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Ten words you need to stop misspelling

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You guys really get bent out of shape over grammar/spelling errors on the internet? 98% of the time you know what the person means anyway. I'm almost inclinded to do it on propouse.
 
I agree with the OP that spelling mistakes are really irritating, but you guys arguing that people should say "by accident" instead of "on accident" etc., are idiots. English is an extremely widely spoken language with many dialects. You are not the sole arbiter of stock phrases and grammaticality.
 
Shikashi said:
Has anyone said "masterbate" yet? It's "masturbate", not "masterbate". Someone needs to point this out.
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Depends on your level of expertise.

leroidys said:
I agree with the OP that spelling mistakes are really irritating, but you guys arguing that people should say "by accident" instead of "on accident" etc., are idiots. English is an extremely widely spoken language with many dialects. You are not the sole arbiter of stock phrases and grammaticality.
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Normally the slippery slope is a fallacy, but in your case it's a trend. It's "by accident." "On accident" is a mistake. Just because it's widely used doesn't make it correct. "Nucular," is widely used, but it's still the domain of the illiterate or deliberately obtuse.

You only get to write like cormac mccarthy [sic] or Joyce after you master the basics, not in spite of your inability to do that.
 
I just can't believe native English speakers have trouble with apostrophes, contractions and possessives.

I mean, I was taught to see the difference between "you're" and "your" the very first year I started to learn English at 3rd grade. 3rd grade!

I may have sloppy grammar, forget difficult irregular verbs or make some stupid mistakes but I know I'll never forget how to use the "to be", "to have" and negative verb contractions. Seeing native speakers do is something completely beyond my understanding.
 
Isn't it "accidentally?" I thought you needed an adverb:

"I peed on my cat on accident" vs. "I peed on my cat accidentally."
 
I remember writing my dissertation in my third year at university and the tutor told me how I was the only one who knew the difference between 'compliment' and 'complement', which is an error that I see all the time. I was the only one out of 20... in the final year of a journalism course.

It's not spelling, but a grammatical error that annoys the piss out of me and is seen everywhere is the comma splice. I see professional writers doing it often, let alone forum posts.

Brobzoid said:
someone explain the proper use of whose and who's to me pls. I always worry I'm using it wrong. :(
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'Who's' is a contraction of 'who is'. Substitute that into the sentence and see if it works.

'Who's book is this?' doesn't work as 'Who is book is this?', so it must be 'whose'.

Raist said:
I have a similar problem with "whom". Never quite sure when it should be used.

Don't hurt me, I'm not a native english speaker.
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Use 'whom' when you're talking about the object of the sentence; 'who' when you're talking about the subject.

e.g.

'I [subject] have a friend [object] whom [since it's referring to the object] is going to meet us there.'

'It was John [subject] who [referring to the subject] broke the vase [object].'

Most people wouldn't notice anyway, though, especially in speech. You only need to worry in formal writing.

Goya said:
Due to changing modes of communication, more people write nowadays. That includes people who are uneducated or simply suck at writing. Explains alot.
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FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU
 
Ourobolus said:
Isn't it "accidentally?" I thought you needed an adverb:

"I peed on my cat on accident" vs. "I peed on my cat accidentally."
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Accidentally is fine, but "on accident" is wrong, since "on purpose" implies correctly directed thought or action whereas "by accident" implies an outcome other than the intended one.
 
OuterWorldVoice said:
Accidentally is fine, but "on accident" is wrong, since "on purpose" implies correctly directed thought or action whereas "by accident" implies an outcome other than the intended one.
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Yeah, I know "on accident" is incorrect (my Dad pounded that into my head when I was younger), but I never even thought to use "by accident" at all - I just use "accidentally."
 
If we're going to get into grammar, I've got a few common errors that bother me.

1. Incorrect usage of commas when writing relative clauses is very common. Non-defining clauses get commas, but defining clauses don't.
2. If not being used for listing purposes, there are two independent clauses in a sentence with a semicolon.
3. Comma splices are annoying, but they seem to be gaining in popularity.

However, I don't get too upset over mistakes in grammar. After all, there are still British scholars who argue that you can never begin a sentence with an adverb.
 
elrechazao said:
The reference to writing papers made me assume (apparently correctly) that you're still in school. Congrats on that.


I think you could make a very successful post about your pet peeves, I would be excited to read it.

If you want to enjoy a good discussion about why the general thrust of your posts is wrong, I'd be happy to oblige. Those who use their instead of there are ignorant of the true meaning of the words they type. Those who choose to omit capitalization or punctuation are doing so out of laziness.

If laziness bothers you as much as ignorance, that's wonderful. Which brings us full circle to that thread you're going to create about it!
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This thread already has laziness included dude. :lol Every grammar/punctuation/spelling thread does. The annoyance lies in the amount of times people see it done, not reason. Earlier you said you rage every time you see the the thread title with apostrophe mistakes. Can you tell me without a doubt it was ignorance rather than laziness? Really, the reason you see the mistakes in the OP done on the internet so often has a lot to do with fast typing and laziness. I'm confident that the people you see doing their/they're/there mistakes on neogaf can pass this following test with flying colors: http://www.better-english.com/easier/theyre.htm
 
msdstc said:
Alright- not a word.
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alright is a word. but honestly, so what? do you think Milton or Shakespeare hesitated to coin pandemonium and incarnadine, respectively, just because some quibbler like you points out it is "not a word"?
 
