three things that drive me mad

[Fleetheart]

1). Why is it so difficult to spell Keir?
2). Considering how many times his name comes up, you would have thought that most people should recognise that Savile as in Jimmy only has one l.
3). Most of the time it should be proved not proven.

That’s it. Used to be a proofreader which does explain my sensitivity, but really, these do get on my nerves. Anyone else?

Yes, splitting words.
Joining words.
And completely missing out words.

'We went McDonalds because I needed toilet.'

I get wound up by the misuse of discrete/discreet.

They are discretely different words.

Accept/Except

Just seen it again on a thread. Get it wrong, and you could be saying the opposite of what you mean!

'I am bias'.

Illicit and elicit

Councillor and counsellor

To be fair, a lot of it comes down to autocorrect and people typing without due care and attention.

I'm not much of a pedant or grammar police but starting a sentence with a lowercase letter (like the OP's thread title) drives me up the wall. It's bad enough with teens but adults getting in on this trend is ridiculous.

Using the exclamation mark(!) when you're not shouting, angry or excited is another annoyance. People often use it to make a point in a passive-aggressive manner instead, then feign innocence if asked. That's the worst of it.

I agree. in correct Incorrect use of bias. Usually it's something like 'Alice, Bella or Clara?' and the reply is 'Bella, but I have a DD5 Bella so I am bias' . It comes across as if they randomly named the DD Bella then grew to like the name.

Accept/except, affect/effect etc
Makes me wonder if they know what they are saying.

I'll tuck this in here because it is controversial. The posts by posters claiming to be teachers often make me despair.

Would of
Aks
Me myself
Misuse of I and me

I saw a corker the other day, “a where” instead of aware. Absolutely loathe “she done amazing”. No. She did amazingly well.

@Words, yes I have been quite confused about “excited for” as in looking forward to something. When did that come along?

Reaching out and deep diving and all the usual work ones also irritate me. Definitely turning into quite a grump!

Awesome post! I'm beyond impressed by you.

Re amplification/exaggeration: a similar but different modern phenomenon is the use of verbs suggesting violent, uncontrolled hand and arm movements in circumstances when in fact people usually exercise considerable control for obvious health and safety reasons.
E.g.
I grabbed a coffee.
Shove it in a hot oven.
Throw it all in your wok.

This irks me.

Hello Gasp0

We have a similarly- and painfully - keen ear for this nonsense.

Corporate jargon is a whole other arena of horror.

The most recent examples include the liberal use of 'space' to mean ( I think) area of activity.

The most common is 'the social media space' but is also used in lots of other bizarre contexts too.

Finally 'piece'. Meaning project or task. My hideous new boss uses this in every other sentence.

Example : This week I was asked if I would be 'holding the pen on this piece.' Translation: ' Will you be doing this?'

It irks me.

Does your children's school have a Mugger?

No, it doesn't. It has a MUGA: a Multi-Use Games Area. By both the initial sounds and by the rules of English phonics ( there's a split vowel digraph) the acronym should be pronounced 'mew-gah'.

TBH it's not a battle I fight outside my own head.

Fleetheart - entirely agree. I think I first noticed 'excited for' during the pandemic.
I am definitely a grump.

Apologies for not putting a space after a full stop.

I'm only just getting used to it being one space. In my day it was two spaces after a fullstop and one after a comma. You knew where you were in those days.

Anyfink goes nowadays, sometimes it can take quite a bit of effort trying to work out what someone is trying to say. I think it can be to do with autowhatever. "Av bin I'll".

I am no grammar expert, and certainly not a professional proofreader as is painfully obvious.

It's just that I delight in the use of words, and wince at the widespread sloppiness and stupidity I see and hear.

Clarity, accuracy and simplicity are important. It is self defeating to bamboozle the reader with jargon and acronyms.

In some contexts though, the use of the absolutely perfect word fills me with joy.

Now I need to read up on phonics.

@Words will you be holding the pen on this piece. Really made me laugh 😅. My work was like this; I worked in marketing. Had to leave. People say this kind of stuff seriously 😅😅😅.

I work with dyslexic people, so not much bothers me anymore.

However, the current trend to misuse 'myself, himself' etc is driving me nutty!

As well as thé others I hate 'bored of'. Wtf's wrong with 'bored with'?

It's taken me several moments of struggling before I've got 'I have been ill'.

Can you write me an announcement on supporting staff during the riots?

No, I can write you an announcement about supporting staff during the riots and will do it more quickly when you say please

"4am in the morning". When the fuck else would 4am be? 😠

Hit the [Return] key, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g . Poor key.