of the poor apostrophe. In 5th year of high school (roughly age 17) the Higher English class spent an entire double period (80 minutes) being taught how to use an apostrophe. If you cannot use an apostrophe by SEVENTEEN you should not be enrolled in a HIGHER ENGLISH class. I wanted to cry the entire time.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:24 am
The misuse of the word “only” makes me want to tear out my hair.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I hate it when people say “I could care less” when they mean “I couldn’t care less.” They don’t mean the same thing.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Sally lives “acrosst” from the park, where there is a slide with a width of three feet and a “heighth” of ten feet. Height. Th. Heighth? What’s wrong with you people? It doesn’t have to match; just because “width” has a “th” doesn’t mean “height” has to!
Also, “expresso”, “excape”, “ex cetera”.
Also, people who use “you and I” to sound classy even when “you and me” is appropriate. People who use “whom” excessively and incorrectly to sound classy. People who mangle expressions to sound knowledgeable, e.g. “all intensive purposes”. I even have a dramatic friend who uses “faithful” in place of “fateful”.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:32 am
this is fun and smart - we like it! for some reason i find it so annoying when people call espresso “expresso”.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:39 am
The misuse of ‘was’ and ‘were’. Though that may be in part down to dialect (I live in Yorkshire)
That and the misuse of ‘beat’ and ‘win’ such as ‘I’m going to win you at this’.
Grr.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I stumbled upon this and loved it. It’s very nicely summarized; for more on the subject, flip through Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style.”
March 16th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
I’d also like to add the (debatable) misuse of “their”/”they” as a gender-neutral, third-person, singular pronoun. They’re _plural_! I’ve seen people use “their” even when the gender of the antecedent was unquestionably one gender. (e.g., “Some woman left their bag in the lobby.”)
If the antecedent is one gender, use the appropriate pronoun! If it’s _singular_, use the appropriate pronoun! If it’s gender-neutral and singular and singular, the standard convention is to use “he”/”his,” but it honestly shouldn’t matter one bit. In fact, the most effective method of pronoun choice I’ve seen involved alternation between masculine and feminine pronouns, but they were always(read: always, ALWAYS, _ALWAYS_) singular. (Assuming, of course, that the sentence called for a singular pronoun.)
But apparently, since everybody tends to use “their” and “they” for all their gender-neutral first person pronoun needs, this rule is just going to go away eventually. Oh well..
March 16th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
And I just realized I said “first person” there when I meant “third person.” Sorry about that. Bye now.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Some ridiculous words I have found are:
board & bored
an & and
tomorrow
seam & seem
The list goes on.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
DazzlinDonna…. No, you don’t (one doesn’t) say I LOANED him some money, it’s LENT or, in the present tense - LEND.
Other moans: A CRESCENDO is not a climax, it the often the forerunner.
There is no such word as DISECT. To slice something thinly (as in biological studies) is to DISSECT it (pronounced diss-ect).
If you BISECT it , you HALVE it.
I think we grizzlers have already lost the battle for DECIMATE. It means to reduce by one tenth, not to destroy.
March 16th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
How about “I was thinking to myself” and “I have a friend of mine”
Lord help us…
March 16th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Sorry…typo. Should read ‘IT IS OFTEN…’ FOR ‘IT THE OFTEN…’
March 16th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[...] Check this out, it will probably do you some good. Rambling [...]
March 16th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Wikidictionary has this entry for alright:
Alternative spelling of all right. Considered by most to be an incorrect spelling.
So folks, hold on to your hats, this is going to start popping up more often.
By the way, I think I overuse commas any thoughts on how to prevent it?
March 16th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I also noticed that no one has mentioned brought/bought and almost everyone I know misuses these two.
March 16th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I used to be in the weight loss supplement business and was surrounded by endless versions of people who had been able to “loose weight.” Agony! Also, how about the plethora of misused words that were left in because they formed another English word and the spell-checker didn’t catch it? Ever since word processing became the norm, I have found these errors at all levels of writing and publishing. My wife wrote a number of very successful computer books some years ago, and I proofread them all. The publishers said they were amazed at the finished quality of the ms. They said most authors submitted material that was in the “very rough draft” category. Sad.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:32 pm
I don’t think using “alright” is a big deal. It’s been commonly used for long enough that you’ll find it in most dictionaries, and unlike these other mistakes, the meaning is never ambiguous when you say “alright”. Otherwise, good list. I’m not sure that I ever screwed up discrete/discreet, but I very well might have.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
A teacher once told our class that she could tell someone wasn’t very smart if they said, “Everhow,” or “Everwhere” or other mix-ups of similar words. I became very tuned into these misuses and find her assessment to be correct!
Mispronunciations bother me, too. My husband says, “Sim-u-lar” for similar, “Stigmatism” for stigma, and “Oof” (hoof) for if.
No, I didn’t marry Archie Bunker…
March 16th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
I can’t believe “Subconscious/Unconscious” wasn’t on here! That one drives me CRAZY! Subconscious - without recognizing one is doing something. Unconscious - being in a state of unconsciousness, such as sleep or a coma. I see it all the time in books and wonder why the editor gets paid.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Nauseated/Nauseous: a person who feels sick is “nauseated”; that which is gross is “nauseous”
Irregardless: not a word
Hanged/Hung: a person is “hanged”; a painting is “hung”
March 16th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Irregardless!!
March 16th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
“Like” Excludes
A like comparison typically (though not always) names only one person or thing in the comparison class, and excludes that person or thing from the group being discussed. For example:
When a team has a goalie like Dominik Hasek, it might continue to win despite having slightly weaker defensive players.
This comparison talks speculatively about hockey teams whose goalies have abilities similar to Hasek’s. The Buffalo Sabres and Hasek are specifically excluded as members of the group under discussion, because only teams that have goalies “like Hasek” (not Hasek himself) are included.
“Such As” Includes
A such as comparison can name one or several persons or things in the comparison class, but it typically includes those persons or things in the group being discussed. For example:
When hockey commentators such as Roy MacGregor or Don Cherry make controversial remarks, the buzz at the water cooler the next morning is louder than usual.
This comparison talks about hockey commentators as a class whose members include Roy MacGregor (print) and Don Cherry (television). The buzz around the water cooler increases whenever one of those particular men or other commentators in their class say something controversial.
http://www.writersblock.ca/tips/monthtip/tipjun98.htm
March 16th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I can’t stand it when people say “I have a good ideal” when they mean to say “idea”. Or “warshcloth/warsher” for “washcloth/washer”.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
The only one I’d like to comment on, is “alright.” Although it’s not technically proper, it has fallen into common enough use to be used where acceptable in formal writing.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
The word that bothers me the most is “Valentimes Day”
March 16th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
The “comprise: example is incorrect.
Comprise means “to make up”. So a seven days comprise a week. A week is comprised of seven days.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Nice list. But I agree with Tenth Speed Writer. I use alright all the time
It’s at dictionary.com so it is a word. Technically.
March 16th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
@Paul– Actually, it’s correct. You never say “comprised of.”
March 16th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I like this article and have similar grievances with the bastardisation of the English language. I’m happy to accept that it’s a constantly evolving language, however the way it’s increasingly used is more often a sign of ignorance and laziness rather than evolution.
One point of contention however, as your third point is incorrect. “Alright” is a real word, and has been in the Oxford English dictionary for more than 100 years.
If one was to disallow “alright”, because it’s evolved from “all right”, we’d be forced to reassess other acceptable words where letters have been intelligently dropped. For example, should we bannish (not “ban”!) all correctly abbreviated words like reverting “bus” to “omnibus”, “can’t” to “cannot”, “vet” to “veterinarian” and so on?
March 16th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
When I was in college, my business composition instructor’s biggest pet peeve was the use of “irregardless”, which is not even a word. The proper word is always “regardless”. A former boss of mine always used it and it was both irritating and gratifying. Also, many people use “alot” instead of “a lot”. That also bugs me.
March 16th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
them/those
March 16th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
i cant believe i just read 235 comments…. enjoyed this so much… went back to give it a Thumbs-Up, and the server was down so wouldn’t accept it… as a retired proofreader, i find that i turn aside from emails/comments/etc that make me cringe… the use of (or MISuse, i guess) of the apostrophe, to/too/two, and tho not appropriate for this list, the “modern” use of quotation marks…(end of sentence punctuation IN or OUTside??? many an argument with printers over the years)… things have changed MUCH since i was in school… but when did “M” become a Million and not a Thousand dollars?????? Is a thousand so little that there is no Latin letter for it?? … sigh.
March 16th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
“Try and ” instead of “try TO”. I am SOOO sick of “try and”.
March 16th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
I didn’t read all of the above comments.
But how about, being so fustrated that you forget the r at the beginning of ‘frustrated’?
Also, being British, Americanisms annoy me a little, although i can understand them. Check instead of cheque always confused me though. Surely ‘check’ is when you check something, to make sure it is right? Whats so hard about the letter q?
Overuse of ?
You only need one question mark. Just like you only need one exclamation mark.
This is sort of grammatical pedancy is my natural habitat
Love the list!
March 16th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
It’s probably not a good idea to get into lie and lay, but here goes:
I lie on the couch to read. (present) I lay on the couch for two hours yesterday. (past)
Look while I lay the book on the table. (present) I laid it down there yesterday, too. (past)
March 16th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Redundancy drives me crazy, yet I’m surrounded by it.
ATM machine
PIN number
Hot water heater
March 16th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
While as a major in English and Spanish I see where all of you who complain about non-standard usage (meaning usage other than what the powers-that-be prescribe) are coming from, it’s important to point out that the key function of language isn’t to show off how pedantic one can be or how many relatively insignificant “rules” one can remember. It’s to communicate. A lot of the “errors” pointed out in the post and comments have become standard popular usage that pretty much everyone understands in context. While a prescriptive view of language (one that demands the formal “rules” be observed) has its uses, it’s hardly necessary. Recently, linguists have come to favor a descriptive approach that places the control of what’s legal in a language in the hands of its everyday speakers. Descriptivists define grammar as the minimal set of guidelines for producing intelligible speech. That is to say that even if it ends with a preposition or starts with a conjunction or has eleven commas instead of two or twelve, if a sentence can be understood by most people, it’s grammatical. While almost everything you people have been complaining about is valid, in the end people who commit such “errors” are more often than not understood just as well as the rest of us.
By the way, a lot of the pronunciation irregularities people cite in the comments (i.e. saying “ask” as “ax”) are what linguists call phonotactic alternations and are a perfectly natural phenomenon in which the sound of each phoneme (unit of sound) changes depending on what’s around it. In the case of ask/ax, it’s a matter of the physical location in which each sound is made. Because the initial short “a” is pronounced at the back of the throat, it’s natural that the “k” part of “x” follows because it’s also pronounced there. The “s” part of “x” is inconveniently placed (for this word, at least) near the front of the mouth at the alveolar ridge. That’s why it’s pronounced last.
In the end, people govern language, not the other way around. Prescriptivists’ rules have some important uses, obviously, but ultimately it’s the average speakers’ use of a language that determines what those rules are and how they change over time.
