Am I the only one who wound up by this!

[Mummytotwogirls01]

I know I probably am BU but it really winds me up how people use 'brought' instead of 'bought' -the verb to bring and to buy are completely different and have different meanings it's not hard to use the right one!!
The other one that really winds me up is how a lot of people use' I should of' instead of 'I should have' -of is not a replacement for have it's just wrong!
Is it just me? What other common errors annoy you?

I love the irony.

@Mummytotwogirls01

I know I probably am BU but it really winds me up how people use 'brought' instead of 'bought' -the verb to bring and to buy are completely different and have different meanings it's not hard to use the right one!! The other one that really winds me up is how a lot of people use' I should of' instead of 'I should have' -of is not a replacement for have it's just wrong! Is it just me? What other common errors annoy you?

It annoys me when people don't take into account dyslexia and learning difficulties. Or English is not everyone's first language.

“Loose” for “lose” is rampant on mumsnet, as is “done” where it should be “did”.

IRL it’s the overuse of reflexive pronouns that I can’t bear. I really hope the previous poster isn’t right that it is evolving into a new polite form. I agree that that is the function of these incorrect reflexives but it will condemn me to a miserable old age. The Apprentice is terrible for it: “Would £13 work for yourselves?” etc, ad nauseam.

I've recently noticed an increase in people accidentally substituting the word "generally" for the word "genuinely". It just seems so wrong to me as they mean completely different things.

For example, "I didn't think he was being serious but then I soon realised he was being generally sincere about it"

Yes it winds me up. There are a small number of adults for whom literacy is difficult for a good reason, but I absolutely refuse to believe that the vast majority of adults have a learning disability. Many people are lazy, pure and simple, and poor education is no excuse as it’s not like we stop needing or having the opportunity to read and write when we leave school. Some people think it’s not kind to point this out but I strongly disagree. I don’t think it’s kind to lead people to believe that literacy doesn’t matter. People do judge other peoples written communication, and to pretend otherwise is quite frankly ridiculous.

I’ve also noticed that a large number of people who make excuses and suggest that literacy skills don’t matter have good literacy skills themselves. They think they are being inclusive but what they are actually being is patronizing. It’s a disingenuous way of pulling up the ladder behind you. If you personally would not be happy submitting a job application, for example, that is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, why would you convince somebody else that they should be?

The use of "myself" and "yourself" in the wrong context.

"Here are the wedding photos of John and myself" No, wrong.
"Would this work for yourself?" Also wrong.

I just correct people, I don't care if people think I'm rude.

Many of these issues stem from sloppy speech, which is then translated into almost phonetic written English, combined with less reading and greater reliance on broadcasting for information.

If one realises that it’s easy for a person never to have heard anyone pronounce a word (or words) correctly and in full, and that person has never read it or understood the structures which cause the written word to appear as it does, then the approximations we see in written form are understandable.

If you haven’t realised that should’ve is a contraction of should have, and you hear ‘should of’ when other people use the words, then that is what you write. If this is not corrected at school or at home, then it continues into adult life.

Modelling clear speech (no matter what your accent), and correcting your children’s grammar, are the best ways to ensure this improves in future generations.

I know it’s not always dyslexia or similar because my DH uses “can I get?” despite generally caring about good grammar. He just refuses to admit it’s wrong.

@MinnieMountain

I know it’s not always dyslexia or similar because my DH uses “can I get?” despite generally caring about good grammar. He just refuses to admit it’s wrong.

It isn't wrong.

For those interested in the less/fewer argument (and why it's not as reductive as it seems to be) there's a very interesting thread in Pedants' from about 5 years ago.

@MrsDeadpool

Many of these issues stem from sloppy speech, which is then translated into almost phonetic written English, combined with less reading and greater reliance on broadcasting for information.

If one realises that it’s easy for a person never to have heard anyone pronounce a word (or words) correctly and in full, and that person has never read it or understood the structures which cause the written word to appear as it does, then the approximations we see in written form are understandable.

If you haven’t realised that should’ve is a contraction of should have, and you hear ‘should of’ when other people use the words, then that is what you write. If this is not corrected at school or at home, then it continues into adult life.

Modelling clear speech (no matter what your accent), and correcting your children’s grammar, are the best ways to ensure this improves in future generations.

