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For many years now I have been in an ongoing battle with a friend of mine to spot errors in messages we send one another. The started about 20 years ago when I used your instead of you're.

Since that time I notice it all the time. This and the other classic there, their and they're.

This is done in good fun, but I do twinge when I see an error like this in printed media or professional websites who, should be proof reading.

A very small annoyance in the grans scheme of things. Although it's awesome when my friend gets it wrong. I know the feeling of dread I have when I make a mistake on a text...hoping he'll not notice...he does

Anything similar?

I cringe when people leave "to be" out of a sentence. They will say or write the grass needs cut instead of the grass needs to be cut.

My grammar and spelling aren't perfect so I mostly cringe to myself.

My list of things everyone should have learned in high school:

JUST BECAUSE A WORD ENDS IN AN 'S', IT DOES NOT MEAN IT SHOULD HAVE AN APOSTROPHE!!!
your vs. you're
our vs. are
could/should have vs. could/should of
their vs. they're vs. there
lose vs. loose
were vs. we're
to vs. too vs. two

I'm sure others here have their own pet peeves.

Am I perfect? Absolutely not! But I know what my grammar and spelling weaknesses are, and I double-check what I write and look up words that, in 60+ years, still struggle with (I know I just ended that sentence with a preposition 🤪).

We also have autocorrect that sometimes seems to originate from Mars. But that's why it's important to proofread our work, ESPECIALLY if it's something to be published to a mass audience.

Don't get me started on the lack of copy editors in professional publications!!

"would of" instead of 'would have.'

to, too, two misuse.

I'm definitely not perfect either (my undergrad was in English, English Lit) and I will sometimes slip up. When writing long legal briefs, the LAST think I want is a spelling or grammatical error.

Funny story - during my first year of college I worked part time for a local newspaper, taking classified ads. Every month they would publish what they considered funny errors (even though the newspaper had to re=run a corrected ad for free) and some were SO funny.

One ad from someone trying to sell some cows read -

"Two black bulls LAYING around 650." It was supposed to say .."weighing around 650 pounds.

Another was an obit and it said .."Mr. ____ is survived by two SINS." (instead of SONS.)

Shows how one word can totally change the meaning ....

I'm a stickler for the Oxford Coma.

I'm a stickler for the Oxford Coma.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I'm definitely not perfect either (my undergrad was in English, English Lit) and I will sometimes slip up. When writing long legal briefs, the LAST think I want is a spelling or grammatical error.

My undergrad was journalism/PR, so I had it hammered into me to proofread. But we all know it's easier to catch someone else's mistake than it is to catch our own. When I was in the days of writing articles or papers (when I changed gears for my master's degree), I'd have to allow myself at least a day or two before I submitted it to go back and recheck it. I was much more likely to pick up on mistakes, the more time that passed between writing and editing.

But I'm guessing you're often on a time crunch that doesn't always allow for timely copy editing. That would stress me out.

I've had to learn to give myself some grace when I hit 'send' and I find a mistake afterward.

One of my discussions this week has been if the comma goes inside the parenthesis or not. I remember the discussion from US being about the writing style being used. HE was so long ago that I don't know if guidance changed.

All right vs alright, plus the ones mentioned.

All of the above especially in professional emails, and documents.
It makes me crazy, it's a lack of attention to detail.

My BFF at work is also the same so we often laugh about the errors.

Count me in. I'm all for the Oxford comma.

My HS senior year English teacher just stopped reading if he came to a run-on sentence or a comma splice. Either resulted in an 'E+' for the essay. IIRC. We could raise our grades to D+ by rewriting the essay. So I'm very careful to prevent those errors - not perfect by any means, but I work hard to avoid them.

The misuse of 'your' on the web no longer bothers me much, since it's so prevalent.

I had to Google the "Oxford Comma". I was always taught that you DO NOT put a comma before the AND in a list. Horses for courses I guess.

One that always gets me thinking is affect and effect. Every time I use one of them I have to question myself

Another one...

who's vs. whose

I usually try to do my best to be accurate, but I am very slow on keyboard, and Siri simply doesn’t comprehend my Southern accent!

I will say this, however. My oldest sister, seven years older than I, was an English major. When she went off to college, I was in the seventh grade. We were not terribly close because of the age difference, but I wrote her a letter. I was so proud, and so excited about sending it to her.

She sent it back to me. CORRECTED. In RED INK.

Needless to say, I have never sent her another letter in my whole life. (Which was no big deal, seeing how we were seldom apart from each other for any length of time.)

Anyway, I totally get wanting to be accurate, but sometimes it can override the primary meaning of the communication in the first place.

On the other hand, as I sit here prepared to hit "post message", I am tempted to reread my message for errors!

WhatsRight. That’s horrible, I would not do that to someone who took the time to write to me (unless it’s my friend and I would be ruthless, but he would see the funny side). I really only get a bit "twitchy" when it comes to professional writing. On forums such as this I would barely notice errors people make and certainly not critique their work.

There is a time and a place to be a pedantic bastard and here is not one of them. Facebook however…that’s open season to "tut" at poor writing

The mispronunciation of realtor.

It is Real-tor.

It is not REAL-A-Tor.

👍🏻

Pronouncing nuclear as "noocular"

Pronouncing an s as an x or k ("ekspecially")

The incorrect usage of "anymore" to refer to something that has never happened before, as opposed to something that no longer happens ("there is a new dry cleaner downtown anymore")

I cringe when people leave "to be" out of a sentence. They will say or write the grass needs cut instead of the grass needs to be cut.

THIIIIISSSS

[This message edited by BraveSirRobin at 4:20 AM, Tuesday, June 13th]

What about when they pronounce button as bu--en or going as goinguh, important as impor-en.

*grand scheme

Brave Sir Robin, thank God I'm not the only one who is mystified by the strange use of anymore. I first encountered this when I moved to this rural community to work for the city, and I thought it was something only our public works director did. Nope. "Anymore" is tacked on to more things than you could imagine. It drives me nuts.

I’m from the south, and my H is from "the sticks" - a really country place. Some of his friends and relatives (and him before I corrected him "to death") do not use correct verb tense. And they are not uneducated. They prefer to speak that way. ???

BTW, I tend to begin sentences with "And" and "But" which is usually incorrect.

Even though my sister corrected my letter, being around her went a long way to correct some of my mistakes.

"Who vs whom", "sit vs set", and "lie vs lay" were some of her pet peeves.