March 16th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I miss the word “are.”
I often hear “There is lots of people who……..” I’d like to hear. “There are lots of people who……..”
March 16th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
My pet peeves are more in pronunciation than in usage. I taught in a grammer school for many years, working with children who had learning disablities. Pronunciation is important for spelling. Many parents and children pronounce the word crayon ‘crown’. But my new pet peeve is ‘di int’ as in “Oh no she di int!” We used to tell children “if you don’t know how to spell it, look it up”. How are they to do this if the pronunciation is so completely off?
March 16th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
My elderly employer would greet me each morning with good morning Helen how are you today? I would reply Good thank you and how are you He would always reply I am well thank you. One day In his gentle way he taught me a lesson. When I replied I am good he said to me I know you are good but are you well. Now I reply to how are you with I am well thank you. My mother would say to me as a child if I asked her can I do something she would always reply you can but you may not.
March 16th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Two words for your list: “awesome”. The Taj Mahal is awesome. Niagara Falls is awesome. A new jacket is not awesome.
“Like”. Perhaps the most, like, misused word. Why can people not,like, speak well?
March 16th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Who / Whom ??
March 16th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Anyone else want to strangle someone when they say “same difference”? This is beyond a pet peeve of mine.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
BillinDetroit, you took the words right out of my fingertips. “Try and” instead of “try to” has become used so often that I read it in esteemed magazines and hear it all the time. The “try” verb would have to be exclusive of whatever verb occurs after “and” because and connotes an additional action. Let’s try and fix the flat tire. The only thing you are trying to do is “fix”! Let’s walk and talk. You can walk without talking, and you can talk without walking. You can’t try without working on fixing the tire for Pete’s sake!
Here’s a similar pet peeve that I heard mostly growing up on the East Coast: “Let’s see if we can’t finish the project.” The first time I heard this was in the fourth grade - from my teacher. I raised my hand and asked (not sarcastically): “But aren’t we trying to see if we can?” She thought I was being a smarta**.
Another common mistake is drown/drowned.
BTW, orientate is used by people in Great Britain, and it is a word - we just use orient in the U.S.
I don’t think people should make such a big deal over two words combining into one.
March 16th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I love the word twice with a T on the end of it. And how about I could care less? It’s clearly I couldn’t care less!!!
March 17th, 2009 at 12:35 am
to Mindy
ask vs. ‘axe’
this variant in English dialects dates back to Old English, from ‘acsian’ and was considered part of proper English usage until the 1600’s.
However, the phenomena in Modern English would be referred to as metathesis, a common sound change. It occurs notably in A.A.V.E. (commonly and inaccurately know as Ebonics, a portmanteau of Ebony and Phonetics). Though this is a phonetic shift in the language, there are many more regular variations in A.A.V.E (African American Vernacular English) than just phonetics, e.g. the dropping of the inflexive phoneme ’s’ from the 3rd person singular verb, which makes perfect sense as English requires a subject noun (unlike Spanish in which the subject is contained within the verbal conjugation), making the phoneme redundant. Anyway, let it bother you as much as you like, but the fact is, language is ever evolving. You think people weren’t upset 200 years ago with the public ‘misuse’ of English that is now accepted and regular?
People speak descriptive language, not prescriptive language.
March 17th, 2009 at 12:40 am
though, apparently several people have already commented on this, I hope I’ve added something to their argument.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:08 am
“19. Literally- If you say “His head literally exploded because he was so mad!” then we should see brains splattered on the ceiling.”
Hahaha
I literally laughed out loud. ;]
March 17th, 2009 at 2:04 am
Success / Sucess
I see many makes this mistake and have search counts too 
March 17th, 2009 at 2:07 am
I cannot stand hearing “alls I know is…”
March 17th, 2009 at 2:09 am
or “I seen that movie”
March 17th, 2009 at 9:21 am
Check the OED for alright. It too is a word. Just like heretofore and quite a few other amalgamations, words get combined after usage makes them common. Good post though.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Good tips, but I can deal without the “hello fellow stumbler” garbage at the top. Please allow me to rate this page on its merits, rather than looking poorly upon it for its hamhanded social networking tactics.
Please keep the social networking links below the fold.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:42 am
One day, feeling tired I wrote on a news blog - here in Australia - that “someone should be sewed”. I knew it was incorrect and should have read …”sued” but was tired. How embarrassing!, and I received a few “intelligent” replies offering both abuse and education for my spelling ability.
Interesting being Australian we officially write/speak the Queens English. With the large influence of American media, children today are probably more confused about words like-
Aeroplane or Airplane?
Often I have to ignore spelling “errors” if a U.S spell check is on.
That’s 2009 for you!
March 17th, 2009 at 9:47 am
Please see “bellow”… (my eye twitches)
…and expecially, for people who… (eye twitch accompanied by goosebumps)
Some mistakes and their “affect” on my nervous system
March 17th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Make it 35. You forgot: I vs. me; irregardless (not a word); and whom vs. who.
March 17th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I have always problem with two words message and massage. Some people believes that it could be Freudian slip
March 17th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Does anyone remember hearing the word “often” pronounced without the “t”? Growing up I heard this from news anchors, teachers, etc. By college, I remember noticing people beginning to pronounce it with the “t”….or maybe I grew up around a bunch of ignorant people! thanks…
March 17th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I disagree with unique. I believe it can have a level.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
You are being “prescriptivist.” It’s always fun to be the “inside” guy who knows everything and can look down upon the hoi polloi who are “know-nothings”. However, the dam has burst, mon ancien, the waters are rising. Even well-educated folks are saying “begs the question” when they should be saying “it invites the question” and so on. Let’s give up and move to Darfur.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I really get annoyed when someone writes no when they mean know. It’s annoying. When I read something with no instead know, I just stop and go on to something else.
As for shoving grammar down people’s throats, why shouldn’t people learn to use words correctly, most speak in correct grammar.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Alright, now that is a long post with alotta words. Now I am getting to my chalkboard!
March 17th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
My pet peeves are ecsetera instead of etcetera, Febuary instead of February, on accident instead of by accident, get it right people, come on!
March 17th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Kokky, I agree with you - isn’t nice to be smug and look down on the thick, the ignorant, the lazy and the dyslexic! But why move to Dafur when Dafur is coming to us [figuratively speaking].
Incidentally, a work to the wise, the hoi polloi has a duplication in it as “hoi” means “the”.
Oops. . . I’m doing it myself!
March 17th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
edible/editable….
I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been to in which someone says “That field should be inedible” or “It should be edible so we can change it if we need to.”
There are many good points in this blog. People are not being Word Elitists. They are merely trying to keep the use of words from degrading so far as to be incoherent.
However, our languages are born from these small evolutions. This is how “awesome” goes from “to inspire awe” to “to be great” to “to be of good taste.”
No one bemoans the loss of Carroll as a man’s name ans Switzerdeutch vs. Deutsch is a superior example of a real-time example of how languages tend to simplify over time. Also, no one at all would ever dream of complaining about the los of “thee” and “thy” and the pompous use of the once formal “you” that we use casually today.
“Utilize” simply means “to make use of” which is a little different than to “use” something.
Thank you to those of you who are studying English as a second language… I didn’t understand the grammar of English until I tried to understand the equivalent parts in other languages such as French and German.
To all of those who didn’t take the time to actually read these posts before you shared your wisdom with us…. Please do read next time… Obviously you could have cared less…
March 17th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Oh dear… I’ve repeated some words…. That’s the point of this blog, isn’t it? Think about what you’re putting out there!
It should have read “superior, modern example,” instead of the mess I posted.
Sorry
March 17th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
I shall bear them in mind.
March 17th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
you wrote (in “Could of”, and later in “Sit/set”)
“…hear people talking, they’re saying “could’ve.” Got it?”
“…and sit in your chair. Got it?”
No, but I “Have it”
March 17th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Hi there all you bad English grammar users..like me..
I always confuse when to use its and it’s .. why?
March 17th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I need to refresh my grammar skills
March 17th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Conscious/Conscience
succeed/ secede
March 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I say:
Lemme ashoo qweyshun
But I write:
Let me ask you a question.
It makes me feel unique and special.
March 17th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Okay, I get all that, but…when do you use ‘whom?’
March 17th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
[...] The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases | HELP! Educational Blog (tags: language) [...]
March 17th, 2009 at 7:10 pm
You seem to have forgotten the worst of these sins:
Correct word and pronounciation: anything
Pronounciation (of the illiterate): anythink!!!!
Since when does a ‘g’ have a ‘k’ sound!
It’s the all time worst
Vicks x
March 17th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
You forgot about bought and brought
Another cringe moment for me is “seems as” instead of “seing as”
March 17th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
I could care less.. or could I? Could you care less about it? Oh I couldNT care less anyway…
March 17th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
The one I can’t stand is mixing up gone and went.
“We had went to the movies.”
It’s GONE!
March 17th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
There are two such errors that bother me more than any other:
1. Taste/flavor. Advertisements are rife with claims that foods have “great taste”. No they don’t. Consumers exercise their taste in deciding which food flavors they prefer.
2. Anxious/Eager. Journalists constantly make this mistake — e.g. “The lottery winner is anxious to get his hands on the $5m check.” It’s far more likely that he possesses excitement and enthusiasm about becoming rich than fear and apprehension.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:47 am
How about “take” and “bring”
Take is from here to there.
Bring is from there to here.
Drives me crazy when a person gives me something and tells me to bring that to the office.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:32 am
Wary and weary! Erk. They are not interchangeable.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Wow! I like all of this. I know I’m guilty of a few of the things I read: e.g. who/whom, someone mentioned people who pronounce for like “fur”… I do that. Anyway, I didn’t read ALL of the posts, but I didn’t see one thing that REALLY irks me. I can hardly stand it when people say they “can’t hardly stand” something! You CAN HARDLY wait, not can’t hardly. Popular songs even get this one wrong. Am I wrong? It sure seems to me that they can’t both be correct.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:20 am
This article wakeup many English language users. And will give indepth knowledge to correct themself, and now on be careful before using the words. It’s realy help. Thanks tou Sir.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Very useful post (thanks for allude/elude), can add some more confused pairs :
effluent - That is flowing outward, affluent - wealthy;
agnostic - A person who claims that they cannot have true knowledge about the existence of God (but does not deny that God might exist), atheist - Someone who denies the existence of God
; adverse - contrary, averse - strongly opposed.
I would like to seek permission to add this post and link it on my blog too.
March 18th, 2009 at 10:30 am
@BJ–Feel free to link to it from your blog. My only request is that you don’t repost the entire blog. Perhaps you could repost the first 10 points, then have a link to here for the rest?
also, you added some great points. Thanks for stopping by!
March 18th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Good stuff. Can I also request a mention for “pore” and “pour”, please. Drives me nuts…
March 18th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
The misuse of the word disinterested drives me mad. Disinterested means nonpartisan. Uninterested should be used when you mean something does not interest/stimulate you.
March 18th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I hate when people use the word “irony” wrong. It does not mean unfortunate!!!
