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Last post Author Topic: What annoys you to no end?  (Read 345971 times)

Darwin

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #275 on: June 26, 2009, 11:14 AM »
Ah! I thought of two more (that could possibly start a mini-flame war - so be it):

1. Pronouncing the "i" in Multi, Demi, Semi, etc. as "eye" instead of "ee" (heh, heh - I used a good illustration of why this is wrong in my paranthetic comment above: it's min-ee, not min-eye, no?)
2. Statements that go something like: "she's real pretty" instead of "she's really pretty"

40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #276 on: June 26, 2009, 11:15 AM »
goes well with  -
he got it for nothin' !! :)

Shouldn't that be "fer nothin' "?  :P
Would that be good?  ;)
-cranioscopical (June 26, 2009, 08:27 AM)

Shure nuff would 'lest ya conjure it be otherwise. ;D


40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #277 on: June 26, 2009, 11:54 AM »
Ah! I thought of two more (that could possibly start a mini-flame war - so be it):

1. Pronouncing the "i" in Multi, Demi, Semi, etc. as "eye" instead of "ee" (heh, heh - I used a good illustration of why this is wrong in my paranthetic comment above: it's min-ee, not min-eye, no?)
2. Statements that go something like: "she's real pretty" instead of "she's really pretty"

Nothing wrong with a mini-flame. It's been much (way?) too quite around here (anyway?)(anyhow?) lately. :P

Re #1: I'll have to agree with you on that niggle. Except when there are exceptions. Should that happen, I'm afraid you'll only find me in quasi-agreement with you. I'm sure Quasimodo would approve.

Re#2: Ahhh...the infamous missing ly issue. Does that make you feel bad  (or badly?) for the sorry state of grammatic (or grammatical?) use (or should that be usage?) in this day and age?

Note: I think the current trend in schools to actively discourage the use of adverbs, and limit the use of adjectives, (all in the name of "clearer prose") has a lot to do with the vanishing 'ly'.

---

My current pet word peeve: People who don't seem to understand that an apostrophe 's' indicates possession - not the plural. I can't tell you the number of times I've see somebody referring to many of something with an 's.

I find that error really (real?) annoying.

 ;D


cranioscopical

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #278 on: June 26, 2009, 11:58 AM »
And , (40hz mentioned this elsewhere, which reminded me) !!PowerPoint!!
or, more specifically, clients who want me to use it.

If you feel that you must
Power-To-The-People.jpg


« Last Edit: June 26, 2009, 12:01 PM by cranioscopical »

f0dder

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #279 on: June 26, 2009, 12:00 PM »
Ugh, using 's for plural... take them to town square and have them flogged!

It annoys me almost as much as Danish people who use 's for possession, since we don't use that in Danish (except for a few corner cases). I guess it will eventually be adopted and made official practice, though.

* f0dder sighs
- carpe noctem

40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #280 on: June 26, 2009, 12:22 PM »
take them to town square and have them flogged!

Kinky! We sometimes do that to people. But we make it a point to not do it within our geographic borders since there's a prohibition in our Constitution against us doing things like that.

 :(


wraith808

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #281 on: June 26, 2009, 12:31 PM »
Nothing wrong with a mini-flame. It's been much (way?) too quite around here (anyway?)(anyhow?) lately. :P

That reminds me!  When people use quite instead of quiet and quiet instead of quite!  :P

cranioscopical

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #282 on: June 26, 2009, 12:40 PM »
When people use quite instead of quiet and quiet instead of quite!
Oh quit that!

wraith808

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #283 on: June 26, 2009, 01:12 PM »
Awwww... but it's fun!

(Which reminds me... the overuse of ellipses - my own included!)

J-Mac

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #284 on: June 26, 2009, 01:55 PM »

My current pet word peeve: People who don't seem to understand that an apostrophe 's' indicates possession - not the plural. I can't tell you the number of times I've see somebody referring to many of something with an 's.

I find that error really (real?) annoying.

