Okay, this is very, very sad ...

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Tracy

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I was in a tile shop today, and was sitting at the desk while the assistant was in the back room ringing a supplier for me. There was a box with business cards in it. The box had a hand-written label, "Tilers business cards". I couldn't help it, I really couldn't. I lifted up the box and added the missing apostrophe.
Ahhh, now I could breathe and my heart-rate calmed down.
Is this very sad?
Do you think I can get help?
 

Silver King

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You did the right thing, Tracy. Sounds like a perfectly normal response to a mistake you felt compelled to correct, as long as you didn't place the apostrophe after the "es."

Now if you start carrying a ladder around town and climbing to dangerous heights to fix spelling errors on business signs, then I'd say you should seek help for your compulsion.
 

RG570

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That reminds me of the time I saw this on a window in a town in northern Alberta:

"Certified Gemoligist"

and I'm sure that they wrote "Jewlery" on the window as well. I only wish I could have fixed it with a marker.
 

PattiTheWicked

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My daughter's cheerleading squad makes a banner each week for their football team. This is the third week of the season, and I finally had to say something.

I told the assistant coach -- who's about my age -- "I'm sorry, I'm truly not trying to nitpick. But the "your" in "your #1" should have an apostrophe, followed by an "re" on the end."

She looked at me, baffled, and then took her paintbrush and added 'r. So then the sign said "your'r #1."

Le sigh.

She looked up at me and said "I don't understand what you're saying."

So I turned the second r into an "e". There wasn't a darn thing I could do about that misplaced apostrophe. What scares me the most is that no one else appeared to notice this THREE WEEKS IN A ROW.

"your #1". Sheesh.
 

wyntermoon

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OUCH! Those examples hurt my eyes, especially the last one.

As a teenager, I would drive by a sign that said, "You have just past XYZ Nursery". My teeth ground down to the nubs every time I "past" it.
 

SeanDSchaffer

I don't much care for 'irregardless', either.

I admit, I'm also a stickler for spelling, punctuation and grammar. I constantly find myself biting my tongue when I feel like screaming, "NO, NO, NO! That's not the way it's spelled!"

My favorite peeves in this case are 'its' and 'it's', as well as 'your' and 'you're'. To see some people using sentences such as "I hope your happy" or "Its only a message board", is pure torment sometimes.

This is especially true, when the perpetrator is a well-respected professional. (No, I do not plan on naming names.)


Then there's the use of phrasing such as "The proper grammer". I would love to see more people spelling 'grammar' correctly on a writing board.

But that's just my little pet peeve, and a pretty sad one at that.
 

allion

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I keep seeing this advertisement on TV for a medical supply shop in the area. They sell Tempur-pedic items (the pillows, the mattresses, etc.).

They misspell "Tempur" as "Temper" in their captioning as to what product lines they carry. Could they not check the pillow packaging? ARGH!!

If I am not jumping up and down once a day at a misspelling or grammar mistake, it's a slow day. Yes, I am a sick puppy.

Karen
 

Haggis

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I'm sure I make mistakes. Bad mistakes. Yet, that doesn't stop me from freaking out over the mistakes of others. For example,"I graduated high school." No, you didn't. You graduated FROM high school. Or, "I liked that alot." No, you didn't, you liked that a lot. Two words. Get it?

There are mistakes in forums all the time. I usually pass those off as someone typing too quickly and not checking before posting. I've done "there's" instead of "theirs" myself. But never in anything serious. Never. I mean, never. Hopefully.

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day. She's a college professor. She told me she was preparing to "orientate" her students. I cringed. She's teaches languages, and has forgotten more English grammar than I ever knew. We had a talk about "orientate." She was not a happy camper in the end.

But I'm rambling now. Why do I let certain words or phrases irritate me so much?
 

Deleted member 42

I never ever used to confuse its and it's, or your're and your, but now, since I started teaching, I see them used incorrectly more often than I see them used correctly.

It's terrifying. I'm constantly checking my own prose, and I still screw up.
 

SeanDSchaffer

At least incorrect phrases and spelling don't bother you alot, Haggis.;)

I have the same problem with that particular issue. I hate it with a passion when people use the word 'alot' instead of the words 'a lot'.

It's kind of like people who say 'ain't', ain't a word. It makes no sense.
 

