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.

There’s a cake baking company near us called ‘Le Gateaux Unique’. I really want to tell them that they need to pick singular or plural and stick with it, but I don’t want to be that person (unless I could do it anonymously🤣) Their cakes look beautiful though.

As an Italian speaker I always have to hold myself back from being that person whenever I see the word 'paninis'. "Panini" is already plural. It's a bit like saying 'sandwicheses'.

Oh, I love that one and other estate agent deliciously contrived phrases. I chuckle when the couples on 'Escape to the Country' go on about 'dual aspect'.

I've just looked them up. Belfast, right? I'll tell them for you.

My pet perve is the over use of the word pedant. 😬

Bring when it should be take.
Extra, unnecessary words - like swap out, plenty old enough. They make me think the user watches endless US tv and is just parroting what they say.
High heals.
Off of.

This one always comes up but in what context so you see this often enough to notice it? Neither are words so commonly written surely that it could be a major annoyance

I always think that anyone who posts his just wants to show off that they know there are two different words 😁

Auto correct or weird kink? 😂

Not exactly grammar but on the news they were talking about the latest government scandal and the man kept saying "it mentions the SAS and Special Forces" . Omg I wanted to scream at the tv "they are the same fucking thing". I may have been a tad irritated.

Has anyone noticed the fairly recent substitution of "momentarily" to replace "in a moment" or " shortly"? Hopefully I'm not wrong but I always understood "momentarily" to refer to something that occurred briefly and temporarily.

So "the doctor will be with you momentarily" should mean the doctor will pop into the room for a few seconds. But now more likely infers that the doctor will enter the room and start the appointment soon.

I'm a bit of a nerd about written language, but don't mind people writing however they want on social media. I like the fact that nowadays anyone can express themselves in the public domain and it's no longer a privilege reserved for academics. Formal writing is a different matter, which is why books go through editors and proofreaders (although you wouldn't always know it! - that's where I do get pissed off, when I read something like "she poured over the page" - knowing that it's passed multiple checks).

I also really like new words coming into the language, and (up to a point) old words being used differently. English is always evolving. "Awful" used to mean inspiring reverence, "meat" once referred to any solid food, "artificial" once meant something crafted with skill and artistry (until industrialisation made mass production too easy).

There is a story of some visitors to Italy taking coffee and insisting to the waiters that it should be accompanied by "Gateau".

After much debate and remembering that the English abroad are always right, there was a shrug of shoulders and a random cat duly supplied.

It seems cruel to joke in three languages when some people struggle with one.

Averse is not interchangeable with adverse

The SAS are (is ?) a subset of "special forces". Which includes the SBS.

Oh, yes!

Can't bear the wrong use of apostrophes. Every fucker does it and it gets on my wick. It's taught at school.

Also it's 'fazed', not 'phased' if you're not bothered about something. That grates on me but I do get why people think it's the latter spelling.

I also hate 'Ya'll' - I know it's an American thing but I still hate it ...

As for spoken English, 'yourself' as per The Traitors 'I'm voting for yourself' !! I caught myself doing it the other day on a work phonecall and was wtf in my head!!

Yes, I like that one too! I have visions of the doctor whipping in and whipping out again, perhaps in a magician's cloak.

I love "deceptively spacious" because I imagine a couple gazing appreciatively around the room and then the walls suddenly spring in to trap them, like a collapsible box.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER - I corrected
an ex-manager's text - she'd written discreet instead of discrete and she changed it back. CBA to correct it again, but I knew I was right.

There's a window cleaning company round here called Hypoclean. They're obviously not fluent in Greek!

Whilst I agree that it's annoying if I were a waitress and a grammar pedant asked me for a panino I would think them a twat along the lines of Alan Partridge or David Brent. 😆

Sat and stood instead of sitting and standing.

As in “ I was sat on a bus” … no, you were sitting on a bus, or “I was stood in a queue” … no you were not, you were standing in a queue. ARGH!!!

'I got it for free off of her'. Toothgrinder.

Pervophilia

Um, OK? 😯

😀

I agree!

Which is why I resist the temptation to be the Italian grammar know-it-all.

Usually...

Nonsense. They have discrete meanings. (See what I did there? 😉)