My Personal Grammar Gripes

[Helpmeh]

Oh I see what you mean. I agree. Where I come from (England) we would say "got in trouble with" in that situation. I believe that is standard English.

That's what I would say and expect (in Canada), but these people my age drive me up the wall when they say that.

[BC_Programmer]

"irregardless"

[truenorth]

An excellent example of a portmanteau word.    truenorth

[BC_Programmer]

An excellent example of a portmanteau word.    truenorth

yep, irrespective and regardless merged to form a word that makes no sense unless you know it's origins... And even then will still be kind of annoying.

[Salmon Trout]

Has anyone mentioned "rediculous" yet?

[Helpmeh]

When people consistently spell words wrong, I just have the urge to point it out to them.

For example, on another forum I frequent, one user was having trouble with the spolier tags. The user even posted a thread asking why none of his spolier tags were working, when they worked for everyone else. I took the effort of going through his last 20 posts, including the new thread, and highlighted every time he spelled spoiler wrong - he never spelled it right.

Sure, I can understand spelling spoiler wrong a couple times, especially considering I and O are next to each other on the keyboard, but over 15 times in 20 posts?

[Salmon Trout]

considering I and O are next to each other on the keyboard

Maybe that's the cause... "muscle memory"... he thinks he is typing s-p-o-i-l-e-r but his fingers actually hit the keys in this order: s-p-o-l-i-e-r and he doesn't notice... I consistently type spreadhseet at work...

[Helpmeh]

That is true, but would that be as applicable to writing?

[Salmon Trout]

That is true, but would that be as applicable to writing?

I believe that is a type of mistake that can only be made while typing.

[glathem40]

I love hearing this one  "Needless to say ............."

[Salmon Trout]

"Needless to say"

What's wrong with that? It's not ungrammatical.

[glathem40]

 It's grammatically correct, but if it is" needless to say", then why say it ?  A colloquialism rather than grammatical error.  Didn't mean to take the off topic thread off topic.

[Salmon Trout]

It's grammatically correct, but if it is" needless to say", then why say it ?  A colloquialism rather than grammatical error.  Didn't mean to take the off topic thread off topic.

It's not exactly an colloquialism, it's been an idiom since around 1500. If something is needless to say it is very likely or obvious or self-evident. Although nonsensical at first glance (if unnecessary to say, why say it?), this phrase is generally used for emphasis. If we had no means of emphasis, speech and writing would be very limited and dull. Also sometimes we need to indicate that something is self-evident or obvious and we may not wish to use those actual words. We may wish, when saying something something obvious, to indicate that we are aware of the obviousness.

Also, we can use it to be drily ironic or to inform the reader of something by implication e.g. The family went to a diner for a meal to celebrate Pa's birthday. Needless to say, Uncle Joe got drunk and tried to feel up the waitress, Ma picked a fight with a guy on the next table, and Ellie Mae sent her burger back twice. (Thus we inform the reader or hearer that Uncle Joe is predictably a lush and groper, that Ma has anger management problems, and that Ellie Mae is a fussy eater, and that these things were not surprises)

Of course, there are people who over-use it, but you can say that about most elements of language.

[Allan]

  Didn't mean to take the off topic thread off topic.

Ohh - you're much to late for that

[patio]

Needless to say...