I could care less.

[James Steele]

One of my grammatical pet peeves:

“The gig went perfect.”

No. It *went* perfectly.

[James Steele]

And don’t get me started on pronouns. I have a friend who constantly says things like “Her and I went to the concert.” I’ve tried to explain the simple method of removing the “and I” and then asking yourself if the pronoun works. You don’t say “Her went to the concert.”

Sigh. Then there’s the extra wrinkle as to whether you are the subject or object of the sentence.

WRONG: "That's what he told my sister and I."

RIGHT: "That's what he told my sister and me."

Again, the easiest way to check this is remove "my sister and" and see what works.

[James Steele]

Oh… and then there’s “irregardless.”

[stubbsonic]

Whenever I go to the park, I feel happy.

When I went to the park yesterday, I felt happy.

Whenever I went to the park yesterday... I have just used poor grammar.

OK, that's what I thought. Pheew; all good here.

I know a guy who often mixes up they're, their, and there. You're and your is another troublesome bit of bother.

[mhschmieder]

"Literally". Not as prevalent as a few years ago, when people would say ludicrous stuff like, "he was literally flying through the air". I mean, I've heard of Literary License but Littoral License is something else.

[bayswater]

And don’t get me started on pronouns. I have a friend who constantly says things like “Her and I went to the concert.” I’ve tried to explain the simple method of removing the “and I” and then asking yourself if the pronoun works. You don’t say “Her went to the concert.”

Sigh. Then there’s the extra wrinkle as to whether you are the subject or object of the sentence.

WRONG: "That's what he told my sister and I."

RIGHT: "That's what he told my sister and me."

Again, the easiest way to check this is remove "my sister and" and see what works.

This bugs me too but I think it’s a lost cause. The language police tell us the distinction between subjects and objects will disappear from English the way other rules of grammar have.

[James Steele]

You’re probably right. It’s too bad. It’s like a race to the bottom. After enough misuse due to ignorance it becomes mainstream and considered acceptable because we’ve just given up. It’s just sad. I guess the stakes are lower. Writing a book using incorrect grammar won’t get anyone killed. Designing a bridge with incorrect math will.

[monkey man]

I could care less; a lot less.

Symptomatic of our collective decline.

It's sobering to see how, say, a 17 year-old put a letter to home together whilst on the battlefield 100 years ago. These days it'd be considered highfalutin stuff but of course back then it was merely a personal letter and, dare I say it, symptomatic of that time.

[Phil O]

And don’t get me started on pronouns.

I usually get the pronouns right. The one that always messes me up is affect and effect. I can't remember if it was Mike H or Shooshie that tried to explain it to me but I still don't get it. I guess their tutelage didn't have an uffect on me.

[stubbsonic]

I usually get the pronouns right. The one that always messes me up is affect and effect. I can't remember if it was Mike H or Shooshie that tried to explain it to me but I still don't get it. I guess their tutelage didn't have an uffect on me.

Yea, I struggle with that one, too. For how many pedal effects I own, it's pretty despicable that I don't get it. Never say never.

[ed belknap]

When people use "Begs the question" to mean "raises the question". I wonder if I'll ever get used to that.

Begs/begging the question has a very specific meaning about circular reasoning.

In Daniel C. Dennett's book From Bacteria To Bach And Back (written in 2017) -- a book essentially about how memetic evolution parallels genetic evolution (albeit at a greatly increased speed) -- he spends a paragraph or two talking about how, simply through the natural evolution of language, "begging the question" is now synonymous with "raising the question" and that all but the most pedantic academic sources have conceded that evolution.

[James Steele]

The one that always messes me up is affect and effect. I can't remember if it was Mike H or Shooshie that tried to explain it to me but I still don't get it. I guess their tutelage didn't have an uffect on me.

That one was easy for me. Think of “effect” as a noun. It is the “result” of something. “Her words had a strange effect on me.”

“Affect” is more of an action. “Her words might affect me strangely.”

[bayswater]

Just to annoy Phil, I’ll remind him that there are those who argue that the phrase “I could care less” is meant as an abbreviated ironic observation, with the full phrase being “as if I could care less”.

[cuttime]

Because internet.

[ed belknap]

Think of “effect” as a noun. It is the “result” of something. “Her words had a strange effect on me.”

“Affect” is more of an action. “Her words might affect me strangely.”

...except when "affect" is a noun.