I put a post up on my facebook page for Libro asking for people’s pet hates in language use, and got a good range of interesting comments, so I thought I’d open it up on here, too.
Personally, I try to stay calm when confronted with errors and irritations – after all, it’s my job to sort them out and help the writer to express themselves clearly and confidently. In real life, yes, I do hop up and down when I see grocers’ apostrophes (however, I did NOT go out with the white-out and amend some signs near the University, contrary to the opinions of quite a few people!) and I’ve been known to mention them to the staff of the shop in question.
In my proofreading life, I come across the same things over and over again. Academics using “… and whatnot” rather than “etc.”. People starting off using “organise” and switching to “organize” and back again, and back again, and back again. The formation of “a lot” into one word.
I do worry that clarity and the wide range of expressiveness held by our language is being lost. OK, so you can understand “There are less people in this queue”, but isn’t it just nicer to know it should be “fewer”? (I have one dear friend who is very keen on that one…) Or maybe I’m just too pedantic.
Well, I’d rather have someone who’s too pedantic as my proofreader, wouldn’t you?
So just to mix it up a little – what language misuse do you own up to? I will admit to being very good at saying “Ali and me went to the cafe” when of course it should be “Ali and I”. I know what to do in my written English, I hasten to add! What about you..?
