15 Common Grammatical Errors That Drive You Completely Insane

[ZombieHorde]

http://www.buzzfeed.com/adamdavis/common-grammatical-errors-that-drive-you-completely-insan

1. The classic your/you’re mistake.



“Your” - it belongs to you. “You’re” - you are. Simple as that.

2. When subjects and verbs don’t agree.



There are towels in the closet. “Towels” are a plural object, so “are” is the appropriate form of the verb in this sentence.

There are two I don't completely agree with...

6. When someone puts punctuation outside of a quotation mark.



Punctuation goes inside the quotation mark. Just do it.

There is an exception to this rule, which is the punctuation goes outside the quotes when the punctuation isn't part of the quote and changes the quote. For example: What did she mean when she said "trees are stupid"?

and...

12. Saying “they” to refer to a singular object.



“They” is plural, so unless you’re talking about more than one person, you need to say “he” or “she.”

"They" is generally excepted as a gender neutral pronoun in all but the most stuffy writing right now.

[Jenoch]

1. Although I do not find it particularly annoying,

it seems that about 99% of the population does not know how to pronounce the word that is used for those short video snips. GIF is not pronounced to rhyme with a major brand of peanut butter.

[ZombieHorde]

2. How do you pronounce it then? nt

[Jenoch]

4. Wait a second....

I had it backwards. It IS pronounced like the peanut butter and NOT the way most people pronounce it, with the soft G. Thanks for pointing out MY brainfart.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/22/tech/web/pronounce-gif/

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. rec … And a correction from a grammar nazi!

although "they" is becoming common as a pronoun for a person specifically because it's non-gendered. That's useful enough for me to forgive.


Inappropriate apostrophes, however, make me bite off faces.

" "They" is generally excepted as a gender neutral pronoun in all but the most stuffy writing right now."

-----That should be "accepted".

[malthaussen]

22. Always thought that one was interesting.

English has, after all, a perfectly good gender-neutral pronoun: it. But for whatever reason, people do not like using it for people, except the occasional baby. It seems to be okay, though, for pets, even though pets are alive.

-- Mal

[BlancheSplanchnik]

26. for some of us, "it" isn't okay for pets!

My Shrimpy is a tiny furry baby. And a princess. And a ninja. And a professional nasal hygienist. And a conductor. And a podiatrist. And a secret agent!


I don't even like "it" for any animal. But I'm weird that way...

[LonePirate]

5. They omitted the maddening lose vs. loose phenomenon that afflicts the internet.

It seems like every single day I read something online, typically a message board post or a tweet, where someone mixes up "lose" and "loose." When did we become such poor spellers?

[ZombieHorde]

6. I am prone to that mistake,

so I have to pause and think whenever I use those words. Another tough one for me is manner versus manor. I feel more comfortable with those words now, but that took a while.

[Jenoch]

7. I can understand people

who confuse 'their' and 'there', my 82 year old father constantly does this in e-mails. I do not understand the confusion with 'loose' and 'lose'. They are not pronounced the same. The difference is too obvious to except this error.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

12. Don't you think it's the double "oo" that throws people off?

I think it plays a trick on the brain and looks like it should sound like Lose. And loose sounds shorter but is spelled longer.

If that makes sense.

[Jenoch]

14. I have always thought the 'oo' and 'o' sounds have

been enough to differentiate themselves. I have never gotten them confused since they are not in anyway similar in their meaning.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

28. the difference is too obvious to be excepted from the rules....

I do not accept any exceptions!

[postulater]

15. We had a homonym contest in grade school

So I got good at those.

And lots if spell-downs. They were fun but there is something divisive about competing on basic skills at an early age.

[Kingofalldems]

8. Exscape

[Kokonoe]

9. A and an, need I say more.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. Re Number 2

The word "towels" in that sentence is a plural subject, not object, so it would take a plural verb. Plural objects have no effect on the verb.

[treestar]

11. "try and" for "try to"

It's become accepted. The BBC even used it.

[Wounded Bear]

20. ...and thanks for the incorrect "It's" in your reply...

[treestar]

21. It is for "It is" only and not "It has?"

Who knew?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

30. no, "it's" for "it has" (past tense) is fine,

As in, "Hey treestar, it's been a long time since I've seen you."

If you were using "has" as a possessive as in, "it has a new dinglearm", you wouldn't use a contraction.

[fizzgig]

13. advise vs advice isn't there

i cringe when someone posts that they're looking for advise.