March 18th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
I really only get irritated when people say things that don’t mean what they are intended them to mean. Pronunciation, neologisms, and sarcastic abuses of language (such as “Fan-f%$&ing-tastic” or “a whole nother”) don’t particularly bother me. I’m inclined to respond “get a life” to cavils about those.
It does amuse me, though, that if I practice smiling in a mirror, I’m affecting an effect of my affect in order to affect greater effectiveness.
I.e. changing a characteristic of my outward presentation in order to create a larger impact.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
And I should proofread me… sigh. That last “affect” is supposed to be “effect”, as in “effect a change”.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
When people say literally, they usually don’t literally mean literally, they’re just using it to exaggerate their point.
March 18th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
You’re spreading a misconception with number 19.
Literally is a contronym - it has two meanings that are opposites. One definition is “in effect : virtually .”
Look it up!
March 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
According to Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary irregardless is a word
March 18th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Difference between “good” and “well.” “Good job!” versus “Job was done well!”
March 18th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
They all bother me, but hands-down, my worst is one that I’d never heard before moving to my husband’s home in the midwest. I think it must be a regional thing because I hear it often, but I mentally cringe every time I hear someone begin a sentence with “anymore”. “Anymore, that’s not the way to do it.” Sets my teeth right on edge, and since we moved here, he’s started saying it. Also, “alls”, as in, “Alls you have to do…” and pronouncing “seventeen” as if it were spelt “sevent-teen”. Gah.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
This was a very enjoyable read, I am known to be frustrated by this kinds of mistakes. I would say that alright has long been accepted as a word despite being a contraction of “all right”. If we didn’t accept these changes we wouldn’t have the English language, bearing in mind the French, Latin and Germanic roots of the language. Also, I would strongly disagree with your mentioning of further/farther. Both are valid in either context as they in fact are rooted in the same word, their different spellings representing different colloquial pronunciation.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
It really drives me up the wall is when the anchorwoman on the local news runs the same tired old story every fall talking about how to avoid having “busted pipes” in the winter. AAARRRRRG!! These are people who get PAID for using the English language and they do it POORLY!
March 18th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
LOVE this! The one that is like nails on chalkboard for me (and I can’t believe is not on here) is Rout and Route:
Rout: When my army defeats your army
Route: The direction your army retreats in
It drives me insane when people use rout for route.
Also, I seem to remember from waaaaaaay back in elementary school grammar the difference between sentance and sentence. One was supposedly a term of incarceration and the other a punctuated string of words. This doesn’t seem to exist anymore and I was wondering if I just imagined it…
March 18th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
How about when someone needs to “itch their poison ivy? Argh.
March 18th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
And remember, it’s a dog eat dog world. Not a doggy-dog world.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I hate redundancies. Whenever someone says that two things “cancel out.” (As if opposed to “cancel IN?”) It’s just “cancel,” people.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
It really irks me when someone uses the word “prevenTAtive”. “Preventive” is the correct term, but you hear doctors, dentists and other professionals with degrees using it……bugs me!
March 18th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
@ and so…..
Actually the “F” stands for fornication. “Fornicating Under Consent of King”
It’s also an urban legend there is no real truth behind it.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
For all intensive purposes, this is a great article.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Please, please add two more for me.
Ad/Add: the first is short for advertisement; the second means to furnish with more of something than was there before.
Orientate: It is NOT a word. Orient.
My head figuratively implodes when I hear people say, “orientate.”
March 18th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“Actually”
The word ‘actually’ should not be used to convey your evaluation of something. Your evaluation is not factual. It is opinion.
Statements like “Actually, the best sushi in San Francisco is Blowfish,” or “Will Ferrell actually is a really good/really bad actor” don’t make you sound smart. They make you sound arrogant.
March 18th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I know this probably falls under the heading of “dialect”, but, I’ll throw it out there anyway.
“AIN’T” versus “ISN’T”.
I’ll just leave it at that.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
i.e.: and e.g.:
Then there’s who vs. whom.
March 18th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
There is and there are… The contraction “there’s” drives me insane - and I cringe when I hear it spoken aloud.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I’ve met few people who can spell the word “definitely.”
March 18th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Also, many confuse cite, site, and sight.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
So why do we continue to allow the Canadians to say “aboot” instead of “about” like the rest of the English speaking world.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
“I got up to go into the kitchen and bunked my foot on the table leg.” (see also “Guess who I bunked into!)
March 18th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I keep the company of a couple of strict teachers so I find myself in trouble with the slightest mispronunciation of any of the above. Can anyone explain the differences, if any, of the pronunciation of the word ‘Neither’ or is it simply a matter of individual opinion.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I’ve read nearly all the comments and I’m surprised I didn’t find my pet peeves.
“I’ll write you”
No, you’ll write to me, or write me a letter, but you will not write me. I am not a fictional character in your demented fantasy land.
“My bad” Your bad what? Mistake? Error? Education? That one really angers me, particularly when the writer of Buffy throws it in every other sentence to corrupt new generations. Yuck.
I saw a sign (in my university, of all places) on a drawer saying “Wall planner’s”. I spent a good few minutes explaining to the drawer exactly why it was wrong before my friends dragged me away. I expected better from my university.
March 18th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Wow. I read up through 53 of these comments; I’ll have to save the rest for another time! Perhaps someone’s already mentioned this one:
“The thing is, is….” Two “is”es! It drives me crazy. It came from something like “What this is is a computer monitor,” but even that has more than we need! Out with it already!
March 19th, 2009 at 12:06 am
I can’t believe you don’t have “regards/regard” on there, as in “Give my regards to Broadway” and “In regard to what you’ve written…”
Start listening for it. You’ll hear EVERYONE saying “In regards to…”, which is not the proper usage. I’m talking about senators, news anchors, teachers. It’s insane how few people know the difference.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:28 am
Here are two additions…
1) There is no such word as “towards.” It’s “toward” in all cases.
2) Irregardless is not a word.
Thanks for the informative post!
March 19th, 2009 at 12:34 am
A desert isn’t necessarily hot and sandy.
Antarctica is considered a desert. The only prerequisite is that the area have very low moisture. Ice doesn’t count as moisture unless it melts regularly.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:34 am
Here’s a couple most people miss:
Jealous vs. Envious. You are jealous of something you own that others want; when you want something that belongs to something else, you’re envious of them. Eg.: “I’m so envious of your upcoming trip to Italy!” vs. “The way she looked at my boyfriend made me really jealous.”
And: In tandem. Most people think this just means “together.” Actually, for two things to be in tandem, they have to be in the same order as if they were on a tandem bicycle: one in front of the other. Two people walking side by side are not walking in tandem.
Feel free to share these with people; most of them just LOVE to be corrected.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:58 am
“I minus well…”
It is amazing how many people I know that write this.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:44 am
Irony.
Let’s just change the definition to mean what everyone thinks it does.
March 19th, 2009 at 4:13 am
The one that drives me crazy are people who use ‘that’ instead of who. The police that caught that guy.
March 19th, 2009 at 5:23 am
[...] In some ways better than the real thing! * Protect yourself from incorrectly using these 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases with this helpful guide. * A Google Search lesson on semantics (and the dangers [...]
March 19th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Teacher’s learned my cousin alot in school. Too bad however that they fail to teach people.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:05 am
– and of course the word ‘like’ I despise that word.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:35 am
you can get angry at these
but i will continue to use most of them - because they have come into common usage and therefore are correct
there is no organization like the academie francaise - so its all good
March 19th, 2009 at 9:44 am
“I doesn’t matter what net you use, as long as you can catch fish with it.”
(OK, leaving aside a discussion of dolphin-friendly tuna fishing.)
Good spelling and good grammar are the cords and knots in the net of language. A few frays and loose knots are OK. And from time to time someone uses a thinner or thicker cord or finds an easier way to tie a knot. But that’s OK too. Just as long as those mistakes and changes still let you catch the right meaning.
Having a well-made net is a laudable goal. And it’s certainly worth the trouble of making sure that your net will catch the right meaning. (Or fish — tuna again.) But a serviceable net is really no worse than a perfect one.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:49 am
collide/crash: two objects in motion collide; if your car hits a mailbox, you crashed.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:05 am
[...] (Hat Tip: Help! Educational Blog) [...]
March 19th, 2009 at 11:53 am
“all of THE sudden”
“whole ‘nother ballgame”
“expecially” (have actually seen this spelled with an ‘x’)
“random” misused much like ‘literally,’ to describe things that have plenty of correlation
“ideals vs. ideas”
and many many more.
March 19th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
great list, may everyone on the internet read this!
“could of”, “there/their/they’re” an a few others realllly piss me off! and i’m German, and i haven’t spent a long time in an English-speaking country either… how ridiculous can it get!
although German people aren’t much better… there are many who do the plural in German with apostrophe + s like in English for words whose plural forms are with -s. annoying. can’t people know their own languages?
what also pisses me off is people using accents (like in à or é) instead of apostrophes. ughh!
[English being a foreign language to me, i hope there are no grammar mistakes in this comment about grammar mistakes... haha.]
March 19th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
How about ‘coarse’ and ‘course’.
March 19th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
GOOD and WELL
I don’t know the rule, but it sounds stupid when people are saying things are going good.
March 19th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I was just talking to my friend about misused words the other day. She recieved a note from her ex and he wrote your, instead of you’re. The mispelling of those two always rubs me the wrong way! The same goes for its and it’s. It’s really not a hard concept to grasp, so please, grasp it!!
March 19th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
It’s not a word, or a phrase, but I have noticed a wide-spread American habit of changing the subject of a sentence.
For example, when they mean an entire group of people will be unable to fit on a bus, due to lack of seats, they’ll say, “We all can’t fit on the bus,” which suggests that ALL OF THEM can’t fit on the bus. Or, in other words, none of them can fit on the bus.
Obviously, the correct phrasing would be, “We can’t all fit on the bus.”
March 19th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Oh, and “I was visiting with my grandmother.”
Who were you visiting with your grandmother? Surely you don’t mean you were visiting you grandmother, as she was visiting with you.
March 19th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Great list! I always wondered about i.e./e.g.
Another one I hear relatively often is when/whenever. I work with a lady who uses whenever for EVERYTHING and it drives me crazy. (”Whenever I went to the store this morning…”)
March 19th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I get annoyed when I hear someone say “these ones” rather than “these” or “those ones” instead of “those”
March 19th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I would say that pronouncing “for” as “fer/fur” isn’t really a grammatical issue but a pronunciation one (and a non-issue at that). I’m from Maryland, and here “for” and “fur” tend to rhyme instead of “for” and “four” as I assume it does in the majority of the United States.
For example, I’m more prone to pronounce “for sure” as “fer sher” versus “four shore.” However, I wouldn’t say that that’s an issue due to ignorance, such as someone pronouncing “ask” as “ax” or “especially” as “specially” or “exspecially.” I know that “for” and “fur” are distinct words (and that “fer” doesn’t exist!). In fact, I didn’t even notice that I pronounced “for” and “shore” differently until I saw a YouTube video where a Maryland student pronounces “sure” in a way that would make it rhyme with “shore” as it does in a poem.
