"Grammar" and "Punctuation" nit's unite! You're "head" will literally explode! - Page 6 - Other Topics Forum - Discuss Pop Culture, Arts and Entertainment

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"Grammar" and "Punctuation" nit's unite! You're "head" will literally explode!

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12-10-2008 , 04:31 AM

#126

27AllIn

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 6,583

Quote:

Originally Posted by private joker

Here here!

(j/k, I know it's "hear hear." I just wanted to add yet another common mistake)

Shouldn't the period be on the outside of the quotation marks?

Quote

12-10-2008 , 04:37 AM

#127

anononon

Guest

Posts: n/a

This shirt is for istewart:

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12-10-2008 , 04:43 AM

#128

tiltymcfish0

veteran

Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 2,210

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hey_Porter

I have always understood the phrase "with regards to" (as opposed to "regarding") to be improper in the sense that less is usually more in composition, so it tilts me pretty hard that "WRT" is pretty widespread on here and apparently used quite frequently in some fields.

What about With Respect To? Is that okay?

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12-10-2008 , 04:57 AM

#129

MrHoobris

grinder

Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 465

Here is one I haven't seen posted in the thread:

I find it most annoying when when somebody makes the observation, "That's a really unique shirt/whatever." "No, that can't be. It is unique or it isn't. There are no degrees of uniqueness."

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12-10-2008 , 05:19 AM

#130

MrEleganza

old hand

Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 1,846

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrHoobris

Here is one I haven't seen posted in the thread:

I find it most annoying when when somebody makes the observation, "That's a really unique shirt/whatever." "No, that can't be. It is unique or it isn't. There are no degrees of uniqueness."

A few decades ago, my grandmother was actually successful in getting our local paper to remove "Ohio's Most Complete Newspaper" from their advertising by pointing out that you are either complete or not, and obviously "Ohio's Most Nearly Complete Newspaper" wouldn't cut it.

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12-10-2008 , 05:20 AM

#131

snowden

veteran

Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 2,527

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrHoobris

Here is one I haven't seen posted in the thread:

I find it most annoying when when somebody makes the observation, "That's a really unique shirt/whatever." "No, that can't be. It is unique or it isn't. There are no degrees of uniqueness."

There are almost certainly are degrees of uniqueness. For example,

A plain white shirt
A shirt with an interesting design someone hasn't seen before.

Both are unique in that they are one of a kind, but the second one has nothing that is similar to it either. How unique something is is a function of how closely related it is to anything else.

Last edited by snowden; 12-10-2008 at 05:23 AM. Reason: gave reasons

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12-10-2008 , 06:10 AM

#132

Neuge

veteran

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 2,992

The one that bugs me the most is definitely improper usage of the superlative. Though it only seems to happen with specific adjectives/adverbs. For example: I often see "X is worst than Y," but almost never see "John is oldest than Sandy." I suppose that irregulars are more common, but I don't have anything concrete to back that up with.

Also, I'm always unsure of whether to use a colon or semicolon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by pongo

It drives me batty when someone uses the plural "they" or "them" in places of the singular he/she/it so he won't have to define a gender for whatever generic person he's talking about. Subject-verb agreement is important! But six-ish years of Latin will do that to you.

Yeah, I'm probably guilty of this often.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LetsHugItOut

This is awesome.

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12-10-2008 , 06:36 AM

#133

FlyWf

It's the other way

Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 58,097

"They" is endorsed by the OED and is way better than "he or she".

Also, Jared, poker players run g00t.

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12-10-2008 , 06:41 AM

#134

FlyWf

It's the other way

Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 58,097

Quote:

Originally Posted by Los Feliz Slim

This is more rhetoric than grammar, but it really bothers me when people preface a statement with "I guess" in order to distance themselves from responsibility for the content of the statement or the facts of the situation.

"I guess so-and-so is pretty upset about that email you sent."

You guessed that? On your own? If so-and-so is upset about the email just ****ing tell me they're upset.

It tilts me ever day in law school that whenever a dumb person is on call they preface every answer with "maybe" or phrases their answer as a question.

Professor: "So, why did the plaintiff win at trial?
Idiot: "Was it because the defendant didn't pay for the things he had bought?"

IT'S A POSSIBILITY, I WILL GRANT YOU THAT. The problem with disclaimers like that is while it makes you look self-aware if you're wrong, it makes you look dumb if you're right, and makes you look really dumb when it's a concrete non-maybe sort of question.

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12-10-2008 , 06:50 AM

#135

Max H

veteran

Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3,131

Quote:

Originally Posted by private joker

A lot of grammar nits here on OOT, and I'm one of them. Inspired by the recent thread "Answering call's based on caller ID" and other such hilarity, I'm uniting all of us under the umbrella of this common cause and sharing our frustration over the internets with citations of our complaints.

