Grammatical annoyances

[LABHOUSE]

I have bad English and its my native language....

[Kryten]

No... Still nothing.

It's capitalised because it is. There's no good explanation, it doesn't fit any rules, people just started doing it.

[TMS]

"I could care less." So you do care. You could care anywhere from very little to a lot.

"I couldn't care less." The correct usage.

This. So much this.

What the hell is wrong with some people?

[KSK]

I vs me = subject vs object. (I think)

Jeb and I went to Minmus.

The capsule exploded, throwing Jeb and me into the unforgiving vacuum of space.

It's more of a pet peeve than a grammatical annoyance, but using the word 'literally' just to add emphasis, bugs me.

[rtxoff]

The thing with captital letters is most probably an German users tick. German grammatics demands capital letters in many cases.

[lajoswinkler]

The thing with captital letters is most probably an German users tick. German grammatics demands capital letters in many cases.

Something tells me that thing actually came from German, or at least the common ancestor. I'm not into linguistics so I'm just speculating.

But yes, it's totally arbitrary and looks stupid to me because I'm accustomed to writing titles like "The fantastic voyage" instead of "The Fantastic Voyage".

[TMS]

The thing with captital letters is most probably an German users tick. German grammatics demands capital letters in many cases.

More than just 'upper'?

[Javster]

Wow, I am most certainly not insane

How could I forget less and fewer?

Oh and I learnt English as a foreign language, I can be as hypocritical as I like

[Javster]

Something I've used in the past to point out the Capitals At Every Word people:

"oH hellO, mR annoyinG capitaL letteR useR"

[rtxoff]

I Fail To See Why People Get So Annoyed By Capitals, It's Not Like It Makes Things Difficult To Read Or Something.

[WinkAllKerb'']

I Fail To See Why People Get So Annoyed By Capitals, It's Not Like It Makes Things Difficult To Read Or Something.

Pretty the same, it's not like they are really concerned daily by all the side effects and their relative potentials. I tend to think that people are affraid/jealous of what they are unable to master/control/understand/approach. Long old story short ...

Edited September 18, 2014 by WinkAllKerb''
Head It. SweEt Jelly.

[KSK]

I respectfully disagree.

Capital letters begin sentences. Hence I read gpisic's sentence a bit like this:

I Fail. To. See. Why. People. Get. So Annoyed. By Capitals, It's Not. Like It Makes. Things. Difficult. To Read. Or Something.

Which is vaguely amusing if you're taking the mickey out of William Shatner, but otherwise makes the writing very jerky and annoying to read. Yes, I know gpsic exaggerated things for effect.

[Camacha]

I tend to feel it breaks the rhythm of a sentence too. People who take care of what they write make sure the flow is nice.

[rtxoff]

It could also be that for me it is less annoying because i am used to captial letters in german writings.

This for example is a grammaticaly correct german sentence:

Da Facebook keine Pseudonyme oder Fantasienamen duldet, müssen Dragqueens ihre oft über Jahre aufgebaute Identität auf der Plattform ablegen und ihre offiziellen Namen verwenden.

Following rules aply to german grammatics: Nouns are capitalized. Verbs are capitalized if they are uses as nouns. Adjectives are capitalized if they are used as nouns. Weekdays and the time of day are capitalized. Pronouns are capitalized if they are used to address someone. This are the most important and they are some other finesses to follow in german grammatics regarding capital letters.

So if you are a native english speaker/writer be happy for the easy grammar you have.

[vexx32]

Sorry, but you're wrong on that one. BBC and USA are acronyms, even though you pronounce the letters.

I'm afraid you're wrong there, dearie. An acronym is specifically a word created by taking the first initials of constituent words -- it must be pronounceable as a coherent word, not a string of letters.

BBC, USA, and KSP are in fact known as initialisms. Very similar to acronyms, but the resultant word is unpronounceable and must be sounded out using the individual letters.

[Red Iron Crown]

I'm afraid you're wrong there, dearie. An acronym is specifically a word created by taking the first initials of constituent words -- it must be pronounceable as a coherent word, not a string of letters.

BBC, USA, and KSP are in fact known as initialisms. Very similar to acronyms, but the resultant word is unpronounceable and must be sounded out using the individual letters.

