Does this annoy you? (Inside)

I’m pretty sure you need to give contextual example. My grammar is not perfect but I know some of the above are correct.
to mister X… I am sick too.
breath some air… I lost my breath.
As for: it’s; some people I saw are lazy enough not to add the apostrophe.
And for: you’re; well people try to talk as short as possible.

I know I make some of these mistakes too but I don’t do them because I want to be short .. I do them because I make typos. I always try to correct myself.

@Hibernate English is your 2nd language, though, isn’t it?

I saw someone write “your’ ” and I thought it was a typo. “We are going to your’ house.” Nope, it wasn’t a typo. I saw it again and again in later emails. I guess she thought the apostrophe represented possession. She is native English speaker mid 50’s.

It annoys me on certain words, but then not others. For example, I do spend an extraordinary amount of time giggling over The Alot, and it’s/its, their/there/they’re, and to/two/too definitely make my nostrils flare. But beyond that, not really. I have weird and random words that I just never really got drilled into me (because, public education fail…), so I try really hard to be understanding. It’s more important to me that you try; if you manage to make several mistakes, including a total lack of capital letters, in a small paragraph, I’ll probably skip it, but if you make the occasional error in otherwise correct writing, I don’t care. While I understand the need for smooth and flowing language in order to communicate effectively, there’s really nothing to me that epitomizes the idea that the only way to be considered an intellectual is through the formal institution of academia more than the pedantic Grammar Nazi, and I strongly disagree with the idea that the formal institution of academia equals intellectualism.

It does, however, bug me even more when people feel the need to point out a singular error in an otherwise solid work, especially when they know that the person is usually on top of that kind of thing. Because that’s a deliberate action, not an accident or a lack of knowledge.

What annoys me “inside”....Usually just the nit pickers out there that pick it up! :-/
Then correct people Lol….... I mean wtf,”*$£#~ :-/

What he ^^ said, with bells on.

@Scooby ‘What annoys me inside’?
Do you even know what purpose the ‘inside’ was added for? Or are you intending to make us laugh, and miserably failing?
Just in case you don’t know what it’s for, I’ll tell you; ‘Inside’ as in; ‘Details inside’.. Better? :)

Yes, it annoys me. It annoys me that people don’t want to be corrected, as well. Some would prefer to cling to the spelling/usage that they like, even though the incorrect ones make it hard for others to figure out what they’re saying. It would not even take much time to learn the proper use of words like “to” or “your”. I don’t get it.

@dappled_leaves I TOTALLY agree. Especially when they argue or are being ignorant about it. Like wtf are you saying, we all know you’re wrong. And I also hate lame excuses. Like just shut up and admit you’re wrong.

MY pet peeve that I will add to your list is the incorrect usage of compliment when people mean complement.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not the most annoying thing. Some people just aren’t into grammar and the like.

These are mistakes with spelling, not grammar.

Yeah, it bugs me but then I do it too. I know the difference (and if english is your first language and you’re out of high school you should too) but when I review I do so quickly and for content and tone rather than such errors. However if I see it and realize I can no longer edit, it irks me for a second.

And don’t forget “their, there, and they’re”.

@morphail I’m not sure I agree that using “you’re” instead of “your” or similar errors should be considered spelling mistakes. They are spelling the words correctly, they just don’t know when, or in what context, to use which spelling.

I turned down a job because the teacher I would have to work with had written your for you’re on the board. It doesn’t annoy me particularly, but it makes me think a little less of the person; not a lot, just a little less.

@dappled_leaves It’s not a grammar problem. I find it unlikely that native speakers don’t understand the difference between a contraction and the possessive form of a pronoun. If they didn’t understand this, then I would expect other confusions between contractions and possessives, for instance “His going out” or “Is this he’s computer?”

We understand the grammar, but we’re confusing the spellings. That’s a spelling mistake imo

Wow, I did not know the Compliment/Complement one. I thought it was the same word.
Please forgive any past transgressions.

I find it annoying to confuse grammar with all the mistakes possible with English; viz.:spelling, usage, punctuation, homophones, idiom, neologisms and run-on sentences.

@Luiveton: Have you checked your text for the unnecessary commas (that cause confusion), the use of commas that should be periods, run-on sentences and sentence fragments? It’s none of my business either, but, what the hell.

Dude, breath, your taking it to serious, its not something you want to loose your mind over.

No, I haven’t actually. If I did you wouldn’t have posted such a useless comment. But clearly, you’ve checked your answer very well, because if I’m not mistaken, you had ‘thesuse’ typed in instead of ‘the use’ before editing your response.

