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grammar pet peeves (thing)
See all of grammar pet peeves
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thing
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by
Ed Halley
Mon Apr 03 2000 at 16:09:57
Any number of
pet peeves
that annoy
literate
people. See also
spelling pet peeves
!
lose vs loose
He
loosed
the hounds, so as not to
lose
the fox.
His saddle was
loose
, he better not
lose
his grip.
If you need
another
mnemonic
, think 'lose' has lost another 'o'.
it's vs its
The car had a dent in
its
hood.
It's
a good thing the engine still ran.
She tries
its
radio, but
it's
too far from town.
No
possessive pronoun
uses an
apostrophe
:
His
,
Her
,
Its
,
Your
,
Their
,
Our
.
there vs their vs they're
They're
going to take
their
dogs to the park down
there
.
There
was the writeup;
they're
writing about
their
peeves.
Think (t
here
), (the
i
r), (
they
'are).
your vs you're
You're
likely to break
your
leg with that stunt.
You're
gracious to lend me
your
jacket.
Again, no possessive pronoun has an apostrophe. Think (
you
'are).
then vs than
She went to the store,
then
to the carwash. It was hotter
than
Hades at the sauna.
Funny thing, programmers never spell if-
then
wrong, but many don't know that
than
is a word.
affect vs effect
His speech
affected
the audience, and
effected
discussion in the legislature.
She turned the knob without knowing what it would
affect
; she decided she liked the new
effect
.
To 'affect' something is to change it somehow. An 'effect' is indirect: the results of a change.
irony vs juxtaposition
It was
ironic
that Ted Kaczinski was so against technology, but was only found when his manifesto was published on the Internet.
It was a
coincidence
that it was Ted Kaczinski's own brother who turned him in.
The word 'irony' implies
unexpected
opposites
; two things together that make you go 'hmm' is just a meaningful
juxtaposition
.
begs the question vs raises the question
The phrase
begs the question
means that you've answered some question with something that also needs to be answered.
would of vs would have
She
would have
fixed the dent, but that
would have
cost her a lot
of
money.
The word 'of' is a
preposition
. Prepositions don't go in front of
verbs
.
Got a grammar pet peeve?
I have asked my library to ban a book
bad grammar is the halitosis of the internet
A boy named Ben
Quotation marks used to denote emphasis
Itchy runs afoul of an Irishman
juxtaposition
That's not ironic; that's just bloody stupid
gender-neutral pronoun
English is a living language
paroxysm
Where to go for help with punctuation
descriptive grammar
Verbing weirds language
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
Correcting BBC newsreaders on their grammar
innit
Beg the question
LED
pet peeve
take a whiz
That which does not kill me, makes me stronger
Using "they" in the singular
GTKY