Grammar Peeves

[MoonCat]

Well, according to thefreedictionary.com, it is correct to say "address yourself to", but she could use your phrase, "address the customer directly," too. They both say the same thing.

[taurinejunkie]

I've noticed and become annoyed at one of my coworkers making a recurrent mistake. In her defence (defense?), English is her second language; I may also be the one making a mistake.

When she explains the service to a new user, she always says, "Please address yourself directly to the customer" where she should, I believe, say something like "Please address the customer directly"** because of how the verb "address" works in English vs. in French. And, possibly because she has a good quarter of a century on me, she refuses to even consider the possibility that she's wrong. Iny my opinion, she makes the company look bad (or simply, not as good as it could) to our anglophone hearing users.

** Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Ree]

There's a huge difference between someone making a post on a message board and a professional, either in the workplace or the media, who makes these types of errors.

I totally understand that some people do have dyslexia or other learning challenges, and I'm not looking for perfection.

I just want to be able to read a post and understand it.

I downloaded a spellchecker for my browser, and before I post, I look for all the red squiggly lines and right click to correct them.

I don't always catch them all, so I would be the last person to point the finger at someone's spelling or grammar errors.

(I do laugh at people who complain about other people's errors, though, when their own posts are filled with major errors.)

[dalesys]

Mytical, as I started the original post with, and is hopefully true of most of us, we accept that a significant (and appreciated) minority strugle with the grammar and spelling of the "Angluish" language. My beef is with capable people falsely claiming to be handicapped.

With my love of transobliterating concepts I enjoy the frameshifts given by the dyslexic members of the communities I interact with. And in any sustained interaction, it becomes reasonably clear roughly where a person is on the continuum between a person who is unable to and one who refuses to.

[Mytical]

*laughs* I must have many people on here picturing me being pulled apart by horses...my grammar is atrocious, as is my spelling. While my vocabulary is actually extensive, English (the school class) was always the subject I struggled with. Love reading, love writing, but I know that I struggle with grammar and spelling.

[BrenDAnn]

Or three turned into Zombies or Vampires. I know, it's horrible to joke like that, but when stupidity lends itself to it...

[Ree]

Was just listening to the news a moment ago where they reported on a very bad accident.

The reporter said, "Out of 11 deaths, there were only 3 survivors."

I'm thinking they need to think that one out again.

[fireheart]

That would be fun.

That's what I thought. It'd put their English skills into practice and also prove that you can't rely on spellcheck.
The only thing I'd have to take into consideration though is whether to allow "Engrish" things to go up on the board.

By the way, a little website to interest you all: www.engrish.com

[BrenDAnn]

Not really a grammar peeve, but I thought it was funny.

I found a note on one of the returns on my desk saying that the "customer was not sadisfided'.

How long did it take you to stop laughing? Oh lord...One a co-worker of mine does, since we're on the subject is "We ain't got no <Xitem>" or "We don't have no <X item>!" Double negatives like that drive me insane! Have we forgotten the word 'any'?

[MoonCat]

One of the things I may or may not encourage with a teaching placement is the idea of an "Oops board". The idea is that students would be encouraged to bring in newspaper articles, catalogues, fliers, notices, photos of notices etc. where there's a spelling or grammar bungle and put them up on said "Oops Board."

That would be fun. One of our smaller local supermarkets had a pic of dandelion greens in its flyer, labeled, "Dendelods." How they managed to spell it THAT wrong is beyond me.

[fireheart]

One of the things I may or may not encourage with a teaching placement is the idea of an "Oops board". The idea is that students would be encouraged to bring in newspaper articles, catalogues, fliers, notices, photos of notices etc. where there's a spelling or grammar bungle and put them up on said "Oops Board."

[Ree]

Not really a grammar peeve, but I thought it was funny.

I found a note on one of the returns on my desk saying that the "customer was not sadisfided'.

[MoonCat]

This one makes me cringe: "Spaded" instead of "spayed." Arrgh...

[dalesys]

You wouldn't say "There is some oranges."

"There is some melons!" is normal, though.

[sms001]

All of the above!

Jester, you're not alone in hearing Mom's voice urging you to correct misuse. Mine continues to do it from beyond the grave.

One of my favorite gentle corrections (which I DO try to not give in to too often) is to exaggerate the offense. If someone says "I seen him go by with his friend." I'll say "I think you mean 'I seended him go by...' there Bill."

Having said that, I really am of mixed feelings on correcting. On the one hand, I realize that misuse of one's native language is often seen as an indicator of laziness or poor education.
On the other hand, one of the wonderful things about English is its incredible flexibility. We all often look to Shakespeare as a role model for writing, but he made stuff up all the friggin' time. Why shouldn't the language continue to evolve? My favorite example of this is "guys." In fifty to a hundred years, I have no doubt that almost no one will have a clue that it started as a gender specific word. The number of women I see who object to being referred to as one has declined steadily over the years.
On the gripping hand, I really think radio and television announcers (journalists, presenters, etc.) should be held to a higher standard than others, just so we have some sort of baseline to look toward. The U.S., at least, is so large that regionalisms could easily let us branch further and further from being mutually understood.

I saw literally mentioned a few times, but my biggest pet peeve lately is the modification of unique. Even the supposed "pros" do it often. I don't think it's just me though, as it was a Jeopardy answer within the last two weeks or so.

Thanks for the "just deserts" lesson folks. I didn't know, or even suspect, that one. I think I always assumed it was something along the lines of just=fair + desserts=substitute for reward.

There's a local radio ad that goes above and beyond "ATM machine" and "PIN number" for redundancy. In it they refer to "custom LASIK laser eye surgery." Leaving aside the fact that every human is unique, and therefore the surgery would HAVE to be "custom", LASER and EYE (because where else would the cornea on which you're performing keratomileusis be?) are built right into the damn acronym!