Grammatical annoyances of the week

September 26, 2018 • 3:15 pm

This one I heard two days ago on NPR; I can’t remember the exact word in quotes, but the announcer’s sentence went something like this:

“The evidence, quote, unquote.”

If you’re going to use verbal air quotes, please place them properly. In this case it’s, “The quote evidence, unquote.”

Is that so hard?

And I hate this one, which I heard today: the word “peeps” for people. That is a form not of virtue signaling, but of “I’m with it” signaling.  PEEPS ARE NOT PEOPLE; they are these! (I do love this confection, though!)

As always, use the comments to vent about your own language peeves.

220 thoughts on “Grammatical annoyances of the week”

      2. There was a story this a.m. on the BBC about the evolution of social media jargon and “lit” was an example of how black american lingo is disproportionately influential. I can’t remember the researcher’s name but shouldn’t be too hard to find.

        1. <blockquote<"… how black american lingo is disproportionately influential."

          ‘Twas ever thus — or at least since King Oliver and Louie Armstrong migrated north from the Storyville section of New Orleans and made jazz a thing.

        2. I’m guessing it came from a misguided attempt to find a short form of ‘enlightened’.
          Rather than ‘lit up’ as in ‘pissed out of his mind’.

          Either way, it’s pretty arcane IMO (isn’t that the point of much jargon, though? To be comprehended by the initiated and exclude the outsiders?)

          cr

          1. My guess is it’s what happens when you further shorten “legit”, which is what you get when you shorten “legitimate”, but it doesn’t actually mean legitimate, but good or great.

            -Ryan

        1. Which is to say, according to the Navy: “There are three ways to do something – the Right Way, the Wrong Way, and the Navy Way.”

  3. The pronunciation of “integral” as “in TEG rul” rather than “IN te grul.” According to the dictionary they’re both allowed, but not by me!

    1. I’ve acquired the notion that /IN te grul/ is the mathematical sense and /in TEG rul/ is the “essential” sense.

      Odd that. Maybe because I learnt the first sense from British teachers and the latter from American colleagues … ?

      /@

        1. I remember hearing someone say (in the southern Appalachians), “take and (do whatever it was that one was doing). Which is right out of the Bible, as in, from The Lord’s Supper, “take and eat.” (Which I take to mean, pick it up with your hand, as opposed to trying to pick it up with your mouth.)

    2. Even worse I find tightly woven recipes that go “add these, this and that, blend in those, stir well and THEN QUICKLY ADD THE STIFFLY BEATEN EGG-WHITES” – which have not been mentioned before! Nothing to do with grammar, but a very good way to ruin anyone’s day!

  5. Just heard one on the radio a few minutes ago. We have a cold front coming through soon. The reporter warned that thunderstorms and high winds are “in the offering.”

      1. Per an old joke: Someone, speaking in an southern Appalachian dialect/accent, called the florist and asked that flowers (“flares”) be delivered to a church for a wedding ceremony at a church. The florist replied, “Why-is the bride making an emergency landing down the aisle?”

  8. First heard “peeps” as shorthand for “people” when Harry Enfield used it in sketches involving his ‘Stavros’ Greek kebab shop persona back in the ’80s on Channel 4 in the UK. Not sure anyone using “peeps” now would want to be associated with that – or who’s guilty of cultural appropriation here!

    2. Ah, I hadn’t realised that. But I’ve certainly been aware of it for a couple of decades – and used it – before I knew of those marshmallow chicks.

      Of course, there is something that will make Jerry’s toes really curl: On Twitter my peeps are my “tweeps”! 😁

      /@

  9. I noticed that on the package for Peeps they have “always gluten free, fat free,” whereas both should be hyphenated: “gluten-free, fat-free.” Hyphens are among the most abused punctuation marks on the planet, second only to semi-colons (and, of course, exclamation points!!!!).

    2. That’s a forgivable error, I think, as hyphenation varies from some adjectival compounds.

      “This coat is ochre coloured.”

      “This is an ochre-coloured coat.”

      /@

  10. “maybe, just maybe, …”

    which is grammatically fine I suppose, but carries the condescending implication that what follows is obviously true to anyone who thinks about it. I find it passive aggressive and annoying; just say “maybe …” if that’s what you mean, and if you think what you are claiming is obviously correct, then just come out and say that.

  11. “The quote evidence, unquote.” is also incorrect and an abomination!

    To say it properly…
    ” The quote evidence end of quote.”

    “unquote” – Orwellian Newspeak.

        1. I’d also suggest that the “quote, unquote” needs to be together or the initial “quote” before the word or phrase would puzzle your listener.

