What are your grammar bugbears?
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"What" and "which" being used interchangeably.
Oh that's a good one. I can feel my blood pressure rising.
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Some of mine in no particular order:
- Comma splices.
- Using apostrophes to make abbreviations plural. It's UFOs, not UFO's. This goes for decades, too. It's 1920s, not 1920's.
- Putting punctuation in the wrong place when parentheticals are involved (like this.) (Or like this).
- Same for quotations. Programmers in particular seem averse to putting punctuation on the inside where it usually belongs.
- Mixing up insure, ensure, and assure.
- Using 'that' where 'who' is more appropriate. For example, "People that don't use their blinkers are annoying."
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The downside is that with appositive phrases present the Oxford comma can introduce ambiguity:
"Thanks to my mother, Mother Teresa, and the pope."
In the Oxford comma system this is ambiguous between three people (1. my mother 2. Mother Teresa 3. the pope), and two people (1. my mother, who is Mother Teresa 2. the pope). Without the Oxford comma it's immediately clear that ", Mother Teresa," is an appositive phrase.
The opposite happens as well, where Oxford commas allow true appositives to be unintentionally read as lists:
"They went to Oregon with Betty, a maid, and a cook", where Betty is the maid mentioned.
This ambiguity is easily fixed, of course, but then again so is any ambiguity from not using an Oxford comma as well.
Note that I use the Oxford comma myself, but it's still worth mentioning that both systems are ambiguous, just in different ways.
Interesting. I never thought of that before. Thanks!
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Whilst
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You do something ON purpose or BY accident, you don't do anything ON accident!
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This post did not contain any content.wrote on last edited by [email protected]
'Who' Vs 'whom'.
Answer the question with 'he' Vs 'him' and match the 'm's is an easy rule of thumb.
He went to the park: who went to the park?
You called him: Whom did you call?
I understand why it's falling out of usage, as the strong SVO eliminates the need for accusatives, I wouldn't be surprised if 'him' and 'her' go away next. Knowing and using 'whom' sure helped me with the '-n' affix when learning Esperanto though, also fuck '-n' signed: English speakers. Replace the word with whom, him or her and if it's clumsy you don't need the -n.
Now, if I could just wrap my head around 'si' Vs 'li', 'ŝi' and 'ri'. Or, a solid rule of thumb, that would be so nice. I promise I'm not a toddler, I just talk like one.
Whom ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!!!I'm sorry
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I get hung up on i.e. vs e.g. I'm not sure this counts as grammar though...
I also understand the meaning is not very known so many people confuse the two but I wish it was overall well understood so that the message is very clear.E.g. is used when enumerating examples, it doesn't have to include all possibilities. Like saying "for example..."
I.e. is to demonstrate exactly what we are talking about. It's like saying "by that I mean this".
wrote on last edited by [email protected]I know the difference between i.e and e.g. but I've never really seen the point in i.e. if you're just going to enumerate what you mean anyway. It is like using "it" to replace a noun, but then explaining what you meant by "it" right next to the usage:
It (using i.e.) is like using "it" (the pronoun used as a shorthand for other nouns) to replace a noun, but then explaining what you meant by "it" (the pronoun used as a shorthand for other nouns) right next to the usage.
It's clumsy, just use the list if you're going to list them anyway.
I like dairy products i.e. milk cream, cheese and yoghurt.
I like milk, cream, cheese and yoghurt
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I know the difference between i.e and e.g. but I've never really seen the point in i.e. if you're just going to enumerate what you mean anyway. It is like using "it" to replace a noun, but then explaining what you meant by "it" right next to the usage:
It (using i.e.) is like using "it" (the pronoun used as a shorthand for other nouns) to replace a noun, but then explaining what you meant by "it" (the pronoun used as a shorthand for other nouns) right next to the usage.
It's clumsy, just use the list if you're going to list them anyway.
I like dairy products i.e. milk cream, cheese and yoghurt.
I like milk, cream, cheese and yoghurt
I am firmly in thread-OP's boat and wanted to disagree with you, but I searched my email/sms comment history to find examples of when I used "i.e." (to refute you) and you're right: I could have been more concise in every single instance.