DeathNote said:
This thread already has laziness included dude. :lol Every grammar/punctuation/spelling thread does. The annoyance lies in the amount of times people see it done, not reason. Earlier you said you rage every time you see the the thread title with apostrophe mistakes. Can you tell me without a doubt it was ignorance rather than laziness? Really, the reason you see the mistakes in the OP done on the internet so often has a lot to do with fast typing and laziness. I'm confident that the people you see doing their/they're/there mistakes on neogaf can pass this following test with flying colors: http://www.better-english.com/easier/theyre.htm
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How is it laziness to add an apostrophe to a word that doesn't need it? It's one additional keystroke. You have to actively try to do it. The only reason a person would do that is out of ignorance.
 
Not a real word, but it still drives me up the wall the number of people who don't know how to properly spell Spider-Man's name. It's not Spiderman.
 
faceless007 said:
How is it laziness to add an apostrophe to a word that doesn't need it? It's one additional keystroke. You have to actively try to do it. The only reason a person would do that is out of ignorance.
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Fast typing =/= ignorance. Sometimes your fingers slip. It happens.
 
cosmicblizzard said:
Fast typing =/= ignorance. Sometimes your fingers slip. It happens.
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Afterward, not proofreading what you typed fast is lazy. Titles are very short.

Oh how simple logic can be.

And with that, I'm out.
 
Some words that I put double letters in the wrong place. Like referring, I tend to write "reffering"
 
elrechazao said:
Your fingers continuously slip to add in apostrophes right before the letter s, over and over? Convenient.
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Yep. I know thi's one guy that did that all the time. It 'sucked becau'se he thought I wa's making fun of him whenever I would accidentally use an apo'strophe. He was like a rever'se grammar na'zi.
 
elrechazao said:
The reference to writing papers made me assume (apparently correctly) that you're still in school. Congrats on that.


I think you could make a very successful post about your pet peeves, I would be excited to read it.

If you want to enjoy a good discussion about why the general thrust of your posts is wrong, I'd be happy to oblige. Those who use their instead of there are ignorant of the true meaning of the words they type. Those who choose to omit capitalization or punctuation are doing so out of laziness.

If laziness bothers you as much as ignorance, that's wonderful. Which brings us full circle to that thread you're going to create about it!
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omgz....sentens fragmint!

Just kidding.

Knowing that the human race is a diversely educated body and that internet posters are sampled from said body, I've come to except whatever spelling and grammar is thrown at me. That is, of course, as long as I can make out the meaning without having to read it twenty times.
 
In any informal writing no one should really care about the way people spell things. They should also not care about proper grammar usage.
 
I typically misspell apocalypse. I always tend to insert an o in for the a there.

And I don't know if I can call this a misspelling, but I type both theater and theatre sometimes, maybe even in the same paragraph.
 
nourali2 said:
Anyone have a good mnemonic for the spelling of "recommend" and the proper usage of "whom?"
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whom always follows a preposition (by, of, with...); I'm not an English native speaker but I believe that's pretty much it.

eg you would say:

"the man who stole your wallet" but "the man with whom you stole a wallet"
 
I have no beef with people who struggle with this kind of thing, but it's annoying when people don't care, and just dismiss any kind of criticism as being a "grammar nazi". At least TRY and make an effort.

Whenever I'm unsure about a word, I look it up. I don't just guess.
 
elrechazao said:
Either clever, or pwnt.
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Typo, actually. The irony is not lost on me. :lol But it doesn't undermine my point, seeing as I specifically said it's not making mistakes that bothers me (that WOULD make me a grammar nazi), but rather people who just don't care. That's a very small minority though, so it's not meant as a blanket statement. I haven't really seen anybody here who that applies to, but that's because people here generally make an effort in their posts, unlike other boards.
 
Ben2749 said:
Typo, actually. Ironic, and amusing, to be sure, but it doesn't undermine my point, seeing as I specifically said it's not making mistakes that bothers me (that WOULD make me a grammar nazi), but rather people who just don't care. That's a very small minority though, so it's not meant as a blanket statement.
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Just messing with you my man.
 
msdstc said:
Ridiculous
Irregardless- not a word
Alright- not a word.
Definitely
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Alright is definitely a word along with already and altogether.

Unless you want to tell me that those aren't words either.
 
Wormdundee said:
Alright is definitely a word along with already and altogether.

Unless you want to tell me that those aren't words either.
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That reminds me; ever since Bush used the (non-existent) word: "misunderestimated", there have been a few times where I've come dangerously close to using it in a spoken conversation. I'm well aware that it's completely wrong, and I've never once come close to using it before I heard Bush use it, but simply because he put it out there, and I've heard a lot of other people use it now, it's lost a lot of its absurdity, if that makes sense. :lol



EDIT: oops soory dubble post
 
The words that I see abused most consistently on GAF are the various forms of "release".
 
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