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Along with this, how about: "I authored a book last year"? No. You ARE an author, and you wrote a book last year!
However, at work when I'm busy then all bets are off. I've been known to say things like, "Did you UPS that package yet?" Hey, I can have a double standard if I want to! (And not all of us care about not ending sentences with a preposition, i.e. my previous sentence! Haha.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bart0415
It bugs me when people make verbs from nouns that were made from previously existing verbs, resulting in piling up unnecessary syllables!
Classical example "Orientated" instead of "oriented".
Also the appalling "conversating" instead of "conversing", brought-up by a previous poster, falls in the same category.
Also the recently encroaching trend, especially in coroporate-speak, to use verbs as nouns, for example:
"Invite" instead of "invitation": "I sent all of you an invite to the meeting"
"Spend" instead of "spending": "The capital spend for 2008 wil be..."
"Build" instead of "construction": "For 2008, the capital spend includes three new plant builds".
Faulty punctuation annoys me. I see it everywhere and it makes baby Jesus cry. What kills me is this ..... those ... stupid dots ... people ........ mistake for ellipses ...... and place randomly in their sentences. Hopefully, I spelled ellipses correctly. I'd hate to make baby Jesus cry, too.
I gave ya a reputation dot for that, as the Queen of dots...
I journal alot, so it's just 'stream of consciousness' going on...
or should I say, "I write in a journal often".
this thread is too long for me to check if this one has been mentioned, but the misuse of "whom" really disturbs me. saying "who" in place of "whom" can pass unnoticed, but the reverse is never true; it's just too jarring, and makes me cringe. i wish i could think of an example, but i don't speak that way, so it's difficult for my brain to make the error, even intentionally.
I am a Hungarian living in America and I am still having a problem to understand what is the difference between "I have been there" or "I had been there". To me they are two past tenses?!
The second one is like a double past tense, so you're referring to something you had previously done in the context of something else you're recounting from the past. Example: I had been to the grocery store already that morning but then I needed to go again.
The other is just straight past tense: I have been to the grocery store today.
Quote:
Originally Posted by car54
Hey, don't go to the UK....they say zed instead of zero. I always thought that sounded weird, but I guess that's the King's English for you.
No we don't, we say zed instead of your "zee" - zed is the last letter of the alphabet in the UK. 0 is zero, or sometimes "nought".
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrstewart
My mother in law says CHIMLEY instead of CHIMNEY...drives me nuts!
My ex's mum used to say wardrove instead of wardrobe - that drove me nuts too!
And we have a chain store called Matalan which she always called Mataland. That one turned into a running joke and now I call it "The Land of Matter" with a very deep voice, so that it sounds like something out of a sci fi or fantasy book
Irks me when things are used incorrectly for so long, until even the wrong way becomes acceptable, too -- as in forte.
Many of the changes in our language, specifically the use of punctuation marks (consider: commas) arise from journalistic style as contrasted with the rules found in an English grammar book. I used to show my HS students the difference, and tell them I was their English teacher, not the editor of a newspaper, and I wanted to see those commas.
Irks me when things are used incorrectly for so long, until even the wrong way becomes acceptable, too -- as in forte.
I agree. Sometimes I hear words used incorrectly so much that I start to question myself.
An example occurred this morning when I was about to use the word "ignorant" to mean "not having much knowledge about something" and I thought "hold on, is that right?" just because it's used incorrectly so much.
I used to hear it used by people to refer to someone who had ignored them. I'm now unsure as to whether this has wormed its way in as an accepted use, as I just googled the definition and it came up with that particular meaning as "{informal}", which is a worry.
What are everyone's views on "ironic"? Sarcastic or unfortunate coincidence? Or both?
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Hey, I can have a double standard if I want to! 
(And not all of us care about not ending sentences with a preposition, i.e. my previous sentence! Haha.)
