To invite the grammar and language pedants to share their pet peeves?

[AlertCat]

AIBU to feel annoyed when I see people say Slither instead of sliver? It was even in a book I read recently. A slither of cake. No! That makes no sense, unless the cake’s been trodden into the carpet!

Also see: step foot in instead of set foot in

There’s plenty of others but those will do for now.

The use of Myself. For example, “they waited for myself and my friend to come to the door”
Me! Me me me! Or my friend and I.
This use of the word myself makes you sound like an absolute moron.

There have been loads of posts like this but you can never overdose on pedantry 😊

My biggest peeve is when people use 'I' not 'me'. The estate agent told Mike and I that it would sell quickly...

Even worse, though, is 'I' not 'my' or 'our' (seems to be more an American thing): 'Mike and I's house sold quickly...'
Sets my teeth on edge.

The phrase is meant to indicate something inconsistent, or haphazard. Both hit or miss and hit and miss are correct, but the former is preferred and more common.

Preferred by... you?

Why is any of this relevant?

Different people pronounce things in different ways, including whether hear, ear or clear have one or two syllables.

‘Noone’. It drives me crazy.
Since when is ‘no one’ one word??
The space bar is right there! 👇

"weave" is a funny one though because it operates as two different verbs, which have different meanings. When it means a zigzag movement (not a stitchcraft), the past tense is "weaved"...

Edited to add: Sorry, replied to wrong post. You got there before me! 🤓🤩⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This may be niche because of my job but minimas and maximas - minima and maxima are already the plural of minimum and maximum. Also based off rather than based on.

This is a funny one too, because my dad (admittedly born around 1876) used to write "to-day" with a hyphen, reflecting its origins in Old English as to dæge (2 words). When I was young (around 1890), words like "co-operate" were commonly hyphenated but no longer are.

There is an argument for using a hyphen where meaning could be ambiguous, e.g. pre-date/predate, re-treat/retreat, but the context usually makes the meaning clear.

One of the first things I notice when reading an old novel is the proliferation of hyphens. It does seem to clutter things unnecessarily (or should I say "un-necessarily!).

Don't you mean "based off of" 😆

Nah for no.
i for I.

Thank you! It still looks wrong to me though. Sorry Guardian football writers!

Or: "based on"

In the context of your example of "my friend and I" is wrong too.

I've just come across another one, on AIBU, that has really irritated me. "Crossed words"! It's quite good, in a poetic kind of way, but it's still wrong.

I've seen this mentioned so many times, and all it does is make me hum ....

Something that confuses and annoys me - although probably is grammatically correct - is when a poster is talking about their two DC and they say 'my oldest' and 'my youngest'. Rather than 'my older DC' and 'my younger DC'. It just sounds like there are multiple children in between, when there's only two.

👏

You would be better off singing Me Myself I by Joan Armatrading. 😊

Where did ‘pregnant to’ come from? You used to be pregnant with someone’s baby and somehow now you can be pregnant to them. I find it irritating and it sounds wrong but is it wrong or is it just new?

A question for fellow pedants.
I always took exception to ‘equally as’, since the ‘as’ seems redundant and already conveyed by ‘equally’.
I’ve just read ‘equally as disturbing’ written by Donna Tartt, no less- she who can do no wrong.

There are loads of vans around with KIER on them. People see that and it sticks that that is how Starmer spells his name.

Right. Enough is enough. I have just heard Stacey Dooley, on tv, say to a contestant "please may you make your way to the table?". In a different programme, some time ago, qshe said "please may you hand me your keys". It's irritating. How on earth can this happen? She obviously thinks it's correct usage yet I'm pretty sure she's never heard anyone else say this. Somebody, please, tell her the difference between 'can' and 'may'. My assumption is this has already happened but she's got the wrong end of the stick.

I often hear people offering their "congradulations". It's only a matter of time before I see it in writing. Maybe on a Hallmark card or something.

'Fall pregnant'. Where the hell did this come from and become everyday usage? Never heard it before the 1980s, now women are 'falling pregnant' everywhere. I don't like it with its connotations of error and fallen women. Banish it. Become pregnant just as we used to do.