We don't even need to talk about how awful the your/you're problem has become. In fact, studies show that if you surf BBV or BBV4L (or posts written by *TT*), you'll actually see over 70% misuse of your/you're, so that seeing it correctly qualifies as an exception.

More subtle and annoying is the overuse (and misuse, frankly) of the word literally. For that, I bring you this. Here you'll see videos of people saying sh*t like Another issue we nits have is the ridiculous use of apostrophes, as indicated in the first paragraph. For that, I bring you this. You'll see such amazing photos as

and

And then we have the good ol' misuse of quotation marks. This is a phenomenon I didn't realize existed so widely. Are this many people randomly using completely pointless quotes? For that, I bring you this. Here we see the head-slapping images of:

and

Now all we need is a site dedicted to there/they're/their, loose/lose, and comma splices like "John, wasn't home."

Nits -- you're not alone.

Any other grammar/punctuation diseases I missed?

Maybe there is someone named Idea who truly does have great gifts.

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12-10-2008 , 08:25 AM

#136

AC-Cobra

Pooh-Bah

Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,207

Nothing pisses me off more than the caring continuum crap.

Way too many people **** it up in real life as well.

Also, for those wondering, it's pronounced Jag-You-Ar.

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12-10-2008 , 08:49 AM

#137

istewart

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 15,911

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowden719

There are almost certainly are degrees of uniqueness. For example,

A plain white shirt
A shirt with an interesting design someone hasn't seen before.

Both are unique in that they are one of a kind, but the second one has nothing that is similar to it either. How unique something is is a function of how closely related it is to anything else.

...

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12-10-2008 , 09:39 AM

#138

CrazyEyez

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 8,669

Will someone borrow me $50?

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:18 AM

#139

Max H

veteran

Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 3,131

Quote:

Originally Posted by AC-Cobra

Nothing pisses me off more than the caring continuum crap.

Way too many people **** it up in real life as well.

Also, for those wondering, it's pronounced Jag-You-Ar.

The only thing worse than Jag-waar is Jag-wire.

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:28 AM

#140

otnemem

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Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 8,298

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quicksilvre

I think the use of proactive is the thing that sets me off the most (out of everything not yet mentioned), since proactive doesn't mean active--it means something like anticipatory, but people get ir right maybe one time in 10.

The MW definition is "acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes."

This is usually how I hear people use it. Like, if you know that a client is going to come back with a list of changes to something, you can be proactive and start making the changes you know are wrong. How do people **** this one up?

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12-10-2008 , 10:28 AM

#141

private joker

Most Definitely

Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 25,244

... not to mention flammable and inflammable mean the exact same thing! Insanity!

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12-10-2008 , 10:29 AM

#142

Triumph36

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 40,914

Quote:

Originally Posted by snowden719

in anarcho-capitalism, language is free to mean nothing!

so are you really claiming that since no two things are exactly alike, everything is 'unique', and thus there are degrees of comparative uniqueness? yeah that only goes against the way in which we speak, act, and exist.

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12-10-2008 , 10:31 AM

#143

otnemem

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Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 8,298

Quote:

Originally Posted by prohornblower

I, too, prefer saying "myriad errors" in lieu of "myriad of errors".

"A myriad of" refers to more than 10,000.

"Myriad" means immeasurable or innumerable.

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:32 AM

#144

amead

veteran

Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 2,472

"The car needs washed". "The computer needs fixed".

My buddy says stuff like this all the time. He is staunchly convinced that it's grammatically proper and I have no reason to doubt him. It just makes my brain parts shudder.

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12-10-2008 , 10:36 AM

#145

otnemem

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Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 8,298

Quote:

Originally Posted by 27AllIn

Shouldn't the period be on the outside of the quotation marks?

A period never goes on the outside of quotes.

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:39 AM

#146

SenorKeeed

mew mew mew

Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 37,478

Quote:

Originally Posted by miajag

Of all the grammar/spelling mistakes that tilt me, "alot" is easily the worst. How in the world do so many people think it's only one word?

Thats how new word's are made, dog. I use alot alot, hoping that it will become the new alright.

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12-10-2008 , 10:39 AM

#147

otnemem

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Join Date: Nov 2004 Posts: 8,298

Quote:

Originally Posted by amead

Everyone spoke like this in Appalachia when I went to school at WVU.

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:40 AM

#148

miajag

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Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 17,328

Quote:

Originally Posted by AC-Cobra

Also, for those wondering, it's pronounced Jag-You-Ar.

"Jag-waar" is the correct pronunciation in American English.

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:40 AM

#149

anononon

Guest

Posts: n/a

Quote:

Originally Posted by amead

UNACCEPTALBDSBNSDFBJKSDNKJSDGHS

Quote

12-10-2008 , 10:43 AM

#150

miajag

Carpal \'Tunnel

Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 17,328

Seriously wtf, when did "needs washed," etc. become so widespread? At least it's useful in that I can immediately determine a person's a dumbass if he says it.

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