Reconvening the Court of Grammatical Peeves

[KathyK]

What is with the multiple commas? I'm starting to see them everywhere.

Next!

[PaulaO]

Could the commas be from typing on a tablet or cell phone?

My biggest peeve is the misuse of the apostrophe. You do not use apostrophes to denote plural!!!

[silk]

"Feathers" on a horse.... No, feathers are on birds, and feather is on a horse.

[redsoxluvr]

Could the commas be from typing on a tablet or cell phone?

My biggest peeve is the misuse of the apostrophe. You do not use apostrophes to denote plural!!!

YES! They are horses, not horse's. (Example, I am going to feed my horse's.) There are four Saturdays in a month, not Saturday's.

I also cannot stand when people use inappropriate commas. (Example, Jethro, is going, to come home today. )

I blame autocorrect. :/

[AirsAboveNC]

When you are referring to another person and yourself, "Bob and I" is not an ironclad rule. If you don't know which pronoun to use for yourself, take the other person out of the sentence and see how you'd refer to yourself. And then add the other person back in. And please. PLEASE. I's is not a word. If you're talking about something possessive, the same applies - whatever pronoun you'd use if it was just you is the same one you use if it's Bob and you. Whose is this? Bob's and mine. It's Bob's and my anniversary this week. Not Bob and I's anniversary. That makes no sense.

Thank you and good night.

[capstone]

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The first menu item on this web site almost killed me when I stumbled onto it.

[FlyingLily]

Loose weight and lounging horses.

[KathyK]

Seen on a shelf label at Schneiders - yes, that Schneiders:

"Prince of Whales Spurs"

"Feathers" on a horse.... No, feathers are on birds, and feather is on a horse.

See, I don't consider that to be a grammatical error, as it's not something we could have and should have learned in school.

[pawsplus]

Spelling, not grammar, but "balling my eyes out" just kills me. Really???!?! Think about that for a minute. It's "bawling," people. And, of course, "lounging" and "confirmation." <shudder>

[demi]

Ok, ok, ok, I make the "lounging" error. I have no idea why. I know better. Please don't hit me with a lounge whip!!

[demi]

Oops. I mean LUNGE whip.

[KathyK]

Actually, it's longe.

According to Wikipedia:

The word is believed to be derived from either the French word allonge,[1] meaning "to lengthen",[2] or the Latin longa ("long").[1] In both cases, the root word featured spelling with an "o" and emphasizes lengthening and extension, so although always pronounced "lungeing", the traditional spelling of the word in English is "longeing"

[demi]

Lunge. I deserve the rolling eye expression!

But, as far as someone balling her eyes out, anyone who makes such a darling home for Guinea pigs can cry anyway she wants over a sick 24 yr old mare.

[demi]

Oops. I mean LONGE.

[Astral]

When you are referring to another person and yourself, "Bob and I" is not an ironclad rule. If you don't know which pronoun to use for yourself, take the other person out of the sentence and see how you'd refer to yourself. And then add the other person back in. And please. PLEASE. I's is not a word. If you're talking about something possessive, the same applies - whatever pronoun you'd use if it was just you is the same one you use if it's Bob and you. Whose is this? Bob's and mine. It's Bob's and my anniversary this week. Not Bob and I's anniversary. That makes no sense.

Thank you and good night.

It's not "Bob and my's anniversary" either. Heard that one too many times.

Heighth. Not a word. Sorry.

The over-use of apostrophes kills me. I fear that it's become so rampant that it's going to become the new norm and people are just going to accept it.

Some of the errors that could just be typos don't get to me *as* much, though it would be nice if people proofread their texts/emails/etc.

The lack of interest in properly conjugating verbs. "I falled down," "I runned to the store," etc etc. Your spellcheck should be ALL over that...

The misuse of common phrases be people trying to make their statements wordier - "all intensive purposes" is far more common than it should be.

[seahorsefarm]

"Feathers" on a horse.... No, feathers are on birds, and feather is on a horse.

I've heard and used this for so long (singular or plural) that I thought it was just another piece of horse-y jargon and it doesn't bother me in the least.

Chestnuts on horses' legs on the other hand.......

[Paints]

Loose weight and lounging horses.

I don't know, my weight has become looser since my horse has been lounging on stall rest.

[DJR]

Then/than - some people don't seem to understand the difference.

"My horse was wondering around in the field." Not wandering around? I picture a horse assuming a very philosophical stance as it grazes, wondering about life & such!

There are many more, but I'll stop there.

[Rockabilly]

Oh, don't get me started! Just about every single article on the web is full of grammar and spelling mistakes. I admit I'm an old fart, but why isn't this taught in school anymore?

I cringe when I hear "I'ma".

[Red Barn]

Gifted. Lessoned. Cliniced. Trialed.

[seahorsefarm]

^^ And flatted. UGH.

[seahorsefarm]

and honestly, I'd be really happy never to read about the fabulous dressage horse "Tortillas" again.

[hoopoe]

Afraid to post for fear I might make a mistake

[KathyK]

Go ahead. Make our day.

[Suzon]

Afraid to post for fear I might make a mistake

Or maybe that should read: I's afeared o' farkin' up.

[myleetlepony]

See/seen/saw....I cringe when those are misused.

[redsoxluvr]

image.jpeg

The first menu item on this web site almost killed me when I stumbled onto it.

I saw that! It makes me grind my teeth repeatedly.

[TeresaB]

The use of the incorrect tense of a word drives me nuts.

Judy come over and we had a great time.

My SO and his mom use come instead of came and it drives me INSANE. I want to scream, 'It already happened, she CAME over.'

Ok, I'm better now.

[Koolkat]

Could we please discuss further and farther?

Lest I further err farther down the road.

