I have reached my quota of listening to grammatical errors today. I will confess to not always being perfect in my sentence structure (and fat-fingering into typos periodically). My worst offense tends to be dangling prepositions. I know this is incorrect, but sometimes I get lazy.
I am, however, a stickler for matching tense. Past participles are the worst! I just heard an announcer in either the Tigers/Royals or the Reds/Padres game utter the phase "should have ran." It is "should have RUN". If one more college educated person in my work place (or household) says "should have went" instead of "should have gone," I think I am going to lose what is left of my sanity. I also overheard a colleague state that they "seen someone." AAARRRRGGGHHHH.
My latest nitpick is the phrase "I have got to." The word "got" is totally unnecessary, yet usage of this phrase has become so commonplace, it's easy to overlook the fact that it is off kilter.
OK, enough of my ranting. What are some of YOUR pet peeves?
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3 comments:
Somewhere Ms Smith (of Peter Vetal Elementary) is smiling over your diatribe. I'm equally guilty of the preposition problem, but try so hard to maintain some semblence of proper usage when I speak.
My only excuse is when trying to explain anything to my 14 year old. At the peak of my frustration (where most conversations end up) I most often find myself unable to utter anything!
Next phrase to eliminate: get ur done.
lol. Thanks Mike. When I get to the exasperation point with my 14 or 16 year olds, I find myself relying more on the "because I said so" or "because I'm the mom" routine.
I think it all is rubbing off though; both boys said they have found themselves correcting their friends' grammar. Of course, they say it's my fault if they end up losing friends because of it....
I have become a being somewhere between my father and Red Borman, the dad on "The 70's Show". In my greatest fits of frustration I usually blurt out: D_ _ _ A_ _. This is now abbreviated to the more socially acceptable: D.A. or to use in a sentence: You're being a complete D.A!
I believe my wife feels I am a bit too gruff at times.
I saw in another post you are planning your 30th class reunion. We just held ours from RHS. It was great fun, but way too short a time to try to catch up with everyone who attended. Plan on lots of time for people to mingle.
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