March 19th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
My pet peeve is when people say broughten or boughten. “I should have broughten a jacket.”
March 19th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Once and for all, is it “all of a sudden” or “all of the sudden”
HEELLPP!!!
March 19th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Grammatically speaking, any number that is less than three words long is supposed to be spelled out, rather than written numerically. Sorry, I had to.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
it drives me nuts when i hear people say granite, we will have blah blah blah… granite is something that can be used for counters!! also, the other one is when people say that they could care less. that means that you could care less than you do!
March 19th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Among/Between drives me nuts.
So does seeing “inconvenience” as “inconvience,” which happens all the time.
I am also tiring of hearing “literally” and “virtually” bandied about badly.
My absolute biggest pet peeve, though, is ending a sentence with an unnecessary “at”: “Where are you at?” I used to try replying with the same model, i.e., “I’m at here,” but nobody picked up on it so I stopped. The usage (or, more so, the ubiquity) makes me scream internally.
I try to remind myself that the English language is constantly evolving, which is a large part of its (it’s?) beauty, and that “evolving” does not necessarily mean “going rotten.” But it doesn’t always help.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
How about those who say “pacific” for “specific”? I smell an ocean breeze whenever I hear this particular blunder.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:55 am
“Nuclear” versus “nucular.”
(Thank you, W.)
March 20th, 2009 at 12:58 am
I hate it when people say “It’s so aggravating” or “it’s so agitating” inappropriately.
Something that is aggravated has been worsened. For example, an itchy sweater can aggravate your rash. It cannot aggravate you. It irritates(bothers) you or agitates you (makes you restless). Being unable to scratch it frustrates you (makes you angry at your helplessness).
I also hate it when people say something along the lines of “chocolate is so addicting”. The correct word would be addictIVE, if you were actually describing something addictive, such as heroine, rather than something you just find hard to resist or have a habit of indulging in.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:45 am
[...] main one is except/accept. Well…finally someone who addresses this and gives us a solution. I have this page [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 2:44 am
” at this point in time” instead of at this time
March 20th, 2009 at 2:47 am
I forgot the quotation marks around “at this time” which is the correct way of expressing the thought and not the redundant “at this point in time”
March 20th, 2009 at 3:20 am
Continual and continuous
March 20th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I’m confident I’m an offender of only one of these misuses… “unique.” I overuse that word time and again when writing.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:25 am
Great stuff; great comments.
My wife, who is an elementary school guidance counselor, heard a speech therapist (in a meeting with parents and other staff) illustrate a child’s problem by pointing out that this child didn’t understand how to add an “s” to the end of the plural version of a word by pointing out that he didn’t use “fishes” as the plural of “fish”.
Here’s one that we notice rarely - “from/than” - because of its frequency in public discourse by erudite and well-spoken people and because it’s subtle. Consider this example: Joe is smarter than Bill; Joe’s IQ is different from Bill’s. Many people say, “Joe’s IQ is different than Bill’s.” “Than” should be used to compare magnitude, as in “bigger than” or “smaller than”. “From” should be used to compare category membership, as in “different from” or “excluded from”. Many people disagree with this point, but, their perspective is probably different than mine.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:27 am
I agree with Rebecca. Nothing annoys me more than when people pronounce ‘library’ as “lieberry” or ‘toilet’ as “taw-let.” Also the your/you’re and the there/their/they’re usage.
March 20th, 2009 at 9:39 am
My other pet peeve is the split infinitive, as in “to completely blow my mind” or “to finally pass the bill” or “to effectively manage her staff” or…you get the point. In the 14th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, the authors note that in the previous 13 editions, this use of language was branded “always incorrect”. By the 14th edition, its use had grown so much that they decided to accept its “judicious use”. Unfortunately, in business writing and journalism its use has become common practice rather than “judicious”. As E. B. White points out in ‘The Elements of Style”, using the split infinitive almost always weakens the prose by burying the very word the writer wants to emphasize inside the verb rather than by placing this important modifier at the end of the sentence or after the verb, where it would have the desired impact. Note the difference between, “She used that argument to completely bury her opponent” versus, “She used that argument to bury her opponent completely.” I think the second sentence is crisper and stronger. What do you think?
March 20th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I seem to be especially stimulated by a lot of these comments…:).
Bluemoon: While I agree with some of your points, I can’t resist the temptation to point out that using “certain people” is lazy. If you know who they are, i. e., those “certain” people, name them or delimit their class specifically. You probably should have rewritten this sentence. Their is an error in the third sentence. “This” is an indefinite article and should be followed by its referent unless the referent is clear. The referent isn’t clear in this case.
LAND: You and Bluemoon make different points that are not contradictory. Bluemoon advocates clarity and precision in written expression, as an editor should. You advocate a point of view about the proper study of language, as a linguist should. “Rules” as Bluemoon used the term appears to me intended to mean “guidelines”.
wily: very funny!
I’m just pleased that language use, grammar and syntax matter so much to so many people. Thanks for the list and the comments. I’ve learned a few things, today!
March 20th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Nothing drives me crazier than when people say “amma-lance” for “ambulance” or “sapozably” instead of “supposedly”.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Theres only The One.
March 20th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
I quite enjoy making an intentional silly fumble of lexicon in a reversed effort to distance myself from those mistakes.
Some of my favorites:
“Expresso” [espresso]
“Minus well” [might as well]
For all “intensive purposes” [intents and purposes]
I’m “nauseous” [nauseated]
and I love that the sayings “I could care less” and “I couldn’t care less” express the same nonplussed mood.
Be well.
-David George
March 20th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I like the cowboy for the non-word alright. Aw-ite!
March 20th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Lots of people I know can’t get the hang of ‘bought’ and ‘brought’, e.g. “I went shopping and brought new some clothes.” Well, unless you brought some with you, you actually mean you BOUGHT them.
March 20th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
You should make a list of words that are commonly misspelled. The one that most irritates me is “Library.” No one seems to notice the first R. Whenever someone says “Libary,” I want to shriek.
March 20th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Someone once asked me why coupon wasn’t spelled with a ‘Q’. I told them that it was because they were pronouncing it wrong.
March 20th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
the ones I hate the most are people who pronounce escape exscape or mistake mixtake … it is horrible!
Dan from the east coast of Canada
March 20th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
WOW! Thank you for this useful post! =)
Thumbs up on stumbleupon
March 20th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I hate it when people end sentences with a preposition. “Where is it at?” It’s behind the “t” at the end of the preposition!!! lord. oh and just in case here is a list of all the prepositions:
about, above, across, after, against, around, amoung, at, before, behind, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, over, past, through, throughout, to, towards, under, until, up, with.
March 20th, 2009 at 11:01 pm
to Dee, # 285
actually, the pronunciation of the ‘t’ in often is a recent phenomena, similar to the pronunciation of the ‘r’ in orphan.
For evidence, see Gilbert and Sullivan’s “the Pirates of Penzance,”
mainly:
General: I ask you, have you ever know what it is to be an orphan?
King: Often!
General: Yes, orphan. Have you ever know what it is to be one?
King: I say, often.
and the pun here would not work with ‘t’ and ‘r’ present in pronunciation. Dee, you did not grow up around ignorant people, you grew up around people using the traditional/correct pronunciation of the word.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:06 am
Bluemoon: “. . . Their is an error in the third sentence. . .”
::tongue firmly in cheek:: Need I go on?
Anyway, I love this list and wanted to add my two cents. I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet, but the pronunciation of “mischievous” as mis-CHEE-vee-us really grates on my nerves. I have no problem with dialectic pronunciation differences, but it irks me mightily when people move the letters around. NUKE-u-lur for nuclear really bothers me as well.
Another homophone pair that has been missed is vial/vile as in “hand me the vial of vile poison”. I do appreciate the clarification of capital/capitol as I was under the impression that capitol referred to the whole city and not just the building. The concept of major publications and other media getting this wrong has been getting to me lately due to the presidential election. it is nice to know that I was mistaken.
March 21st, 2009 at 1:56 am
I’m sorry, but “alright” *is* a valid word and it was *not* always considered an improperly spelled equivalent of “all right” as its usage has devolved into in the modern vernacular.
Old school usage:
alright - OK, very well
all right - entirely correct, entirely proper
Alright, I’ll see if the answers are all right.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:41 am
to Mrhl:
“traditional/correct” pronunciation?
Okay A**hole, who’s the prescriptivist now?
# 273: “People speak descriptive language, not prescriptive language.”
F-ing hypocrite.
and along those lines (supporting language change), I believe that one day ‘irregardless’ will be a…word. ARGH! my soul dies to think of it, but common(vulgar) usage is going to legitimize it and I hope I’m dead be then. Because I’m an F-ing hypocrite.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:51 am
I HATE HATE HATE it when the illiterate girls at my private school text. The worst for me is
our/are: these are our things. He is our son. NOT Do you like are shirts?!
March 21st, 2009 at 4:35 am
The one that drives me nuts is people using the word barter, when they mean haggle.
as in…
‘I bartered for the tv and got 25% discount’
when what they mean is….
‘I haggled for the tv and got 25% discount’
barter means to swap an item (or items) for another.
Haggle is the process of negotiation on payment for an item,
March 21st, 2009 at 4:52 am
It is amazing how children get something stuck in their head and no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to get it out. Two of my kids have said this phrase since they started going to school and I have corrected too many times to count. My only conclusion is that their teachers just ignore it but it drives me nuts.
They insist on saying “For that…..” instead of “So that….”.
I realize this is completely petty but when you hear them say it, it just sounds so wrong.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:16 am
What about using “flaunt” and “flout” interchangeably? I’ve even witnessed this in editorials. And “alleged”? Someone murdered isn’t an “alleged victim.” Right?
March 21st, 2009 at 6:43 am
I HATE when people pronounce the word ‘especially’….eXpecially…there is NO ‘x’ in especially.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:56 am
What about.. bring/take
Take — ‘going to’
Bring — ‘coming from’
March 21st, 2009 at 6:57 am
“you LOANED him the money”.
No. No. No. You LENT him the money.
March 21st, 2009 at 8:22 am
Now its’ all makes sense, your clever!
March 21st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Now I’m sure you all feel better about yourselves on your grammar pedestals =) People don’t think about the complicated rules of English grammar when they’re speaking in casual English. It’s easy for you to go back hours and days and weeks later and say, “Haha they said ‘bring’ instead of ‘take.’” and feel mighty high of yourself. Don’t knock people down for SAYING the wrong things in a casual environment. I can understand writing the wrong thing. But calling people names for making minuscule grammar and pronunciation (dialects, people.) mistakes makes you one of the lowest classes of people.
March 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
“Irregardless.” *gritting teeth and pulling out hair*
March 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Riddle: What did Bozo do with the “s” from Asterick… he put it in Stastistic!
March 21st, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Wow! With all these comments, you would think everyone in the country is a grammar nerd. So why do I feel like no one cares about speaking properly anymore? Including teachers and journalists. I find them to be the most annoying. They should know better and they are teaching people, through example, to speak improperly. ACK!
