Language Lovers Unite

May 11, 2009 by Jerry 

language_lovers1 Ben Schott, whose self-portrait you see here, is a London-based writer, who is also a contributing columnist to the New York Times with a blog called, “Schott’s Vocab.” Schott describes his blog as “a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles—some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy.” In a recent column, Schott invited “co-vocabularists to exorcise their linguistic pet peeves and vocab vexations by posting a comment.” Three hours after his invitation went online, there were more than 650 comments, and a day later that number doubled. Many were comments on comments, and many cited the same peeves, but all of them shared one common sentiment: a fervent desire to banish the peeves and to preserve the standards of the proper uses of language. All the comments were best summed up by this one from the UK: “Thank you, all the people whose comments I have read so far. I had despaired of the American nation but you have shown me that there ARE people in the USA who care about correct English.” I surfed through the comments found almost two dozen peeves that were referenced more often than others. They are listed below in no particular statistical or hierarchical order (although some of you will know). Nor did I provide any grammatical explanation. If you are a language lover, you will understand.

Irregardless He goes versus He said
Misuse of apostrophe Like versus as
Passive voice It’s versus its
Agreement of subject and verb Lie versus lay
Double negatives I versus me
Misuse/Overuse of like Less versus fewer
Overuse of amazing Anxious versus eager
Overuse of awesome Affect versus effect
Preposition ending a sentence Should of versus should have
Where is it at? Your versus you’re
Nouns used as verbs Heighth versus height

Please share your own pet language peeves with us.

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