Mistakes that give you the RAGE

[poemontheocean]

'Should of' - it's should HAVE.
'Alot' is not even a WORD!

Add yours!

'Excited for Sunday!'. What, has Sunday won the lottery or something?

MN posters are the absolute WORST for mixing up 'defuse' and 'diffuse'. How is one meant to 'diffuse' a situation? Perhaps with an Airwick plug-in?

'Cue' is another MN disaster area:

'Cue' = snooker/next thing that happened
'Queue' = a line of people
'Que' = Manuel

It's completely unnecessary anyway. Then or next serve the purpose perfectly well.

He's when meaning his.

I hate it when people drop words out of a sentence, "I'm going town" instead of "I'm going to town", might be just a regional thing?
In my case, it's just bad typing.

I've noticed that posters often refer to having 'text' someone, in the past tense. I really wonder why posters think this is corect as I think people generally pronounce it 'texted'.

I'm quite forgiving of lexical errors in informal situations as we live in an age where the written word and text speak are sending us into Orwellian 1989.

But, given that I edit for a living, my biggest irritant is a complete misunderstanding of punctuation. Most specifically the use of semi-colon and commas. I had a lecturer remind us all that they are not jewellery for your text. I have been inclined to agree ever since.

'Wide birth'. Makes me wince.

I seen instead of I saw
I done instead of I did.

On route. Arrrrrgh.

Definately.

Myself (particularly at work - anyone above middle management level seems to do it... "If you could complete the document and give it back to myself", "Rachel and myself will be there this afternoon.")

I/me - people who think that "I" is always the correct version - "please complete the document and give to to Rachel and I by 3pm"

Misuse of the word "literally".

Someone on TV the other evening was literally facing her demons. That is something I'd have been fascinated to have seen if true, but sadly not.

People that use "myself" and "yourself" wrongly in the mistaken belief it makes them sound more intelligent.

Que instead of cue - WTF?! I've only seen this on MN.

Did you receive my invite? IT'S INVITATION.

Also, when people say 'a couple things'. No, it's a couple OF things.

His instead of he's/he is.

As in: His asleep at the moment. His always making a mess in the kitchen.

This appeared fairly recently on MN, and now it's starting to proliferate.

The misuse of: you're/your, there/their/they're, it's/its, then/than

Exited instead of excited
Defiantly instead of definitely
Loose instead of lose
Lose instead of loose

The misuse of literally...

The list could go on and on.

Uninterested / disinterested - this is frequently wrong in books, so don't have the autocorrect / fat fingers excuse!

Literally has now changed definition, hasn't it? So it's not a misuse any more!

Ah so it has, but I'm sticking by its formal definition!

My English teacher would never have tolerated "I looked out the window", but it's very widely used now.

People not using adverbs properly - most often seen on programmes like x-factor (Barry Garlow was a serial not cereal offender)

'You've done brilliant'
Me: 'Ly! Ly! BrilliantLY!'

One a little closer to home as ex-p does this and my DD has picked it up and I am picking her up on it every 5 minutes and it makes me cringe.

'Pick up them shoes.'

'Those, DD! Those. It makes Mummy sad when you say 'them shoes''

I didn't know that the definition of literally had changed. I'm literally gob-smacked!

The misuse of "myself" seems to be cropping up more frequently, as in "return it to myself by Friday". Usually said by people who are full of their own importance, but just sound ignorant.

I know someone who says "he shouldn't ought to of", which really annoys me.