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 would have got a "you can, but you may not" from my parents

Boils my pee and gives me the rage tend to put me off too ditto.

Re subjunctive I am almost wary of using it in case it is assumed I am wrong. I blame Midge Ure and his If I was song.

"If I was, if I was a better man
Would fellow men take me to their hearts
If I was a stronger man
Carrying the weight of popular demand"

"Tell me would that alarm her?
I'd never harm her at all
If I was a soldier
Captive arms I'd lay before her"

"If I was a sailor
Seven oceans I'd sail to her
If I was a wiser man
Would other men reach out
And touch me"

Still at least Tim Harding knew to write If I were a carpenter and you were a lady would you marry me anyway (and it's by far the better song)

Tim Hardin

"Sorry for your loss". To be sorry for something is to pity something. You don't pity the loss; you might pity the person, but it sounds pretty patronising. What you mean is "Sorry about your loss".

"People who pronounce H as haitch"

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

Nonsense. There is no requirement for letters of the alphabet to begin with the sound of the letter, witness the letters L and M. Nor is there any requirement for them in to include the sound, see W.

Pronunciation one that drives me nuts.
The word sixth. Why can no TV presenter say it? It is NOT sikth
It makes me want to smash someone's face in!!!!

Confusing I were / we was is not Yorkshire. I'd never heard it until I moved south from the north. It's a southern affliction and nothing to do with dialect.

Dialect is using substitute words , not incorrect grammar.

For example, oop north they might say 'Wor lass' meaning 'our lass' or 'gannin oot' (going out).

Nothing to do with grammar.

"Why can no TV presenter say it? "

'S' and then 'th' is quite difficult demented.

"Dialect is using substitute words , not incorrect grammar."

No Polly, dialects have their own grammar as well.

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

Nonsense. There is no requirement "

Gruntled, I didn't say there was a requirement, only that it's more logical. Seeing as there are two pronunciations in general use, I choose to use the one that seems more logical to me.

Five sixths is even harder to pronounce correctly: s-th-s.

"I was sat".
"He has wrote me."
"I text him yesterday".

The whole "there, their, they're" issue.
Not knowing how to use the apostrophe.

I used to teach English *as a second language" in my home country. I used to give Fs on test papers if Y10 and above kids did not know these things. In a foreign language they started to learn in Y9 only.

It also makes me mad when native English speakers say "I wasn't taught these things at school" as if this was a good reason not to know them. You are an adult, get a grammar book, fewer (and not less) nights in the pub, more learning grammar and you'll know.

k-s-th-s

Consonant clusters. Very tough. Probably, in due course the th will disappear or become totally acceptably silent. Like the r in February, which will be the first to go completely apparently.

"They" as an impersonal singular pronoun has been perfectly acceptable since time immemorial. Long before the silly gender debate got hold of it.

I loathe Feb-yew-ary which is just plain wrong.

I feel sorry for the numpties who believe the very set rules they were taught in school many years ago can never change.

Who do you think developed those rules? They really were for the most part fairly arbitrary - being a mix of responses to printing technologies, followed by some randoms who wrote a book on proper grammar and etiquette in writing. Mainly white educated men who were so caught up with the notion of 'proper' and 'status' - and that therefore you could signal your proper status by the way in which you chose to write. Or put another way - it was another way of pouring scorn on the ill-educated masses. Let's throw into this mix colonialism and the British Empire - the biggest markets for grammar books of the time. Let's teach white mans English to those poor natives.....

The history of grammatical rules is a pretty sordid one.

So talking about the changing and evolving nature of languages is most definitely not a sign of the uneducated. Current linguistic teaching and thinking is much more focussed on language as a descriptive entity. They accept that there are certain 'natural' rules of grammar - but that a lot of the other stuff is just a matter of style and fashion.

Current linguistic teaching
Is that the one where university students of English have to use a spellchecker? The one not taught to uni students about whom a uni lecturer in another thread complains that they have poor literacy?

"Current linguistic teaching", MrsFrisbyMouse (or should that be "frisbee"?) is for advanced students. Once they have acquired the basics.

"It also makes me mad when native English speakers say "I wasn't taught these things at school" as if this was a good reason not to know them. You are an adult, get a grammar book, fewer (and not less) nights in the pub, more learning grammar and you'll know."

I've got a few grammar books and use websites, but there really isn't consensus on some of the things mentioned by pp. The use of 'their' for either male or female goes back a long time, for example.

iona, what on earth is wrong with students of English using a spellchecker?

Btw, I think the poster whose name you're commenting on is referring to Mrs Frisby, the mouse character in a children's book!

Can someone explain where writing "less" instead of "fewer" makes a difference to understanding?

You need to spend less time in the pub.
You need to spend less nights in the pub.
You need to spend fewer time in the pub.
You need to spend fewer nights in the pub.

Only 1 of those sounds wrong to me. There are 2 that are grammatically correct. 1 is grammatically incorrect (well - the wrong word is used) but I don't think the meaning is lost.

The use of 'their' for either male or female goes back a long time, for example.
Yes. But it's not interchangeable with "they're" or "there". Which is what I meant.

what on earth is wrong with students of English using a spellchecker?
Nothing as long as it's acceptable to use a manual to wipe your bottom at the same age, Jeanne. . By the time you have reached the age to be called a "student", you should have mastered spelling. And we are not talking about words like "onomatopoeia", either.

I think the poster whose name you're commenting on is referring to Mrs Frisby, the mouse character in a children's book!
OK, fair enough, I'm sorry. I only started learning English at the age of 14 (high school); I grew up with a different set of children's books (in a different language).

By the time you have reached the age to be called a "student", you should have mastered spelling

So people who struggle with spelling can't be called students and shouldn't be able to access higher education?

You are aware some people are perfectly capable of writing, academic thought, organising a discussion but struggle with spelling?

Oh, honestly, iona, that's such nonsense.

There's nothing wrong with being a student with shonky spelling, especially if you have a learning disability that makes it harder for you. Spelling is hardly a vital component of English studies (lit or lang), and students with talent in those areas are much, much rarer than competent spellers, so we can't really afford to prioritise what's largely irrelevant.

On the mistaken correction to 'frisbee' - perhaps a quick google would save you from embarrassing situations, if you know your knowledge is a bit lacking? That is, after all, what a spellcheck does for students who know their spelling is weak, too. After all, some of them may also be relying on the excuse that they didn't learn English until 14 (or later), too.

My comment about they/their was to amicissima.

The text thing annoys me. You can have a perfectly well writtypost and then the poster ruins it by saying "I text him yesterday". It sounds like baby talk. It's like saying yesterday I walk to school or yesterday I eat my dinner. It's TEXTED!