Monday, January 26, 2009

Grammar Mistakes

Unfortunately, there are many common grammar and usage errors in English. This BBC article explores twenty such errors, while Paul Brians' book and website list many more.

What are your particular grammar and usage peeves? Personally, I strongly dislike the incorrect usage of apostrophes and I also don't like when "a lot" is written as one word. But there are many more that annoy me -- and I see them very often in my line of work.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have too many "pet peeves" to list, but nothing infuriates me more than the misuse of the language by paid professionals. And there are lots of them on the Web, where "content is king" -- even illiterate content. I'm keeping track of the blunders made by the writers and editors at Yahoo! ("the most trafficked site on the Internet") at http://terriblywrite.wordpress.com

B.J. Epstein said...

Thanks for the comment, Laura, and the fun link!

Best wishes,
BJ

Rosie said...

I thought to place "AND" at the beginning of a sentence was incorrect and "BUT".Yet Laura has placed it at the beginning.I was taught never to do this?
ermm?

Anonymous said...

Many authorities in the U.S. consider it perfectly OK to start a sentence with a preposition, including "and" and "but." The prescription that you must never start a sentence with a preposition is now considered either a myth or outdated. And I happen to agree.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing worse than an ill-informed pedant. Although it is perfectly correct to begin a sentence with "and" or "but," these are not prepositions but rather (coordinating) conjunctions.