Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Grammar snob

I don't usually care when people make grammatical errors, but lately it's been getting on my nerves.  I'm not talking about little kids, people who speak English as a second language, or anything along those lines.  I'm talking about people who (supposedly) should know better, people who make a living speaking or writing or generally informing us about what's going on in the world.  In the last 2 days, I've heard or seen the following grammatical errors on the news or posted in an online news story:
  • "...refreeze again..." -- This was spoken in the context of water possibly freezing overnight causing dangerous driving conditions the following morning.  Technically, this would not be a grammatical error if the water had actually frozen before (refreeze) or frozen multiple times (refreeze again).  However, since the water had not previous frozen, I find it hard to see how it would refreeze, much less refreeze again.
  • 6,500.  There are multiple ways of saying this number which are correct.  Six thousand five hundred works.  So does sixty-five hundred.  I've even heard six and a half thousand (which I guess is technically correct, although weird).  However, this is not sixty-five thousand
  • "Conversating" is not a word.  The word you're looking for is "conversing."  When you're talking to someone, you are "conversing" or having a "conversation;" you are not "conversating."  I think this is my new pet peeve, replacing the ever-so-common (and annoying) "irregardless."
  • Last but not least, "...banks can charge fees of up to $35 or more."   Thank you for letting me know banks can charge these fees, but usually when you say "fees of up to..." we assume that the next number will be the maximum fee they can charge.  What's the point of putting "up to" if you're going to follow up with "or more"?
I've never considered myself a grammar snob, I just expect a little more from certain people.  Oh, and any grammatical errors you see in this post are actually just typos.  ;)

No comments:

Post a Comment