What are your grammar pet peeves?

I get annoyed when people use the word "cement" when they mean "concrete". It comes to mind alot when I weedeat along my cement driveway...

 

I'm guessing you're not a fan of "I seent," either

 

Yeah, but these are reg'lar Americans!

 

The grammar "rule" I use for that is: How would the sentence read if it was just you? The rule always works.

"Me and the wife are going to store." vs "Me is going to the store". (so, you know it should be "The wife & I")
"While you're at the store, get me and the wife a pack of smokes." This works with "Get me a pack of smokes", so, there are times when putting "me" first works.
You would not say, "Get the wife & I a pack of smokes.", since "Get I a pack of smokes." does not work.

 

This is the rule I use as well.

 

I had an old Lead Engineer who would go apoplectic over this. He demanded that you call things what they were. I used to correct people on this, but I just gave up.

When I went to concrete school (yes Uncle Sam has a concrete school), this old, old instructor got up to teach and set a bag of Portland cement and a concrete sample (you've seen these foot tall cylinders of concrete everywhere and never knew what they were), and in a booming voice declared "This is cement" (pointing at the bag), "This is concrete" putting at the sample. "Concrete is the chemical bonding result of proportionate quantities of Portland Cement, Aggregate and water, well mixed." I never forgot that. The same Instructor told a guy to take off his hat in class, "Because only slobs and Southerners where hats indoors or in restaurants." BTW, the class was just outside of Vicksburg, MS.

 

Or swim in the cee-ment pond.

 

In all honesty, I had no idea there was a difference, and I consider myself an intelligent person.

 

I actually do feel that The Beverly Hillbillies are a big part of why so many people think the two words are interchangeable.

 

We'll test you again in 6 months and reevaluate...

 

Here in Minnesota, folks tend to pronounce the word 'Aunt' as "AWNT" (which really annoys me) instead of "ANT" like most of the rest of the country. I was not born in MN so I say "ANT".

In the deep south don't they pronounce it as "AINT"?

Also in MN, they put "MELK" on their cereal instead of "MILK".

 

Pronunciation and grammar are not the same enchilada.

 

In NYC, "awnt" appears to predominate, but you hear both. Around here (Omaha) you hear both, but "ant" predominates.

I specifically remember a grade school teacher stating that "awnt" was preferred.

 

Yeah, but we'uns don't keer...

 

OK

 

Not grammar more dialect -- Coke, soda, cola, and pop. In this part of Texas if someone asks if you want a coke it means do you want a soda. You need to specify which brand. Coke does not mean Coke-a-cola. We do not say pop - unless you are talking about your Father or Grandfather.

 

Yup; coke, bandaid, kleenex. All lower case in Texas.

Friend: "You wanna a coke?"
You: "Sure"
Friend: "What kind?"
You: "Dr Pepper."

 

Uhhh, OK, whatever.

I noticed some earlier postings that pertained to spoken words and not just written words.

"...Pardon me but my English is not good too"
---------------Claude Lacombe, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', 1977

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Grammar can be butchered verbally as well as in writing.