@poisonedantidote Bahahahha seriouslyy? :)
And my previous answer was directed towards @gailcalled.

@Luiveton: Ah, but I did edit

I’m not trying to be rude or anything, it’s just that people should refer back to the most basic rules of grammar.

Why is your criticism not rude and mine is?

@gailcalled Maybe because I sensed sarcasm rather than genuine concern? Seriously calm down lady. If you want to correct me do it nicely. I asked a question to see people’s views about the subject, not so they can make fun of the question. If you’re not going to say what you have to nicely then please don’t answer at all.

Just out of curiosity, @Luiveton , how is this not its own brand of snide? Just jumping in, because there seems to be way too much pissitudinous attitude about a fairly minor issue Yeah, we all f**k up sometimes, we all leap in to correct things sometimes, but unless it’s seriously persistent, letting it get to us is just, well, dumb.

Yes and no. It annoys me to come across typos in resumes but not so much in an email or especially here in fluther.

@JilltheTooth ‘Letting it get to us’? Did I mention that I let it get to me? I don’t remember doing so. I just find it quite annoying when I nicely correct someone’s mistake and they argue about it being right. And quite frankly, I’m sure you’d be annoyed too.

and my point is nicely made

@Luiveton: You have really confused me. I am never sarcastic, as it happens; and I don’t get annoyed; but I do observe; and I am calm; and I am quoting you verbatim.

I just find it quite annoying when I nicely correct someone’s mistake and they argue about it being right.

How do you justify your responses? Can you not see that you are the pot calling the kettle black?

Leaving you to it.

Well, I teach. And I correct. And, until I came to Fluther, I always used “it’s” as the possessive. I think @gailcalled got me on that one! Thanks BTW!

I think it’s more important to have a good and patient attitude than to have a perfect command of English. You DO know we’ll be watching every one of your posts for the smallest slip up now.

@Dutchess_III I wish I could care less. Hjhadhcjhw .. Oops.

You wish you could care less? That doesn’t really make sense!

What are you going on about? And who is “you people”?

Oh brother, this is so comical. Be it a second language, a first, or the third, not everyone slaved over what an adverbial phrase was, how to use the pass perfect tense, etc. As long as I can figure out what they meant by the context of what they wrote, I think that speaks more, I can live with a your, in place of you’re. There are way bigger fish to fry in this world than that. What good is context if people are going to be too lazy to use it? We might as chuck every slang, and idiom out the door. Just stick with just the words that are attached to those actions, or things, forsake everything else.

I am sure we can correct everyone on everything. Some one mislabels part of their vehicle, those astute in auto mechanics and school them in the proper name of the item; after all, they are drivers, they should know all the parts of a vehicle.

I am not going to kill myself to try to have every dangling participle, (whatever the hell that is) in place. I will write as I talk. When I am speaking to someone, I don’t stop and say, ”Dang, I have to start over, I misused a conjunction”. I am not a machine, and won’t try, *THERE WILL BE TYPOS, live with that.

Dangling participle;

I shot an elephant standing in my pajamas.

Well, this has become downright silly.

@gailcalled I’d shoot him for stretching out my pajamas, too. The nerve of some people’s elephants!

People really need to keep an eye on their elephants in the house.

I made special flannel pajamas for my elephant, so he wouldn’t have to steal the pajamas of others. Mine is the polite elephant.

I’m going to make bumper stickers. “My elephant is an honor student in my pajamas.” Anyone want one?

I just remembered something! I collect odd, ungrammatical sentences, or even whole phrases, and post them up in my class room.

My all time favorite (considering I teach in a jail!) is a headline that read:
“PAVING STONES TO BE REPLACED BY INMATES.” Stay in school, boys!

There is another that was just downright WTH?? It was actually a help wanted ad for some position at some mental health outreach place. Part of the ad said, “CEO needed…..must have suffered from a mental illness and be ready to talk about it at (some kind of) meeting.”
Who in their right mind would even apply? (I crack myself up! :)

@gailcalled posted an example of a dangling participle. “I shot an elephant standing in my pajamas.” What the person meant was “Standing in my pajamas I shot an elephant.” But he did the dangling thing with the sentence.
See.

lol @ “paving stones to be replaced by inmates”. I wonder if that was intentionally threatening!

Oh no! What have I done? I released the dreaded dangling participle loose in the Lagoon. Good thing I did not say “What in the hell is a compound Predicate?”

A dangling participle just sounds like it belongs in a porn movie. A compound predicate sounds like some very bad to eat. I HATE those things!

@dappled_leaves It was just a random headline I pulled off of some obscure article I found on the internet!

