And Bob Barker reminds you to spay and neuter your Pet Peeves!

[captainsblog]

That last blast of grammaria was probably a bit much for first thing on a Monday. Mea culpa. It did get me wondering, though: which slips of the Mother Tongue you consider to be the worst, the most inexcusable, the kiss of death to a resume or query letter.

For me, at least, the nailiest nail on the blackboard is the figurative use of the word "literally." If your character "literally jumped out of your skin," I expect to see slough on the ground.  "As if" and "literally" do not go in the same sentence.

Another, less common but a not-literal nail in the coffin of my editing desk: "now-defunct." With one limited exception, it is redundant; that exception is for description set in a past time where something now defunct wasn't defunct then. As in:

I remember like it was yesterday: the evil freshmen from the Cornell dorm went into Pyramid Mall, bought a box of laundry detergent in the now-defunct Hills department store, and poured its contents into the food court fountain, causing all the old coots to break out in murmurs of "Shame!" and "Those Darn Kids!"

Any resemblance to those evil freshmen is, of course, completely misplaced. If anything, I am now one of those old coots;



But enough of mine. Leave me yours. I'll literally kill myself trying not to do them here anymore;)

----

What, still too intellectual for a Monday? Fine. It doesn't get much simpler than this:



Shot that earlier today. When we got this cat, we never really knew what the name "Tazzer" meant. Apparently, it's a rough translation of "Taijitu."

Comments

[firynze.livejournal.com]

Misuse of they're/their/there and its/it's. I have professionals on staff who can't manage the latter.

For a moment, I thought that was a picture of a panda.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Well, he's a pretty well-known panderer when it comes to being fed;)

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of having the chance Sunday to correctly use the term literally.

As I was stopped at a red light on the way home from church, I noticed cars pulling up to the light in the oncoming lanes. And noticed somebody realise very late that he wasn't in the lane he wanted to be in. He turned to nose into the desired lane. When somebody else came along in the desired lane, the late-lane-change guy decided, maybe I shouldn't do this...so he literally backed out of it. Yes, he reversed back into his original lane. I couldn't believe it.

(Yes, I'm still a new enough driver that, while I expect the people around me to do crazy things, I continue to be amazed when they do.)

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

I get crazy about preposition abuse. My children's generation like to say "on accident" instead of "by accident." And, in my industry, people are constantly saying "X is associated to Y."

I will always love Trader Joe's grocery store because their express line says "or fewer."

And about literally -- I had a roommate who described his favorite icecream as "the kind that literally melts in your mouth." Ummmm. ALL ice cream literally melts in your mouth, unless you're a Frost Giant.

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Wegmans does the same thing. One more reason to love them.

[greenquotebook.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on literally. When exactly did "literally" and "very" become interchangeable?

In spoken language, using "like" after every other word grates my nerves. So does using made-up words that get confused for real words - "agreeance" for example - drives me bananas. BUY A DICTIONARY MORON!

In written language, their/there/they're confusion breaks my brain. So does apostrophe misuse. Grr. I've given up trying to explain the difference between its and it's to people. I'm surprised that more teachers don't throw themselves off bridges over this stuff.

[murrday.livejournal.com]

I am often trying to explain to people that your is not the same you're. And that it's does not mean belonging to it - that's its.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And clearly, you have a Supreme Ultimate kitty. :D

[nentikobe.livejournal.com]

I am a huge grammar nazi. I have a lawn now, and frequently want to tell people to get off of it.

"If it's too loud your too old" was printed on seat liners in the car next to me. I badly wanted to write on a piece of paper with red pen and correct it. Sigh.