This is my 2nd participation in Pour Your Heart Out...last week's was just plain ugly. This week's is a lighter more comical approach to my pet peeve... 8-)
I don't know why this bugs me as much as it does, but it DRIVES ME CRAZY!!
~Why do people NOT understand the use of the apostrophe????
For example...people put apostrophes in "CD's" when simply describing multiple cds. The cds are not possessing or owning anything when used in this way. And why is it capitalized anyway? It's (an appropriate use of apostrophe- in a contraction) an abbreviation for two words that neither one of them need to be capitalized. Yeah, yeah, and those of you who make fun of ME still calling them records, back off. At least I don't write "record's"! Like others write "mom's" when they simply mean "moms".
~Another example I've seen of late: "tattoo's". Is it because the word ends in a vowel that this is troublesome??? What is the tattoo possessing ---if ANYTHING the owner possess the tattoo, but the tattoo itself doesn't possess anything.
~Conversely, NOT using an apostrophe where one is needed, drives me equally as crazy! For example..."I left my dads house". Wait. I guess theoretically you COULD have two dads --remember the show "My Two Dads"??? But, in THIS sentence, it's wrong. WRONG!
~I think what's irritating me of late, regarding this grammar issue, is that people are no longer able to distinguish what is actually correct. Remember when people used the word, "Funner" and we KNEW it was not a word? There is an entire generation of people who believe it is actually correct.
~People mix up "your" and "you're" all the time....THIS IS AN EASY FIX! Read the sentence you are (you're) writing and SUBSTITUTE "you are" if you have written "you're". If it makes sense then odds are it's supposed to be there.
Example: "You're going to need to re-take English." --this one makes sense. Putting "Your going to need to re-take English." doesn't work. I suppose you have to have an understanding of the contraction though. And I KNOW this one bugs other people too.
~G's irritant is "then/than". Example: "I'd rather hear nails down a chalkboard THEN deal with bad grammar." THIS IS WRONG!!! It should be THAN.
Think about it for a moment...you use the word "than" when you are making a comparison—it is a conjunction (conjunction, conjunction..what's your function) You use the word "then" when you want to say something regarding time (it is an adverb) ---"First, I pissed them off, THEN I fixed my grammar." Make sense???
~I think I'm going to close with "affect/effect"….perhaps this ranting blog will have an effect on someone who reads although, most of you who know me will be unaffected because you know of my grammar pet peeve. How brilliant was that sentence to use BOTH of them in there correctly! HAHAHAHA!
I don't edit and grade everything everyone writes, I just notice. It's like an internal honing device I think. Some people don't like to hear mouthbreathers or to walk under ladders --- bad grammar is my pet peeve.
P.S. "Normality" is the word, not "normalcy".
P.P.S.S. "LOL" shouldn't be used in professional writing. EVER.
The end.
Happy Wednesday!
