What overly common grammatical errors make you want to tear your hair out the most?

Actually, one of my profs refers to the unknown gender as female. Guess what, nobody got in any kind of uproar. Who cares what word you use... It's just a word. What matters is what you mean by it. Trust me, when I use the word "he", I don't imply that women are not people or anything like that. I could say "she" if it made you happy.

 

Wow. If you ever figure out that word, let us know! In the meantime, I'll just say 'Pat'. Example: "If you love someone, set Pat free." (Do you think it'll catch on?)

I had an English prof who made that same point. She suggested to balance your speaking with 50% hims & 50% hers. But it never fails; whenever I use 'her', some butthead interrupts, "How do you know it's a her?" >_<

 

I'll ask my dad. He's a lit major, and the one who told me about it. He ought to know.

Interesting story: My sociology professor said that there was a person who was endowed, shall we say, with both kinds of organs. Now, most of the time, someone in such situation is raised female, but this person didn't want to just be considered female, so decided to use the letter "z" in place of him or her. Well, "z" took one of the states, I think Ohio but I'm not sure, to court, saying that the legal contracts require you to identify you as "male" or "female", but didn't have another option. Now, that state has the option of "other" on the contracts.

I do recognize that when a person uses the word "him" to mean either gender, it's not intended as an insult to woman. It is taught like that in most schools, and it's a lot less confusing than saying "him or her" for anything. I'm not critisizing anyone. I do personally feel that there should be a word used to mean either gender. I think it was stupid that they got rid of it, it was convenient.

 

Hahaha! Pat, the adrogynous person from Saturday Night Live. Anyone remember him/her/it?

 

If we knew of the word,perhaps we would use it. Of course,we could go with Pat,as someone else said

 

How could we forget,that was classic

 

yeah perhaps but then wouldn't it get more like the french language as they have masculine and feminie words, im not saying they shouldn't but english is hard enough as it is, as it has words meaning more than one thing, wouldn't it just get too confusing?

the error i always notice is when people start a sentence with the word 'And' and i got taught that you shouldn't start a sentence with the words 'and, so, but and then', so i can find that annoying at times.

 

It really bothers me when people misspell "grammar", especially if they're bitching about someone using incorrect "grammer". It also bothers me when I'm reading a story and the tenses are switched halfway through it:
"Pat went to the store. At the store, Pat buys eggs."

 

on good vs. well:

when i took the sats a few years ago, i overheard a girl say to her friend, "i don't think i'm gonna do good."

it made me laugh, a lot.

(i'm sure i have a grammar mistake somewhere in here, which might inspire similarly arrogant laughter of its own).

 

i would like to add a lot, when written as alot, to the list.

 

^ along the same lines, I remember being taught never to write "alright"; it's supposed to be "all right". But I think "alright" has crept its way into proper usage. Here's what Merriam-Websters has to say about it:

But here's another one on my list of unresolved grammatical situations. When you answer the phone, and someone asks for you, do you say "This is he" or "This is him"? Or do you just say "This is Pat"?

 

this is he.

 

lol i just say 'speaking'

 

It's probably improper, but I just say, "I'm Lindsey!" It doesn't happen that often though.

 

You pathetic bastards all need to grow up.

Now fuck off and die.

 

i hate punctuation. i think it's the most pointless thing i'ver ever had to endure lessons in. in class two or something like that. punctuation and handwriting class. they were the highlight of my day. oh JOY!

this is something that annoysme though... when people say pacific, instead of specific.

or satisfactory instead of satisfying.

. and to mr holden...my brother from another mother. harsh words never scared anyone. but only let us in to the gaping hole of displacement in your heart... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. breathe. let people like what they like. do what they do. the only one who looks pathetic is the person who spouts obscentities within intimacy/sharing.

 

I don't mean to insult 13-year-olds, but HoldenC, you sound like one.

Keramptha, lol, punctuation is a big joke. They keep changing the rules all the time, so what's the use? For example, the use of the comma has NEVER been clearly defined.

First they tell you to use it to separate all items in a list:
"Pat buys apples, oranges, and peaches."

Then (around 1990) they tell you it's not necessary for the last item in the list:
"Pat buys apples, oranges and peaches."

But then they tell you to use it if the last item is a compound object:
"Pat buys apples, oranges, and peaches and cream."

Im with you sista from now on I dont use any punctuation at all

 

Ok, the one that gets me is the use of "alot". This is NOT a word. Now, do you know the difference in usage between effect and affect? This one always gets me. I seem to use the correct word most of the time, but most people have a hard time defining the difference between these two.