May I add: the reason why/the reason is because = Redundancy. It’s the reason, it’s why, or because. Pick one!
@ Mr. Chang - I agree and submit to you, “anyhow.” It drives me crazy when I hear this spoken daily by my husband!
Great article!
March 21st, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Another favorite of mine wasn’t mentioned…The use of principle vs. principal!
March 21st, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Number 35, Ms. Naschinski, I think, proposed uses of peak, peek and pique are all wrong. Especially pique. Please go back and look at it and add it to your list of errors.
What I’d really like to know is what is the proper use of the semicolon. I’ve never been able to get that right. Confusion accompanies it, but since it’s there, I’d like to use it correctly. Please email me if you know the proper usage.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:02 pm
You can always desert your dessert in the desert.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Very good post, and very usefull. I was always quite bad in my english classes, but I was wondering just how one would decribe: “Might as well.” I know how to use it in a sentence, but I don’t understand where that would come from.
Feel free to correct any misuses, or misspelling in my reply.
March 22nd, 2009 at 12:26 am
the current seemingly unstoppable misuse is “carbon,” “carbon footprint,” etc., when carbon dioxide is meant. If you must shorten carbon dioxide, use CO2. Carbon is still one of the most important elements to humans, and it needs to continue to mean the element, not its oxide.
March 22nd, 2009 at 2:02 am
Regimen/regime: NOBODY does it right on television.
swam is no more: swum moved over onto its place.
March 22nd, 2009 at 3:16 pm
I live in West Virginia and we get “a whole ‘nother _____” I really want to let them know that “nother” isn’t a word
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Alright.
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:18 pm
[...] The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases [...]
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
One trick that I was taught in grade school was that “dessert” had two s’s in it because you wanted it to last longer. And of course you would want the “desert” to be shorter.
March 22nd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
One thing that really gets under my skin is when people don’t put “use” or “suppose” in the past tense when they write. As in, they will write “I use to drink soda, but don’t anymore,” or, “I’m suppose to be drinking water.”
Actually, you are SUPPOSED to be drinking water. KTHX.
March 22nd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Great article! Further to the other suggestions mentioned, the one that gets me riled up is ‘past’ and ‘passed’.
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:56 am
[...] The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases | HELP! Educational … [...]
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:49 am
I take it that this article is aimed at Americans……. Enough said
March 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
i find people get ignorant and arrogant mixed up. i try not to talk to them.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:32 am
I didn’t go through all the comments so this could have already been mentioned.
I always hear “good” used instead of “well.” As in “I did good on the test.” Sends shivers down my spine.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I hate, but really, religiously hate anyone who speaks differently from me. I judge them to be oiks and bounders and I would never let my servants talk to such people. I am by no means just filled with hate and horror: on the contrary, I particularly enjoy being talked down to by others who are my social betters and whose diction & usage I consider pure.
Every time I have a shiver down my spine I know that a pinnacle of our culture is being attacked . . . and feel very smug about it.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
pronunciation: escape, not “ex”cape. espresso, not “ex”presso.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Horde and hoard.
You hoard gold coins, which you can use to pay your hordes of minions. In a crisis, some people will hoard food. It may also be a time when hordes of rioters run amok in the streets.
You should not use horde as a verb, you should not refer to a horde of inanimate objects, and you should not write about a hoard of creatures engaging in any sort of activity.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:46 am
I really hope that Jay Coleman (I think that’s who it was) was joking when he said “the correct phrase is for all intensive purposes” No, no, no!!!! This makes me want to bang my head against a wall.
Also, being catty here, but the person that said they were an editor and hated the “ignorant misuse” of words, what about the purposeful misuse of words? How does that sit with you?
Principal/principle has always bothered me. When I was in Elementary School I was taught that the principal is a “prince of a pal” who probably has strong principles as a way to differentiate between the two. It stuck with me!
Another one that is becoming more common is saying “he got it right off the BACK” instead of “right off the bat”
orient/orientate also makes me grind my teeth.
I’m alright with alright, otherwise, great post!
March 25th, 2009 at 10:49 am
debauchery…so often used wrong (and i’ll admit, even by myself at one time).
“those ones”…omg, please just say those books. or these shoes. ugh!
March 25th, 2009 at 11:06 am
[...] The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases from the HELP! Educational Blog - I am a self-professed grammar geek (and an excellent copy editor BTW), but even some of these terms and words were news to me. Bookmark this post immediately and refer back whenever you write anything! [...]
March 25th, 2009 at 11:12 am
I see these in the media all the time, especially with sports writers:
“He wants to get his quarterback untracked.” No, should be “on track.”
And, “She could care less about the money.” No, no, no! It is “She couldn’t care less about the money.” This one really bugs me.
Great list.
March 25th, 2009 at 11:29 am
This error makes my hair stand up: using “can not” when the writer means “cannot.”
Correct usage: If you cannot say something nice, you can not say anything.
Don’t get the last part? Insert “just” between “can” and “not” for this construction: “If you cannot say something nice, you can just not say anything.”
Loved the article. Great, and will put you on my blogroll when I have a second!
March 25th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I always cringe when people say “I could care less”, when they want people to think that they really do not care at all, in which case they should say “I couldn’t care less”.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
How about wine/whine? I think some should drink more wine and have less whines (correct use of less?). Very important for articles like this to help educate. I suggest we lead by example, rather than by kvetching (look that up!). I cringe when I hear about child abuse. Word abuse, not so much.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Not that it’s grammar, but a funny story. I had a friend who heard the phrase “throw caution to the wind” and thought there was something called “cosh” and that you threw it into the wind.
Throw cosh into the wind.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
can I please please please echo the previous posts re: ‘where are you at?’ ARGH!!!!
and let’s not forget our friends in the property industry- realtors NOT relators.
March 26th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Irregardless! This “word” drives me NUTS!
March 26th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
the ones that anoy me the most are i.e.,e.g. and alright my english teacher wrote ie when she used an egsample. everyone in my form says alright even my tutor who is an eglish teacher… it drives me “CRAZY”
March 26th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
i hate it when people say well bad instead of really bad…
March 26th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
You missed ‘uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’; surely the most often confused even in quite respectable publications.
March 28th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Good list.
Regarding ALRIGHT… try the Concise Oxford Dictionary which lists alright as - variant spelling of all right.
My own favourite (apart from LITERALLY which you include in your list) is WHILE and WHILST.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
i’ve been reading these comments and you know what ticks me off the most? the blogger was having fun with a list and in the responses i see some really good points and then again i am reading some reading some really harsh and negative responses. people - stop being so rude all the time. i doubt if you really say these things in person–at least i hope not.
principal and principle drive me nuts. i can never remember which one is right for what i need and amazingly enough it is always the wrong one that i thought was right no matter which one i start with. it’s like looking for your keys in 20 places and finding them in spot number 19.
March 28th, 2009 at 11:34 pm
oh and two more phrases that people say out here that drive me nuts:
“can you learn me that” or “can you borrow me that”
March 29th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Life springs a turtle..You made me laugh out loud.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Yes, behave yourselves everyone - this is a serious subject.
I hate it when people say “hamster” when they mean “traffic bollard”.
March 30th, 2009 at 8:38 am
@ alright people- We know “alright” can be found in the dictionary. So can “ain’t.” Who said we have to agree with the dictionary? Anyway, keep having fun with the comments and thanks for all the interest!
March 30th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
[...] Nothing pisses me off more than when people consistently use words in the wrong context. And most times they think they’re smart by doing so. Wrong. They’re idiots. Here are 32 of the most commonly misused words and phrases. [...]
March 31st, 2009 at 1:35 am
Nice list. Here’s one I didn’t see. “I could care less.” That is wrong. What you really mean is “I could NOT care less” or “I couldn’t care less”. That is unless you are really clever and witty and you intone it in a sarcastic fashion like “I COULD care less…” and make it clear through your delivery that you are thinking to your self, “but not by much…”.
(I didn’t have time to read all 448 posts so I hope this isn’t a repeat.)
April 1st, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Many thanks for posting this! I just learned 3 new words to implement my english vocabulary! I’ll spread it to my friends too!
April 5th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Canon Bj 200…
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April 6th, 2009 at 11:47 am
I ain’t perfect, but I am glad that some soul other than my grandmother is concerned with English language convention. I am beginning to fear that my mother tongue no longer includes a word meaning “one of a kind.”
April 6th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I would like to add muster/mustard to the list. Not sure how common this one is, but I have messed it up before. ::blush::
April 6th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
@Dave Gardner aka EditorDave. I am with you on ‘mute’ point. Argh!
One of my pet peeves is people who refer to (*) as ‘asterix’. ‘Asterix’ is a fictional comic book character [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_(character)]. They mean ‘asterisk’ the typographical symbol [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterisk].
April 7th, 2009 at 6:29 am
A few that bother me are long-gevity (longevity), cousint and be more pacific (I heard an English teacher say it). My father-in-law use to always say “food tastes good, you do well.” I hear that in my head everytime someone says “I am good”.
April 7th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
The misuse that I see most is “insure” versus “ensure.” Drives me crazy!
April 7th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I really hate “loose”
OMG! I went to the casino and “loosed” all my money!
April 7th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
I was dismayed to look up “alright” in a dictionary and find it there! Even if it is an acceptable unapostraphed contraction, it broke my heart.
I do not pronounce accept and except the same.
How about people who pronounce “escape” as “ekscape”?
April 8th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Great work here. All of these are so misused…Appreciated
April 8th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Great list! The (mis)use of written words here in Australia is a very real problem. It’s quite common to see people simply spelling out Australian vernacular in their writing - and Australian vernacular can be quite distant from proper usage.
Oh, and of words pronounced incorrectly that give me the s**ts, ’specific’ pronounced as ‘pacific’ takes the cake.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
He ‘digged’ instead of ‘dug’
She ‘dove’ instead of ‘dived’
Their heads were ‘swelled’ instead of ‘swollen’
What’s interesting is that each of the above mistakes appeared, without irony, in the plays of that most illustrious English wordsmith, Mr. William Shakespeare.
Of course in his day they weren’t mistakes, however he also used the word ‘illustrious,’ which he took to mean - incorrectly even in his day – ‘without lustre’ (or ‘luster’ if you’re using American English). Yes, Shakespeare got it wrong.
His spelling wasn’t all that either. Of the seven examples of his signature that survive today, no two are spelt the same, and not one of them is spelt ‘Shakespeare.’
And as for adhering to the received vernacular and vocabulary of the time, well, he didn’t. Shakespeare is credited with inventing no fewer than 2,000 new words. And he used words like no one had before. With “that bastardly rogue,” he turned an adverb into an adjective. And he mixed metaphors just for the hell of it; “to take arms against a see of troubles”, for example. Of the countless phrases he came up with, ‘one fell swoop,’ ‘mind’s eye,’ ‘vanish into thin air,’ ‘flesh and blood,’ ‘tower of strength,’ ‘foul play,’ and ‘cruel to be kind’ are but a few.