 ;D



Well then you must really go crazy over possessives and plural form for words ending in "s".....  I had English teachers who could not get it right!  (Remember to consider that ending in "s" doesn't always mean it is a plural form!)

I will mention that certain uses of the apostrophe+s to indicate plural form seem to feel very comfortable, while writing it correctly feels awkward. Some even postulate that using 's with certain acronyms and abbreviations that would otherwise look confusing is indeed proper!

Some examples:

Plural of the letter x.  xs? Doesn't x's just feel better? Plus in most cases no one would think that it indicates the possessive case of the letter "x".

Another is, "I was using Morse code to send SOSs". Doesn't it feel better to write, "I was using Morse code to send SOS's".

I used to go out of my way to rewrite sentences when trying to make an awkward plural form less confusing. Just like I once went nuts attempting to ensure that I NEVER ended sentences with prepositions. However I finally gave up and I now write it in a way that "feels" right to me - even when I know it is not grammatically correct.

 :)

Jim

katykaty

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #285 on: June 26, 2009, 01:57 PM »
People pronouncing Bruschetta as 'brush-etter'.  :mad:

Especially when they work in Italian restaurants.   :mad: :mad:

Especially when I pronounce it right and they 'correct' me.  :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Darwin

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #286 on: June 26, 2009, 02:12 PM »

I find that error really (real?) annoying.

 ;D



Darwin

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #287 on: June 26, 2009, 02:13 PM »
(Which reminds me... the overuse of ellipses - my own included!)

OK... I'm definitely guilty of that one  :-[

40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #288 on: June 26, 2009, 02:39 PM »
When people use quite instead of quiet and quiet instead of quite!
Oh quit that!
-cranioscopical (June 26, 2009, 12:40 PM)

Sorry. My spell cheque tolled me everything was spelled rite bee four eye cent it inn. :-[

Awwww... but it's fun!

(Which reminds me... the overuse of ellipses - my own included!)

Mine too...along with the incessant use of parentheses. (Mine included!). ;)

« Last Edit: June 26, 2009, 03:54 PM by 40hz »

40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #289 on: June 26, 2009, 03:51 PM »

My current pet word peeve: People who don't seem to understand that an apostrophe 's' indicates possession - not the plural. I can't tell you the number of times I've see somebody referring to many of something with an 's.

I find that error really (real?) annoying.

 ;D



Well then you must really go crazy over possessives and plural form for words ending in "s".....  I had English teachers who could not get it right!  (Remember to consider that ending in "s" doesn't always mean it is a plural form!)

I don't know if they still teach it this way, but back when I was in school, possessives that ended in an s were written as an s+apostrophe. As in: Hans' hands were holding Hoss' horses' saddles. (Hmmm...not bad!)

I will mention that certain uses of the apostrophe+s to indicate plural form seem to feel very comfortable, while writing it correctly feels awkward. Some even postulate that using 's with certain acronyms and abbreviations that would otherwise look confusing is indeed proper!

Agree with you 100% on that. :Thmbsup:

Some examples:

Plural of the letter x.  xs? Doesn't x's just feel better? Plus in most cases no one would think that it indicates the possessive case of the letter "x".

That's a tougher one. We used to get taught that if a word ended in in an H, S, or X, then the plural was made by adding an 'es' to the end of the word rather than just a plain 's':

Example: Boss (singular); bosses (plural); boss' (singular possessive); bosses' (plural possessive). I don't know if this is still the standard taught today.

Possessives can still be tricky in other ways. Consider:

Be sure to check the box's contents. (singular possessive)
Be sure to check the boxes' contents. (plural possessive)

We would be expected to add additional "clarifying" words when constructing sentences like those in order to avoid the dreaded "awkward grammar" correction. That's when you got marked down for a lack of style even though you were technically correct. (There's a valuable life lesson lurking somewhere in there. >:D)

So the first sentence would probably have been written: Be sure to check (this/that) box's contents. And the second would have been written something like: Be sure to check (all/every/those) boxes' contents.