Compound predicate;

I live in a rural area and I speak English.

O! Too funny! The OP got moderated for writing standards! As an aside, how do you link to a post, guys? Is there any way other than going into the accounts?

@Dutchess_III

”...how do you link to a post…?”

Hover your cursor to the right of the “Flag as….” option at the bottom of the post until you see a red paragraph symbol (¶). If you’re using Firefox, you should be able to right-click on that symbol and get a drop-down menu. If you get one, then select “Copy Link Location”.

After that, you can paste that link location into whatever viable text receptacle you choose.

Yes, poor grammar annoys me. Sometimes my keyboard betrays me by typing you when I mean your. This also annoys me.

@YARNLADY My keyboard betrayed me when writing my earlier comment on this thread; it wrote “mange” instead of “manage”. Luckily, I caught the error, but that really would have changed my meaning…

Like this Brian?

Yay! Like that! (How do you guys figure this stuff out?!)

@Dutchess_III Most of you guys did the same as you did—well, I did…., ask it!—

@ANef_is_Enuf no it’s not my second, it’s my fifth but we weren’t discussing about this.
While some typos are not that obvious I saw a lot of you with all your phd making some I feel a lot better when I’m not perfect :)
@Hypocrisy_Central thnaks for taking my side but I know @ANef_is_Enuf never tries to be rude so I’m good :P

I just ran across this a few days ago:

7 Spelling and Grammar Errors that Make You Look Dumb

@Jeruba that link was posted in another thread like a month ago. I wanted to say then but I forgot so I’ll ask you maybe you’ll have an answer. Some mistakes might make some of us look dumb… but according by what standards we look dumb? Who decided that we are really dumb if we make some of those mistakes.

In any case things pass, we start over and move on :)

@Jeruba Sent that link to work! Thanks!

Try here

@Hibernate There’s a big difference between saying that a mistake makes a person look dumb, and saying a mistake shows that the person is dumb. The article linked above is about how to avoid being misjudged as “dumb” by learning a few grammar rules… no one is actually being called dumb.

And as to who might make those judgements… well, anyone can, at any time (for example, a potential employer can, or a potential client). My question is, why would anyone reject such a reference, when it could improve a working relationship or increase their chances of getting hired? And for that matter, who doesn’t want to be certain that they are being understood by other people? Is it somehow a matter of pride to reject this sort of advice?

“don’t understand the difference between both”—> don’t understand the difference between them or don’t understand the difference between either

but i’m just an immigrant.

For a parallel, consider this: when you present yourself for a job interview, a social occasion, etc., you try to be well groomed and dress attractively, right? If you follow normal customs, you do. Going out with unwashed hair, unbrushed teeth, and dirty fingernails, wearing wrinkled clothes with visible greasy spots, smelling like you need a shower, doesn’t prove that you are a slob (maybe you did all those things by choice and not because you don’t know any better), but who’s going to be blamed for thinking you look like one?

Nope. As long as I understand them correctly then I really don’t care. Nobody’s perfect.

@Luiveton
In answer to your question.
“@Scooby ‘What annoys me inside’?
Do you even know what purpose the ‘inside’ was added for? Or are you intending to make us laugh, and miserably failing?
Just in case you don’t know what it’s for, I’ll tell you; ‘Inside’ as in; ‘Details inside’.. Better? J”

Yes I did know what it was for, the “inside” besides looks like I got them laughs too, to, two, btw Lol…. Life’s too short to get hung up & grouchy over such small details, annoying as they may be to some…. You really need to be more tolerant of others failings & step down off your high horse once in a while & just, well give us lesser mortals a break :-/
Life really is too short Lol….. Besides, some say ignorance is bliss.. But in most cases the ignorant are only the people who don’t know what somebody has only just found out… Chins up old bean. I’ll stick with the bliss ;-)

@Scooby Hahaha I like being ignorant /:

But I don’t get the lame elephant jokes though? I feel slow today. I hope they’re not about me. Can’t some people just be straightforward and make their point? It’s just funny watching people thinking that their elephant ‘joke’ is funny when they can be cussing and trying to act a little..modern, shall we say? Apologies if the elephant ‘dangling participle’ shit isn’t about me.

it’s not. It’s about English usage.

@gailcalled Then my apologies.

Ten words you need to stop misspelling

Honest and occasional mistakes are one thing. Reveling in your own ignorance is another.

And bashing on people who make the same mistakes as you do isn’t cool, either.

Some mistakes, like misspelling definitely as definitaly (especially with a red squiggle to help you know it’s wrong), are not execution-worthy. Some like affect/effect make me cringe but they’re forgivable, but your/you’re/ and there/their/they’re… should’ve been figured out in 3rd grade.

