Common grammatical errors

Water Cooler
#1

Common grammar mistakes people make that drive me crazy…

  1. Use ‘impact’ as a verb. You don’t impact something, you have an impact on it.

  2. Use in-built, in place of built-in.

#2

I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone “in-built” in a sentance in my life. I agree with you on the impact thing though, which is annoying because I tend to use it to avoid the dreaded effect/affect.

#3

I can’t stand it when people misuse “ironic” and overuse “literally.” 90% of the time they mean “coincidence” and “figuratively.”

#4

effect/affect is simple you affect something, something has an effect on you. bam “in-built” just sounds all wrong and backwards and sht

#5

I use “seriously” a lot…and Erin Burnett copies me…lolz

#6

How many people do you know who start every sentence with … ‘ummm, basically’? I know many…

#7

Data is plural. “The data are positively skewed.” - correct while it sounds retarded “The data is positively skewed” - incorrect

#8

Here are a few more… ‘its’ and ‘it’s’ ‘there’ and ‘their’ ‘you’re’ and ‘your’

#9

couldn’t care less

#10

Supposedly, some people say “supposably.” I think that they must be playing with their supposable thumb. Lots of people say “insure” when they really mean “ensure.” Maybe they were the ones thinking that CDSs weren’t like “ensurance.” I really don’t like the word “obligated,” although it is technically correct to use it. You can pretty much always say “obliged” instead of “obligated,” and it is so much more elegant. “Alternatively” is also technically acceptable, but I don’t like it. “Alternately” always fits. Alternatively means exactly the same thing as alternately, and is a waste of a syllable.

#11

I see these a lot.

#12

Speaking of a lot, I see alot a lot.

#13

Alot comes a lot more often than should be allotted.

#14

while this is not a grammatical error, i object to the use of the expression “sweep under the carpet” to imply concealing something. it really is “sweep under the rug”, which evokes the notion of a swift, surreptitious action. sweeping under the carpet means you have to rip off the upholstery - much harder to do and not very stealthy at all

#15

Advice and advise get mixed up as well.

#16

You mean could care less.

#17
  • people who say ‘this literally happened to me’ when they mean figuratively. E.g. I literally had my head chopped off by my boss for a fk up at work. Messy and possibly one for HR. - Spelling definite definate - Writing your when they mean you are (you’re). - Incentivise isn’t a real word, but I don’t mind it And very little to do with any of the above other than we are talking words, plus it’s Friday: What is the only thing whose abbreviated form takes three times longer to say than what it’s short for? Answer The World Wide Web. World Wide Web = 3 syllables. WWW = 9 syllables.
#18

Incentivize isn’t too bad (particularly when spelled with a z ;-p), but sometimes people say “we have to ‘incent’ people to do X,” and that gives me the incentive to just barf all over them… because it gets me incensed! I like your point about WWW. Back in the 1990s, I remember some people proposing that instead of ‘www.’ being the standard prefix for websites, it should be ‘web.’. Just think of how much time could have been saved since then…

#19

I have a terrible, terrible habit of saying “fishes” instead of you know, “fish”, because of the saying “Sleeping with the fishes.” Damn you Good Fellas!

#20

I can’t stand when people misspell homophones when they talk, I always feel compelled to correct them :wink: Speaking of speaking, it seems the go-to meaningless bad habit phrase “like” has been replaced by “ya know.” Watch a few athlete interviews on espn and you’ll probably hear it 100 times.