Based on the viewing statistics for this site – don’t worry no personally identifying information is collected so your anonymity as a reader if not your good taste remains in tact – the move of Map Mondays from my Facebook author page to my blog has been mostly successful. Readership (or perhaps more correctly views/clicks) is up, but generating a weekly feature has taken more time than I expected. While I’ve tried to spread the pain among my various and sundry activities, the biggest loser has been in writing – both non-map blog posts and sadly my latest installment in The Warders series.
With that preamble I’m returning with a bit of a puff piece – My personal pet peeves with English, or more correctly things I commonly find in English that drive me nuts. In honor of David Letterman’s final top 10, here’s my top ten list:
English Pet Peeves
#10. Word repetition. Solution, learn to use a thesaurus. If like me you find the bound version annoying to use, I suggest using the MS Word thesaurus, which is under the ‘review’ tab. If you’re not a Word person, there are plenty of online options.
#9. Over reliance on automation. Don’t get me wrong spell-checkers and grammar-checkers are great tools but they’re not foolproof. Relying on them to deliver perfect prose is a bit of a gamble, especially if you’re a touch typist. For me the most common of these is from/form. Both words are spelled correctly and may even pass a grammar-checker, but substituting them almost certainly misrepresents what I meant to write.
#8. Misuse of their, they’re and there. Because they sound identical this is not a problem in spoken English, but probably one of the most common things I see in writing. I see it mostly in informal communication (email) as opposed to published work, but I’ve never been overly impressed with resume lines like: ‘helped the manager grow they’re business’
#7. Saying Eck Cetera instead of Et Cetera. The hard K to S sound is easier to say than T to S sound, but that doesn’t make it correct.
#6. These ones/Those ones. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in writing, but I hear it all of the time. I have no issue with pluralizing ‘one.’ Phrases such as ‘loved ones’ or ‘red ones’ are fine by me. My issue is that in both cases the word ‘ones’ is redundant – it’s part of these/those. Honorable mention, ‘anyways.’
#5. Confusing it’s and its. The first is a conjunction of the words ‘it’ and ‘is,’ while the second is the possessive form of the pronoun it. I freely admit this one bedevils me in my own writing – especially at the beginning of a sentence.
#4. All right and Alright. Technically, the correct way to write this is as two separate words. However, the combined ‘alright’ is becoming more acceptable. My editor’s take is to allow it in conversation, but not elsewhere. I didn’t know this when I wrote my first book Misaligned: The Celtic Connection. As a result it’s the only one of my books that includes ‘alright.’ Other similar word pairs include; a lot/alot; thus/thusly; regardless/irregardless; would have/would of, etc.
#3. Couldn’t care less vs. Could care less. Another that I often used improperly. The correct usage is ‘couldn’t care less,’ as in there’s nothing less important than that. I suppose there are instances when you want to tell someone that it’s possible for you to care less about something, but I’ve never run across one. Honorable mention here, ‘For all intents and purposes vs. For all intensive purposes.’
#2. Plural nouns with singular verbs and vice versa. I get caught by this one, too – especially when I get interrupted while writing. That’s not an excuse, but it happens.
#1. Made up words. Okay, in fantasy, sci-fi, poetry, and other fictional writing authors occasionally need to create new words. There’s nothing wrong with that, but with over 500,000 words to choose from there’s probably no reason to make up your own. Some of the more annoying examples; undoubtably (undoubtedly); supposeably (supposedly); flustrated (a mix of frustrated & flustered).
The hardest part of making this list was limiting my pet peeves to ten. Did I leave one or more of your personal favorites off the list? If so, please feel free to add them in the comments section below. If you can’t think of any, buy one (or more) of my books. Judging from sales, I’m sure you’ll find something annoying in one of them.
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
“I couldn’t care less” brought back a teenage memory. I used that phrase so much, my mother was ready to killl me. I could still flip it off with a piece of attitude if I wanted to. But, I know it just wouldn’t work with my wife either. My addition to the list would be not using commas. Example: “When Irwin was ready to eat his cat jumped on the table.” vs. “When Irwin was ready to eat, his cat jumped on the table.”
I agree with you on commas. I tend to be an over-user of commas. Perhaps I watched too many episodes of the original Star Trek.
ROFL!!!
Hey, Armen. You missed two of my pet peeves:
1. When people say pitcher when they actually meant picture.
2. Also, a Western NY thing in which you don’t actually use the ‘to be’ verb where it’s needed. Example: “My car needs washed” instead of correctly saying “my car needs to be washed”.
I also think that misuse of to, too and two should have received Honorable mention in item 8.
Amy, as I said it’s a bit of a target rich environment. You’re right about the to, too, two. I honestly thought about including the omission of the verb ‘to be,’ although I associate it more with Pittsburgh. I haven’t heard it in Western NY.