REIN in, it's effing REIN in!!!

[CallmeAngelina]

Am I the only one who is being driven mad by the number of people on MN who write "reign in?" It seems standard practice now, (and don't start me on practise/practice!) so is it one of those things that people are now going to attempt to justify as being OK?
Come on, you lovely pedants. Make me feel better about this, as I'm fighting the urge not to scream at posters on other threads

God, yes. Drives me insane. As does 'free reign' Why WHY would anyone think it was free reign?

The common one for me to see just now is being asked to "bare with us during CV-19" .... No, if it's all the same with you, I'll remain dressed whilst I bear with you.

Scmabel - did you know that the use of "literally" to mean "figuratively" is officially recognised by dictionaries (and has been for some time)? Article here and another one here.

It frustrates me less than the other mistakes mentioned on this thread. "I was sat" is one that is particularly annoying 😬

Ladles and jellyspoons, I give you (sounds small blast on trumpet)

as of yet

"As of" is fine, as of today or as of last week or as of six this evening, any old specified time or date; "yet" is fine, they haven't arrived yet or we don't know yet or they have yet to make up their minds, for use about something that is not decided or has not happened at this moment.

But why put them together? It's strangely redundant. And it keeps on being said on the BBC about things to do with covid-19.

Chest of draws? NO its drawers. 😤😤

There really are some thick people about, aren't there?

Yes, yes I know that many people can't spell, but they generally know that they can't, so why don't they ever look in a dictionary?

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross
Yes, sadly, much like it's now acceptable to say "10 items or less". Even though there's something I quite like about the rules following usage, I can't help but think we've destroyed a perfectly useful word. It has acquired a meaning which is opposite to the meaning it used to have.

Yes it annoys me too. I've also seen a lot of people flaunting the rules lately aaaargh

In a newspaper (well, The Mirror):

'We take a peak round new home'

Why are you taking a mountain to somebody's house - unless it's Mohammed and he's playing hard to get?

Chambers 1988 gives literally one of its snide comments -- as it does for "nice": "(often used in vague commendation by those who are not nice, also sometimes ironic)".

They say in the entry on "literal":
adv. literally (often used by no means literally)

The job of dictionaries, after all, is not to dictate usage but to record it.

Now I really want to have an eclair, n, a cake, long in shape but short in duration, with cream filling and chocolate or other icing. Thank you Chambers.

Stationery and stationary

Definitely and defiantly - that drives me mad!

Sneak peak!

And ‘Myself and my friend did so & so...’
You never hear people just saying ‘Myself did...” so WHY do they think ‘Myself & someone else did’ is OK?

And where did ect come from, instead of etc?

My mum and my brother both say "could of, would of" etc and type it out that way in text messages.

I get more annoyed by "maybe I'm bias but..." Or "he's prejudice against X". I don't know why so many people do that with those two words in particular. I shouldn't use this section of the site because my grammar isn't really up to it, but I think what they're doing is using the noun form when they need an "ed" on the end to make them adjectives.

ect was originally Molesworth simply getting it wrong; it was said/written as a joke by people who had read the books, and then taken as being right by people who hadn't read them. It started to happen decades ago but we see it more now because of the internet.

EmpressLangClegInChair
You never hear people just saying ‘Myself did...” so WHY do they think ‘Myself & someone else did’ is OK?

It isn't that they think it ok, I suspect; it's that they don't know whether it ought to be "I" or "me", and think that "myself" lets them off the hook.

The idea of "someone else and I did" has been rather demolished by "my husband and I" attributed to the Queen and therefore seen as snobbish, which is a shame because "My husband and I" plus a verb is simply the right way to say that particular thing.

I keep seeing ‘rediculous’.

‘Hence why’ is another one. Just ‘hence’ is all that’s required!

@waterlego - my old boss used to say 'hence because'. Drove me batty.

It isn't that they think it ok, I suspect; it's that they don't know whether it ought to be "I" or "me", and think that "myself" lets them off the hook

That makes sense, AskingQuestions, but it’s so easy to just think which one you’d use if it was just you! Or do people actually say ‘Me did’?

I love this thread. I have another- writing ‘none’ when it should be ‘non’.

I hate the way "cringe" is used on MN as an adjective when people mean "cringeworthy".

For example, a poster suggests a gift or something and someone else replies: "God, I would find that so cringe."

Hate. It.

In my work I often see the phrase "evidence-based" but for some reason almost everyone writes it as "evidenced based" - so, based on evidenced?? This is by senior well-paid people in important roles as well. So annoying!

(Is it just me, or does everyone else also double-check their posts on this sort of thread before posting?) 😂😂

Aww @hamptonedge I was just going to write that one! It makes my teeth itch!

Another one I've noticed is that people don't seem to know the difference between bought and brought!!!! I went to the shop and I brought... no you didn't you BOUGHT!!! Don't get me started on those TOWIE idiots that constantly say generally instead of genuinely. Really winds me up. Rant over