Aubrey

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Remember back when Apple had the "Think Different" campaign? That drove me around the bend! It's "differently"! What have the L and Y done that's so bad they deserve a boycott?

What also drives me bonkers is "doubtless". Yes it's right, but I've always wondered why. It's so strange for an adverb not to have LY tacked on. it just looks half-dressed.

"At" tacked on the end of a sentence leaves me waiting for the rest of it.. Most other prepositions look perfectly normal hanging out at the end of a sentence, but not "at". "Where you at" just seems so over the top.
 

Duncan J Macdonald

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Medievalist said:
I never ever used to confuse its and it's, or your're and your, but now, since I started teaching, I see them used incorrectly more often than I see them used correctly.

It's terrifying. I'm constantly checking my own prose, and I still screw up.
**cough** That would be "you're", yes?

I seem to recall a law of USENET that says, in essence, that any post which points our either a spelling or a grammatical mistake will contain one of its own.
 

Soccer Mom

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I_Shrugged said:
We should start our own chapter of Proofreaders' Anonymous. I applaud your courage for fixing that error. I would have just sat and stewed over that apostrophe until it drove me nuts.

I used to proofread everything, all the time. And I would point out the errors to the people who made them, making me very unpopular with friends, co-workers, family, etc. I'm much better now. But then again, I don't get out much any more. I'm most proud of the fact that I haven't yet corrected all the typos in any given edition of our local paper, and mailed the paper back to the editor. <pats self on back>

Hi. My name is Shrug. And I'm a proof-aholic.

Hi Shrug! *waves* (and hi to all other proof-aholics).

Typos in the forum mostly roll off me. Most people probably type and move on, but I confess that when I see an old post of mine with errors, I cringe.

My pastor, whom I love dearly, makes errors every single week in the blasted program. I finally have gotten him to show them to me ahead of time. I fix errors for him and email it back and yet somehow he has new ones in the program by sunday. Aaaargh! "As we pray the pray he taught us to pray," Aaaargh! And I can't cuss in church.
 

moth

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I suppose I should just admit it before an intervention becomes necessary -- I too am a proof-aholic.

Soccer Mom, how funny that you mention your pastor! Ever since I was young, I've always been distracted by grammatical errors in church sermons. I find myself thinking of different ways the preacher could have phrased the sentence, ways that would be not only grammatically correct but also more tightly worded...only to "come to" some minutes later and realize I have no idea what the preacher is currently talking about. :eek: ;)
 

Tish Davidson

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I have been known to favor the grocery store that has a checkout lane for "10 items or fewer" over the one whose checkout lane is "10 items or less."
 

Mom'sWrite

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Years ago when I was hiding out in the hallowed halls of ASU, I received a letter from my sister in Chicago. She was in college too, majoring in PR. The letter was horrific. It was like a classic from The Messpeelers Handbok. I couldn't believe it. Every other word was spelled incorrectly. Seriously, I thought it was a joke, so I whipped out my trusty red pen and corrected it. Then I sent it back to her. I probably shouldn't have done that because about a week later, I received the letter back, torn into microscopic shreds. Oh well, I thought it was funny.
 

Kristen King

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The newsletter Editorial Eye has a section called "Black Eyes" for stuff like this. My most recent submissions involved a recall of tainted "beef panties" in a Reuters article, an offer for free karate "unifroms" when you sign up for a certain class (on a very pricey, glossy, four-color mailer), and "Go Figthing Irish!" on a major search engine's homepage. They're EVERYWHERE. Beef panties is my favorite, but I love one a friend submitted from the program at a funeral: "a time to reap, and a time to sew."

Kristen
 

Silver King

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Duncan J Macdonald said:
**cough** That would be "you're", yes?

I seem to recall a law of USENET that says, in essence, that any post which points our either a spelling or a grammatical mistake will contain one of its own.
That would be "points OUT," nes pas?
 

TheIT

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It's been a while since I've spoken French, so I had to look up the correct spelling. ;)

The typo I'll add to the list was something I saw in an advertising campaign in a local Mexican restaurant chain. They were advertising "SIZZILIN' FAJITAS" in great big letters on posters in the main window and on placards on every table. I don't mind the quotation mark for the missing "G", but the three "I's" still bothers me. The scary thing is that they spelled "sizzlin'" correctly in the rest of the text.
 
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