People Break Down The Grammar Rules That Most People Get Totally Wrong

"Especially hearing people..."

"The word etcetera. Incorrectly pronounced excetra which drives me crazy. Especially hearing people on the news say it."

jgorzengy

I concur! I hear this all the time, especially here in the Northeast.

"It's a pet peeve..."

"The they're/there/their and to/too/two. It's a pet peeve of mine when people say "This is to boring." In any situation when they use the wrong "to." My mates had taken University-level English classes in high school yet they still make the "there" or "to" mistakes, and it makes my blood boil."

Noellia10

Whenever I see this on Facebook or anywhere, my eyes twitch.

"I've seen..."

"Incredibly: should've. I've seen a ton of people write "should of" when they mean should've (as in should have) and in my opinion that's worse than confusing "then/than"."

d*cklong25

"To be fair..."

"Less vs. fewer. Less is for uncountable nouns: you have less time, less pain, less work to do. Fewer is for countable nouns: you have fewer apples, fewer cans of soup, fewer distractions. People usually use less when they should use fewer; it rarely happens the other way around. People will say "there are less cars on the road," but they probably won't say "there is fewer traffic."

There is a related problem with much vs. many. To be fair, what is countable and uncountable can get complicated, and it's easy to make mistakes (I do it too). You can't have fewer money, you can only have fewer dollars and cents (money, amusingly, is uncountable). You can't have fewer pizza, but you can have fewer pizzas (pluralization of something uncountable makes it countable)."

Cdesese

"If you participated..."

"APART.

If you participated in something you were "a part" of it. If you are "apart" from something or someone you are deliberately not a part."

sheinvitedthewildin

And that's a fact.

Now if only everyone else could just get the memo.

"Most Americans..."

"The phrase "I couldn't care less"

Most Americans I've heard say, "I could care less". Like come on, you're using that all wrong!!"

Okparty8503

"It's a form..."

"Begs the question"

It doesn't mean to raise the question.

It's a form of circular reasoning where the argument requires the conclusion to be true, rather than the argument supporting the conclusion."

DJPhoenix

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You should have seen the way people's heads exploded when this was explained in a philosophy course I took.

"Neither is wrong!"

"Not the "error" itself, but when people try to correct you on "grey" and "gray" or something like that. Neither is wrong! One is preferred by Americans, the other is more common in Britain."

conspiracypizza

"When someone doesn't know..."

"When, someone doesn't know how to use commas, because, they can't understand a simple, grammar rule.

It really, pisses, me, off."

exytroll

Please don't do this ever again. I hate it.

"People..."

""Weary" vs "wary" seems to be the latest one popping up. People just say "wary" when they mean either "weary" or "wary." It's like we've elected to get rid of the word "weary" for some reason. It's not like it's hard to remember the difference.

Weary: tired. "I am weary of coughing all night and day."

Wary: apprehensive. "I am wary of my friend's latest business venture."

CheezyusChrist

Yeah, yeah... so we're the Grammar police. And judging by the way everyone seems to regard grammar, we're doomed.

Have some suggestions of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!