Grammar mistakes that drive you crazy

[SpoiltMardyCow]

I have two:

He hung himself. Instead of he hanged himself.

It was so fun. Instead it was either "such fun" or "so much fun"

What are your grammar bug bears?

I posted this link on another thread.

www.ucl.ac.uk/english/current/Punctuation_guide

How to avoid the comma splice.

"People who pronounce H as haitch"

Much more logical pronunciation as it has the 'h' sound.

But there are cases where the word "and" can have a comma before it - the Oxford comma, I think it's called. For clarity.
I hate the erroneous idea that "John and me" always needs to be changed to "John and I". "John and me" is fine if you mean for John and for me. (As in masterchef example above) I once heard Prince William make this error in a speech once and I'm sure he has speech-writers.... ( He said "the people of X have shown great kindness to Catherine and I" )
Agree on the annoying use of yourself/myself when they just mean you/me

"it does annoy me when people pronounce "in lieu of" as "in loo of" angry"

I thought that was the correct pronunciation in English? Like adieu is supposed to be pronounced differently in English from the French pronunciation (our English teacher used to tell us off for saying it the French way).

Masterbate.

Although that is a spelling mistake.

"Haitch" is not "logical". Otherwise we'd say Feff instead of Eff and Mem instead of Em.
The word is "aitch".

katmanwho that would be enough to put me off applying to UCL in itself

I disagree about hatch. In Ireland, we call it hatch, and unlike several English regional accents, we don't drop it from words.

*haitch.

"Otherwise we'd say Feff instead of Eff and Mem instead of Em."

Bee for b, zed for z. I find it quite logical to have the sound of the letter in the name of the letter. I went through a pretentious phase of trying to say "aitch" because I'd read somewhere it was correct, but almost everyone I speak to says "haitch" so I've gone back.

That's fine Gwen, just carry on doing what everyone you know does, even although you've read somewhere that it's incorrect.

Risk adverse.

Appraise someone of the situation.

"even although [sic] you've read somewhere that it's incorrect."

I think it's a non-standard variant and a regionalism rather than just incorrect.

Ooh I'm a linguist so keeping my mouth shut

Written errors Agitate me
Spoken variations fascinate me

Off of, as in that illiterate idiot off of Mumsnet
Using the incorrect your/you're. See also their/they're/there
Missing to out, for example I'm going the shop

Also people who write (sp?) when they don't know how to spell something instead of just opening a new tab and looking up the spelling!

And vaguely related to that last one, over zealous use of exclamation marks (although I am guilty of this online and I hate myself for it)

Except in place of accept. Seems to be everywhere at the moment.

U2HasTheEdge I'm glad that spelling mistake annoys other people

I have to teach the subjunctive tone / tense to my Year Six as part of the new curriculum. It really annoys me because it is pretty archaic in itself, only really being used academically, and yet ten year olds are meant to suddenly appreciate it as of this year.

Aside from that the grocer apostrophe really tests me. Along with misuse of the apostrophe to demonstrate plurality.

Now I come to think of it the me / I rule as well. If Year 6 can learn the rule everyone else can too.

On the other hand, I really feel language and grammar do and should evolve. The new curriculum places such emphasis on grammar that we run the very real risk of squeezing joy from writing in primary school.

He was sat there
Myself and David
Compliment v complement
Perverse v perverted

The clothes need washed. The food needs cooked. The dog needs walked.

Its so annoying!

When did given become gifted ?

I find missing commas in conditional sentences far more irritating than a comma splice. Especially as the latter is just stylistics whereas the former is ipso facto wrong.
Elided subjects annoy me too.
And the misuse of the word mistake....

When I came home, I had some wine.

I had some wine when I came home.

Should there be a comma in the second sentence - or is that the Oxford comma which only applies with some conjunctions?

I've just read "persay" on a different forum and have come back here to share my horror. It made me feel a little bit ill.