Ahhhhhh, stop typing that!

[Tiberius]

I realize most people don't have the interest in grammar really to learn when to use me and when to use I, but this is getting way too common among people who should know better.

Pfft. It's not that difficult. If you'd use the nominative case in Latin, then it's "I." Else, it's "me." Same goes for who vs. whom. See? Easy.

 

[Jesus_marley]

With regard to using quotation marks for emphasis on signage, I believe it may have originated out of necessity. A lot of the signs that I see that use this format are the portable billboard signs with the removable letter sets. The sets generally do not provide much in the way punctuation or emphasis tools so the users resorted to using what was available. This of course then translated into everyday usage.... unfortunately.

Well, this is my theory, anyway.

 

[kenobi65]

Pfft. It's not that difficult. If you'd use the nominative case in Latin, then it's "I." Else, it's "me." Same goes for who vs. whom. See? Easy.

LOL. Yeah, easy for the 0.000001% of the population who both (a) had to take Latin in school, and (b) actually remember enough of it to know what "nominative case" means.

 

[Mouseferatu]

With regard to using quotation marks for emphasis on signage, I believe it may have originated out of necessity. A lot of the signs that I see that use this format are the portable billboard signs with the removable letter sets. The sets generally do not provide much in the way punctuation or emphasis tools so the users resorted to using what was available. This of course then translated into everyday usage.... unfortunately.

Well, this is my theory, anyway.

It makes sense, but I'd say that--at least for many people, myself included--their efforts backfired. I'd rather see no emphasis than blatant grammatical mangling. Even on those portable signs, when there may be no other option, if I see something in quotes when it shouldn't be, I don't think "I guess they didn't have any other symbols to emphasize with," I think, "What an idiot."

 

[Hypersmurf]

What gets me is when you see (allegedly) professionally-created signs that have obvious spelling or punctuation errors on them.

There's a place I drive past on occasion, with a sign proclaiming (names changed to protect the guilty) "John Smith Phototography".

Even scarier was the number of phototographers you can find out there with a Google search...

-Hyp.

 

[Mycanid]

There's a place I drive past on occasion, with a sign proclaiming (names changed to protect the guilty) "John Smith Phototography".

Even scarier was the number of phototographers you can find out there with a Google search...

-Hyp.

Ya know Hyp ... I have seen plenty of these around these parts as well. I wonder if maybe there is some kind of secret joke going on? That all photographers are initiated into some kind of secret society and deliberately write things like this as part of their guild's "cant'" or something. And then they laugh at the rest of us behind our backs, snickering in their sleeves. :\

 

[Merkuri]

It's a mute point. (What, did Helen Keller first make the point in question?)

That reminds me of a scene from Friends that goes something like:

Joey: It's a moo point.
Rachel: A "moo" point?
Joey: Yeah, it's like a cow's opinion. It doesn't mean anything. It's moo.

I also hate it when people use I as the object of a preposition, as in "Jim is going to the store with Jane and I."

I think that started because people used to say, "someone and me" all the time, like, "Bob and me are going to dinner." This was considered normal, but grammatically incorrect. You sounded more intelligent if you said, "Bob and I are going to dinner." The problem was, people didn't understand WHY you say "I" instead of "me", so they try to sound intelligent by saying "and I" all the time, even when "and me" was technically correct. The end result is that the "norm" has changed and people still don't sound any smarter than they actually are.

 

[babomb]

It's in the dictionary...

That doesn't mean anything other than enough people have made the same mistake. Dictionaries are entirely descriptive and not prescriptive. To quote Anatole France: "If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.".

 

[Bront]

That doesn't mean anything other than enough people have made the same mistake. Dictionaries are entirely descriptive and not prescriptive. To quote Anatole France: "If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.".

But if millions of people use it everyday, it becomes standard language

 

[Pbartender]

That doesn't mean anything other than enough people have made the same mistake.

That's the point... the word's included the dictionary, but only to point out that it's a stupid word.

I thought that amusing.