Grammar Snobbery
Thursday, July 3, 2014 at 05:32AM 
I'll be the first to admit it. I am a grammar snob - and I am getting worse.
A sentence that ends in a preposition (Children are fun to spend time with.); a mismatched subject and pronoun (A teacher should always watch their language.); non-standard word use (Irregardless, the show must continue.) and little things like using a qualifier with an absolute (The song was somewhat unique.) are all fingernails on the chalkboard* to me.
I am forgiving of spelling errors but not of homophonic errors (They're trip to the ocean was uneventful.) There are plenty of word usages that still confound me (lie and lay, ensure and insure, adapt and adopt). I'm positive that I make errors that must drive other grammarphiles nuts. And even I will admit that many rules of language use are arbitrary, useless, and dated, adding little if nothing to the clarity of expression.
Grammar bigotry is probably a symptom of some deeper, more psychotic condition that compels a person to divide the world into acceptable and unacceptable levels of competence and therefore acceptable and unacceptable sorts of human beings.
I promise to do better to recognize my own biases in this area.
If you promise to use fewer language errors.
Oops.
*Another cliche that's rapidly becoming meaningless.
Reader Comments (4)
Ah, we all have our own pet peeves, don't we? I've tried to lighten up on others, although not in my own writing, as I want that to be as precise as possible. Still, every time I see "loose" used for "lose," I want to beat my head against the desk. I think that one bugs me so much because the first time I saw it in a legitimate print publication .... it was in Writers Digest. Yeesh! You would think THEY of all people would make the distinction.
Hi Susan,
It's comforting to know others share my irritation. Of course, now we set ourselves up for ridicule when we make the inevitable mistake ourselves!
Happy a happy holiday,
Doug
It's so interesting that I came across this just a couple of days after ranting on Facebook about people saying "eXspecially" instead of "eSpecially" as I am hearing more and more adults, including educated ones, throw the "X" sound in there. Former English teacher that I am, elocution bothers me more than sentence structure as long as you are writing/speaking informally and I can understand your meaning. (But I'm totally with you on subject/verb agreement and homophones!)
I then took a 10 question quiz and found that I tend to say "jewelry," "height," and "realtor" incorrectly. Talk about eating humble pie. I obviously should not judge others on their pronunciations when it really isn't an indication of education or intelligence, but just the way you have heard words pronounced around you. I, too, need to better recognize my biases here.
And Doug, maybe this will help you. That rule about not ending sentences in a preposition? It's a myth. I've read that in several places. Here's just one of them: Ending a Sentence With a Preposition
Hi Sandy,
Thanks for the comment. I was bothered for a long time when people pronounced the "t" in often, but now it is so common, it's standard. (Still bugs me a little.) You are right about needing to recognize one's own biases. I gotten called all my life on how I pronounce words I've only read but never heard spoken.
I'll check out the preposition myth. Thanks.
Doug