What language mistakes bug you most? (working, sued, lesson, Georgia)

[gortamor]

You can 'go fishing' or 'go running', but you can't 'go missing.' That one drives me crazy.

[11thHour]

I haven't read through this thread - too long! So this may have been mentioned before:

Ax being used as ask.

"I axed him to stop calling me."

UGH! How in the bloody hell can you confuse such a simple word?!?!

ASK! ASK! Not AKS! For God's sake, this one drives me mad.

[chicagomama]

My biggest pet peeve is definitely the common, yet incorrect spelling of definately.

I think this is spelled wrong 9 times out of 10.

[robertpolyglot]

If I haven't posted this already, it would be:

ACROST

There is NO "t" at the end of "ACROSS." So many smart people I've known say "ACROST" that it makes them seem like hicks.

[I love the Bears]

I didn't read the whole thread but I have this one:

I seen that yesterday. No - you saw! That makes me nuts!!!!

[albion]

When I hear Americans say " often times " Instead of just plain often.

[Calvitts]

Love this thread! So many of my own pet peeves!

One error I notice all the time, however, is punctuation outside the quotation mark. Commas and periods ALWAYS fall INSIDE the quotation mark.

Example:

Sally and I went to the theatre to see "The Dark Knight."

If you have you seen the movie "The Dark Knight," did you enjoy it?

I mistakenly typed the word "interior" instead of the word "inferior."

Question marks and exclamation points vary -- it depends on their use as to whether they fall inside or outside the quotation marks.

[lorelei2873]

Originally Posted by gentlearts

Most people mispronounce the word forte. It is NOT pronounced fortay. It is pronounced fort.

Your turn....

Actually many sources consider both versions of forte to be standard in American language these days.

It hate it when people make everything plural with the misuse of apostrophes. Hat's, dog's, etc. What belongs to the hats and dogs?

[lorelei2873]

Also, has anyone seen the web site stuffwhitepeoplelike.com? It lists being better at grammar as one of the top things white people like. It's witty. I encourage you to read the post on grammar.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/12/99-grammar/

[photobuff42]

I hate it when people use acronyms, especially before they explain them. I'm a special educator and find that people feel like everything has to be shortened to an acronym. I recently moved to Missouri and the state department (DESE--when people use it I want to say, "Where's Lucy?") site has a PDF (yet another one) that has nine pages of acronyms explained.