To wonder why accept and except are such a problem.

[heartstornastray]

I know it's not a big deal and it shouldn't affect/effect (another one) me but it does. I don't think there's a day goes by when I'm not irritated by it. So many people are using the word "except" in place of "accept". Anyone else get irritated angered by it?

I think there was a book a few years back that explained a lot of this, OP? "Eats, shoots and leaves' or similar ?

I am a little alarmed by the prevalence of reflexive pronouns atm. No myself will not touch base with yourself.

You weren't sat or stood at a bus stop either.

Allude and elude too. I genuinely don't understand how people can go their whole lives not mentally correcting their misuse of certain words. I get that when you are learning the language it might be difficult, but surely after a number of times reading words used correctly in books and even newspapers/websites you would start to use it correctly?

Too and to, loose and lose, their there and they're, could of instead of could have, allude and elude, except and accept, affect and effect, they're not difficult ffs. I know some people prioritise using correct spelling less than others and nobody (including me!) is perfect, but with really basic stuff like that I can't help but think it makes someone come across as really uneducated, thick or like they have no sense of how they come across, very little pride etc. Maybe people just have shocking memories and they just cannot remember how a word should be used from one day to another?

Arghhhh 'walla'!

Also complimentary and complementary.

I hate all of the above, could/would/should of being a particular hatred of mine. I would like to add the incorrect use of myself/yourself to the list. When I read something like 'myself and DH should of went to the doctor yesterday' (for eg) it does my head in.

My 11 years of education were in the 1980s, when it wasn't considered appropriate to teach such things. I think perhaps we have gone too far the other way, looking at the KS2 English papers, but as usual somewhere in the middle would be .

I don't understand why so many people seem to have been taught that affect is a verb and effect is a noun. Effect is a perfectly common verb; it just doesn't mean the same as Affect. Affect means cause a change in and Effect means bring about e.g. if we work hard at this, we can effect change.

Thanks to everyone for explaining affect/effect.

Luckily my French and German teachers taught me the difference between nouns and verbs. I don't think they were impressed at having to do so!

Anecdoche

Absolutely!

With 5 marks (or whatever it is) for SPAG, a teacher won't waste time ensuring perfect grammar or spelling when with limited time you're much better focusing on other content.

Oh, also, people that use prejudice incorrectly, such as "he was prejudice against me".

The infestation of the word "myself".

It appears to be used to suggest the writer is somehow better or cleverer than everyone else. They actually just look like a pompous idiot.

I once had a phone call where the caller repeatedly said things like "If yourself could let myself know..."

One of the main reasons we are so crap at foreign languages in the UK is that most people have almost no knowledge of how English works, which makes it much harder to learn the grammar of another language. So MFL teachers (like me) end up having to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining grammar.

Kids are often under the impression that we simply don't have things like irregular verbs, different tenses etc in English. Tell them that we have rules about which order different types of adjectives follow and it blows their minds!

Oh and 'wallah' ???!!!

"Today 11:11 Dahlietta

I don't understand why so many people seem to have been taught that affect is a verb and effect is a noun. Effect is a perfectly common verb; it just doesn't mean the same as Affect. Affect means cause a change in and Effect means bring about e.g. if we work hard at this, we can effect change."

Yes! I once got marked down on a thesis for using effect in that manner, as in 'by reducing stigma we can effect change' or something and the marker thought I was using it incorrectly and must have meant 'affect'. To be fair when I pointed out their mistake they realised they'd got it wrong and altered their marking. But I was surprised an academic wouldn't realise effect can be both a noun and a verb. I think it's just because so many people use it incorrectly when it should be affect, that any usage of effect as a verb rings alarm bells that it should be affect.

"Not everyone can spell correctly. It doesn't matter for many jobs. I do notice it when people misspell, and it does grate a bit, but it's not for me to correct another adult's spelling or grammar unasked for the sake of it. If I don't understand what they've said that's different but otherwise I don't say anything."

Yes I'd never correct somebody unless they asked for feedback, that's just rude. But it does affect the way I view them. It just seems a bit... what's the word... feckless? Sloppy? Not to care about how you come across to others in stuff like professional emails.

As in it makes me wonder if they're sloppy in other areas too.

And betrays a real lack of attention to detail.

Oh, the incorrect use of myself/yourself grates on me so much.

Everytime I hear it I feel the urge to start a sanctimonious campaign to teach everyone that saying 'myself' when you should have said 'me' just makes you look like a try-hard moron.

As well as all of the above, I've noticed a lot of people confusing than and then.

Another one that gets my goat is people not knowing the difference between wandering/wondering.

I think that defiantly comes from autocorrect when someone tries to spell definitely with an 'a' as in 'definately'. I know that it pronounced this way in certain areas of the country. Very odd.

Are and our seems to be getting mixed up a lot on my FB feed at the moment.
That's even worse.

Bon Apple Teeth

That's brilliant. I just did an actual LOL