Big Grammatical Blunders: What’s Yours?
April 19, 2009 by Allison Boyer
Filed under Jobs
Last week, in a post I wrote, I used the word towards. Or, more accurately, I used the non-word towards when I mean toward. One commenter was quick to notice it:
One thing, as an old-school writer, toward, backward, and forward do not ever have an s on the end. Towards, backwards, and forwards are not words. (Pet peeve of mine…) Also having difficult time accepting text, twitter, and the like because of the erosion of real words. Accepted the end of ink on my hands, but cannot accept the lingo, especially in a forum that does not require it.
- Gina
Image: sxc.hu
LOL speak, as I call it, is another topic for another day, but right now I want to talk about grammar mistakes in your writing. Now, I make typos every day. That’s why I have an editor who looks at anything I send to clients. A combination of typing too quickly and a broken keyboard mean that I need someone to proofread my work.
But the toward/towards issue wasn’t a typo. And it isn’t a rule I don’t know, either. So why did I type it? Probably because I grew up saying/writing it. I’m Pennsylvania Dutch, and we aren’t exactly known for proper English. So saying towards doesn’t even register as wrong on my grammar radar.
Another thing that I do: When something is all gone, I refer to it as “all.” For example, I’d say “I’m going to the store. The milk is all.” All what? All gone, of course, but for some reason (maybe its another PA Dutch thing) the gone part is implied.
I think we all have hangups like that. For some people, it is typing alot instead of a lot (I see this ALL the time). For other people, it is using “good” when they mean “well” (another thing I see/hear all the time). It omes mostly from how we grew up – when stuff is driven into our heads at an early level, it can be hard to train yourself OUT of habits.
So what’s your biggest grammatical blunder that doesn’t usually “regster” for you? Leave a comment!
Oh, and if you say “I don’t have one,” that just means that you haven’t figured yours out yet. It was years and years before I realized that towards was wrong!
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I knew someone once from Pittsburgh–a well-read, intelligent person–who always said that something “needed fixed” when it “need to be fixed.” She’d say, “My car needs washed.” I’d say, “You mean needs to be washed.” She insisted she was right.
Is that a Pittsburgh thing I wonder? I’ve never heard anyone else say it.
I’m sure I don’t have a grammatical thing (I was an English teacher and taught grammar to court reporters):-)
My pet peeve is people who use “it’s” for “its” as in: “The puppy played with it’s toys.”
Okay, first my blunders, then some notes of the PA Dutch. (And yes, that is an incomplete sentence.)
Thanks for clearing up the “towards” thing, because I think I do that wrong. I also have trouble with lay and lie, especially when I’m talking about my own body position. “I lay myself down” doesn’t sound right and neither does “I lie down.” Help?
Someone cleared up “important” vs “importantly” for me many years ago, but so many people write “most importantly” that I’m still not sure writing “most important” is truly correct. Yes? No?
And I have a hard time saying “I am well” when people ask me how I’m doing, so lately I’ve just responded, “Fantastic!” There, when in doubt, write (in this case talk) around the issue!
Re the PA Dutch (another incomplete sentence). I moved to Emmaus PA many years ago and was struck by how differently people talk. When the weather forecast is for snow, they will say, “They want snow tomorrow.” Who is they? And they really want snow?
There’s also “leave him go” instead of “let.” And the word “yet” gets tossed into all sorts of sentences in unusual places, yet. Like that. I think? I’m not a native so…
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that I don’t think these small grammatical issues are all that important. As long as people can figure out what we’re saying and as long as the message gets across, that’s what’s most important. For the rest? There are good copy editors.
Here in south Texas, people say they’re “fixin’ to” do things. After 25 years living here (out of 55), I say that, too! They also say they’re “waiting on,” instead of “waiting for.” I’ve even seen headlines in the “Houston Chronicle” that use “waiting on!” That bugs me!
I recently wrote about apostrophes turning up in plural words – I knew it made my blood boil, but it’s proven to be a very contentious issue.
I often hear Canadians say “minds well” instead of “might as well”.
*Deep breath*
The thing I always have to look twice at is “your” and “you’re.” I know the rule and yet I’m still always in fear of getting it wrong. (And I do get it wrong often enough that that is a valid fear!)
Maybe a Pennsylvania thing, because I’ve def heard people say that. That’s something I can hear as wrong, but I hear it all the time.
Just thought I’d respond to the “lay/lie” comment. Lay is a transitive verb; this means it needs a direct object to be correct. So “lay my body down” is correct because “body” is the object. “Lie” is an intransitive verb; this means it does not need a direct object. So “I will lie down” is correct too. The confusion comes because the word “lay” is ALSO the past tense of “lie” so it can be used as an intransitive verb here – as in “I lay down yesterday.”
Isn’t grammar fun?