PNagy Loc: Missouri City, Texas

"Fifteen items or less."

sirlensalot Loc: Arizona

Weigh to much thyme! Lol

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I hear ya'. :D

Rathyatra Loc: Southport, United Kingdom

Agree totally with your post - unfortunately those who should know better are adopting these sloppy forms of communicaton so they are seen to be " getting down with the kids " as they stupidly say!!
Much of this is driven by the quick and easy text culture where the overriding desire is to communicate as speedily as possible and mangling the language is one way to achieve this.

Love to see a text message written by Charles Dickens - probably run out of phone memory before he finished lol!!

PNagy Loc: Missouri City, Texas

I am in total sympathy with your view. I will not try to understand how anyone with an i.q. higher than that a rhesus monkey can fail to learn the fundamentals of written and spoken language despite having undergone a minimum of 12 years of education during which language was taught daily.

I started a discussion similar to this a couple years ago. It went on for months. Those who say language does not matter will become very vitriolic if you counter their anti-intellectual claims. "Grammar Nazi" may be one of their more benevolent terms of endearment for you. They will treat it as illiteracy if any of your few typos are made worse by auto-correct, or if your mental slips occasionally result in the omission of a word.

Lingen Loc: Grenada, Caribbean

I'm so relieved to see that others think that a certain standard of accuracy matters.
My pet hate: 'Each and every'.
Runners up: 'Y' know'; 'Me an' my boyfriend...', closely followed by 'She told my boyfriend and I...'

I taught German in the UK for 21 years. A basic knowledge of grammar is essential; the youngsters knew next to none. Eventually, I would abandon the syllabus for a few sessions and give then some basic grammar. The youngsters would become quite angry: "Why weren't we told this years ago: it explains so much..."
Good question.
I asked English teachers to help me. One volunteered, which made me feel less alone. I asked her to tell a group we had in common about prepositions, so that students would be prepared when I got to the topic.
"You'll be proud of me", she said one day; "I've just done prepositions."
'THANK YOU", I said,. "What did you do?"
"Both", she replied, triumphantly.
"Er, both what and what?" I asked, uneasily.
"The preposition 'both'" she said.
So she had to go back and un-teach them. Tragic.
To my surprise, I never found any consumer resistance among 16-year-ods: they wanted to handle their language proficiently. They had just been denied the means to do so.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Our local Hannaford supermarket has signs, "14 items or Fewer" Good for them!

PNagy Loc: Missouri City, Texas

"The preposition 'both'" is priceless. Apparently parts of speech is a concept beyond the intellect of some people. One of my classmates in second grade thought he knew it before the teacher taught it to us.

Teacher: Anyone know what a verb is?

Billy: A burp is a throw-up.

After she corrected him, he continued not to know what a verb is, let alone a gerund. Some insist that it does not matter, but I think it is just about impossible to excel intellectual if one cannot even master language.

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

No matter how much you push the envelope, it will still be stationery.

My biggest two (not 2) are "you and I" in place of "you and me" or "me and you," and "could care less" in place of "couldn't care less." An example of the former might be, "Does this sound odd to you and I?" All to commonplace, that (okay, I exemplified a third peeve their - clever, aren't I?) Oops! Did it again!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right! Some people seem to think that "me" is a bad word.

handgunner Loc: Windsor Locks, Connecticut

My issue is with misspelled words in newspapers, magazines, online articles, etc. These are professional writers. Were are the spell checkers and editors?

Martys Loc: Lubec, Maine

U dont spossed two knotice thoes misteaks peepol mackes.

Desert Gecko Loc: desert southwest, USA

This one bothers me to no end. Alas, the use of the plural pronoun "they" in singular context is here to stay, though I will never use it as such; rather, I will usually change the subject to plural or opt for the singular, though masculine pronoun "he," according to tradition (feminist protests notwithstanding).

A renowned style guide (I believe it was Elements, though I am not certain) a few years ago said that this form is acceptable in American prose.

Lingen Loc: Grenada, Caribbean

For PNagy
Exactly. From experience:
"What is a noun?"
"A naming word."
"So if you say, 'I name this ship HMS Fred', 'name' is a noun, right?"
"Yes."
Oh, the beauty of superficial pat definitions!

PNagy Loc: Missouri City, Texas

Sports writers often set the standard for new lows in language:

* "out of" instead of "from. The linebacker is out of South Bend, the safety is out of Mishawaka, and the coach is out of his mind for playing either of them.

* "going forward." One moron began to use it, and nearly all others followed. It is thrown into sentences randomly, apparently to impress someone, but in fact adds no meaning whatsoever. "Going forward, Notre Dame will have to improve its defense."

* "kicking" a basketball. "He kicks the ball into the center who puts it up and in." If, in fact, the point guard had kicked the ball, the shot would not have counted, as it kicking the ball is a turnover.