Internet Grammar Pet Peeves

[trancejeremy]

I've actually started to notice that "loose/looser" instead of "lose/loser" problem in books, both old and new. So I'm wondering if it's just a common typo.

One thing that bugs me, but I have no idea if it's wrong or right, is people writing "Should of". I think it should be "Should've", a contraction of "Should have". But I've noticed "Should of" in print a lot as well. So I'm confused.

Another thing that bugs me, is I will often write "it's" instead of "its". I know "its" is right, but I still write "it's" a lot. Don't mind when other people do it, though.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

my pet peeves include TYPING IN ALL CAPS as well as never using caps i mean i hate it especially when someone types all lower case as a single run on sentence without punctuation then ends with 133t speak k thx by!!11!!

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

In that vein, 'calvary' drives me nuts.

It made listening to Brad Dourif on the Two Towers (from memory) commentary particularly trying... he went on and on about how the Rohirrim were a nation of calvary, and how Sauron didn't have any calvary, and how important calvary is in a battle...

Gah!

-Hyp.

Well, Sauron certainly didn't have any calvary, but I'm not certain calvary would have helped had he had one. When you've got Mount Doom, what's another big hill, except perhaps a place to stage your Dread Gazebo?

Cavalry, on the other hand, ...

And in honor of cavalrymen everywhere, I present Fiddler's Green:

Halfway down the trail to hell
In a shady meadow green,
Are the souls of all dead troopers camped
Near a good old-time canteen
And this eternal resting place
Is known as Fiddler's Green.

Marching past, straight through to hell,
The infantry are seen,
Accompanied by the Engineers,
Artillery and Marine,
For none but the shades of Cavalrymen
Dismount at Fiddler's Green.

Though some go curving down the trail
To seek a warmer scene,
No trooper ever gets to Hell
Ere he's emptied his canteen,
And so rides back to drink again
With friends at Fiddler's Green.

And so when man and horse go down
Beneath a saber keen,
Or in a roaring charge or fierce melee
You stop a bullet clean,
And the hostiles come to get your scalp,
Just empty your canteen,
And put your pistol to your head
And go to Fiddler's Green.

 

[Hypersmurf]

This would totally be my avatar if the file size wasn't so large.

-Hyp.

 

[kenobi65]

One thing that bugs me, but I have no idea if it's wrong or right, is people writing "Should of". I think it should be "Should've", a contraction of "Should have". But I've noticed "Should of" in print a lot as well. So I'm confused.

"Should have" is correct. I suspect "should of" gets used because some people think that's what "should've" sounds like.

One of my general grammar favorites is "that's a whole nother thing." Clearly, it's the result of breaking up the word "another" with "whole"...but people don't realize that they've just made up a new word -- "nother".

 

[kenobi65]

This would totally be my avatar if the file size wasn't so large.

Yes, but your actual avatar is cuter.

 

[delericho]

One I don't see very often, but that really makes my blood boil when I do see it, is 'walla' for 'voila'.

I'm not sure why it annoys me so much, but there you go. (Possibly because I can never remember whether it's 'voila' or 'viola', and have to look it up every time. Like when writing this post.)

 

[Technomancer]

Chow instead of ciao.

My fiance had a boss send out a mass email talking about "Heinz Sight" instead of "Hindsight"

 

[kenobi65]

My fiance had a boss send out a mass email talking about "Heinz Sight" instead of "Hindsight"

"What, you mean, they're not 'French benefits'?"

 

[kenobi65]

One I don't see very often, but that really makes my blood boil when I do see it, is 'walla' for 'voila'.

I'm not sure why it annoys me so much, but there you go. (Possibly because I can never remember whether it's 'voila' or 'viola', and have to look it up every time. Like when writing this post.)

And that would, indeed, be one of mine: "viola" for "voila."