          I tend to use it before, rather than after: “So, regulations often state a requirement for, quote, unquote, ‘two-factor authentication’, but rarely define what that means.”

          (And the “So,” tick is another thing that annoys Jerry, iirc. But really, it’s a verbal new-paragraph indicator.)

          /@

          2. And you use it only when speaking. When you do, you use other means to indicate the phrase at issue, usually tone of voice but sometimes gestures. The quote unquote is not the delimiter of the phrase, it is an explanation for the different tone used.

      2. I kind of like, “Kkk kew”…”Kew kkk”. Like Victor Borge.
        But you have to be careful not to fling saliva.

  13. A good example of “I’m with it” signalling is google’s replacement of “OK” with “Got It”. It just doesn’t grok.

    2. I have to disagree. The use of “OK” in computer dialogs has conditioned computer users to expect that some action will occur if the user clicks it, as opposed to “Cancel” which exits the dialog without performing the action. When a dialog exists solely to convey information to the user (ie, no action is implied), using “Ok” can be confusing. Does clicking Ok do something or not? If so, how do I cancel it? The “Got it” button or link doesn’t share that ambiguity.

      3. You have a good point there. It hadn’t occurred to me, but now you point it out, it’s obviously valid.

        cr

  14. I like Peeps. Disgustingly sweet and yummy.

    There are a large number of videos on youtube of people putting Peeps in the microwave. My favorite is one that uses Peeps in the microwave to determine the speed of light.

      1. No, it is I sounds pretentious but I sometimes use ‘tis I, sardonically. Recently a few people didn’t know what I was talking about when I said “This is she” on the phone…

      2. No, it is I sounds pretentious but I sometimes use ‘tis I, sardonically. Recently a few people didn’t know what I was talking about when I said “This is she” on the phone…
        Maybe best just to sing “C’est moi!”

  17. Something I spend a fair amount of time noticing, as I used to write a column, *The Language Police*, for the local bar-association monthly.

    You’re right–a lot of neologisms can’t pay their freight. (Keep in mind that in psychiatric terminology, a neologism is “a meaningless word used by a psychotic.”)

    But since I always bitch about such things, let me mention one that I really liked. A reporter, referring to the idea of getting a short “man-in-the-street” opinion about something, said: “I’ll vox pop him.”

    Lovely.

  18. Not really annoying, but I was able to call out a friend on the following minor grammatical issue this weekend.

    Our daughter just got engaged, and a friend emailed me thusly:

    “Congratulations! We heard that Wesley asked Nora to marry him on one knee!”

    My reply to her:

    “Actually, I suspect Wesley will be standing up when they get married. He’s already spotting her a good 1/2 a foot in height!”

    And, to rub it in, I followed up with this classic line from Captain Spaulding:

    “This morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know!”

  20. However annoying, substituting “peeps” for “people” is not ungrammatical. Maybe it would be better described as a “lexical annoyance”.

  22. I was confused by that use of “quote, unquote” for a long time and finally asked someone what the deal was — shouldn’t it be “quote, the words conveyed, unquote” instead?
    Yes, I was told.

    It’s like hearing people say they “could care less.” It’s so commonly used that way that people who grow up hearing it need to stop and ask the question: Isn’t that illogical?

    1. I had never heard it used that way until I moved to the US, it seems to be universal here and remains irritating.

      Another phrase that lost something mid-Atlantic is the English usage “The proof of the pudding is in the eating” which makes sense, vs. “the proof is in the pudding” which sounds as though someone made a dessert from the first copy of a book.

  23. “graduated” vs “graduated from”

    I hear things like “I graduated high school in 19xx” instead of “I graduated from high school in 19xx”. Schools graduate students. Students graduate FROM schools. I’ve heard anchor-persons on the national evening news use the FROM-less version, more than once.

    2. To be old-school proper, it should be stated in the passive voice of “was graduated from,” since it’s the board of trustees that does the graduating. See here.

    1. That ship has long since sailed.

      Many words have current meanings that are totally different from their etymology.

      How many dashboards on computer systems stop mud being dashed up into your face by horses’ hooves?

      /@

      1. Is that where it came from? I thought it just meant ‘instrument panel’. (Of course it was the obvious place to install the switches and dials).

        cr

    1. Also ‘refute’ for ‘deny’. ‘Refute’ implies that the denial has been substantiated.

      cr

  27. Using “peeps” as a direct substitute for “people” seems pointless and wrong. However, when used with a personal pronoun, as with “my peeps”, it becomes a handy shorthand for “my friends and associates”. Of course, “my people” might work as well but using a new word allows the meanings to diverge. “My people” has been used in business for quite a while. “My peeps” would never be used in a business context but to describe your friends and family group.

