What's the most annoying common grammar error, and why is it using apostrophes to pluralize words?

[barkley]

CMS put a cap on therapy services for people with Medicare, meaning you can only use a certain dollar amount each year for therapy services before needing to pay out of pocket. The way it was written was, "such and such amount.... for OT, PT and SLP. Written that way purely because it was alphabetical order. This has since been interpreted as OT having their own individualized cap, then PT and SLP being combined to have their cap together. There have soooo many patients that need all the services, particularly that need PT and SLP, unfortunately impacted by this. They can't get as much of each service as they need compared to if each discipline had their own cap.

has no one ever filed an appeal on this???? this is ripe for one. one of my duties when i worked for dshs was sitting on program committees that reviewed, analyzed and created implementation instructions for changes of this type. a solely wording, grammar or punctuation change would have raised red flags causing us to ask for clarification from the feds as to their expressed intent because too many times the people inputting and publishing the written rules don't administer the programs so they don't realize that their actions are unintentionally changing or violating actual federal regulations for a given program. hopefully we caught it and made sure our people were correctly applying the regulation but if not-one single person could exercise their right to file an appeal that could impact everyone in the united states.

 

[Deb1993]

What drives me nuts: the misuse of I and me. My mom drilled into me: Joe and I are going out, because you'd say "I'm going out" you wouldn't say "me is going out" Just an easy check. I also hate prolly, irregardless (not a word!), a lot, your, you're etc.

I HATE prolly. Makes me wonder if it's just slang or if they really don't know it's probably.

 

[barkley]

anyone else having flashbacks to 'schoolhouse rock'?

(Cough! Cough! Cough!)
When Reginald was home with the flu, uh-huh-huh,
The doctor knew just what to do-hoo.
He cured the infection
With one small injection
While Reginald uttered some interjections..

Hey! That smarts!
Ouch! That hurts!
Yow! That's not fair givin' a guy a shot down there!

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Yow!) or emotion (Ouch!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

So when you're happy (Hurray!) or sad (Aw!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right.

The game was tied at seven all, uh-huh-huh,
When Franklin found he had the ba-hall.
He made a connection
In the other direction,
And the crowd started shouting out interjections...

Aw! You threw the wrong way!
Darn! You just lost the game!
Hurray! I'm for the other team!

Interjections (Aw!) show excitement (Darn!) or emotion (Hurray!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

So when you're happy (Hurray!) or sad (Aw!)
Or frightened (Eeeeeek!) or mad (Rats!)
Or excited (Wow!) or glad (Hey!)
An interjection starts a sentence right.

Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Hey!) or emotion (Hey!).
They're generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,
Or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong.

Interjections show excitement or emotion,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah... YEA!

Darn! That's the end!

 

[ThistleMae]

Improper use of an ampersand in place of "and".

"I'm a fan of Captain & Tennille. They're groovy & amazing!"
First usage is correct, the second is incorrect.

Texts and Tweets are exempt here, since one is informal and the other is limited.

You mean using an ampersand in a professional email or letter? I've never seen that myself. That would be weird.

 

[Christine]

You mean using an ampersand in a professional email or letter? I've never seen that myself. That would be weird.

No, I think the point being made is that you should use "&" as a substitute for the word "and" in text writings, but it can be used in company names or product names.

The ampersand usage rules are simple.​

First Rule: Generally, don’t use the ampersand in regular text, headings or titles as a replacement for and. Just don’t—except as noted in the second rule.

Second Rule: Limit ampersand use to these few situations:

• Proper nouns like company names, e.g., “Crown & Co.” (note: spaces are used here).
• When logos, titles, or names contain the mark as a design element.
• In titles of creative works such as novels, songs, and albums. In film credits for stories, screenplays, etc., & indicates a closer collaboration than and. The Writers Guild of America uses & to denote two writers collaborating on a specific script.
• Inside tables or parentheses when space is limited.
• In common shorthand expressions like “R&D,” “rock & roll,” or “country & western.”
• The ampersand can be used to indicate that the “and” in a listed item is a part of the item’s name and not a separator (e.g. “Rock, pop, rhythm & blues and hip hop”).
• In names that are themselves abbreviations, like “AT&T” or “A&W” (note: no spaces are used here).
• In citations when the source has more than one author, use an ampersand to connect the last two (Smith, Greene & Jones, 2008). Some style guides (APA) recommend using the ampersand here while others (Chicago Manual of Style and The MLA Style Manual) write out “and.”
• When identifying more than one addressee: “Mr. & Mrs. Pitcairn, or Judy & David Pitcairn.”
• The phrase et cetera (“and so forth”), commonly written as etc., is also properly abbreviated &c. — representing the combination et + c(etera).

 

[BamaGuy44]

Back to the use of apostrophes for plurals. There are instances where this is appropriate:

(1) The plural of lowercase letters.
Example: There are no b's in this sentence.

