I think it’s safe to assume everyone has a pet peeve. Since I’m a writer, mine involve words, phrases, and punctuation. To me, language is important, and written language is just as important as spoken language. But, thanks in large part, but not entirely, to social media, our knowledge of English is slowly being eroded.
When I read posts online that seem to be written by someone whose third language is English, I want to scream at my computer, but I realize they won’t hear me screaming at them, so I don’t do that. Usually.
My list of pet peeves can be divided into two categories: improper word and/or punctuation use, and redundancies.
Here’s a partial list, and for full disclosure, you should know that I’ve been guilty of almost all of these at one time or another. I’ll probably make these mistakes within this article.
First, the word/punctuation use. You’re probably already familiar with these.
“There” when it should be “their” or “they’re,” or any combination of these.
“Your” and “you’re” are two different words, with different meanings.
“Loose” and “lose” also are two different words.
“To” and “too.” See above.
“I could care less” means that you actually care.
Apostrophes used as a plural. For example: “Apostrophe’s used as a plural.”
“Literally” used instead of “figuratively.”
When you write “should of,” don’t you mean “should have?”
“It’s” is a contraction of “it is.” It’s not meant to show possession.
There are lots of other examples I could add, but there’s probably not enough bandwidth to list them all.
Now for the redundancies. These may be a bit less familiar.
“First and foremost”
“Each and every”
“Future plans”
“At this point in time”
“Underneath” (This could have been included in the list above. You could use “under” or “beneath.”)
“Also, as well”
“Filled to capacity”
This is another list that could keep going, but I’m going to stop it here. My brain literally is filled to capacity from compiling this. First and foremost, I probably should of known that each and every thing on this list would cause me to loose my sanity, but at this point in time I could care less if I go a little more crazy. Also, it’s to much too worry about, as well.
I hope you enjoy the list’s. Your welcome.