    All that said, I would probably never use “peeps” but I’m old.

    1. And when spoken, as it always is, tone delimits the phrase, the “quote unquote” only confirms it was meant that way, not as demarcation of the extent.

  29. I hate it when “theory” is used to mean scientific fact as in the theory of evolution, quote unquote. Go ahead and check out one of my favorite peeps, Ken Ham. Read his books and maybe, just maybe you’ll see the supposably solid proof of evolution for what it is. His books are lit!

    Kidding

  30. I cringe when people say “at the end of the day” I have heard people say it 3-4 times in one of their statements on tv. In the past, no one said “at the end of the day.” Now, everyone does, except me.

    1. And me. As soon as I hear it, I tune out whatever the person is talking about. ‘Cause, at the end of the day, I don’t care anymore.

    2. I hate that phrase too.

      Years ago, I heard a male client on a decorating show say “if you will” dozens to times. It was an affectation. He sounded snooty and wanted to convey what good taste he had, and said things like, “I abhor knotty pine”.

  31. Semicolons. Everyone knows they are supposed to use them, but nobody knows when. They are always a shot in the dark with your fingers crossed hoping you got it right. They should be abolished for causing everyone too much anxiety.

    2. Semi-colons are great; I use them all the time.

      They’re perfect for delimiting lists, especially when items in the list are complex and would contain commas by themselves.

      But some peeps cant’ even use apostrophes properly; its’ no wonder they struggle with the subtleties of semi-colons.

      /@

      1. The primary use for semicolons (no hyphenation needed) is to separate independent clauses in a compound sentence (although they have other uses, as you’ve noted).

        I like ’em, even though they have a slightly musty 18th-century feel. (The text of the US Constitution is lousy with them.)

        Some people, however, don’t like ’em at all. I recall Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., referring to them as the “hermaphrodites” of the punctuation world (which would probably get him in Dutch with the PC crowd now — as might my use of “Dutch,” for all I know).

        1. Hey, Ken,
          Just outta curiosity, how do you pronounce your last name? Kyuketch? For some reason I’ve been saying Kyuseck in my head and I realize that’s clearly backwards…

          1. Koo-kek.

            It was pronounced Koo-kets in the old country, and my grandparents maintained that pronunciation over here. But my dad Americanized it some — during WW2 I believe, when he threw in the towel from trying to get southern Chief Petty Officers to pronounce it right, is my understanding. 🙂

            The “ec” ending is pretty common in Slovenian names, and some Slovenian-Americans of my dad’s generation changed the spelling of the last syllable to “ets” to preserve the original pronunciation. One way or the other, the old-country names were bound to give way to American tongues.

          3. None that I know of. Her peeps and my peeps come from towns about a hundred klicks apart. (When in Slovenia, measure as the Slovenians do, I always say.) 🙂

        2. The important word here is “independent.” The general rule is that if one of the clauses is dependent on the other, use a comma. If each of them could stand as an independent sentence, use a semi-colon. Using a comma makes the dreaded “run-on sentence.”

          This is in English. In Spanish, independent clauses are regularly joined by commas–a good way to spot an otherwise fluent foreigner. But then, they also put periods and commas outside of quotation marks. Philistines.

          1. I believe using a comma to separate independent clauses constitutes the classic “comma fault.”

      2. Moving swiftly on to colons: I’ve noticed that US writers often start the rest of the sentence after a colon with a capital letter, whereas we Brits almost never do. Another minor cultural divergence!

        1. A Yank here who doesn’t capitalize after the colon. Unless, of course, what follows is a quotation or something else that logically requires the capital letter.

          1. I think those are stylistic differences and various places have different house styles so it depends on what style guide you follow or who taught you.

        2. My understanding of approved practice is, if what follows the colon is not a complete sentence, do not to capitalize. If it is a complete sentence, capitalization is optional, I believe.

    1. I wince when I hear that something awesome is jaw-dropping, or jaw-droppingly awesome. My impulse is to see if the floor is clean.

  35. I always enjoy a bit of Peeves and Wooster, but after a beer and a bump (a phrase that both annoys and amuses) I can’t be arsed to be upset with wurds and such. However, I do very much agree with the post.

  36. People saying that “they’re humbled” when a great honour has just been bestowed on them. What’s up with that?

  38. The one verbal that aggravates me the most is the pronunciation of jewelry as jool-er-ee.

    The textual issue I want settled now and forever though, is the use of bring vs. take. I was taught that bring implies movement towards you, take is moving away. I have heard the words interchanged for so long now I’m not even sure there still exists a correct way of using them.

