OK...I'm a nit-picker...I admit it. I have a lot of pet peeves and I can't stand it when people do certain things. It drives me up a wall. Grammar and spelling are generally my two biggies on the internet. But the other is this...do me a favor and just plain make sense, would ya?
Some of the people who read this will know that I was lurking on a message board in order to have seen this. And to those people I will tell you this...this is why I can't be on that message board right now...these are the kinds of reactions I have to the posts there.
I read this post titled, "The carpet was pulled out from under me today." And while I sympathize with the person's dilemma presented in the text of the post, the title has me ready to scream. The carpet?!?! Really?!?! If you're going to use cliches, at least GET THEM RIGHT! It's a rug...not carpet! How exactly would the carpet be pulled out from under you? I have pulled up carpet...and it's a freaking hard job! If your ass is standing on the carpet when someone is trying to pull it up, you need to move and start helping them, instead of just standing there.
See, the cliche goes, "Someone pulled the RUG out from under me." Rugs are easy to pull up. You grab one side and just give a yank. It's possible to be surprised that someone pulls a rug out from under you...but no way would you be surprised if someone overhauled your living room and pulled the carpet out from under you. Get it right!
6 comments:
DON'T UPSET THE GRAMMAR POLICE! I shoot to kill!
A few other peeves:
• Fewer than/lesser than
• 'Save 10% on...' No, it's 10% OFF. Only 50% will render your statement accurate in this way.
• 'I feel real bad' (really) and 'I feel badly' (is there something wrong with your nerve endings?)
• Screaming split infinitives
• ILLINOIS is not pronounced with an S at the end.
• And, of course, the ever-popular ITS vs. IT'S. My husband and I bonded over this on our first date.
And don't get me started on 'regional differences.' I don't care if everyone else in the state says it, it still doesn't make it correct!
I heart you both. I have postponed writing on this same subject. I am acutely aware of my own shortcomings, however, so it would be nothing more than general nitpicking, BUT, sometimes I just get pushed to the limit of my patience! And there was a poorly constructed sentence! And another! Go me!
After the first year of my double english major at one of the best universities in the country, I gave up on grammar.
Turns out that there are few rules in academic writing anymore and that commas are virtually unneeded these days except within lists.
I actually took Latin in order to learn how to build a sentence. I don't remember much of it though:) My blog must be like fingernails on a blackboard to you....LOL!
I could put forward an arguement that my style of writing is a coloquial update of Virginia Woolf's 'stream of consciousness' style. It'd pass at uni, but I doubt I'd fool you lot, would I?
I'm a writer and editor, so the things you've mentioned are some of my biggest pet peeves ever.
Another one you see a lot, especially on message boards: "loose" instead of "lose." "I need to loose some weight." Ugh!
/pedant
LOL! I have the same reactions to some of the posts there. I just choose not to respond to them. ;) I am glad to know you at least lurk a bit, Kate. I miss you there.
not from boards, but just the nonsense i hate:
"...specializing in all types..."
there's a florist who advertizes "...specializing in all types of roses, tulips, (etc)", and the yellow pages is full of restaurants that "specialize in all types" of seafood, steaks, burgers, pasta.
THAT IS NOT SPECIALIZING, PEOPLE!
you can specialize in heirloom roses, or you can specialize in gourmet burgers. that's it.
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