What are your pet peeves re English usage?

I've been cudgelling my brains, but so far nada.

Sun shining, but weather cool. I was up betimes, but not particularly brightly, thank you kindly for enquiring.

McT, we still defend our errors as typos, although we are neither using a typewriter, nor indulging in type-setting (which both my mother and her twin learned to do, by the by, my grandfather having no sons)

Americans till go to the dime store for cheap purchases, even though a dime would be insufficient to purchase "penny" candies these days

People who are self-employed using their putative skills are still "free-lancing," although most wouldn't know from which side to mount a horse, nor how to couch a lance . . .

Americans (at least) still refer to starting a car as "cranking her up" even though the majority of drivers are unaware of the former necessity to fit a handle in socket, and actually, physically "turn over the engine" to accomplish the desired end . . .

Damn it, McT, now i've dozens of examples floating tauntingly just beyond the tip of my tongue . . .

floating tautingly beyond the tip of your tongue?

This is not possible.

JTT,
.....You made two mistakes in our reply to me, in the same paragraph. First of all, I was not making an assumption. I was stating and clarifying a pet peeve of MINE. Second, I was not alluding to an allegation made by you.Now that was an egregius assumption on your part. But I still got LOL, for you My Brother.

far too much bonhomie going on here

not what a2k is all about at all

Taunt this, buckoh

Izzat better now?

None of us would have lasted long on the New Improved Abuzz as it was just before it folded. I even find myself saying "please" and "thank you" from time to time. Ahh, me. See where A2K has led me?

The price of volunteer labor.

McTag and Satanta's comments brought to mind a particular phrase that has always struck me as strange. "Quit the room." I think that's funny, and when I read it I can't help but wonder if the person quitting the room began a new one. A "Quit Claim", however, makes sense to me. But I live in the Southern US. We say a lot of strange things that make sense to me.

Virago

So you're havin' big fun now, ain'cha, Miss Virago . . . gone an' done was always one of my favorites . . .

I was singing in the shower and realized that the Gilbert and Sullivan song that has this phrase "while the coast is clear" really does refer to pirates on the shore, but when we say that, it is not pirates we're usually worried about.

Hmm. Interesting observation. Now you've got me wondering whether that line is the original source of the colloquial expression, or whether G&S just borrowed an existing expression because the meter fit the song and it was a clever play on words.

I'm havin' a big time now for sure, sugah!

Gone an' done, saucered and blowed… I know exactly where over yonder is, how far down the road a piece is, and how long it takes to set a spell. But "gone an' done" got me in trouble more times than I can remember.

Anyone who's ever gone an' done it as a kid knows what it means to have their legs striped and that it involves a switchin'. I know very well what it means, and having experienced it I have to say that most times it was worth the whippin' I got for it. Much to the chagrin of my mother who wielded the switch.

And now I'm fixin' to cut off the computer and go outside. It's a right pretty day out dahlin', and I don't want to miss it. (Now where in tarnation is my memosa and my wide brimmed hat?)

Virago :wink:

Why, lookit' you gone an' done . . .

Lookit the way you are . . .

Have a fine day, sugar pie, and be sure to drop on by again . . .

You say what?

Why, yessir, i kin tell ya how to git there, but you cain't git there from here. Used ta could drive by Judge Stevenson's ol' auction barn? By where the in-surance man used ta live? But you cain't go that way no more, not since Judge Stevenson sold that stand a timber off and they up an' closed the road. So you'll need to go back the way you come. Now when you git up there by Bubbles Jackson's house, the one with all them ol' painted up wagon wheels and what not asittin' out front? Wellsir, right there you wanna go left up past ol' Miss Weber's place--you know i never did believe any a that ol' nonsense about her an' that Yankee drummer used ta come through here two-three times a year--i say when you git there, you're gonna want ta . . .

. . . say, what the hell's the matter with you ? ! ? ! ?

Vernon, did you see the way that feller tore outta here asprayin' gravel every which way? An' then them Yankees wonder why ain't nobody likes 'em.

Assure/Ensure/Insure
I can't stand when people use assure, ensure, and insure interchangably.

Also, for some odd reason, people at my work use the word "overview" as a verb. Erg.

As for serial commas - the AP style convention (used by many journalists) is that you don't include a comma before the "and" in a series. It may not always be incorrect if you see the final comma omitted...

Thank god, some sanity and a good peeve from inkapaul. Darling i love you, though you treat me crool....

We say "He was wearing a collar and tie" even though shirts with detachable collars went out with the Ark.

Re: Assure/Ensure/Insure


There's a very good reason for this, Inkapaul. Changing nouns into verbs is something that is a fundamental part of the English language.

People don't do these things because they are uneducated and they don't do them because they are trying to destroy the language. They do this because they can't help it. They are simply following one of the rules that governs English.

You made me think of another. Law dogs append "Esquire" to their names, so that you won't miss the fact that they've passed the bar. I have had endless harmless fun in questioning them as though i were serious, about their horses, and the necessarily difficult and expensive burden of keeping them in a modern city. Funny, most don't seem to see the humor in it.