Words, Phrases, and Misspellings We Hate

[Henry]

Another that just popped up in my mind -- "could of" instead of "could've" or "could have." Common speech and internet communications are full of malapropisms and mondegreens like this, though.

 

[Jeff Carlsen]

My biggest pet peeve is when someone gets self righteous about a definition or proper usage... but the one they're criticizing has been a standard definition in the OED for 50+ years.

The OED is an inclusive dictionary. Its entire purpose is to track the use of language without judgement.

People who are sticklers for older, more precise definitions are attempting to treat English exclusively. Since we don't have any authoritative standards body for the English language, it's left entirely up to self-righteous word snobs to protect classic definitions, lest we lose their precision.

 

[Zustiur]

'I could care less.' No, I don't think that doesn't mean what you think it means; I know it doesn't mean what you think it means. Who's with me?

Dear god. This one makes me seethe with anger every time I see it.

Dropping ly from the end of words is another one that annoys me.

 

[Baron Greystone]

It's. As a possessive.

My blood pressure is rising just thinking about it.

 

[Stormonu]

put me down for build, role and charop. And gish.

Grammar and spelling rarely bother me, I live with a wife who has a learning disability and suffers greatly at the hands of the English language.

Personally, and beyond mere RPGs, I have a hate for any word with a french origin. It's never spelt how spoken. Hor d'ouevre (really? really, really - how do you make that say ordurvs?), viola (wa-la, really?) , even melee (may-lay, c'mon!), as just a sample.

 

[Orius]

'I could care less.' No, I don't think that doesn't mean what you think it means; I know it doesn't mean what you think it means. Who's with me?

Actually, I could care less.

"build"

It's a player character, not a barn!

That and I tend to associate it with charoping.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey...if someone is good at charop, can we call that person a charopodist?

 

[DonAdam]

New Grandma Rule: Grandma was an English teacher.

 

[Dioltach]

People who use "inconceivable" incorrectly.
I'll second "could care less", "rouge" and "literally". And gratuitous vowels, consonants and apostrophes in names. And I'll add any work of fantasy that goes overboard with the letters and letter combinations A, Y, TH and AE.

 

[Cadence]

People who are sticklers for older, more precise definitions are attempting to treat English exclusively. Since we don't have any authoritative standards body for the English language, it's left entirely up to self-righteous word snobs to protect classic definitions, lest we lose their precision.

Thinking about it, there are definitely a few cases where I applaud their work.

I think they're losing the battle for nonplussed. It seems to happen so rarely that I'm always nonplussed when I see it used correctly... it stops me in my tracks and I don't know if I should keep reading and think better of the author, go back and reread it again to make sure I actually saw it used right, or double check the dictionary to make sure that the author and I do have the definition right.

Accept is another one. I'll take the way a lot of people use it to mean "believe" or "trust", but I have some reservations.