Words are important. Homonyms in spoken language are easy to understand, misusing them while writing makes you look like a fool. Also, quotation marks are used to denote quotes.
Piqued is a different word than peaked.
Complement and compliment do not have the same meaning.
Quotation marks are used to denote–shock–quotes.
Confusing there and they’re is a ridiculous screw up that far too many people make.
If people constantly spoke as badly as they wrote, we’d never be able to understand each other.
What are your pet peeves in regards to grammar/spelling? Would love to know.
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{ 5 comments }
Well, I’ve got too many pet peeves when it comes to grammar.
Here, it’s the same case with almost everyone : the subject and verb don’t agree (he do, they goes), and they miss out every other single necessary word (like “You come my house”).
Perhaps the way most Malaysians speak is easily understood because of its succint vocabulary, but A LOT needs to be done to improve the way we speak.
One of my biggest pet peeves is use of the word ‘Basically’. It is one of the most worthless words in the English language and people are starting to use it as a filler word on epidemic proportions. It is also becoming the new ‘um’.
- Its vs It’s is a huge one.
- affect vs effect is another.
Sometimes I misspell words while Twittering. 95% of those would have been caught had I just proofed my tweet just once, so FAIL on me there. But that is more a product of trying to do too much too fast.
Good post. Besides the “there” / “their” and the “then/than” issues; it’s people who don’t know how to compose a decent email message or letter. This is in no doubt related to our lack of letter-writing today, however, it should be common sense to use an opener and a proper closing. This stems from my old office job where my clients in the public arena would send me blunt and rude emails that refused to take into consideration these basic rules.
Misspelling words while using twitter or texting is completely understandable, but MISUSING words, less so.
Obviously the icanhazcheezeburger site with all the LOLcat stuff is intentional, but it bugs me! Especially when I show them to my daughters and they say “why do they spell that way?”
I’m glad they catch it, but I fear their future. I will know it’s becoming a problem when they write their first essay in lol-speak.
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