Irregardless, Grammar is our Friend

[vacationland]

My people!

Right there with you on the white-hot HATE for misplaced quotation marks on signage. Has anyone noticed they crop up with alarming frequency in classified ads as well? For Sale: 98 "Toyota" "navy blue" std "like new" 98K, $4000 obo. Augh! Quotation marks do not add emphasis, people! Using them makes you look like Cletus and Brandine!

Another one that has been bothering me for years: can someone explain to me why the word "anymore" is so frequently misused these days? I never, ever ran across this grammatical error in the days before the internet, either in conversation or in print. But about 10 years ago, I started noticing this error on message boards. Examples:

"Anymore, she didn't want to see Titanic because she's over Leo."

"I am so tired of the infighting on this board anymore."

It's being used as a synonym for "lately" or "recently" or "these days" or something like that, as far as I can tell from context. It's so jarring! Is this is regional thing, or a generational one? Where did it come from? Drives me apeshit.

ETA: Oh! One more I was reminded of last week. Not a grammar problem, but a common misspelling. The plural of "bus" is "buses." Not "busses." Those are kisses. Someone forgot to explain this to the guy who paints signs at Boston's South Station Bus terminal, where travellers are treated to multiple examples of the latter spelling. Oops.

[CyberCathy]

lyrasilver said:

Who spends money to have an awning made and doesn't check the spelling on it first?

I am reminded of this detailing place that had two signs. One read "Auto Sound & Effects" and the other read "Auto Sound and Effetcs." I would drive past it almost daily and I just could not comprehend why they didn't order both signs indentical. The right way, of course.

[quepasa]

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said: "terrorist suck"

Come on, subject and verb agreement is not that hard.

[marmie]

What maddens and saddens me is the abandonment of the perfectly good little pronoun "me". So many people seem to use "I" now, even when it's wrong! For instance, I read this sentence last week: "Alfred gave Bob and I a ride to the airport." Arrgghh!

[kanding]

It's been years, but I still remember this awning in Alexandria, Virginia: "Wafle House". It always made me a little sad to see it thinking that the owner probably figured out that the awning people screwed up, but couldn't afford to get another one.

[monsterzero]

Maybe these awning companies like screwing people based on regional accent? Some kind of vast awning conspiracy dedicated to showing how stupid some people are by taking it out on all humanity?

Terrorist suck. If that was next to a cartoon cavemen, that would be funnier.

[littleweasel]

Marmie, I am so with you on the abandonment of the pronoun "me." People, people, people, following a prepostion, it is always "me."

I'm such a nerdy nerd. I actually stopped watching The Bachelor a few seasons ago because I kept hearing the girls and the bachelor saying, "between you and I." In fact, one time the bachelor said, "between you and me," and one of the girls corrected him, saying, "Actually, it's between you and I." I turned the channel and never looked back.

[marmie]

Ah, Little Weasel, I know what you mean! I've been following the series "Lost" and during one episode Jack, a doctor (and presumably educated), said "Well, she told Michael and I that...". I was mightily ticked off.

[vacationland]

Eh, Marmie, the bad grammar from the science Ph.Ds and M.D.s doesn't surprise me at all; in fact, it's pretty much in character!

I spent more than 10 years working at an Ivy League graduate school of public health, and the majority of the exceedingly overeducated people I worked with had problems with grammar. We're talking problems with apostrophe placement, their/they're, paragraph structure, you name it. And oh! The spelling! The terrible, haaaarible spelling!

I'd hazard a guess that around half of the articles submitted to medical journals have been heavily edited by the liberal arts grad admin assistants so it won't appear that a 12-year-old wrote it. You expect the need for this for researchers and doctors who speak English as a second language, but it's nearly as bad for the native English speakers!

It's partly a right brain/left brain thing, but the truth is, most science grads and doctors were taking advanced calc, trig, statistics, anatomy and biochem in college, not expository writing. The last time many of them took more than basic English courses was in high school, and most of 'em just don't care--it's not what they're interested in, as long as the scientific info is clear.

It doesn't help that they're often generously graded on papers that are factually correct but structurally and grammatically iffy...because, of course, they're being graded by other grammar-challenged scientists! Vicious cycle.

That said, the "I" for "me" thing drives me crazy too!

[dwanollah]

And oh! The spelling! The terrible, haaaarible spelling!

Dude, right here! I admit, I am a HORRIFIC speller. But I've decided that bad spelling sometimes is the mark of a true genius.

Right?

RIGHT?!

"Well, she told Michael and I that...". I was mightily ticked off.

I've heard/seen "myself" being used in this context WAY too much. "So, according to Michael and myself..." or "Dana and myself had...."

MAKE! IT! STOP!