I agree. I’m unsure about correcting children’s grammar, though. Mine has started saying ‘ain’t’ for haven’t and it really irritates me. It sounds so uneducated. She has pointed out that she IS relatively uneducated, being a child (to which I no have no answer!) and the only other argument I can properly articulate is that it’s common, but I really don’t want to make it a class issue, and I don’t want for her to judge herself as better than some of her peers, who do use it, as do their families. But other people will, and I want to give her every advantage I can.

Ain’t, and was instead of were (or vice versa) are my pet hates. I fell into a weird period at school where we weren’t taught actual grammar, we were supposed to just pick it up as natural grammar. I read voraciously, so my grammar isn’t bad, but there are blind spots (I only found out about less and fewer in my late thirties) and I don’t actually know why or how you should use things, I ‘just know’ what should go where.

My ruling, however, is awful, soon try and cut people some slack!

Sorry if I offended anyone by this thread - it's just you have to be able to write in standard English to pass GCSE English and you're not supposed to be able to leave school until you are passed your GCSE year!
I'm sure I make grammatical errors and am not claiming grammatical superiority I was making a comment on some errors which annoy me -I think it is because people on these sites are more prone to writing conversationally as opposed to correctly! X

Gifted, wtf's wrong with given.

@Georgeskitchen

Since the standards of teaching reading writing , punctuation and written English has gone down the toilet in UK schools over the years, you best get used to the it. It certainly won't ever improve!!

I don't think this is true. There was a time when one would never see or hear incorrect grammar publicly, so it's easy to imagine that standards were higher. In reality only very few (privileged) people spoke or wrote publicly. Meanwhile, amongst the general population, illiteracy was widespread.

Smell instead of stink.

Smell can be used that way though. One of the meaning of the word us "to emit an odor or scent of a specific kind".

Cambridge Dictionary used this as a correct use of the word:

"Your feet smell (= have an unpleasant smell). Why don't you wash them?"

I was on a course where the tutor used the word etiquette and pronounced it etty quetty!

No one else picked up on it. I couldn't believe it.

I meant only to refer to people who should be able to use grammar correctly -I should have clarified I'm certainly not mocking people who have leaning difficulties or dyslexia!

There was a shop near me that had a huge sign on the outside saying
'Websites what work!' It should be that without a comma or which with one not what!! When it's a company's slogan it's looks really bad! I understand that it's alliteration but it's wrong!

‘Wondering’ instead of ‘wandering’ is another I’ve seen more than once, including this morning.

@Itwasntmeright, IMO it’s at least partly down to the prevailing ‘wisdom’ in much of the teaching profession a few decades ago, that these things didn’t matter any more - it was ‘elitist’ to think that they did, and only nitpicking old pedants cared about them.

A child’s ‘creativity’ was what mattered, so correcting spellings and grammar was far less important.

IMO this attitude did a great disservice to a great many children.

Might add that I’ve both heard and read of people apparently thinking that there’s some great mystique over where to put an apostrophe, so they can’t be expected to understand it.

Whereas it’s all perfectly simple - if properly taught. I used to teach English to (mostly) speakers of Arabic, and I never had any trouble getting these things into their heads within a short time.

So how it’s all beyond a native speaker of average intelligence, I will never understand.

I used to pass a nursery called “Happy Day’z”, which irritated me no end.

As a retired Primary teacher, I don't get annoyed by grammar and spelling mistakes on social media but it really irks me when I see those mistakes on menus or shop signs etc. One thing that really used I annoy me was when I went to Slimming World and several members referred to it as Slimmers World.

@Loservilla

I get annoyed with "and I" when it should be "and me", and I see it all the time on Mumsnet.

"DH and I bought lunch" is correct because if you take DH away it makes sense.

"Someone bought lunch for DH and I" is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! If you take DH away it doesn't makes sense! It's "someone bought lunch for DH and me"!

So few people seem to know this. (Or care)

So many grammar police in one place

Overuse of the word, ‘literally’ is one that really makes me laugh.

I LITERALLY died!

Really? Did you now?!

All of the above but I grew up with well educated parents who corrected my grammar and it’s still not perfect.

Shit drivers, irresponsible dog owners and people who litter are more deserving of my wrath.