My point is that there’s fun to be had from being free with creativity. And if some of us retreat altogether from writing, or indeed speaking, because of the embarrassment we feel from not toeing the line, then our priorities are out of kilter. Thankfully Shakespeare wasn’t put under that kind of pressure. I personally will read anything riddled with typos, spellos and grammos if it’s engaging. But give me a faultlessly composed tome on the costs of health and safety training in local government and I’ll hit you with it.
I am a writer. I came to this site to research common grammatical errors for use in fleshing out a minor character in my new novel, the point being to highlight a nit-picking streak in the main character. He’s going to get a great fat headache over ‘irregardless,’ believe me. As a word ‘irregardless’ is so beautifully erroneous that it’s worked its way into dictionaries. For that titbit alone, my visit here has been a success. Thank you so much.
By the way, before someone corrects me, the original phrase is actually ‘toeing the line’ and not ‘towing the line’ as some of you may prefer. But to be honest, who cares?
Oh, and finally, one theory is that “could care less” originated as an ironic corruption of “couldn’t care less,” but the sarcastic delivery just got lost. Another is that it’s a shortened form of “like I could care less.” One day it could be shortened further to something almost unrecognisable like ‘kuckaless.’ It happens all the time. For 200 years ‘asparagus’ was ‘sparrow grass.’ Actually I quite like kuckaless, it has potential. “We never go out. She won’t move from in front of the television. She’s so kuckaless.”
Happy pedanting (that’s not a word but you know what it means).
April 8th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
“Agreeance” - I don’t know who said it first but I know a few people who use it, for example in the phrase “I am in agreeance with you”, and it makes me cringe. (I live in South Australia; it might not be an expression anybody else uses?)
I don’t know if “exactly right” (as in the phrase “you are exactly right”) is incorrect but it has a jarring quality.
On the other hand, no language is static and, with so many people using it, English is going to be abused now and then; maybe, like Lewis Carroll’s “portmanteau”, will some day be included in the dictionary.
April 8th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
What about enquiry/inquiry?
And on the mispronunciation front, I cringe every time I hear someone say “pacifically” instead of specifically.
April 9th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Someone wrote “must of” when correcting someone else. Just like with “could of,” this is not a correct phrase. “Must have” or “must’ve” is what you’re trying to say.
And all those who say that people who correct grammar and spelling are elitist or whatever, you should probably concentrate more on learning how to correctly write and speak your own language just like everyone else. You just sound/look ridiculous and maybe a little moronic when you speak/write something incorrectly.
April 11th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Irregardless and impactful are not words.
April 12th, 2009 at 7:36 pm
Chontelle,
If you look closely through this entire thread, you will find that those who are less judgemental about other people’s grammar and spelling generally make fewer errors. It is a beautiful irony that the sticklers for precision tend to fair less well. By way of example, allow me to correct your own sentence.
“And all those who say that people who correct grammar and spelling are elitist or whatever, you should probably concentrate more on learning how to correctly write and speak your own language just like everyone else.”
You begin this sentence with a third person inference and end it in the second person. To avoid this sloppy grammar you should either write, “And TO all those…” or you could stay in the third person throughout by keeping “And all those…” then continue by dropping the following “you” and the comma that precedes it, and replacing the “your” with “their.” Strictly you should also finish the sentence with “just like everyone else DOES.” That everyone else doesn’t is not a grammatical error; it’s a factual one. To be unutterably pedantic, should I have been in your shoes arguing the case for precision, I would probably have left out “or whatever.”
This brings me to my point: What a ridiculous pile of haughty drivel I’ve just spewed out. If you had written your paragraph the ‘correct’ way, you would have lost your ‘voice.’ The way you had it, however grammatically sloppy, I could feel passionate intent. Confusing your persons and using ‘or whatever’ both add weight to an almost infuriated exasperation. This, I would argue, is a good thing.
We cannot all be Oscar Wilde. If we were, can you imagine what a tedious, pompous world it would be? Vive la difference! Can anyone honestly complain about a linguistic miasma that allows for the word “misunderestimate”? I can’t. It’s genius.
April 13th, 2009 at 6:33 am
very informative list of words.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
“However, I don’t think that it is appropriate to make fun of the pronunciation of axe/ask. It is part of African American Vernacular English. It’s a dialect.”
BS. It’s incorrect and ridiculous sounding. Period. Just because people say it doesn’t make it right.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:43 am
Mr. Rolight,
To be fair (and not JUDGMENTAL),your last paragraph delightfully redeems your first. This is my kind o’ web log.
(By the way, I HATE excessive use of excessive-dot ellipses!)
“You can’t even speak your own *&^%$#@! language.”
-Frank Zappa
April 16th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
There are some fundamental issues at the core of this kind of dialog,such as racism, elitist arrogance vs.indiginous pragmatism and the like.It’s clear that, although it’s a lot of fun to make fun of people,picking on folks’ written and spoken language is very, very touchy. For the most part, let’s let the average person slide and focus our ridicule on those who really deserve it: people trying to sound intelligent with catch phrases, clichés and ten-dollar filler words. They’re like heavy equipment mechanics performing neurosurgery. Castigate professional sign painters who use incorrect apostrophes and just-plain-dumb spelling. Skewer double-talking crooks in big finance, pharma and insurance. Diversity is great. And that means that sticklers have their place, too. Sticklers exist among all groups, don’t they? What fun, what sense of superiority for the tribe when an outsider clumsily attempts to adopt the creole! Heh. The kick is, ‘We’re smarter than they are.’ Hence,it’s very, very touchy. It’s all about context. It’s about learning, too, and being able to laugh at one’s self. For example, I hadn’t considered ‘alright’ as being equivalent to ‘already’ and ‘altogether.’ Thanks;I’ll relax about that one. Laugh at myself a little for stubbornly always (hey, is that one, too?)writing ‘all right.’I like being a snob, in the right context. I also like to speak sloppy, profanity-ridden trash. It’s funny! Let the language evolve. Let the ridicule fly, but not the sticks and stones. More people are reading and writing than ever before.Pick your battles. And your forums.
April 18th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
A few scattered thoughts inspired by this article.
1) In our local (admittedly small town) newspaper recently I’ve seen “your” for “you’re” and “loosing” for “losing” in articles. Even the people who write for a living miss this stuff.
2) I believe paintings are hung and Saddam was hanged. Am I right?
3) I know the language changes but I will NEVER accept “impact” as a synonym for “effect” or “affect” (e.g. His firing had an impact on our team). Meteors impact. Wisdom teeth are impacted. That’s just how I am.
5) Some people have made snarky comments about those of us who agree with the blogger. OK, it’s not the most important topic in the world but these things do bother us a little. My advice to the “snarks” (yes, I just made up a word, sue me) is to take some Ex-Lax. Maybe that will relieve your crankiness.
April 18th, 2009 at 6:57 pm
A writer with our local newspaper actually used “calvary” in place of “cavalry” on the web edition. “Bring in the calvary” was his headline. He corrected his mistake after I pointed it out via email.
April 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pm
We love this post and all the comments …
Our question is re: “Misusing words makes you LOOK less intelligent than you really are.” Wouldn’t this misuse make you SOUND less intelligent than you really are?
Keep up the good work.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm
I had a manager once who claimed that his mother was an english teacher who would “literally” say “You won’t get any symphony from me” when he meant sympathy. He would also say “You have to read this script perbatim” instead of verbatim… It would drive me out of my mind that this guy was my boss (not to mention that his mother hadn’t teached him right).
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 pm
It’s disconcerting to my husband how many mistakes are made concerning the two words contained in this sentence.
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:05 am
Lazy-ass food writers and fitness gurus who don’t know or don’t understand the difference between “healthy food” and “healthful food.”
Healthy food is still alive. Healthful food is good for you.
JP/WE
April 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 am
Please review the rules for “who/that/which”. I believe most people misuse and say, for example, “people that” when they should be saying “people who”.
Also, when did the word “I’s” come in to existence? I heard a well-known author in a t.v. interview this week say “Jack and I’s kids”. Grrrrr.
April 23rd, 2009 at 11:32 am
I didn’t have time to read ALL the comments, only about 300 cuz I have to get back to work, but this has to be the most OVERLY MISPRONOUNCED WORD of ALL TIME: height pronounced with a “th” at the end: heighth. WRONG!
My daughter’s pet peeve is “same difference”
April 25th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Mr. Rolight: I much enjoyed your beautifully compelling arguments for a robust language. Still, the sticklers whom you chastened were indeed invited to share their pet peeves in this forum. In that sense, those who wrote ungrammatically while criticizing others’ grammar asked for the thrashing you gave them.
But to take them to task for their zeal as self-appointed grammar police in a forum created expressly for that purpose? For that I cry, “Foul!” It echoes the tactic of Communist China’s inviting free speech with the words, “Let a hundred flowers bloom!” and then violently suppressing all criticism.
Let’s face it. Correcting others’ grammar is fun! It is fun even for those who do not fare (not “fair”) as well, for those who take arms against a sea (not “see”) of troubles, and by opposing, compound them, providing all the more fun for the rest of us.
I was surprised in reading your correction of Chontelle that I had completely missed the points you found. I was too focused on the split infinitive and the use of the word “like” for “as”, both of which you missed.
BTW - Although the adjective “bastardly” never achieved common usage, Shakespeare’s use of it was not in error. “Bastardly”, “dastardly”, “gingerly”, “curmudgeonly”, “ungainly”, “manly”, “gentlemanly”, “niggardly”, “seemly”, and many others are all adjectives although seemingly in adverbial form. It drives *me* crazy to see in print, “he tiptoed gingerly to the edge of the cliff.”
That this blog post drew hundreds of comments in such a short time is evidence that we nearly all accept your point. It is in fact *because* we know that correcting the mistakes of others’ is frowned upon in polite society that we feel so free to do so when invited.
So *you* kindly lighten up. We are not responsible. We have been asked to share what drives us crazy, and having been driven so, we are, by definition, crazy!
April 25th, 2009 at 5:28 am
OMG, I made a mistake myself! “Correcting the mistakes of others’” should have no apostrophe.
April 25th, 2009 at 10:39 am
What about definitely? I know too many people write it as definately.
My wife also brought up that it really annoys her when she hears people say “this needs fixed” or ” this needs washed” (or even worse, warshed).
Should be needs TO BE fixed, washed.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
COOL LIST.
not sure if these fit. HTese are a few that bug me to no end…:
expecially
expresso
a blessing in the skies
tow the line
April 25th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Language evolves. Grammar is there to describe the acceptable uses of language.
Therefore, what is “correct” depends on what we define as “acceptable”.
Personally, I have several tiers of formality in my writing, from verbose (”I have few details about recent events.”) to IM-speak (”dunno what happened”) and Lolspeak (”OMG whut happend!?!”). Using the second example in place of the first would be wrong not because it’s somehow a lesser form of language but because it would be out of place. The real secret to using language well is not to use only “proper grammar” but to use grammar appropriate to the situation.
