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<p>‘Hopefully’. When I was young, it was mostly used to mean ‘with hope’, rather than ‘I hope that’, which is how it’s almost always used these days. </p>
<p>This was the pet peeve of one of my high school English teachers, who had a sign over her homeroom that read “Abandon hopefully, all ye who enter here.” :)</p>
<p>Does anyone else wince when you hear, “So and So went missing” instead of “is” missing?
I’ve heard it in the media and have no idea if it’s correct, but it makes me cringe.</p>
<p>OP here - thanks for the feedback. </p>
<p>Here’s another one: </p>
<p>“Reading along with the narrator helped us to learn the correct pronunciation of unfamiliar words . . .”</p>
<p>OR </p>
<p>“Reading along with the narrator helped us learn the correct pronunciation of unfamiliar words . . .”</p>
<p>I think the second, but that could just be my accent. I have no rules to justify my decision lol.</p>
<p>Holy cow, this is why I hate these tests. Both sound good to me, the “to” being implied in the second. </p>
<p>But, "helped"is a causative verb and most of them are followed by a noun or pronoun and an infinitive.<br>
-helped us to learn - or - permitted us to learn or encouraged us to learn. Not, eg, permitted us learn.
Anyone agree?</p>
<p>This is so arcane.</p>
<p>I believe both are correct and that “learn” is an infinitive in both sentences…</p>
<p>but I don’t know if that is correct</p>
<p>I cringe when I hear “I am waiting on him” instead of " I am waiting for him". Also “I am going to go lay down” instead of “lie down”. My Mom always told us that people lie down, and chickens lay eggs…</p>
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<p>This is one of my pet peeves! To graduate something means to mark measurements on it, as in a “graduated cylinder.”</p>
<p>I, too, cringe when “lay” and “lie” are misused, as they so often are.</p>
<p>My 7th grade English teacher (or teacher of English! 
) was adamant about the misuse of “get.”</p>
<p>I also admit to the use of “one” and “whom” in conversation. The former is particularly useful when one wishes to make it clear that one is referring to people in general, not the individual being addressed. If people find me stilted, too bad! :)</p>
<p>I do think that language must evolve, but I think that it should usually drag its feet. I agree that a gender-neutral plural pronoun is sorely needed, and have no problem with the use of “they” or “them” instead of “his or her.” I must say that I am very happy that “Ms.” has come into general use. I recall being flummoxed when addressing my college applications to women who were not identified as “Mrs.” or “Miss.”</p>
<p>I woke up hoping amesie had posted the correct answer to 48.</p>
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<p>Consolation, what exactly do you mean by the misuse of “get”?</p>
<p>Regarding grammar evolution:</p>
<p>Here are grammarphobia’s nominations for things that many people would argue about: [Grammarphobia:</a> Language Myths | Grammarphobia](<a href=“http://www.grammarphobia.com/grammar-html]Grammarphobia:”>Grammarphobia: Language Myths | Grammarphobia)</p>
<p>^^^Very interesting, Mathmom. Thanks for the link.</p>
<p>“Me” is correct in OP’s example.</p>
<p>One of my pet peeves is the incorrect usage of “who” and “whom.” The trick to knowing which is correct is to rephrase the sentence using the pronoun he/him (or she/her) … which would be correct? If it’s he/she, use “who;” if it’s him/her, use “whom.” It works!</p>
<p>Thanks, kelsmom. Grappled with that one today!</p>
<p>‘Help’ can be followed by the base form of the verb or the infinitive, as in “She helped me clean the kitchen” or “She helped me 'to clean the kitchen”. ‘Make’, ‘let’, and ‘have’ all use the base form, “I made her clean the kitchen”, whereas ‘get’ requires the infinitive, “I got her to clean the kitchen”.</p>
<p>Who is subject form, whom is object form: in “to whom it may concern”, ‘whom’ is object of the preposition to. “To whom am I speaking?”</p>
<p>“It is well for us to remember…”</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just awkward to my ear as I’m not sure it’s grammatically incorrect–but it just doesn’t sound quite right. What do you think?</p>
<p>Since this is College Confidential, a pet peeve of mine stretches into Latin–the incorrect usage of the words: alumnus, alumna, alumnae, and alumni. It drives me a little semi-crazy when an individual announces he/she is an ‘alumni’ of XYZ College!</p>
<p>Masslou, I think ‘good’ sounds better than ‘well’ but don’t believe ‘well’ is grammatically incorrect.</p>
<p>I think in this case “well” is incorrect, see this discussion: [Grammar</a> Girl : Good Versus Well :: Quick and Dirty Tips](<a href=“http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/good-versus-well.aspx]Grammar”>http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/good-versus-well.aspx)</p>
<p>I believe it is better to judiciously split infinitives than to needlessly adhere to rigid rules for the sake of preserving rigid rules. I also believe quotation marks should go inside or outside the punctuation depending on what you’re writing, not because a rule says so. If I say, “the door is locked”, I intend the phrase “the door is locked” to be a discrete unit. </p>
<p>I only care about who or whom when saying whom doesn’t sound ridiculous. The point is communication of meaning. </p>
<p>I have given up thinking about the way we turn words into inexact adverbs. The sea change for me was realizing the world had decided to use “hopefully” to mean something like inshallah in Arabic. That is: maybe, if and God willing then it might. To which I respond, oh well, whatever, nevermind. (Yes, that’s Kurt Cobain.) If we need “hopefully”, then inshallah it will be.</p>
<p>As an aside, I was speaking with a friend about his adult son who is very, very sick. This son has had severe health problems from a young age, so my friend is … there is no word. It isn’t accepting. It isn’t understanding. It isn’t prepared. It’s not easy to finger what he is and that means we have no word to describe his emotional state. This isn’t like schadenfreude, where we can use more words to describe what a single word conveys in German. This kind of situation is interesting because we don’t often run into things we can’t describe no matter how we try. When we lack the words, we lack the ability to describe using words. It has the quality of “ineffable” but with acceptance and understanding and some other ideas added.</p>