Grammar that makes you cringe

[Pingu]

Loose/lose
I.e./e.g.

You're still confusing these. Please stop 

[Mr Larrington]

Yesterday there was a bloke on the telly talking about the Somali taxi driver who had acted as a go-between in the negotiations to free Paul & Rachel Chandler.  He used the word "dialoguing", for which he must be punished.  Severely.

[Jaded]

To Too To Too

 

[citoyen]

Me: "Would you like a cuppa?"

Colleague: "Yeah. Can I get no sugar?"

Me: "Er... I don't know. Can you?"

[hellymedic]

Yesterday there was a bloke on the telly talking about the Somali taxi driver who had acted as a go-between in the negotiations to free Paul & Rachel Chandler.  He used the word "dialoguing", for which he must be punished.  Severely.

Verbing weirds language, as ennysheddi know...

[Mr Larrington]

Yesterday there was a bloke on the telly talking about the Somali taxi driver who had acted as a go-between in the negotiations to free Paul & Rachel Chandler.  He used the word "dialoguing", for which he must be punished.  Severely.

Verbing weirds language, as ennysheddi know...

I am thinking of setting up a secret branch of the Python Police just to deal with people overusing the above phrase or saying

[hellymedic]

SHOCK HORROR FOR CTC COUNCIL CHAIR!

From latest Cycle:
"Struggling up the old A6, on a wet and very windy November night in Lancaster, astride a protesting Brompton, followed by fish and chips in a bus shelter..."

David and I giggled so much over this, we could hardly eat our supper. Somehow, the thought of fish in a bus shelter swimming behind the Chair's Brompton was too much!

 

[Giraffe]

Now, if there'd been an AUK in the bus shelter...

[Cudzoziemiec]

"His wife signalizes her approval."

Quoted to show it's old and British - relatively - 1946, from the Temple Press, publishers of Cycling.

[CycleCindy]

You're/your....they're/their/there...  HATE those kinds of errors! So easily avoided.

[Ian H]

You're/your...

Down here in Devon they say you'm instead of you're. Saves confusion.

[eck]

When I was wee (in the middle of the last century) if we wished to assert a state of being, we wouldn't say, "I am". We'd say, "I'm are!".
The contrary was, "I'm are not!"

[Ian H]

When I was wee (in the middle of the last century) if we wished to assert a state of being, we wouldn't say, "I am". We'd say, "I'm are!".
The contrary was, "I'm are not!"

Whereas down here they shorten it to Arrh!

[ravenbait]

Loose/lose. Good grief, they don't even sound the same.

"Try and" drives me mental. I know that Fowler was more lenient than most, but if the rest of the declension always takes "to" then "try" should too. "He tries and ride through snow" makes no sense. "He tries to ride through snow" does. End of.

Anyway. Eny fule kno there is no try. There is only do or not do.

Infer/imply is another one.

Sam

[clarion]

Infer/imply is another one.

*takes deep breaths to calm self after mention of pet hate*

I cannot believe how many people get that wrong.  Some mistakes are just 'meh', but that is destroying language.

[Jaded]

To too loose lose infer imply their there.

[Ian H]

To too loose lose infer imply their there.

A truly gnomic utterance.

[Greenbank]

It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's.
It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.

[Oxford University Press, Edpress News]

[Auntie Helen]

Help! I'm proofing an article about a couple - Mr & Mrs Wiggins - and the copy says "the Wiggins's then moved to Johannesburg". Should it be "Wigginses" or "Wiggins" or what?

[Exit Stage Left]

Help! I'm proofing an article about a couple - Mr & Mrs Wiggins - and the copy says "the Wiggins's then moved to Johannesburg". Should it be "Wigginses" or "Wiggins" or what?

Just call them Linda and Gary, or whatever these Wiggins' are called.

[Auntie Helen]

Can't, and this problem pops up several times in the article.

[eck]

Ask him

[ian]

Can't, and this problem pops up several times in the article.

Mr & Mrs Wiggins then moved...

[Rhys W]

What I'm seeing absolutely-bloody-everywhere now is people writing loose when they mean lose.  

Please learn the difference, otherwise I assume you're stupid.

[ravenbait]

Help! I'm proofing an article about a couple - Mr & Mrs Wiggins - and the copy says "the Wiggins's then moved to Johannesburg". Should it be "Wigginses" or "Wiggins" or what?

If you have to use the plural of Wiggins, it would be "Wiggenses", as in "dresses" or "messes" being the plurals of dress and mess respectively.

Sam