I often used "i.e." to essentially repeat myself.. to "drive the point home", much like I'm doing right now.
It's something I actually hate about myself, that I ramble on and on when I've already made my point. Sorry to everyone that read this entire comment.. I promise I'm working on it.
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This cafe
I mean I try not to be a dick about spelling and grammar and stuff these days, but come on!
I feel this way when people reference decades like, "it was acceptable in the 80's".
If anything, the apostrophe should be in front to denote the year being truncated: '80s
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Pronouncing familiar as fermiliar.
Ooooooh, mine is pronouncing onion as ungyin
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I am firmly in thread-OP's boat and wanted to disagree with you, but I searched my email/sms comment history to find examples of when I used "i.e." (to refute you) and you're right: I could have been more concise in every single instance.
I often used "i.e." to essentially repeat myself.. to "drive the point home", much like I'm doing right now.
It's something I actually hate about myself, that I ramble on and on when I've already made my point. Sorry to everyone that read this entire comment.. I promise I'm working on it.
There's value in accentuating a point, don't let me make you feel otherwise. Just for me, personally, I don't like using i.e.
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I actually came across one of mine in this thread where someone was talking about an unrelated one of theirs: The plural of a word that ends with "st" is "sts", not also "st". If you write it like that because that's how you say it, it's because you're also saying it wrong.
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I know the difference between i.e and e.g. but I've never really seen the point in i.e. if you're just going to enumerate what you mean anyway. It is like using "it" to replace a noun, but then explaining what you meant by "it" right next to the usage:
It (using i.e.) is like using "it" (the pronoun used as a shorthand for other nouns) to replace a noun, but then explaining what you meant by "it" (the pronoun used as a shorthand for other nouns) right next to the usage.
It's clumsy, just use the list if you're going to list them anyway.
I like dairy products i.e. milk cream, cheese and yoghurt.
I like milk, cream, cheese and yoghurt
"It" is a pronoun.
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"It" is a pronoun.
It is, given the thread thanks for the correction. Fixed
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I understand it's controversial, but people who don't put the final comma in a list before "and" which then groups the final two items as one erroneously.
Also, when people put a space before a comma. I'm not sure why they do that, but it's cemented in some people's brains who speak fluent English from childhood onward.
I see where you're coming from. In school we were also taught to NOT put a comma before 'and' if it's a list. I also didn't quite get it, and found it weird. However, if you consider 'and' and a comma serving the same purpose (linking the elements in a list), then putting a comma before 'and' would just make either of them redundant. I'm not saying I prefer either of the two, but at least there is a reason to it.
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There's value in accentuating a point, don't let me make you feel otherwise. Just for me, personally, I don't like using i.e.
Thank you
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'Who' Vs 'whom'.
Answer the question with 'he' Vs 'him' and match the 'm's is an easy rule of thumb.
He went to the park: who went to the park?
You called him: Whom did you call?
I understand why it's falling out of usage, as the strong SVO eliminates the need for accusatives, I wouldn't be surprised if 'him' and 'her' go away next. Knowing and using 'whom' sure helped me with the '-n' affix when learning Esperanto though, also fuck '-n' signed: English speakers. Replace the word with whom, him or her and if it's clumsy you don't need the -n.
Now, if I could just wrap my head around 'si' Vs 'li', 'ŝi' and 'ri'. Or, a solid rule of thumb, that would be so nice. I promise I'm not a toddler, I just talk like one.
Whom ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!!!I'm sorry
I always wondered why it wasn't "Dr. Whom."
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I see where you're coming from. In school we were also taught to NOT put a comma before 'and' if it's a list. I also didn't quite get it, and found it weird. However, if you consider 'and' and a comma serving the same purpose (linking the elements in a list), then putting a comma before 'and' would just make either of them redundant. I'm not saying I prefer either of the two, but at least there is a reason to it.
The issue comes in when you consider there are times you'd want to group things. Example:
I would like a toolbox with 4 drawers: Nuts and bolts, screws, washers and chisels.
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You do something ON purpose or BY accident, you don't do anything ON accident!
“On the weekend”. I think that fits too.
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“Then” when it should be “than”.
People starting sentences with “I mean”, and no prior context.