Another is, "I was using Morse code to send SOSs". Doesn't it feel better to write, "I was using Morse code to send SOS's".

Actually, if I were  doing something like "walking on the moon..." all the while hoping "my leg won't break" ... and I suddenly found I was in a situation where I'd need to be "sending out an S.O.S." (maybe to to Roxanne ?) I wouldn't be giving a flying apostrophe as to how well it looked or sounded. Just so long as somebody understood it sent me some help.

But you're quite right. It's impossible to cover all instances with a blanket rule. Take SOS. Is it more correctly written S.O.S. (as I was taught) or do we go with the newer SOS sans periods? If we go with the cleaner looking SOS, then your SOS's are more effective in conveying what you mean than something like SOSes or SOSs. Assuming, of course, you simply meant to convey the notion of a number of SOS signals, as opposed to something like the SOS's signal quality or point of origin.

As you can see, there's sometimes no good way to do it.

I used to go out of my way to rewrite sentences when trying to make an awkward plural form less confusing. Just like I once went nuts attempting to ensure that I NEVER ended sentences with prepositions. However I finally gave up and I now write it in a way that "feels" right to me - even when I know it is not grammatically correct.

 :)

Jim

I'm with you. Anybody who has ever had to deal with the way I speak and write will tell you I'm the first to wing it, either for effect, to make a joke, or just to be sure I'm getting my point across. Once, when criticized for his way he constantly misspelled words, President Andrew Jackson retorted, “It's a damn small mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.” I'd be inclined to go a step further and say the same goes for blind adherence to arbitrary rules when they get in the way of what we're trying to convey.

 8)

BTW: Did any of that make sense?



« Last Edit: June 26, 2009, 04:07 PM by 40hz »

Stoic Joker

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #290 on: June 26, 2009, 04:23 PM »
I'm with you. Anybody who has ever had to deal with the way I speak and write will tell you I'm the first to wing it, either for effect, to make a joke, or just to be sure I'm getting my point across. Once, when criticized for his way he constantly misspelled words, President Andrew Jackson retorted, “It's a damn small mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.” I'd be inclined to go a step further and say the same goes for blind adherence to arbitrary rules when they get in the way of what we're trying to convey.

 8)

BTW: Did any of that make sense?




To me yes ... but that's probably a bad thing.

On a side note...I had to google preposition *Shrug* and found this site which seems to fit the current debate. http://www.uottawa.c...itcent/hypergrammar/

...Apearently Canada is how far north you have to go to find folks what speak English proper.
« Last Edit: June 26, 2009, 04:30 PM by Stoic Joker »

fenixproductions

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #291 on: June 26, 2009, 04:29 PM »
@40Hz
You might be right person to ask :)

I've heard once that "the possessive case is not allowed for objects as owners" so using i.e. "router's IP address" instead of "IP address of the router" is mistake. Now, looking at your "Be sure to check the box's contents" makes me feel confused.

Could you enlighten me (or post a link to better sources)?

Darwin

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #292 on: June 26, 2009, 05:05 PM »
I don't know if they still teach it this way, but back when I was in school, possessives that ended in an s were written as an s+apostrophe. As in: Hans' hands were holding Hoss' horses' saddles. (Hmmm...not bad!)

Definitely the way I learned it in school!

Grorgy

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #293 on: June 26, 2009, 05:43 PM »
I'm getting annoyed with people who can actually remember back to school  :huh:

Josh

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #294 on: June 26, 2009, 06:07 PM »
The one with rodney dangerfield?

J-Mac

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #295 on: June 26, 2009, 06:15 PM »
I don't know if they still teach it this way, but back when I was in school, possessives that ended in an s were written as an s+apostrophe. As in: Hans' hands were holding Hoss' horses' saddles. (Hmmm...not bad!)

Definitely the way I learned it in school!