Even those mistakes, when made in public forums, I can skip over and just focus on the message. What gets my goat is when someone has a web site promoting their stuff and can’t hire an editor.

Did you know that the average newspaper reporter writes to the readability of a 5th grader? I don’t mean the main stream media Wall Street Journal business reporter. I mean the average state or local newspaper reporter.

I like the use of parentheses. Parenthesis are used to explain, supplement and to make reference to further details. I don’t see how that was ever in question. I also notice when people use messed-up grammar, especially when I do it. Further, I feel like an idiot when I use the wrong word or improper spelling. Consequently, I’m too nice to correct others though. Also, they already went to school and missed the point there. I can’t fix their lack of skill in any area. In any case, I sheepishly, humbly and gladly accept when others take the time to correct me because my pride is not the question. My spelling might be. Now, I know I may seem like a jerk because I don’t want to correct others and help them in any way, but that’s the way I roll.

@bkcunningham I think I’ve seen some papers that keep that average low.

It is the truth @linguaphile. I don’t feel like an idiot when I make a mistake. I cringe a little at first and then I wish we had an edit button. We don’t. What are you going to do? We weren’t all English majors. Geez. Snobs.

@bkcunningham I don’t know if it makes you feel any better, but I’m an English major, and 98% nonjudgmental about others’ writing. I make mistakes, too, but if someone turns their nose up at my mistakes, I laugh my ass off because I know writing’s much more than just accurate spelling and grammar.

However, I don’t enjoy being babied… it feels… condescending.

I don’t consider myself to be a snob but I am sarcastic. I don’t mean to offend anyone and I don’t mind any constructive criticism. Perhaps I need to filter myself once in a while…nah…no fun in it.

@ bkcunningham I don’t know that being called a snob for having an opinion is always justified. I consider name calling to be more snobby than stating an opinion once an opinion is asked for. It’s condescending to refer to other people who post a reply as snobs JUST BECAUSE YOU DISAGREE. I don’t get why people make these things personal by name calling. I think the name callers are the REAL SNOBS. Why go there?

I was joking calling English majors snobs.

Oh, good grief.

@Luiveton That’s true indeed, in answer to you.
”@Scooby Hahaha I like being ignorant”

And @syz
“Honest and occasional mistakes are one thing. Reveling in your own ignorance is another”

The fact of the matter is; I don’t know everything, I will never know everything… If I thought I did know everything then what an arrogant man I would be.. I live to learn & I am bound to make mistakes along the way as is everyone whether they admit it or not, I’m just aware of my own failings. Spelling & grammar are just insignificant concerns to me; with the way modern language is developing, I challenge anybody to keep up… Spelling I try to perfect but grammar seems increasingly old hat to me & is seldom used by the masses; yet somehow everybody on this site seems to get along quite well without it in a lot of cases too.. :-/ So yeah I am ignorant; to most things & happy to be; because this gives me an incentive to learn & keep an open mind..
We can’t know everything; now can we?

@bkcunningham I picked up on the joke, not a problem

@bkcunningham: Oh. Der. In any case, I deal with snobs regularly and I failed to see your humor. Thank you for clarifying!

I’m thinking it depends on the way you were brought up. My mother corrected my sisters and me every time we said a word incorrectly, or used the wrong word. When we received gifts from anyone, we had to write thank you notes which were then corrected for misspellings or using the wrong spelling of the right word, such as the ones you mentioned. We had to write the [whole] letter over again if it didn’t pass inspection. It was drilled into us, therefore, it’s like someone running [their] nails on a blackboard to me. One of the most blatant ones is using “would of” instead of would’ve, a contraction for would have. I wonder where everyone else was while I was in the third grade. Now, just to clarify, I don’t judge people or think less of them when they do that, it just surprises me. Some people were raised to be thrifty and can’t stand to see others frivolously spending. Some were raised to be very respectful, such as Southerners who say “yes ma’am” and “no, sir”. To them, those of us who weren’t raised that way, sound rude. I think, it’s the English who think we Americans are disgusting for using toilet paper instead of a bi-day or a wet wipes. [You’re] just venting and I can relate because I was raised the same way.

Biting nails…hope Mommy isn’t inspecting this one! ^

@EmptyNest, I thought it was the other way around; with the toilet paper? As an adopted Englishman I’ve never come across a bi-day ( plumbed-in ) or a wet wipes. Maybe I’m not posh enough :-/

@Scooby… I’m not entirely certain which Country it was, to be honest. No disrespect intended, though.