I consider initialisms a subset of acronyms. Though I guess it depends on which school of thought to which you subscribe. Wiki's take on it:

While an abbreviation is the shortened form of any initial' date=' syllable or parts of a phrase or words, an initialism (or less commonly, alphabetism) refers to an abbreviation formed from, and used simply as, a string of initials. Although the term acronym is widely used to refer to any abbreviation formed from initial letters, some dictionaries define acronym to mean "a word" in its original sense, while some others include additional senses attributing to acronym the same meaning as that of initialism. The distinction, when made, hinges on whether the abbreviation is pronounced as a word, or as a string of letters. (...) In the rest of this article, this distinction is not made.[/quote']

My text mode Venn diagram for this is (Abbreviation (Acronym (Initialism))).

[Whirligig Girl]

I once saw a pick-up and on the tailgate an obviously professional signwriter had written 'your being passed by a Ford'.

I'm sorry about your being passed by a ford.

[i'm sorry about the event in which you were passed by a ford]

I'm not sure if it's proper grammar or not, but to me the H in History and Historian is silent. So I always spell and say "You might want to look for an historical account."

Also, I hate when people use Theory when they mean Hypothesis. The worst is when they know there's a difference, but insist that Hypothesis is the "stronger" one.

A quick refresher:

Law: Describes a phenomenon. Usually nothing much more than mathematical formulas or logic. May not be the "whole story", i.e. Newtonian Gravity v General Relativity.

Hypothesis: Predicts Laws or Theories. Some might call it "An educated guess."

Theory: Explains a phenomenon, usually in detail. It MUST BE TESTED AND PROVEN, and this proof must be generally accepted by scientific peers for it to become a Theory.

[Red Iron Crown]

Law: Describes a phenomenon. Usually nothing much more than mathematical formulas or logic. May not be the "whole story", i.e. Newtonian Gravity v General Relativity.

Hypothesis: Predicts Laws or Theories. Some might call it "An educated guess."

Theory: Explains a phenomenon, usually in detail. It MUST BE TESTED AND PROVEN, and this proof must be generally accepted by scientific peers for it to become a Theory.

Er, there's no proof in science, science is not in the business of proof. Newton's Theory of Gravitation was a strongly supported theory that was later shown to be incomplete, for example, as was Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. All theories, no matter how well-supported, are subject to refinement or even outright reversal if new evidence comes to light.

[lajoswinkler]

I respectfully disagree.

Capital letters begin sentences. Hence I read gpisic's sentence a bit like this:

I Fail. To. See. Why. People. Get. So Annoyed. By Capitals, It's Not. Like It Makes. Things. Difficult. To Read. Or Something.

Which is vaguely amusing if you're taking the mickey out of William Shatner, but otherwise makes the writing very jerky and annoying to read. Yes, I know gpsic exaggerated things for effect.

You mean Christopher Walken?

[WinkAllKerb'']

Huhu Gramatical Annoyance are nothing and totally meaningless in comparaison to " some foreigns caracters + their relative grammar + historical cultural scheme and wordgames + else ", concordance. But if you not tried to learn many differents set of caracters yourself, you're probably unable to understand due too some kind of lazyness.

Any way you can use the subtitle kindly provided. Don't be so local, it's just boring *yawn* *shrug*.

"There's a difference between having an opinion and just smearing someone else's opposing views in the dirt."

Edited September 19, 2014 by WinkAllKerb''
grammar, typo,etc. but who care ? ...

[EdFred]

I'm not sure if it's proper grammar or not, but to me the H in History and Historian is silent. So I always spell and say "You might want to look for an historical account."

Also on my list of annoyances - though I suppose that's more directed at the person.

uppose ll f s ecided o ust gnore ronouncing he irst ound r etter f ach ord, imply ecause e anted o e retentious.

[WinkAllKerb'']

... retentious.

... eople end o e nnoying, nyway hey ive thers _ oal o vercome, ich ould e sefull ometime.

[Red Iron Crown]

Also on my list of annoyances - though I suppose that's more directed at the person.

uppose ll f s ecided o ust gnore ronouncing he irst ound r etter f ach ord, imply ecause e anted o e retentious.

Heh, there's a local accent near here that drops h sounds from words that should have them and adds them to words that start with a vowel. "'E's moving to 'Ollywood where 'e 'opes to be a hactor."

Not making that up at all.

[Javster]

Heh, there's a local accent near here that drops h sounds from words that should have them and adds them to words that start with a vowel. "'E's moving to 'Ollywood where 'e 'opes to be a hactor."

Not making that up at all.

I can confirm I've heard of it. Hopefully they can tell the difference between written and spoken English when they Internet.

[cantab]

Word (mis)usage rather than grammar, but I know a website whose author consistently wrote "weary" when they clearly meant "wary". Reading that just got annoying.