I just read an article about the stock market, and it stated:
"The market sunk blah blah blah points."
The market sunk? What the heck? The past tense of to sink is sank. The market SANK blah blah blah points. Same thing with to shrink. People will say, "This shrunk in the wash," or "I accidently shrunk this." shudder. It's supposed to be shrank. Am I being too anal here?
What about the use of "myself?"
"You can give your completed reports to either so-and-so or myself." Because that makes sense. "Here, let me give this to yourself." Wrong, wrong, wrong. You give something to me. Not to myself.
And the real definition of tremendous is NOT fantastic, terrific, great, wonderful, etc. It means big, huge, large, of great quantity. Now there is a colloquial definition now that defines tremendous as fantastic, terrific, great, wonderful, etc, but that bugs me to death.
"I do not think that word means what you think it means." Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride.
Ok. Diatribe over. Thanks! I feel better now.
Feel free to comment about your favorite grammar issues or to pick apart mine.
Hee!
My kids call me Grammar Lady. It’s mostly an affectionate nickname.
If I started listing my grammar issues, it would take all day. It would be much more fun if we could do it together over a cup of Russian Caravan tea and some scones.
….I forgot to add Grammar Snobs, to the list. My problem is with the misuse of adverbs. ” You do that so beautiful!” LY – add LY and it works! Of course, I can’t type so what am I talking about!
You were reading about the stock market? huh!?
Oh dear! I’m with Kim. I have too many to mention in such a small space. How about the incorrect and overused “I” instead of “me”? (These people think they’re sooo grammatically correct by using “I” in a sentence!) “Would you like to come along with him and I?” Oh, I’d love it if you would come along with I!! Choke!
In Paraguay…Spanish grammar is terrible just because of the language mixture with Guarani, the second language. The Argentine’s can’t stand the Paraguayan’s spanish.
Please forgive me, though, I am 20 years too mixed up to know if my English abilities stink, stank, or stunk!!!
I’m not even gonna mention no double negatives (which are, sadly, quite popular in wastern PA).
There are waaaay too many apostrophes floating around!
Here’s one- people saying I “drawl real good”. Really?? Do you mean I can use a pencil or a brush, and I can DRAW?
And do I even need to mention Warshington?
There is no R people.
That’s it for now.
Oh yeah, and the issues people have with right wright their there ….