So you want to effect a change in the way those words are used?
Odd, since “off of” consumes four more characters of a 140 or 280 character message.
^^This confusion could effect a sad affect in us posters.
You could address it to The Smith’s House if you are dying to use the apostrophe.
My rant: Loose and lose are different words. Moot and mute are different words.
And as a non-native New Yorker I will never get used to standing on lines instead of in lines.
As a child of New Yorkers, in line and on line both sound fine to me.
I think I would say “I am going to get in line” but “I’m on line right now”.
“On line” is British, no?
These threads about words, grammar and punctuation, etc, make me self conscious.
I’d say, I’m in line for tickets. “On the line” if I’m “on” the phone.
For a U writing job, I had a boss who had an expert level knowledge of all the style manuals. Quite intimidating.
I decided after that I’d do my best and not fall apart about casual writing or conversation, when it could be a slip, a typo, etc.
British people queue.
I’m convinced my fingers are completely detached from my brain. I will often see I’ve typed “their” when I know it should be “there” or “its” when it should be “it’s,” and I’m probably guilty of every other example mentioned on this thread.
If I was writing a paper for submission or a work product (if I worked,) I would edit and edit some more, but I’m not. I’m posting on a message board or writing emails/texts to friends.
I’m with you their (there, lol) @emilybee I know how to use those words but I type them incorrectly almost every time I use them. I also have started to add an apostrophe at the end of any word that ends with s, for example, I’ll type: “I hope he start’s working on that…”.
My pet peeves are just trendy words and phrases that for some reason become popular and overused:
pushback
on so many levels
ramp up
conflate
construct - as in - “that is a social construct”
agency - as in - “a person should have agency to do …”
super - “that is a super easy way to …” Yuck - that sounds like a 7th grader.
The use of “so many” in the nightly news could spawn one of those drinking games. I don’t understand how it arose, but it is very popular among national anchors who want to express that something is prevalent without having to be specific.
I also hate “try and”, rather than “attempt to” or “try to”, but apparently not everyone is as offended by that one.
I agree wholeheartedly with less vs fewer. Less water, but fewer gallons of water.
I find it grating when people choose the simple past form of an irregular verb when the past participle is called for. “I should have went.” We could have ate earlier." Yikes.
A few more that got to me today…
Shoe-in instead of shoo-in. Shoe-in conjures images of creative usage of footwear.
Weary for wary.
Leary for leery.
Ok - that made me feel better. Until the next time I catch up on reading my fb feed.
I really hate the term “elevate” as in I’m going to elevate an issue.
I am the queen of mistyping words I know. I wince looking back at its/it’s and they’re/there/their flubs because I hate it when other people do that. I once typed “flower” in a bread recipe. I’m also always leaving off final s’s and d’s in my posts. They make me look like English is not my native language.
YES!!! I hate the base off of thing. Almost as much as less/fewer and the ever popular “literally” when you actually mean “really” or “very”. and historic/historical/historically . I yell at the TV.
I told my husband once it’s like watching someone use a shoe to hammer a nail (which I have done, so I claim no perfection).
It’s dying a slow death, but not quick enough for me - “my bad”. It tends to be used when someone makes a mistake and doesn’t care and thinks saying my bad justifies it.
Loose/lose runs rampant on my weight loss boards!
Although ‘snuck’ has sneaked its way into our lexicon and is now considered acceptable, I still can’t use it. It just sounds wrong to me.
Oh, and nucular drives me a little crazy, too.
Same here. Also lie-berry.
My biggest pet peeve is when I hear “Democrat” Party. No, no, no - it’s Democratic Party. There is a reason this came to be, too, which really burns me up.
I once saw a map labeling the large country in the southern part of North America as “Republic of Mexico”, even though its actual name translates to English as “United Mexican States”.