Grammar 101, ... or, pet peeves Options

[MoonNymph]

A pet peeve of mine - which you don't see in decent writing - but it attacks you from all corners when someone unexperienced shoves a fanfic under your nose - is not punctuating the end of dialogue correctly! ARGH!

How many times must I correct
"Hello." said Ron
to
"Hello," said Ron? GRRR! You'd think anyone over 10 would be able to get that right! *clamps forehead in frustration* It's a comma! COMMA! Not a full stop! Do you normally put full stops in the middle of sentences? Hmm? Well don't put it between the dialogue and the tag then!

Another thing that you see in that sort of writing is no carriage returns between different people speaking! That really annoys me!

*shakes head sadly and walks away*
They will never learn .....

[froeth]

^ I'm guilty of this! I try very hard not to, but I occasionally forget. I still don't write terribly well, but I'm trying. I suppose that counts for something.

I think my personal pet peeve is:

"Harry and Hermione gathered they're books in a hurry."

The they're/there/their misuse really annoys me. Other than that, I haven't got much room to talk. My grammar isn't that brilliant.

To the person who said this thread was boring: I personally find it very interesting, and have never once seen a site with more grammar masters.

[zymurgy]

For people with their/they're/there trouble/, remember:

THERE is an E at the end.

They left an I out of THEIR spelling.

THEY'RE amazed that they need an apostrophe.

Courtesy of my father.

[moonbeam3243]

Not so much grammar as linguistics, but...

It is li-BRE-rry

NOT

li-BERRY

I think that is one of my only pet peeves. That, and people who look too much like their pets.

PS, it was SO tempting to mess up that "their"

[ronsmyman]

I have a pet peeve like that.

It's Sher-BET

NOT Sher-BERT

Argh...The only time when that is acceptable is on Sesame Street when it's funny, because Bert asks Ernie if he wants some Sherbert and Ernie says, "Sure Bert" and it's a good time and everyone laughs. But that is the ONLY acceptable time.

[zymurgy]

I have a spoken language pet peave too:
When people say "pitcher" and meen "picture"
It was the funniest when I'd done a pastel still life, and someone said, "Hey, that's a nice pitcher." I said, "No, that's a jug."

Or the old Bostonian r dropping.
The only time that is acceptable is whith the great joke:
(spelling is phonetic)

A guy gets out of woak, (work) wanting nothing mea than to get home, and he discovas he's left his keys in the ca'. So, he pulls out his cell, and trys to call tripple A. But his cell battahies are dead, so he can't. Then it stahts to rain. This guy is so upset, he's close to teahs. Then his cowoahker comes out, and finding out what the problem is. He slides his leg ovah the ca' door, and it unlocks.
The guy is completly nonplussed, and asks, "How didjya do that?"
His friend shrugges and answers, "I'm wearin' khakis."


... khakis = ca' keys = car keys.

[GinnyAuror00]

The absolute worst is when there is a ridiculous dialoge tag after every sentence. For example:

"Grandfather?  Can't I go to the park today?" queried Ben [you do realize that asked sounds better...::rolls eyes::]
"No," Grandfather replied gruffly.
"Why not?" Ben persisted, his face growing redder by the minute.
"Because I said so?  Now leave me alone so that I can work!" shouted Grandfather.

This is [sadly] an example of some horrid ff I've read....::shudders:: the overusage of 'Ben', 'Grandfather' just turns you off ....and also, one is allowed to leave things 'untagged'....or just write 'said'....JK Rowling, for example, does that all the time!

-Ginny, who hates this stuff

[StarWalker]

My biggest pet peeve is when people use the word further when they should say farther. Farther describes physical distance...

Unfortunately, both farther and further are proper inflected forms of the adverb, far, without distinction or preference.

R/
Clyde

[StarWalker]

I stopped using "Can I" years ago while dating my husband. His brother (they shared an apartment in University) would answer the phone, I'd ask if I could speak to his brother, and he'd say, "I don't know, can you?" *Grrrr* I learned.

I go one farther, I'm afraid. When my children's friends call and ask, "Can I speak to (name a child), I reply "Certainly," and then hang up. After two or three repetitions, they get the message.

R/
Clyde

[StarWalker]

I see that we all have certain grammatical idiosyncracies that trip our loathing!

Here's one of mine.

Assure/ensure/insure: I blame the inappropriate use of these words on the misuse of Roget's thesaurus, which list them, in circular fashion, as synonyms of each other.

When assure means 'to give confidence to,' ensure and insure are not synonymous!

When ensure means 'to make sure, certain, or safe,' assure and insure are not synonymous!

When insure means 'to enter into or carry a contract of insurance on,' assure and ensure are not synonymous!

R/
Clyde

[anhaire]

My worst pet peeve is "different than." Different doesn't compare things, so you shouldn't use "than" after it! The correct usage is "different from."

Also, "more unique" really bugs me. Either something is unique (one-of-a-kind), or it is not. Just say it's unique, and forget the more!

[Miss Trickster]

My biggest pet peeve has got to be saying "said," too much. For intance...

"Hi," said Bob.

"Hi," said Jake.

"How are you?" Bob said.

"I'm alright," said Jake.

:devil: There are plenty of other words besides "said,": replied, asked, commented... But I guess that isn't really grammatic... Here's one grammatic one: "it's" and "its." <_< Now THAT is annoying.