(2) The plural of abbreviations with internal periods.
Example: She has several Ph.D.'s.

I think this may be the original source of the apostrophes-for-plurals confusion.

The mistake I see most often is "do's and don'ts." This is just carelessness, since if "do" takes an apostrophe (completely unnecessary), then "don't" should as well (don't's). However, the correct phrase is "dos and don'ts."

The thing that drives me the nuttiest is the incorrect conjugation of the verb go. For example: I have went.
OUCH!!!

I'm a professional copy editor and a mistake I see all the time is the improper use of "and I" instead of "and me." I think this started maybe 30 years ago when someone, somewhere decided that "and me" was always incorrect and if you were a hoity-toity person, you would always say "and I." This is everywhere.

Mistakes in posts and texts, though? Some of them are caused by the erroneously named autocorrect. I forgive them all.

#1 is true, though I stand my original assertion that it's never correct for words. Disagree with #2. Most style guides would tell you to use "PhDs", leaving out the periods altogether. If there were periods, most would advise "Ph.Ds." The lone exception is abbreviations ending in "s" because the meaning could be unclear, like in "ROUSs" (Rodent of Unusual Size) "ROUS's" would be better. Though some editorial and style guides would still recommend "ROUSs"

But this is getting into the area where it's not right or wrong, just different styles.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Lately, grammar error's dont seem worth letting lose the dog's of war to correct them.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Here's another one where styles of speech and writing differ. Referring to teams and groups. Our friends in the UK would say "Wow, Alabama are really stomping Tennessee into the ground today!" (Assuming they ever mentioned American college football), while in the US we'd say "Alabama is stomping them into the ground!"

We say "is" even though we are referring to a group of people. Neither is right or wrong, just custom. Personally I think the UK way sounds better and more natural. I've tried saying it that way here in the US, let's just say it's not catching on. People look at me like I'm weird, so I just play along and say it the US way.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Lately, grammar error's dont seem worth letting lose the dog's of war to correct them.

I just got physically ill.

 

[Spaceguy55]

Well than, it looks like most of the grammatical errors have been covered.

 

[Mysterian]

You mean using an ampersand in a professional email or letter? I've never seen that myself. That would be weird.

Exactly what I'm getting at.

 

[LeeLee'sMom]

People saying I could care less when what they really mean is I couldn't care less. I know that both are considered acceptable but I still don't like it.

This one drives me nuts. I always say to them so you still care a little then ..LOL

 

[Spaceguy55]

"What's the most annoying common grammar error, and why is it using apostrophes to pluralize words?"​

I'm not a English major at all but...this would be a better thread headline.

Using apostrophes to incorrectly pluralizing words is the most annoying grammar error to me, what is yours ?

 

[John VN]

My absolute #1 pet peeve (among many LOL) is using apostrophes to pluralize words. I mean word's. I mean, why? And almost 100% of the time there will be other plural words in the same post/email without the apostrophe. I know people make mistakes, including me. But it breaks my brain wondering how someone decides to put it in some words and not others. Bizarre, amirite?

I agree!

I agree's wit both of you's

 

[BamaGuy44]

"What's the most annoying common grammar error, and why is it using apostrophes to pluralize words?"​

I'm not a English major at all but...this would be a better thread headline.

Using apostrophes to incorrectly pluralizing words is the most annoying grammar error to me, what is yours ?

Nah, I phrased it that way on purpose. I already know apostrophe abuse is the worst of the grammar errors, and I will hear no argument to the contrary. It's specifically banned by the Geneva Convention, right along with torturing prisoners and other war crimes.

 

[BamaGuy44]

People saying I could care less when what they really mean is I couldn't care less. I know that both are considered acceptable but I still don't like it.

Considered acceptable by whom? People get it wrong so often that we know what they mean and just let it slide? Not on my watch! Same thing with "literally". Supposedly now it's "accepted" to use it for emphasis, even though that's not what the word means. Back in my day, words had meanings! *shakes fist at cloud*

 

[RamblingMad]

Your and you're. Then and than.

 

[NannyBeBe]

From the dictionary: unique -- the only one of its kind. Adding an adjective to the word is incorrect.

 

[emer95]

Many of my pet peeves have already been mentioned. There is a teacher I work with who does ridiculous things with punctuation in her emails and it drives me crazy. This is what she does:

“Hey—— just thought I’d mention ……. I heard the other day——— we need to take notes……. at our meetings from now on ———-

OMG. It makes my eyeballs hurt.

 

[focusondisney]

My new #1 is when someone pluralizes the word I. On these very boards I have seen someone write ‘my husband and I’s anniversary’.

OMG! That absolutely makes me nuts. I have never in my life heard anyone make “I” possessive except on the Dis. The possessive of I is my or mine people!!