That said, I can’t watch Iron Man without getting mad at the graphic artists who made a fake business magazine cover with the headline “Tony Stark Takes the Reigns”. If you’re going to write fake copy for something as high-class as Forbes, it needs to look like it was written by someone educated.
For those who may not know:
Rains - (noun) usually, seasonal rainstorms; (verb) water falls from the sky
Reigns - rules over
Reins - (metaphorically) control; (literally) straps used for steering an animal by pulling on a bit in its mouth
April 26th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Bring/Take. Yes, yes, yes! I see that some ppl here agree with me! What’s up w/ the screen/script writers these days? I see at least one major TV show a night that misuses “bring” for “take.”
“Bring” means to have someone carry or move something TOWARD or TO the SPEAKER’s current location. “Bring the mail to me, please,” “Bring that chair over here.”
“Take,” on the other hand, means to carry or move something AWAY from the SPEAKER’s current location. “Let’s you and I take the mail upstairs,” “You can take Tony to the store,” “I’m going to take the dog for a walk.” It’s not “I’m going to BRING the dog for a walk’ or “Let’s you and I BRING the mail upstairs!” It’s one thing to hear John Doe at the corner misusing the word, but to have allegedly smart characters like those on BONES, HOUSE, NCIS, CSI, etc., misusing it, it’s appalling. Thank you for letting me know that I haven’t completely lost my mind!
April 28th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I loved reading all of this! Here’s my take:
1. Language is an art, not a science.
2. Language evolves, whether we like it (approve of it) or not.
3. Speaking is different from writing, and the way people speak affects the way they write.
4. Errors in pronunciation (not pronounciation) and writing, like errors in driving, can’t be prevented, just tolerated.
5. Those of us who are gifted in the art of language and cringe at the mispronunciations and misspellings of others need to recognize that not everyone is gifted in this way. (For example, others are gifted in math. Me? I can’t count.) We need to accept this as a fact of life, be gracious instead of judgmental, and just do the right thing ourselves.
6. The African-American mispronunciation of ask is (mis)spelled aks, not ax or axe. It’s a dyslexic thing that caught on.
PS. One of my favorites is when the phenomenon of incorrect English is described as a phenomena.
Bottom line: This kind of sharing is fun for us wordophiles! (Don’t like “wordophile?” Look it up on Google.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:47 am
“Alright” is used in England and Canada, and appears in the Oxford English Dictionary.
April 29th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I did not read all of the other 487 replies, but I’d like to add “disinterested” (which means “fair” or “impartial”) used for “uninterested.”
May 1st, 2009 at 5:41 am
Kinnygarden!!!!!!! I taught KINDERGARTEN for years, and this drove me crazy. Even other teachers said it, and spelled it that way.
May 1st, 2009 at 1:07 pm
One of my teachers used a memory device for stationary and stationery. Stay, place and stationary need A. Get and letter and stationery need E.
May 1st, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Here are some of my grammar pet peeves:
a) using “as” when meaning “since”
Ex. …since I am going to be a teacher… NOT …as I am going to be a teacher …
b) to “share out” or “report out” - both seem redundant
c) using “less” and “fewer” interchangibly
May 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Misuse of take and bring always irks me. What is a simple definition of the two. I think it is you bring something to me, but I take it to you. Should be a better example available though. Thank you.
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
Rational and Rationale
and
penultimate and ultimate
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Some people already caught that ‘alright’ is absolutely a real word. No one seems to have stated that ‘very unique’ or ’sort of unique’ are actually perfectly fine constructions. It’s the English language coping for its lack of semantic commitment. In a lot of languages, there are actual morphemes which indicate how committed the speaker is to what they are saying. English lacks these, but our adverbial system works wonders.
Hence, ’sort of unique’ means that I believe something is unique, but am not terribly committed to this analysis.
Also, is no one bothered by unbound anaphors? ‘Tell myself or Ken’ is about the most incorrect thing you can do with English syntax. There are arguments for why this is okay, but no one even seemed to mention these that I noticed upon my cursory scan.
Also, ‘irregardless’ is a word, albeit a second class word. If you hate this word, you should also hate the words ‘wonderment’ and ‘joyfulness’.
If you have a problem with peoples pronunciation that you feel is a justified criticism on their humanity, you are probably an evil person.
May 3rd, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Why are more and more people saying, “No, she don’t” or “He don’t go to work”??? Don’t they know it’s he, she, or it DOESN’T??? That really bothers me.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:21 am
wow an amazing article
May 4th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Hello all! I’m just another grammar lover here with a little question for all the editors.
In their dialogue, many of my characters speak with accents. They often use words such as “y’alls,” and “youse guys,” for example. Would it be correct for me to write out these pronounciations, or should I describe them, instead: e.g., “Crimpson spoke in a bastardized form of English, adding unnecessary s’s onto the ends of innocent articles,” and then continue using “you” rather than “youse?” I use both but which would you prefer, grammatically speaking? Is it all just a simple matter of taste?
Thank you!
May 4th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Also, another big error I am sick to death of:
“I dunno” instead of “I don’t know.”
It sets my teeth on edge with every utterance.
May 5th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Ain’t is a word, ain’t it?
Affect and effect, even when I know how to use them, I often forget.
May 6th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
[...] over (but know I judge you), I was thrilled to figuratively stumble over The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases listed on the Help! Educational blog, touting “Learning is a Lifestyle”. I know [...]
May 7th, 2009 at 3:14 am
On the most exasperating usage errors of the day (after take/bring):
1. If something is plausible or believable, we say it has credibility. If a person is gullible, we say that person is credulous; that person has the trait of credulity. And so, when someone says or writes that a thing ’strains credulity’, we say that person is a dolt. The proper expression, when something seems highly implausible, is that it strains credibility. Credibility (or lack thereof) is an attribute of the thing under consideration. Credulity (or incredulity) is an attribute of a person doing the considering.
What’s up with people who say ‘would have’ when they mean ‘had’? If I would have picked that number, I’d be rich. If I would have never let him in my life, none of this would have happened. Oh! You mean, If I HAD picked that number; if I HAD NEVER let him in my life…? ‘Would have’ expresses a conditional outcome in the past: If it had stayed sunny, I would have gone to the beach. If they had stopped saying “strained credulity”, I wouldn’t have forced them to listen to Barney music. The house would have burned quickly if lightning had struck it. It is incorrect to use ‘would have’ to express both the condition (the ‘if’ part) and the predicate.
What ever happened to the use of ‘where’? Now, even in the major media, I hear sentences like, ‘He showed the officer the place the truck ran off the road.’ Huh? You mean the place WHERE the truck ran off the road? Can you imagine these people writing the lyrics for “My Fair Lady”? All at once am I/Several storeys high/Knowing I’m on the street/You live….on.
‘One in the same’ instead of ‘one and the same’, as in ‘Mark Twain and Samuel Clemmons are one and the same.’ Say they’re one in the same and he’s liable to come back and whitewash your cat.
Purposely and purposefully. Something done purposely is done on purpose, deliberately, intentionally: Something done purposefully is done in a very determined and focused way; it is ‘full of purpose’. One might purposefully climb the witness stand and purposely leave out the part about driving the getaway car. To climb the stand purposely would mean that one had not done it simpy by accident. To leave out the getaway car stuff purposefully would be as good as confessing.
Last but not least: the doubling of the past tense! Ex: I would have liked to have known Abraham Lincoln. A person who says this means that at some point in the past he would have liked to know Lincoln at yet some earlier point in the past.
Anyone who says anything this tricky and means it is someone you should probably stay away from. But if what the person really means is ‘I would have liked to know Lincoln’ or ‘I would like to have known Lincoln’, well then it would be okay to buy him a beer and maybe a grammar book. Most of us would like to have known ole Abe, and many of us would have liked to know him, as well.
May 7th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
More and more people misuse “myself” as in “they are going with Eric and myself” this drives me CRAZY!
May 7th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
My husband insists on saying “I seen her the other day.” “I seen that show before.” etc.
Makes me want to slap him. I have told him time and time again that it is “I saw her the other day.” OR “I have seen that show before.” He will not listen.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
These rules are fine for the written language, but I absolutely hate it when people correct grammar mistakes made during a conversation. Everyone has his or her own dialect and if they are able to communicate well enough to make their point, then petty remarks about “sposeda’s” and “would have liked to have known’s” only create feelings of inferiority and resentment and only extinguish what may be an otherwise pleasant conversation.
May 9th, 2009 at 5:38 am
[...] The 32 most commonly misused words and phrases (oh yea, you need to read this one) [...]
May 11th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
i’m always a fan of saw/seen…..
“I saw it on Tuesday” vs “I seen it on Tuesday”……makes me wanna scream
May 12th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I always struggle w/ Affect/Effect
Great post, thanks
May 12th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
THANK YOU! These are the most common errors that drive me crazy when reading published articles on the internet (coming from a person that desperately wants to get into freelance writing!).
May 13th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
BRAVO!!! Check out my little rant, featuring my greatest pet peeve: the misuse of “could not care less” at http://www.snarlyboodle.com/could-not-care-less/
May 13th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
My absolute favorite of all time. I once stood in line behind a woman who approached the box office window and asked for two tickets to the “Scarlet Pimpernickle” (Pimpernel). Once in a lifetime!
May 14th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Excellent article. With 501 replies, I’ve not been able to go through them all to see whether my contributions have already been mentioned, but here they are:
“Pronunciation” is often pronounced as “pronOUNCiation”. It’s “proNUNCiation”.
Baited vs. Bated - “I waited for his reply with baited breath.” No, no, NO! “Bait” is something used in fishing.
With reference to your No. 16 - while I assume “inflammable” is still used extensively across the United States to describe something that may easily burst into flames, here in the UK I now see “flammable” being used almost everywhere on warning signs (presumably for the sake of clarity).
Best wishes,
BK
May 14th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Well, I believe that life is short, therefore, we should eat dessert first. I also believe it to be stressed backwards. And it turns out that alright is indeed a word. Therefore, you need to change your article slightly, before submitting for publication.
May 16th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Please. The phrase “strains credulity” means that a thing is so obviously unbelievable that even the credulous (who would believe just about anything) would not believe it.
May 16th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I’m familiar with most of these errors, but my 17-year-old daughter taught me this one today… She commented that the phrase, “You’ve got another THING coming” is actually “You’ve got another THINK coming” as in: If you think you’re going out tonight after talking to me like that, you’ve got another think coming.” And yes, that was her retort when I incorrectly said, “thing”. It was a smart move on her part because my focus immediately went to the phrase. It made sense to me, so I researched it. She’s correc–and grounded.
May 16th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
*correct
May 19th, 2009 at 2:40 am
I don’t think ANYONE has mentioned my biggest grammatical pet peeve…
Has no one noticed the absolute butchering of one of our most loved conjunctions? “But”, more specifically when one says, “but yet.”
I’m not sure if the term is contradictory or just plain nonsensical, but it drives me CRAZY. What’s worse is I seem to be the only one in my network that has noticed it as wrong, even having been raised by a gifted literature and english teacher (my mother).