[Dapple Field]

Their, there, and they're seem to be something that has not been taught in elementary school anymore. Should there have been a comma after they're??

[PaulaO]

Their, there, and they're seem to be something that has not been taught in elementary school anymore. Should there have been a comma after they're??

If you believe in the Oxford comma, yes, there (not they're or their) would be a comma before the last thing in your (not you're) list. I'm an Oxford comma person.

[heddylamar]

Seeing my own grammatical errors drives me nuts.

[capstone]

The first menu item on this web site almost killed me when I stumbled onto it.

I saw that! It makes me grind my teeth repeatedly.

Well, I emailed them about it. And they fixed it!

image.png (136.82 KiB) Viewed 33430 times

[Tuddy]

The use of "loose" for "lose" gets me every.damn.time. BAH!

[PaulaO]

Kudos to you Capstone! And kudos to Signature Spurs for correcting it.

[KathyK]

Their, there, and they're seem to be something that has not been taught in elementary school anymore. Should there have been a comma after they're??

If you believe in the Oxford comma, yes, there (not they're or their) would be a comma before the last thing in your (not you're) list. I'm an Oxford comma person.

This is a little confusing. No, there should not be a comma after "they're," but if you're an Oxford comma person (as are all reasonable people IMHO), the comma after "there" is correct, right, and righteous.

[Tarlo Farm]

"Feathers" on a horse.... No, feathers are on birds, and feather is on a horse.

Wracking my old brain, but don't we call the long loose hairs around the fetlocks of draft horses (and Fresians), "feathers"?

"Literally", when one means "figuratively". Aghhhhhhhhh!

[galopp]

Yes, the hair on drafts = feathers https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/horsefeathers

And far as the work for lunge, or longe... it comes from longier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longeing and http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/longe?x=25&y=9

I had an english teacher who went ballistic over: the reason why is. It is either: the reason is, or the why is....but not both together.

[DJR]

I wouldn't trust wiktionary to be the definitive guide to whether the hair on a draft's legs is "feather" or "feathers".

Here is a site that goes into great detail on feathered horses. At the very end, there is a statement about "feather" vs. "feathers".
http://www.gypsyhorses.com/feather.htm

And here is a link to the breed standard at the "American Shire Association" website where, again, they refer to "feather" not "feathers".
http://shirehorse.org/breed-standard-page/

However, the UK Shire Association site shows only one reference to feather vs. feathers on their breed standard page, and they say "feathers" in that one reference. So, either feather or feathers is used by Shire authorities, but it seems that feather is favored over feathers in the reading I've done.

[Ponichiwa]

Highly recommended reading for the peeved:
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-English-Histo ... 0399165584

This isn't to say that I don't ever draw a line in the sand (seriously, people, if you're truncating a year it's '98, not 98') but it does help put things into (historical) perspective.

[boots-aregard]

Their, there, and they're seem to be something that has not been taught in elementary school anymore. Should there have been a comma after they're??

If you believe in the Oxford comma, yes, there (not they're or their) would be a comma before the last thing in your (not you're) list. I'm an Oxford comma person.

ack Ack ACK! NO!!!!!

[Don Giovanni]

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The first menu item on this web site almost killed me when I stumbled onto it.

It seems so random!! Why the apostrophe on some words and not others??

I saw a sign in front of a furniture store the other day advertising Tables, Chairs and Sofa's. WTH?

[mld02004]

My boss overuses quotes in her emails. And she overuses air quotes when you talk to her in person.

Sigh.

[Astral]

I kid you not, the library local to where I used to work had a sign out for donations for their annual book fair: "Wanted: used DVD's, CD's, and Book's."
It hurt. It just hurt.

[KathyK]

[Rhianon]

I kid you not, the library local to where I used to work had a sign out for donations for their annual book fair: "Wanted: used DVD's, CD's, and Book's."
It hurt. It just hurt.

Yes, ouch.

[pawsplus]

Also:

- "I had a couple dogs" instead of "I had a couple of dogs." I've heard it on NPR, so the end of the world has arrived.

[Chancellor]

image.jpeg

The first menu item on this web site almost killed me when I stumbled onto it.

It seems so random!! Why the apostrophe on some words and not others??

I saw a sign in front of a furniture store the other day advertising Tables, Chairs and Sofa's. WTH?

I'd love to know why the LAST on the list needed the apostrophe but none of the others.

I was horrified that I actually used an apostrophe where it didn't belong and left it that way for awhile on Facebook! It's become too commonplace now to see misplaced apostrophes.

[capstone]

I was horrified that I actually used an apostrophe where it didn't belong and left it that way for awhile on Facebook! It's become too commonplace now to see misplaced apostrophes.

Lol. I find this a bit like alot. Even though I know awhile can have its place, I believe this is not one.

"A while is a noun meaning “a length of time”

“I slept for a while.”
– (compare with “I slept for a bit” and “I slept for three hours”)
“I was away from my desk for a while.”
– (compare with “I was away from my desk for two minutes”)

Awhile is an adverb, meaning “for a time,” or literally, “for a while”.

“I slept awhile before dinner.”
(compare with “I slept deeply before dinner” and “I slept badly before dinner”.)
As you can see, the words can be used almost interchangeably in some cases – but a while needs to be accompanied by a preposition, such as “for” (“I slept for a while”) or “ago” (“I left work a while ago”). Awhile always means “for a while”."

Just goes to show that grammar is hard and we can easily make mistakes even while discussing it specifically.

[capstone]

image.jpeg

The first menu item on this web site almost killed me when I stumbled onto it.

It seems so random!! Why the apostrophe on some words and not others??

I saw a sign in front of a furniture store the other day advertising Tables, Chairs and Sofa's. WTH?

My guess is that the section for dog's (ha!) was done by someone different than the horse sections.