    But being an old stick in the mud nitpicker true to my 7th grade English teacher, bring means moving towards you and take is moving away dammit!

    2. Strongly agree on bring vs. take, but would probably disappoint you in my pronunciation of jewelry…
      Another thing I hate is “Did you do it yet” rather than “Have you done it yet.”

      2. Another writer I worked with said “template” as templAte with long a instead of “templit”. Drove me nuts.

          1. Well, so do some of we Brits (us Brits?)! Indeed I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “templit”.

          4. As software engineers, me and my associates use “template” quite often. In my lengthy experience, most say “templit”. Occasionally I hear “tem-plate”, but I have no recollection of any correlation with the ethnicity of the speaker.

          9. I usually say templATE but I’ve heard the other pronunciation and I’ve probably said it too. I think both pronunciations are used. It’s the same with process. I say it Praw but others say the British Proh. I hear both in Canada.

          10. I tend to hear prohcess and prohject more here in Canada. When I was first dating my C@nadian ex in California, he was always talking about his prohject (dissertation). Not sure Brits always say proh, do they?

          11. Yes, “Proh” is British. What I’ve personally seen in Ontario (since there are regional differences across provinces) is that in the GTA it is “Praw” but in South Western Ontario (Guelph, KW, etc) it is “Proh”. When I worked in Waterloo people thought it weird that I said “Praw” and all the Americans that worked for the company thought all Canadians (from their small sampling of one company in one area in Waterloo) said “Proh”.

          16. That’s my point about regional differences. The US and Canada are big places. Pronunciations can change for some words from city to city not just state to state or province to province.

          18. Lol me too. But I bet Dawkins wishes people would stop writing lol. I know he hates it when people begin a sentence with “so” and he thinks only Americans do it but Canadians do it all the time.

  39. “Call out” to mean criticize. For the first 65 years of my life, to call out meant to say something aloud. That seems right to me.

    Suddenly that two-word phrase changed to mean something else entirely. And in this age of coarseness and insensitivity, everybody is always calling out someone or something. I wish we could just criticize them, or point out their error, or say whatever we used to say up until 4 or 5 years ago.

    1. I have to challenge you on that.
      Or simply:
      I disagree with you on that.

      Can’t you just disagree with people anymore or is that rude now?

    2. No, Trump’s right. He feels, badly. He feels women, badly. ‘You grab them by the pussy…’

      [Sorry, couldn’t resist]

      cr

      1. Off topic: If you haven’t seen Dana Carvey’s bit on Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster as gay lovers you owe it to yourself to watch it. One of the funniest things I’ve ever heard.

    1. Didn’t know that was American. I always leave the “of” in but, come to think of it, the people I know who leave it out our Yanks.

  45. While very different language appears to evolve . As such a vibrant champion of biological evolution, I am surprised at your reaction to an evolution of a word. I also note your earlier use use of the word beeb which I assume refers to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

  46. Sorry if already posted above, but mine is “moving forward,” as in, “What are your plans moving forward?”. It’s superfluous.

  48. Overusing or misusing “in terms of”. E.g. “In terms of finance, they are losing money”. Or “this is bad in terms of the environment”.

  49. I’ve recently noticed people saying (primarily in podcasts, from my limited experience) that someone “kinda” (less frequently “sorta”) did something, as opposed to simply saying that someone did it. (Did they “slightly” or “moderately” or “significantly” do it?) While it may not happen often, one does, or does not, actually fully do something. (IICR, “kinda” like “jumps” in atomic orbitals/energy levels, again IIRC, without taking the time to document/reconfirm every jot and tittle of my inadequate understanding of things atomic.)

  50. People who say “an historic”. Wrong, should be “a historic”. The h is not silent therefore it’s “a historic” just like “a human”. Nobody says “an human”. Everyone says “an hour” because the h is silent.

  51. Another gripe: calling houses “homes” and townhouses “townhomes”. Realtors (not reALtors) are especially guilty of this. It’s a house, dammit, and I make it my home (off my lawn, while we’re at it). And, btw, this Yank does not capitalize after a colon…

      1. And I guess you’d say estate wagon for station wagon, Dominic😊
        Vive(nt) tous les anglais!

          2. Ha! No — “brake” as in “an open, horse-drawn, four-wheeled carriage”; a shooting brake was such a carriage with the space for your guns and dogs, with estate cars fulfilling this role among motor vehicles.

            /@

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