What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Have you ever noticed some people add the letter "T" to the end of words? that drives me crazy.
eg. reasont, cousint, spellt, etc.

i believe i heard that onc't . . .

How about penk-sil for pencil?

Have you ever heard that? Sound weird.

Horrible Mc T

Anyone there, we have a question in this office, which seems better to you:
He doesn't live here any more.
He doesn't live here anymore. (one word)

I don't favour the latter.
I would never write 'any more' as one word.

And I will climb out on a limb and say that 'anymore' is wrong.

Anyobs?

That reminds me of a typo I found at the Pearl Harbor memorial. They used "Someone" or "Someday." When it should have been "Some one" or "Some day." I don't remember the exact case, obviously... but I'll try to so you can see what I mean. It stood out to me as a pretty bad mistake at the time. It was something to the extent of "If you choose any one of the following choices," and they have it written, "If you choose anyone of the following choices." In my opinion, dead wrong.

Anymore vs any more and words of that ilk
I don't know that what I say is grammatically correct but here goes:

anymore vs any more (and words of that ilk)

I don't want to eat there anymore.

and

I don't wish for any more dessert.

I almost always say anybody (unless I were saying, "Oh, any body will do") and somebody (unless I were saying, "Look, there's some body lying over there!").

And anywhere can't be divided into two words-- it would be meaningless. So for me, the bottom line is that the double words are nearly always correct-- unless you're trying to say something a little...er, bizarre!!

ailsa

P.S. Another pet peeve: can not instead of cannot

I suspect a Brit/US divide in a way... but Roberta and such erudite people tend to favour the older style - viz all right for alright, so probably any more for anymore.
But in one of our dictionaries here (Longman) it says one, and so does M-W.
What I will say to the editor who asked is that 2 words is not wrong, but one word might be, so go for 2. Thanks, people

Ailsa's points were good. Anyway and anywhere are never split, used in their normal context. But anymore looks and feels wrong to me.

I absolutely agree. But there is creep towards such things. Forever. Altogether and alright. MSN advertises itself as more useful everyday which I think is just plain wrong. An everyday story of country folk, but I get up every day.

any more and anymore
I think to write, "I can't understand what he says any more" looks strange. Because, at least in this context, any and more work together as one unit-- neither could stand alone. I know that alright is purportedly incorrect but... I do use it (I confess!). But I suspect that the "separate word" mode is slowly going by the wayside.

ailsa

And like the hapless traveler, set upon by bandits and abondoned in a noisome ditch, the "separate word" awaits its Good Samaritan . . .

You write well
Setanta,

You write well.



ailsa

Why, yer a sweetiepie . . . here, have a cookie . . .

I think the Samaritan should have passed by on the other side, or whatever the biblical quote is; I'm too idle to look it up. Left the dang thing in the noisome ditch, I mean.

I abhor "alright" and I feel I'll never get to like "anymore".

Diff'rent ships, diff'rent long splices.

Along with the hapless separate words are those who, like me and you, and McTag, are falling into the storm drain of history and being swept away on a tide of neologisms.

I wonder what the peeves would have been 100 yrs ago? Certainly the word peeve..
Did I mention somewhere my hatred of Barbeque, which should be pronounced barbek like discotheque, whereas I quite approve of whoever started writing BarBQ because it reflects pronunciation and is punchy and was once original.

Discotheque:

I seem to remember some entertainers around about the Chubby Checker era pronouncing the word disco-tay.

Which is okay by me, if illogical. Or is that alwrong?

Well you did consort with chichi people, the sort who say Pouffay for a common or garden poooooof, a veritable Hyacinth Bouquet of entertainers!

ever heard of "deprove" ??

[hmm; what would one normally choose, other than a "choice"?]

sorry though, i'm with 'ailsa' i would choose 'any one' of the choices; but would ask 'anyone' who agreed to back me up!