@EmptyNest ;-) Lol,,, none taken…

:-)... Oh, I guess you can’t leave a smiley face and nothing else. LOL

(meaning me) I tried to leave a smiley face and couldn’t.

@Scooby, you know what? That would be a great question. I’ve never actually used a bid-day. In fact the only time I ever saw one was in “Crocodile Dundee” when he came to America….oh, I guess THERE’S a clue. LOL

Pssst…just for the purists…it’s spelled B-I-D-E-T.

And for the other purists, please, please no smiley faces here.

You know, Jill…I wrote it that way but spell check came on. I stand corrected. You can tell my mother you caught it. What’s wrong with smiley faces?

@gailcalled I LOVE your master bedroom!!!! : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) : ) I need a picture of the front so I can see what I’m aiming for! :) : )

What am I missing guys…isn’t a bidet just a thing that squirts water on your bottom parts?

Also, @EmptyNest wouldn’t using wet wipes in place of toilet paper get hideously expensive? And do local businesses in the country you’re referring to provide wet wipes in their public bathrooms? Or do people have to carry their own around?

Honestly, @gailcalled, I don’t know. I remember hearing that somewhere. And yes, that’s what a bidet is.

You talking to me, Dutchess, or Gail Called???

Well, if that’s what a bidet is, what good is it? If you have a dirty plate, squirting a little water on it isn’t going to get it clean! It needs to be scrubbed! Plus, then, you get to stand up with a dripping wet bott and pull your clothes back on! Sounds uncomfy to me.

Well…be careful of passing on what you “hear” as if it’s fact….

@Dutchess_III, some bidets have air dryers. If they don’t you use toilet tissue. Bidets are used in conjunction with a commode or toilet. Everyone should have one.

Oh, yes, I guess I was talking to Dutchess, then. I wouldn’t get all bent out of shape about it. It was used as an example. Not a big deal in my mind. Can we squash it now?

@EmptyNest Don’t worry about the smiley face :-)
There’s just too many purists; you can’t please everyone ;-)
smile away :-))

:) :) guys!

@bkcunningham I know what bidets are used in conjunction with. Why ever on earth should everyone have one?? Sounds like a time consuming hassle, waste of energy, and a particularly useless function!

Because it feels good. It makes you feel refreshed and clean. Because it feels good.

I’m not going to spend money on something electric to make me feel good! (Don’t start @WillWorkForChocolate)! Plus, when I’m in the RR I want to get it and get out. Hell. Get a wet washcloth and make yourself feel good!

@Dutchess_III Oh dear Lord… lol.

I, too, get irritated with spelling/grammar errors that are quite simple to correct. The main ones that bother me are:

they’re/there/their
you’re/your
through/threw
lose/loose
an/and (It really bugs the shit out of me when someone says “He threw her and apple.”)
to/two/too

I try to not make a habit of correcting people, but when I see those glaring mistakes, it makes my eyeballs itch. The reason I try to keep myself from correcting people is because too many corrections tends to make you look like a pompous ass.

I’m not sure how a few funny dangling participle jokes involving elephants could be mistaken for insults…..... but whatever.

And what compels the fourth finger of the right hand to automatically put an apostrophe in its, no matter what the meaning is? It’s hard to understand, is not it is it not?

I was guilty of that one until quite recently. I’m assuming I did it because we say, “That’s my sister’s hairdryer” or “You’re my mom’s favorite”, using the apostrophe to show a possessive, so I applied the same principle to “its”.

I’m glad that I’m someone’s Mom’s favorite! :-/

Well, my mommy doesn’t know you, but you’re one of MY favorites… and I’m a mom… does that count?

Absolutely! <giggles>

RE ‘it’s’ same here, for the reasons Choco girl said. We was thinking it’s showing a possessive!
I avoid correcting simple errors because there’s always a chance I could go back and read one of my posts and find one of those same errors.
BUT when you get an entire post full of…crap….it makes my eyeballs want to be ripped out.

@Dutchess_III You meen when sumone post a hole comment that is full of mistake and bad grammer that it makes u want too scrath out you’re eyes? I dont git why it would bother u so much, really? i’ve seen meny a post hear that make me scream, wanting to tell the OP no sense and they not smart. I also seen it where comment stays and not get modded, even though you no it should of been. Its annoying to stay in the least.

Please don’t let this get modded! It’s supposed to be annoyingly incorrect! :P

There you go again. It should have read “I also seen it where comment stay and not get modded….” NO S in ‘stays’!

Actually, that is seriously making me want to borrow yer shuvel….and the worst part is, people who write like that are almost always going to lengths to prove how smart they are!