My biggest grammar/usage peeve is this: I work for an English professor grading essays, and just recently he pulled me aside one day and told me to stop marking people off for incorrect pronoun usage. Apparently, now that it isn’t politically correct to refer to politician as a “he” since the politician could be either male or female in gender, students can now write, “The politition should write their speech on the topic of rising gas prices” or “Once the nurse hangs the IV bag, they must check the tubing.”
I’m very much for feminist movements, but I think when “he” becomes politically incorrect in refering to a person whose gender is unknown, we’re taking things a little too far. If nothing else, teachers should instruct their students to change the subject to a plural one so “they” and their” is correct.

Dear Mr. Bing:
Thank you for your “While You Were Out” article on “The Elements of Style”. It is a breath of fresh air. I thought I was the only one that noticed the decline of grammer. It is nice to know I am not. The worst offense I have seen and heard is the use of “to be”. Everyone seems to say such things as “she be”, “he be”, they be” and think nothing of it. You are also correct about correcting others. When you correct them, they become annoyed. If they want to be seen as professional, they should talk and write professionally.

Yes, Thia, a friend WOULD point it out to her. Managers need people to tell them, if they will listen, how not to get laughed at behind their backs. Would you tell her if she was trailing six feet of toilet paper from the heel of her shoe? Be very private. Choose the right moment. Then tell her that her constant use of “ducktail” is cracking people up. Tell her to make a joke about it at the next meeting, perhaps pass out pictures of a duck and a dove and announce that yes, now she knows the difference. It’s like B.O. or bad breath. Real friends tell the people they care about when they need a bit of help. Focus on this gaffe first, since it’s the one that seems to be the worst. You can move on from there. Of course, you’re not going to turn her into a great and elegant communicator, ever. Baby steps, Thia.

We have a VP in our organization who we fondly call “The Archie Bunker of Senior Management.” She regularly makes grammatical errors and mixes up analogies. One of her frequent expressions that causes me to grimace is that she uses “ducktail” when she means “dovetail.”

In a meeting, she will say that one event will “ducktail” nicely into another event. Everyone looks down at their laps to avoid an outburst of laughter.

What is the best way to address this? She has been chosen for a leadership development program and has an executive mentor. Would a friend point this out to her?

“the both of” - a hideous bastardization of language.

“I could care less” - someone mentioned this one before but it really annoys me and warrants repeating.

..and to Aaron from Chicago, I can only respond with the immortal words of Chruchill (I think it was him) to demonstrate how ridiculous that rule is: “Improper grammar is something up with which I will not put.”

Generally the rules describe formal use. With the exception of the split infinitive rule, they are not arbitrarily dictated from the Ivory Grammar Tower (which is actually very cozy, by the way). Slang and argots have no less stringent rules. There is nothing morally wrong with breaking the rules, but hopefully there is a creative or rhetorical reason for it, particularly when writing.

THE ELEMENT’S OF STYLE:

I’d just like to point out the rules tend to have no rhyme or reason. This is the reason I fell asleep in school during these lessons in the first place. In addition to that, they tend to change at the drop of a hat. I love people who point out these rules… but it’s a rule? Says who -

By the way when in doubt today, just put this little mark in a sentence - and nobody knows what the heck rule to equate it to. You can get away with a lot!

No one wants to look dumb, but it feels like a wasted life to go back and try to decipher all these (really) useless rules. I’m glad somebody stayed awake in class. Good for you.

How about how everyone in WI, when saying they went to visit family or a friend, says: “I went down BY my parents for the evening.” No, you went TO your parents.

Irregardless.

Using “literally” as an emphasizer, making it its own opposite. “I literally exploded.” And yet here you sit …

On a related note, I actually heard this said on a bus: “Sorry if I’m being facetious, but that’s just how I feel.”

Maybe “literal facetiousness” could be a new field of study.

Where’s it AT?
Contain, when it’s not a container, as in “the book contains…”
3rd person pronouns, as in “She gave it to Mary and I.”
Anyways.
She’s over TO her Grandma’s.
Misused apostrophes on signs in front of people’s houses, for example “The Smith’s”.

Does anyone know how to use the apostrophe? Apparently it is necessary to use it to denote the plural, as in all the boy’s do it!

Excessive use of the word “robust.” It make me ill.

In speeches and writing so many people will insert the expression “…in fact…” and then go to state something that happened. My point is that if such-and-such occurred there is no need to supplement it with “in fact”.

“…back in the 1970’s!”

“Well, sometime in the late 70’s or early 80’s…”

Way to go, buddy.

Bing, you’re a slacker. No posts on Friday? Where the hell are you?! I demand to know your whereabouts at all times! You didn’t ask if you could skip a post today. And, if you did, I would have said no, because that’s the way I am

And, Mr. Bing, I hope you’re not smoking that big fat ugly cigar in your office. Smoking is a pet peeve of mine. I HATE IT! It drives me crazy, it stinks, and it’s a sign of weakness. You’re not weak, are you Bing?

Ok, now I know I’m among friends, so I feel a bit safer posting what I really wanted to post: I’m originally from the South, and in casual conversation I say “y’all.” I find it more descriptive, more definite, and less formal than the plural “you.” And it’s what I grew up saying, so I’m comfy with it and I like it.

BUT it makes me CRAZY when people spell it “ya’ll.” In any contraction, the apostrophe replaces the letters removed from the larger phrase. “Y’all” is short for “Y[ou] all” and not “Ya [a]ll” — and “ya’ll” looks like it should be pronounced to rhyme with Cal.

(For everyone who’s about to mention “won’t” — that’s a bizarre artifact of Middle English pronunciation that’s somehow survived to the present. Consider it a little museum piece in your everyday speech.)

(Yeah, I was a linguistics major.)

Oh, and there’s this one:

“I could care less.”

So: You really DO care?

I assume, by the way, that most readers of this blog are familiar with “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.”