I can't recall if I've told this story previously on 2+2 but it is relevant here. One of the most grammar-challenged first year students I ever taught was an attractive young woman who told me that her ambition was to be a fashion designer. When I finally had a chat with her about her writing that allowed me to try to explain the rules for the use of the apostrophe, to my surprise she replied, "Oh, I know those rules!"

I asked her why, if that was the case, she put apostrophes before every final s.

Her instant reply was: "It looks more flourishing that way!"

It took me a moment to interpret what she meant, which was that she was using the apostrophe as a flourish.

Punctuation as decoration. There might be a trend here.

Similar to the "whom" issue:

Most people know that "Me and Bob ate some pizza" is wrong. "It should be "Bob and I ate some pizza." And I don't get worked up about people still saying the incorrect version.

But people have taken this correction and gone too far with it, leading to:
"He gave pizza to Bob and I." I know people are trying to avoid a common mistake, but they're making and popularizing a new mistake in the process. I hear this one all the time and it really grinds my gears, anyone else?

Yeah that's the worst. You can go through this thread and find many more complaints about that particular hypercorrection.

If you watch Big Brother (and no reason you should; it sucks), there's a character named Rachel who says stuff like "Brendon and I's plan was to..." or "He came up to Brendon and I's room..."

It's absurd.

Yea I should've seen the "Brendon and I" has been mentioned. It's tough to search for these but a couple more that might be new:

Generally people are going out of their way to sound smart when they use the form "If one thinks..." but they almost always butcher it. Instead of "If one thinks one's opinions are correct, one must defend them," you end up with something like "If one thinks one's opinions are correct, he must defend them." Save everyone trouble and don't use this form in the first place.

Real nitty one:
Bad: "As an expert in the field, people should pay attention to me."
Good: "As an expert the field, I should get attention."

Not quite the topic, but I'm cool with the technically incorrect use of "they" to refer a single person that could be male or female. The alternative if you don't want to commit to a gender is "he or she" which sounds worse to me.

Some of us think using "he", "him", and "his" as gender-neutral pronouns is the alternative. Those who feel that constitutes commitment to a gender obviously disagree.

I imagine it's been mentioned countless times, but reality shows are a nonstop harvest of people mangling the language with the "Brandon and I" stuff. They are trying to sound smart or profound but more often than not expose themselves as idiots. Mixed metaphors are the best example. Also, among worn out cliched statements "at the end of the day" is like a gift for famewhores, because it's really hard to mangle. Same thing with "it is what it is".

I have to disagree with you on this one. Unless you are trying to be gender-neutral, there's nothing wrong with "he" having "one" as its antecedent. The way this construction gets balled up is, rather, when it take forms such as "If one thinks one's opinions are correct, you must defend them."

I think we've all heard enough about what one thinks. I want to hear what two has to say.

Another one of these trendy phrases that grate on me is "That being said," (or "Having said that,") instead of using the the much simpler "Still," or "Yet..."

On the "I" vs "me" confusion (which extends to many TV news reporters and other on-air personalities), I listen to podcasts of a local D.C. area sports radio show called The Sports Junkies. Their constant misuse of the proper form of the first person (and third person: "he" vs "him") was so grating to my ear that I started making a note in my iPhone every time I heard it. I then took this compendium of errors and emailed it to them. I got the typical shrug of those who don't know and don't care about the language.

Here's the examples I sent them (date, segment #, time, person, quote):

5/17 S5 8:21 Lurch "about he and I"

5/18 S5 EB "now it's direct to her and I"

5/19 S2 7:46 EB "rivalry between he and Magic"

5/24 S7 18:55 EB "send some video or something to Brett or I"

5/25 S11 2:15 Grant "there were rifts between he and the Shanahans"

6/6 S10 3:38 EB "I guarantee you if her and I both went out..."