[JimDandy]

27. That bugs me too. n/t

[Iterate]

16. Overuse and abuse of myself.

Oh. That sounds vulgar. Quotes might have helped.

"Myself" is reflexive and is generally used only when "I" is in the same sentence. I see myself in the mirror. "I see me in the mirror" implies a child or simpleton who has no sense of self. I can say "I myself saw the plane crash" if I want to imply trauma that made me withdraw or to add a layer of credibility. If I say "I and myself saw the plane crash", that's just schizo.

To say "Tom and myself are attending the meeting" implies there is no "me" or "I" in the external world, only my internal self. Don't take a job with anyone who speaks that way.

The title of Moore's film was "Roger and Me", not "Roger and Myself". How self-absorbed would that be?

The iSelf is a special case for hip consumers.

Me, myself, and I are the Holy Trinity. Oh, damned quotes are giving me problems again. I can only blame myself.

I don't know what happens when speaking of oneself in the third-person is mixed with selfhood, but Iterate and myself will be off to explore it. Besides, myself has made this too long and tedious.

[oregonjen]

17. Spelling "no one" as one word!

I often see this mistake and it drives me crazy! Noone is not a word.

[Raffi Ella]

18. ohgod.

hah, you know I think I have a pretty good grasp on grammar until I read threads like this. It seems the more I read on the subject the more confused I get and begin to wonder just how many mistakes I'm making and don't even realize it...


Oh well. Life is too short- And furthermore! you know what? LAY sounds better than LIE to me in almost every circumstance, so there. At least that's what I tell myself when I can't remember the rule for it.

[Ron Obvious]

19. I'm familiar with the rule about putting punctuation inside the quotes.

I just disagree with it. If it's part of the quote, it goes inside.

"This is a sentence.", he said.

"How are you?", he asked.

"You suck!", he shouted.

[malthaussen]

23. Odd they didn't include "there/their/they're"

... especially when they illustrated so many more obscure errors. Perhaps they subsume it under "your/you're."

As for #12, count me among the stuffy. I'll continue to use "he" and damn all revisionists.

-- Mal

[LWolf]

24. loose/lose. nt

[GreenEyedLefty]

25. "Agreeance" and "versing" drive me batty.

I saw the word "agreeance" in a document I was proofreading, which was written by a high school principal.

I also heard a teacher ask, "Who are we versing?" in reference to an athletic contest.

There are many more... but these two examples are painful enough.

[DFW]

29. They left out the worst one

For some reason, it has become common to use an apostrophe to form a plural. "I never support the Republican's...."

There may be languages that do that, but English isn't one of them.

The use of "you and I" as a direct or indirect object is the most maddening of the ones listed, and it has been in use for decades. I have heard it in a Doors song ("Touch Me&quot and even on a Mark Knopfler song on the "Golden Heart" album.

Way back in elementary school, our teacher gave us the simplest way of all to know which to use: she asked which we would say, "Please do this for I" or "Please do this for me" and told us that if we would never say "Please do this for I" we should also never say "Please do this for you and I."

[BlancheSplanchnik]

31. I'm with you on both counts!!!!

Both of those errors give me an eye twitch. Aggghhhhhhhh!

[DFW]

32. Careful--we are in the minority!

Or, as they say down in Republicanland, "watch you're back."

[BlancheSplanchnik]

33. !

[zanana1]

34. Am I the only one who thinks this one sounds a bit too trendy?

"That was so fun". Am I wrong to think that it should be "That was so much fun?"

[Jim Lane]

35. What's given as a rule about punctuation (number 6) is oversimplified.

It's universal to place question marks and exclamation points either inside or outside the quotation marks, according to the sense. If the mark is part of the matter being quoted, such as a title, it goes inside, otherwise outside.

There is no universal standard for commas and periods. The "logical" style of treating them the same way as other marks, i.e., placing them according to the sense, is more common in British English. Always placing them inside the quotation marks, which some think produces a more esthetically pleasing effect, is more common in American English.

British style: His best-known story is "The Gift of the Magi".
American style: His best-known story is "The Gift of the Magi."

Even this distinction isn't a sharp one, though. For example, in American legal writing, the logical style is prescribed when quoting a statute, because the presence or absence of a comma or a period in the text you're quoting might change the meaning.

Fuller elaboration here.

[vanlassie]

36. "I could care less."

Arrrgh!