True if it ends in "s" because it is plural and is not a surname. Not true if it ends in "s" but is is a surname, which would make it not a plural.

E.g., That is Tom Jones's song. Not a plural so it still gets the 's instead of the s'   Thoroughly confused now?

Jim

J-Mac

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #296 on: June 26, 2009, 06:16 PM »
Oh - of course if the song belonged to his family it then would be the Joneses' song.   ;)

Jim

40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #297 on: June 26, 2009, 11:18 PM »
@40Hz
You might be right person to ask :)

I've heard once that "the possessive case is not allowed for objects as owners" so using i.e. "router's IP address" instead of "IP address of the router" is mistake. Now, looking at your "Be sure to check the box's contents" makes me feel confused.

Could you enlighten me (or post a link to better sources)?
-fenixproductions (June 26, 2009, 04:29 PM)

Being an American speaker of English (an oxymoron if there ever was one BTW), I'm probably not the best person to ask.

However, I do remember being taught both ways. In grammar school (uniforms, Dominican nuns, eyaaaaahhhh!!)...sorry...we were, in fact, taught that objects could not use the possessive case...

In High School (Jesuits, jeans, yay Joplin!, yay Hendrix!)...sorry...we were told just the opposite. The rule seemed to be that objects could use the possessive if doing so allowed you to avoid an awkward construct. Basically, you used whichever form sounded better.

-----

I would have thought that, by now, all those grammarians would have reached consensus on how to handle the plural/possessive question. But after doing some research, it seems the jury is still out on this one.

I'd take a look at these two links for clarification:

http://grammar.ccc.c...mmar/possessives.htm

Many writers consider it bad form to use apostrophe -s possessives with pieces of furniture and buildings or inanimate objects in general. Instead of "the desk's edge" (according to many authorities), we should write "the edge of the desk" and instead of "the hotel's windows" we should write "the windows of the hotel." In fact, we would probably avoid the possessive altogether and use the noun as an attributive: "the hotel windows." This rule (if, in fact, it is one) is no longer universally endorsed. We would not say "the radio of that car" instead of "that car's radio" (or the "car radio") and we would not write "the desire of my heart" instead of "my heart's desire." Writing "the edge of the ski" would probably be an improvement over "the ski's edge," however.

http://www.meredith....u/grammar/plural.htm

Possessive forms (Bedford 36a/Hodges' 15a)
A possessive form of a noun signifies that the noun owns something:

A musician's talent
A woman's ambition

Possessive forms call for a properly placed apostrophe. The placement is different for singular and plural nouns. For this reason, you must know the correct singular and possessive nouns before you can make them possessive.

Singular possessive
The possessive form of a singular noun is an apostrophe followed by the letter "s."

Kramer's hair
Daphne's patience
the car's engine

Words ending with s, z or x generally omit the "s."

Dr. Seuss' sense of humor

Plural possessive
In order to place the apostrophe correctly in plural nouns, you must first be certain of the plural form. If you have questions about these forms, you may want to browse the section on plural nouns above.

For plural nouns ending in "s," add only an apostrophe:

Singers' voices
The cousins' favorite uncle

For plural nouns not ending in "s," add an apostrophe and "s."

Men's clothing
Children's books


So if you're confused about what's most correct - don't be. I am too!  ;D



40hz

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #298 on: June 26, 2009, 11:35 PM »
I'm getting annoyed with people who can actually remember back to school  :huh:

I was hoping you'd feel sorry for us.

It's not our fault we didn't have liberal parents...

(or enough pocket money to buy beer!) 


  :beerchug: :beerchug::beerchug: :beerchug:
:beerchug:                           :beerchug:
  :beerchug: :beerchug::beerchug: :beerchug:


:P




tomos

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Re: What annoys you to no end?
« Reply #299 on: June 27, 2009, 03:13 AM »
Oh - of course if the song belonged to his family it then would be the Joneses' song.   ;)

*sigh*
it's hard to keep up with them  :p
Tom