6/7 S5 0:40 EB "it's between he and his wife"

6/8 S7 7:04 EB "that's between he and Elin"

6/9 S5 11:05 Lurch "he's not like you or I"

6/14 S12 1:36 EB "there's a photo he took of John Ceena And I"

6/17 S12 3:53 EB "...thank Shorts for driving Cakes and I"

6/23 S5 0:47 Lurch "he was a year ahead of Eric and I"

6/27 S10 2:16 JP "he hooked EB, Cakes and I"

6/29 S2 8:41 EB "...putting Bret and I on tilt!"

7/1 S7 2:36 JP "Cakes put up a picture of the Governor and I talking"

You should form an organization of militant grammarians and take them to task. And carry around a blue pen for fixing comma splices.

Here's a question from a sample SAT test. Choose the correct option for the underlined part of the sentence:

Approximately one-third as many people live in Canada as in Mexico.

a) as in
b) as live in
c) instead of in
d) when compared to
e) than

They're all pretty awkward. I think I know what they want but want to hear other opinions.

B

The flight is boarding.
or
The flight is being boarded.

2 is technically correct?

If you had to choose either the Oxford Style Manual or Fowler's Modern English Usage which one would you pick? From what I gather Fowler's was the definitive guide but apparently the newest editions aren't that good. Or should I skip them both and go straight to New Hart's Rules and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors?

Haven't used any of those, but I highly recommend Garner's Modern American Usage.

A partner at my law firm tells me, a lowly associate, that you can't start a sentence with but. He changes it to however.

This is a myth. There is absolutely nothing wrong with beginning a sentence with but. In fact, it is an excellent--often the best--way to begin a sentence, usually much better than however, and there is tons of literature saying as much. His change made the sentence worse. But he's the boss.

I was tempted to show him up by sending him an article on this topic, but I decided against it. It's really frustrating, though, to have your superiors make your work product worse (stylistically).

I should have specified I'm looking for a British English usage guide.

FWIW David Foster Wallace's essay on Garner's guide is really good, and seems like exactly the kind of thing people in this thread would like.

No, a plane is being boarded. A flight is boarding. A flight is an action -- a group of people taking a plane from one place to another at a stated time. So that action is underway beginning with boarding. The flight is boarding.

A plane is a physical mode of transportation onto which the group of people making up the flight is going. So the plane is being boarded.

Oh God this is awful. I had an ex-girlfriend who learned this from somewhere, too. And I've heard other people with this affliction. There must be some class or some school out there erroneously teaching people that "however" is classier than "but."

So this girl I dated ALWAYS used however in place of but, no matter the context.

"I want some pizza however without olives."
"That movie was good however it was too long!"

Fixed your post. The rule applies to "and," too!

I don't think it's "some class" or "some school"; I think this is commonly taught at lots of schools all over the country.

For what it's worth, there are two groups of opponents to beginning a sentence with "but" or "and." The first group thinks it's a flat-out grammatical error, not just a question of classiness or formality. Now that view is very wrong.

The other group thinks it's grammatically acceptable but less formal. This is a little more understandable, I guess. But these people are wrong too. "But" and "and" are formal enough for almost any type of writing. The Constitution begins several sentences with these words. And so do some of the country's best legal writers in their Supreme Court briefs.

Also, a more general comment on lawyers: They generally suck at writing.

Look, I am at one of the top law firms in the country,* which means the lawyers I work with and against are usually highly educated, very intelligent (relatively speaking) people. Most came from top law schools and many were highly ranked at those schools. But I see terrible writing on a daily basis, and it's really frustrating.

That's not to say that I'm an excellent writer, but at least I take it seriously enough try to make my writing better. Most others just don't care, which is weird for lawyers, who are basically professional writers.

* I say this not to brag--trust me, it's more of a beat--but to make the point.

"Oh yeah baby, stick it in my however."

That would have driven me slowly insane. It makes her sound like a non-native speaker.

Well she was, she was Latina. But the rest of her English was fine, so it was still maddening.

What is she now?

sick grammar burn.