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

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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.

Of course the real truth is octopus is now an English word, and we will do as we damn well please with it. As any messenger on a passenger ship would know 😀

And women, please stop 'falling pregnant'. A phrase I particularly hate.

No shit. It was a rethoric question.
I know they had that in mind. But it's just bloody imbecilic because gotta can't be used as contraction for "have got a".

It was a what?

I wonder if it’s an autocorrect failure? Those are self-reinforcing so could explain why you’re seeing it more and more.

Autocorrect is the bane of my life... and also a handy excuse if I do get something wrong. 😀

You could have a series of comments.

Also, as this is a thread about pedantry, there's no space before question marks in English.

Yes, I hate this. Has it come from the US?

If you are relying on correct grammar to get your point across, rewrite your whole sentence.

I had a boss who would a) write incredibly obtuse but technically correct sentences and then get mad at people not understanding them and b) insist on interpreting other people's mildly imperfect grammar under his rules and thus changing the whole meaning of the sentence.

You would would have thought that programmers - where syntax and grammar in computer code is rigid - would have excellent English skills. Weirdly the reverse is true (and lets not talk about handwriting).

Correct spelling in IT would be nice too ...

I used to edit reports where the tangle of buzzwords was completely incoherent (e.g. missing a verb or a subject, or mingling several). Once deciphered, it turned out they were saying the same thing they'd already said about 9 million times. This sort of thing used to make me want to stab my eyes out with a pin.

I feel your pain @Beachtastic

I may be wrong, but ‘commentate on’ suggests to me to offer a description of what’s happening, with opinion; and ‘comment on’ suggests less of the ongoing description and more of a point made or an opinion offered on one single thing (or series of things).

Autocorrect is the bane of my life... and also a handy excuse if I do get something wrong. 😀

Agreed!

Also seen Angela Rayner written by different PPs as Raynor.
”My bad” is another annoying phrase I regularly come across.

Crocuses in English.

I got the impression this one came from non-native speakers mangling English on social media, but maybe not.

It annoys me when people end a sentence with no? Or yes? and use them interchangeably. I am so confused I don't even understand it.

Cats are great, no? - it doesn't make sense as it seems you are positive cats are great, but are inviting me to disagree with you.

Cats are great, yes? - you must be inviting me to agree.

Well I think I have that right. Just stop with the no? and yes? at the end of sentences and we'll all be OK.

Oh and when you see signs, produced by signwriters, and flyers and documents produced by a printing company (not counting those Vistaprint self-creations here) where nobody has corrected the spelling.

So, someone decides to have their cafe menus (should that be menu's!) professional printed. Back it comes. Some of the items you can get are:

Jacket potato's
Panini's
And we do takeaway salad box's!

So first of all the person who owns the cafe or whatever has written this down, and clearly not had it checked. Because they don't understand grammar they think it's right. This is professionally printed. Why do printing companies not correct these, or at least go back to the cafe and tell them it's incorrect? They take the money and print crap.

Oh I know why. Because it's not "kind" to correct grammar.

No, because providing a proof-reading or quality control service has a cost and carries a responsibility.

Good printers or signwriters will flag big obvious spelling or punctuation mistakes, but it's not their job to be proofreaders on every word and comma.

I wouldn't be able to live with myself as a signwriter or printer if I had sent out something talking about salad box's!

I am a pedant about "hung" when it ought to be "hanged". I automatically correct it when I hear it and if possible when I see it. It just bothers me and seems so inelegant.

Oh and when you see signs, produced by signwriters, and flyers and documents produced by a printing company (not counting those Vistaprint self-creations here) where nobody has corrected the spelling.

David Mitchell had a very persuasive theory about this on "QI" ages ago.

I bet all signwriters offer a service to check the design - for a fee. And almost all customers go "I don't need to pay you to check the spelling and grammar" .... with "hilarious" consequences.

A few years back at a chippy I no long use, they revamped the entire shop and put up a brand new price board. It was lovely. Only on my fist visit ...

"You do realise they've spelled 'viniger' wrong ?" I said.

Turned out he had sent the form in and approved it ...

That battle was lost generations ago.

Meat is hung, men are hanged, as nobody says these days.

I'm the same.

Thirty years go when my son was around 14 he wrote an essay in which he wrote that a man had been hanged. He was 'corrected' by the English teacher in front of the whole class, told that hanged was not a word, and was^^ made fun of because of his 'mistake'.

I still regret that I didn't have the confidence at the time to speak to the teacher and point out his mistake and ask for an apology on behalf of my son.

I was pretty horrified, as well, that this man was actually being allowed to teach children English, or at least, his version of it..

Don't know where those two ^^ came from.