Most annoying grammatical error

[KristineS]

I'm a bit of a Grammar Nazi and I admit it freely. I was always taught to use proper grammar when I speak and when I write. It drives me nuts when I see websites for companies that have grammatical and spelling errors. A few of my pet peeves are:

your instead of you're
it's instead of its when using the possessive
their instead of they're

What grammatical or spelling error annoys you the most?

[Business Attorney]

Two of your three are my top ones. The "it's vs its" doesn't bother me too much because the apostrophe would be appropriate under the general rules for possessives. Someone has to know there is special rule that applies only to "its." The others are just plain wrong and people should know better.

I would add there instead of their (or, less often, instead of they're) to my list.

[KristineS]

The they're, their, there thing is very common.

Its and it's isn't probably gets more of a pass than some because it is more obscure.

[Dan Furman]

Here's a hint folks - when you call someone a LOSER online, make sure you can actually spell the word (e.g.: don't be a moron and call someone a "looser")

And it's not "I could care less". While not grammatically incorrect, it is the exact opposite of what you intend. "I couldn't care less" is what you mean.

Oh, "for all intensive purposes" is way off. I'll let you figure out the correct one there.

I'm going TO the store to buy TWO cases of beer. "Can I come TOO?" said Mary (Mary is such a party animal... gotta love a girl like that!

[nealrm]

I really hate those looser sites where their are just to many errors. Its' not that hard to use a spell checker. If your gona put something online, have a person or too check the grammar. Of course spell checkers are not prefect, someone they let an mistake throu.

Joking aside, bad grammar can easily mask what you are trying to say. But my real pet peeve is lack of logical and complete structure to the written thought. There is a trend toward using multiple incomplete sentences to create a single thought and I find this displeasing.

[billbenson]

The funny thing is I catch myself using wrong words when I know better such as their and there. It's late and I'm typing along and I use the wrong word when I know better. Spell checker doesn't catch that.

My wife is currently in an English grammar class. Her native language is Spanish. It's amazing how much grammar I don't remember, but then I haven't studied it since I was in high school and I'm old now. I don't remember calculus either.

One thing that this discussion brings up though is what is appropriate online or in emails.I'm lazy and frequently don't use upper case here. I don't do that for business emails though. But should the subject in an email be "proper case"?

[KristineS]

I know mistakes can slip through. It happens, and I've been guilty of it myself. The thing that gets me is multiple mistakes and misuses in the same paragraph or piece of text.

Another thing that gets me is the improper use of tense - I "seen" instead of I "saw" etc.

As for the upper and lower case thing, I think standard grammar rules still apply. It is easy to get lazy online though.

[billbenson]

I guess I do the all lower case thing because when others do it, it doesn't bother me much. On the other hand improper use of all upper case or large or colored fonts online REALLY annoys me.

And: Please feel free to correct my grammar in my posts. I'm sure I have grammatical errors I don't realize!

[KristineS]

@Dan - I just registered the "for all intensive purposes" line. Too funny! Did you really see that somewhere?

@BillBenson - I'm with you on the improper use of upper case, particularly in the middle of a sentence. Drives me nuts!

[C0ldf1re]

Bad grammar and spelling annoys me too. So long as people get their message across it should'nt matter. My attitude is arguably just plain wierd.