It’s redundant and incorrect. It’s like saying “but but” or “yet yet”, where one should say simply “but”, or “AND yet”.
May 20th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I was unfortunate enough to learn the correct pronunciation of forte a long time ago — unless you are talking about music, it is pronounced fort.
Now, I cannot bring myself to say “fortay” because I know it’s wrong — but people look at me pityingly when I pronounce it correctly.
My solution? I use “strong suit” instead.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
I’ve read a lot of these comments, but not all of them, so I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned the cringe-worthy expression “My bad.” When I hear someone use this expression, I will always ask them, “Your bad what?” They never understand. I explained it this way to my kids: Bad is an adjective, not a noun. You can have a bad day, a bad temper, or be a bad example. You can witness bad weather, but you cannot have a bad. Whatever happened to just saying, “My mistake?”
May 26th, 2009 at 3:59 am
People in my new state of Ohio say “You welcome” instead of “You’re welcome”. Drives me batty.
May 26th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
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May 27th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
[...] Misused words & phrases - As often as I use some of these words/phrases, I often forget which means which. This is a great [...]
May 27th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
“Irregardless” is not a word - the word is “regardless”
More than/over: you host more than a certain number of people or raise more than a specific number of dollars, while you find over a general number of things.
May 27th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
OK, I love the word “kuckaless” proposed by Mr. Rolight in post 462 as a possible future evolution from “couldn’t care less.” And I quote: “We never go out. She won’t move from in front of the television. She’s so kuckaless.”
May 28th, 2009 at 3:31 am
Yous guys crack me up. I’ve been looking a grammar review post for weeks. Thanks.
May 28th, 2009 at 4:21 am
Sorry - I’m totally exhausted. The sentence should read “I’ve been looking for a grammar review post for weeks.” Thanks again.
May 28th, 2009 at 5:14 am
People who use Pacific instead of specific - drives me nuts! The Pacific is an ocean people!!!!!
May 28th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Utilize is my pet peeve. You use a flashlight to see in the dark but you utilize it when you hit a person with it.
May 29th, 2009 at 12:13 am
I got half way through the list, and didn’t see my pet peeve… “Bored of”
It’s “bored with”, you eediot! You bloated sack of protoplasm!
umm… Sorry, Ren and Stimpy flashback.
May 30th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Very interesting!
I haven’t EVER taken part in a ‘blog’ before, but can I take this opportunity to ask if anyone out there thinks I am incorrect to think that a public footpath described as ‘permissive’ should perhaps be ‘permitted’ instead?
May 31st, 2009 at 10:30 am
[...] The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases [...]
June 2nd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I hate the word ain’t. People try to convince me that it’s okay to use it, but I know better. And as for certain dialects and pronunciations, y’all is okay when you say it as long as you don’t write it.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
How about “unthaw”. “Better take the burger outta the freezer so it can unthaw.” I’ve actually heard news anchors say it. Are you kidding me?
June 8th, 2009 at 11:20 am
Here in east TN,locals say “I have a great ‘ideal.’” No, you have a great ‘idea.’
June 10th, 2009 at 2:48 am
Pet hates? “I could care less” used instead of the correct “I couldn’t care less”. And of course the now ubiquitous “alot” instead of “a lot”. And why do software designers provide a spell checker? Do they think we are all studying at Hogwarts? It is a spelling checker.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Agree with “wary” vs. “weary”….how did that happen? It’s everywhere. And it drives me absolutely batty.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:51 am
What about different and difference
June 11th, 2009 at 10:16 am
@ Steve- “Unthaw” cracks me up. It’s hilarious how many people think you can just toss a prefix on any word to create a new one.
June 12th, 2009 at 9:49 am
[...] today by continuing our quest to improve the quality of self-published books with the post, The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases. ( “Alright- If you use ‘alright,’ go to the chalkboard and write ‘Alright [...]
June 12th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I don’t know if these two are actually correct, but they still bother me. I hate it when people say “unconsciously” rather than “subconsciously” -like, I really hope you were not asleep when that happened. Also, call me old fashioned, but the whole good vs well confusion still sounds awful to me- “you slept GOOD last night, honestly?”.
June 14th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
So true. Sometimes even the Microsoft Word grammar checker can’t help you in this area of confusion.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:22 am
Hi,
Thank you for the advices. They are very helpful for non-native speakers of English like me. I would suggest that you add a precision to the item refering to “i.e.” and “e.g.”. It would be better that you state where these words are coming from because they are not originaly English words. “i.e.” stands for Idem Est while “e.g.” stands Exempli Gratia in the old Latin language.
I hope this helps too.
June 18th, 2009 at 6:31 am
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June 20th, 2009 at 9:09 am
My deceased f-i-l made a joke out of ‘irregardless’ by coining the term ‘nondisirregardlessly’. I’ve been chucking about that for 30 yrs and it takes the sting out of other people’s use of ‘irregardless’.
June 21st, 2009 at 2:14 am
people…let’s not forget that language is an evolving thing. New things and standards are being created all the time. Get over it. Accept change. You aren’t smarter because you know the archaic pronunciation of a word or some other miniscule syntactical rule. Thank you.
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:14 am
[...] In some ways better than the real thing! * Protect yourself from incorrectly using these 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases with this helpful guide. * A Google Search lesson on semantics (and the dangers [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 7:01 am
And don’t forget ‘anythink’ or ’somethink’.
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Very good list! I haven’t read ALL of the 546 comments, but something that drives me crazy is the pronunciation of the word ‘accreditation’ as ‘accredidation’(with a ‘d’ where the first ‘t’ is). And, remarkably, the people who most often mispronounce it (in my world) are professors (Really!) working in academia! It’s their own language! Oh dear….
Also….’anyways’….which is not a word…
June 24th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
this is very helpful,except that you come off as very pretentious in some parts.
I would hope your goal is to help people so that they can use the correct grammar, not belittle them for not knowing.
June 30th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Always struggled with lay/lie. Thanks for clearing that up!
June 30th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you. It is nice to know that others pay attention to the rules of grammar and spelling. I was feeling kind of lonely. The only one I always forget is the farther/further differences. I really should put that mistake on my white board!
June 30th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Its versus it’s drives me crazy. There seems to be a common misconception that there’s no such word as “its”, because I so often see “it’s” substituted. For the record, the only definition of “it’s” is “it is”. So it’s good that my dog likes its new bowl.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
It LITERALLY cracked me up! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Most of the ones on here drive me crazy. But another one you forgot to mention: each other vs one another. If there are two people, use “each other.” If there are more than two, use “one another.”
June 30th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
My new favorite: misremembered, coined by the inimitable pitcher Roger Clemens during his congressional hearing on lying under oath re: steroids. Gotta love it.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
This Article is good to go. I think I grasp the concept of the English language according to this article.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
[...] the original post: The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases | HELP! Educational Blog Share and [...]
July 1st, 2009 at 4:13 am
Gr8 stuff!
I’d add principle and principal to the list
July 1st, 2009 at 5:12 am
You are in error regarding “alright” as per http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alright — if it’s in Webster’s it’s a word, sorry.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:47 am
I thought i.e. stood for in example.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:19 am
I am astonished by the amount of people I know that don’t seem to know the difference between “Then” & “Than” and have that mistake riddled in there every Facebook update. It really gets on my nerves.
July 1st, 2009 at 9:32 am
People are always saying “Ironically” when something isn’t ironic at all. I blame Alanis Morrissette for that song “Isn’t It Ironic”, which was full of things that were not ironic. Although, that, in itself, is ironic.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:56 pm
I stopped even reading the list when you claimed ‘accept’ and ‘except’ are homophones.
July 1st, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Tyson:
you actually hit one of my pet peeves there. you said, “astonished by the amount of people…”.
Can you spot the error?
July 1st, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Super - thank you very much for this! Please take some of the updates that have been put here and expand your list. More people need to see this. Teachers should be going over it in English class every year until graduation. Then again in college (as opposed to collage). Great work.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Oh this is good! All those lessons my parents taught but I forgot!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I cannot STAND it when people say, “This is a picture of John and I”. Please explain when to use me or I!!
And yes, the song Ironic is ironic because none of the situations she describes are ironic. So, it makes sense for the song to be named Ironic!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:28 pm
[...] off-topic link for the day. Most commonly misused words. We use them all the time. People that bitch about them in the comme… Or not. Ric Flair is somehow invovled. (Educational [...]
July 1st, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I can’t stand when people spell envelop without the e at the end. I don’t know why this bothers me.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I love this!! I’ve taken to putting little grammar and spelling lessons up on my Facebook status updates. The misuse and misspelling rampant on the ‘net is FRUSTRATING!!!
July 1st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
I made it to 280 before i gots me a headache!
in regards to vs. regarding or regards
should it be “give my regards to” “this is regarding” (or regarding the…)?
July 1st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Two nitpicks:
1) Can something be a “Commonly Misused Words and Phrase(s)” when it isn’t a word (e.g. alright)? I’m pretty sure it can’t. That’s like saying that a motorcycle is a common automobile seen on the roads.
2) Something can very well be ‘very unique’, depending upon which definition you prefer to use. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unique
July 1st, 2009 at 3:56 pm
OH, and spelling…I’m from the south where “y’all” is commonly used and written. However, more often than not, it is spelled YA’LL. Why is it so hard for some to remember that this word is a contraction of two words…”you” and “all”…and therefore the apostrophe should be AFTER THE “Y”, replacing the missing letters “o” and “u”?
Another irritating one for me is “preventative”. Is the root of this word “preventate”? NO!! “Preventive” is correct, but, alas, this is now so pervasive in the lexicon that it is accepted. *sigh*
July 1st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Tony- about and aboot, it’s all about having a Canadian accent. Are we going to start arguing American pronunciation vs. British pronunciation?
July 1st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
re: #329 Betty
Preventative is listed in the dictionary as alternative to preventive.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Tanya # 573: This is an example of a mispronunciation becoming so common that it is then accepted into the lexicon. It is NOT, actually, CORRECT. Just sayin’.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
I love this article. I am going to send the link to my husband and my teenage son. I am also going to bookmark it for myself for future reference.
I have to jump on the “irregardless” band wagon. It makes me want to reach out and punch someone in the face! However, I have found that “word” in the dictionary. It refers to it as “nonstandard” and defines it as regardless. If it is nonstandard, why is it in the dictionary?
Thanks Kristin for mentioning the “Y’all” thing. I am from the south and that drives me crazy too.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:43 pm
“Close proximity.” Hope my comment isn’t a duplicate.
July 1st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
@Dominique: At this point, you’re treading a fine line. In some cases, a thick accent, when typed, can be difficult to read. In others, it doesn’t matter much. Honestly, go with what feels the best for you personally to read.
“Howr yall doin?” he asked.
“How’re y’all doin’?” he asked.
“How’re you all doing?” he asked, in his thick southern dialect.
July 1st, 2009 at 5:26 pm
How about the misuse of “barely” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard “I just barely got here” and they mean “just recently” as in, a few minutes ago, instead of “almost didn’t”.