What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Clary wrote:

.....But in one of our dictionaries here (Longman) it says one, and so does M-W......

if you wish to speak 'merican, use the above; if you wish to speak 'English', get an "Oxford"!

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A couple words that make me crazy are when people say:

Hisself instead of himself

Pitcher instead of picture

Shrimps instead of shrimp

Mouses instead of mice

Can't say I've ever heard the word 'deprove' before sarius.

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sarius wrote:

ever heard of "deprove" ??

i suspect that there is no such word; but since it is clearly there in your post, that would be hard to 'deprove' eh?

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Hehe. I didn't mean it like the opposite of prove. That would be to disprove. Razz

Apparently deprove is supposed to mean the opposite of improve. I was quite surprised to hear someone say it too. Shocking how people make words up. Or maybe my english is simply "deproving".

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I just seen the word "psefically" used in another forum. It could have been a spelling error, but my bf says it like that all the time....where do people come up with these words from?LOL

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Pronunciation is a whole other ballgame. Ball game.

There was a weather girl (on the BBC, no less) who would refer to temperatures as "temitures".
We sacrifice much when we have to speak too fast.

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Here, the Chinese receptionists always say 'Can I helped you?'
Can't think why.

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in Japan, meeting young ladies, and entering into a 'relationship' all occurs in one word!

Because 'hi' means 'yes'! Shocked

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LOL!

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Sentence diagramming
When I was growing up, we had to diagram sentences in school. For some reason, I enjoyed doing it-- it helped me to identify and analyze the words that make up sentences. That may not sound like a big deal but I have found that it has served me over the years.

For instance, what is the subject of this sentence?

Malcolm complained loudly about Liza's penchant for playing her music at top volume.

Anyone?

ailsa

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Malcolm

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Sentence's subject
Sorry Clary-- that's incorrect. Embarrassed

ailsa

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Malcolm subject
complained about verb
[loudly] Liza's penchant for playing her music at top volume. predicate/object

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Re: Sentence's subject

ailsagirl wrote:

Sorry Clary-- that's incorrect.

ailsa

Ailsa, Clary is not liable to make a mistake in this field, believe me.

Nor has she.

McT

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Thanks for your support, Taggers!

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Subject
I'd have said that the subject is "Liza's penchant for playing music at top volume," since that's what the sentence is about, not Malcolm. But, alas, I'm wrong.

Sorry Clary! Guess I need to brush up on my grammar! Sad

But that reminds me of another peeve of mine.

Saying
Duane always complains about Sarah going home early.

Instead of
Duane always complains about Sarah's going home early.

Because, of course, Duane is complaining about "Sarah's going home early," not "Sarah." I hear this often.

ailsa

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This has probably already been mentioned but the use of "loose" in place of "lose" really bugs the heck out of me.

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"Let slip the dogs of war"

If you loose the dogs, you might lose them. That's interesting.

I'm just wondering in what circumstances you might use the verb "loose". I think it's probably archaic (like me).

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Loose, lose
Mctag,

How about this? (it's a headline)

Linguistic virus let loose on English

Of course, it's from an English newspaper, but it's still legitimate usage. You're not archaic-- anything but!

ailsa

P.S. I looked up "to loose" on Google and it came back with a spate of "loose weight now" entries. Gads

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Re: Loose, lose

ailsagirl wrote:

Mctag,

How about this? (it's a headline)

Linguistic virus let loose on English

Of course, it's from an English newspaper, but it's still legitimate usage.

Well okay, thanks, but there it's not used as a verb strictly speaking.
Anyway, whatever floats your boat.

(If I can't think of an apt word, I just make one up Smile

)

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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

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