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...Which brings me to my pet peeve: the period ALWAYS goes INSIDE the quotation mark. Always.
Over there, maybe. Over here, it depends on whether the punctuation is part of the quotation or not: "What's the time?" he asked, vs he said, "It's half past eight", and closed the door behind him.
 
I put my punctuation outside/after the quotation marks. I used to put them inside, but then it didn't look proper if the statement within the quotation marks didn't require any punctuation.
 
With 'US' English, yes. With 'British' English, no.

Over there, maybe. Over here, it depends on whether the punctuation is part of the quotation or not: "What's the time?" he asked, vs he said, "It's half past eight", and closed the door behind him.
Yes, a valid point.

Also, in the US, the rules regarding the placement of other punctuation marks (such as a question mark or exclamation point) with quotation marks vary depending on the usage, but commas and periods always go inside.
 
My girlfriend says Einshtein instead of Einstein. But then again she had a cat named Einshtien and was brought up using that.
Oh and ad-vurtisment, where I say adver-tisement. That old pickle.

Actually I suppose I also say cara-van. For some reason phonetically I separate the 2.
 
Slightly off topic but what confuses me is in a lot of American tv shows you hear the word 'wind' (sounded as in, 'wind up a toy' not 'that's a feirce wind').

I hear something like, "You're going to wind up dead". Why is the word wind used instead of the word, 'end'?

Also, in past tense, "He wound up dead because of you". I used the word 'wound' in English once and it got scored out!

There wind "W-in-d" which is moving air, and "Why-nd" which is what you do to a wind-up-toy. You can also "Why-nd" up dead. I've never heard of anyone using "W-in-d" in the way you mean.

Also, punctuation only goes inside of quotes if the phrase being quoted needs it, otherwise, you confuse the meaning of the sentence and quote by putting it inside.

TEG
 
I get a bit irked when I see ya'll instead of the proper y'all. There is no letter "a" in the word "you".
 
Also, "pop" is mid-west, "soda" is east coast and California, "coke" is for the south, an the Northwest uses all of them, often with "soda" being in a can or from a fountain, and "pop" being in a bottle.
Coke is the generic soda, I say I want a coke they say we only have pepsi, I say same thing really. But I never say I want coke if I mean something else. I either want a coke or I don't.

One that pisses me off is, yo what is you doing.
 
I swear, I once saw someone on the forums misspell definitely as defiantly. I checked, that person didn't mean defiantly, as in to defy, at all.

Oh, and could care less... no words, facepalm. :eek:

Probably me up until a few months ago.:eek:

One I know I'm guilty of..."Wednesday". I've always pronounced it "Wed nes day" while everyone else I've ever met has pronounced it "Wens day".

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure which one is correct, but I think I'm pronouncing it wrong. :eek:
 
I'm laughing at y'all peeves as they are mine as well. Hello grammar police!

It annoys me when people say eh-peh-tome instead of epitome…

Yes, that is a southern thing. Being from up north, and now living in Texas, that drives me crazy too.

It's always: "I would like a coke."

and the reply: "What kind?"

Yes a friend taught me that one.
 
I swear, I once saw someone on the forums misspell definitely as defiantly. I checked, that person didn't mean defiantly, as in to defy, at all.
Probably a result of spell-check. I've almost made that mistake myself.

One I know I'm guilty of..."Wednesday". I've always pronounced it "Wed nes day" while everyone else I've ever met has pronounced it "Wens day".

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure which one is correct, but I think I'm pronouncing it wrong. :eek:
"Wenz-day" is the correct pronunciation.
 
I encounter these all the time...
A myriad of ___, instead of, myriad ____
Not victimizing you, but this misunderstanding is one of my pet peeves. Myriad can be a noun or adjective, therefore both are correct.
 
We just had this discussion last night, and it's kind of funny how much it paralleled this thread.

I am the only person out of my friends that says:

"soda" instead of "pop"
"cart" instead of "buggy"


Also all of my friends it seems but a select few slaughter "good/well;"

"How did you do tonight?"

"I did very good."

-_-

The one that annoys me the most "Tennis Shoes/sneakers/sneaks" I just don't like it "shoes" is fine, you don't need to specify any further.
 
Coke is the generic soda...
Nope, Coke is a registered trade mark of the Coca-Cola company. If you asked for Coke, and they ask if Pepsi is okay, they're right; just serving you a Pepsi wouldn't be giving you what you asked for, and could result in you claiming false representation.

The generic name for drinks like Pepsi and Coke would be cola, ask for a cola and you'll get whatever brand they choose to serve and you can't complain.
 
This is great! I correct people all the time for saying words wrong!
Here's my list of favorites:

exspecially (instead of) especially
woof (instead of) wolf
drownded (instead of) drowned
acrossed (instead of) across
window seal (instead of) window sill
bluetoof (instead of) bluetooth
tex message (instead of) text message
hut dog (instead of) hot dog
crik (instead of) creek
yooman (instead of) human
hwat (instead of) what
carmel (instead of) caramel
calvary (in place of) cavalry
probaly (instead of) probably
Sundee, Mondee, Tuesdee, etc. (instead of) Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, etc.

I'll post more if I think of them.
 
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say "axe" or "axed" instead of "ask" or "asked."

Another huge one is, "These cookies are really addicting," as opposed to, "These cookies are really addictive."

The standard less vs fewer is sometimes annoying, but not too much.

One really annoying one is when people use past participles and tenses incorrectly. The perfect tense is there for a reason; use it! :p
 
When people say gazpacho as "gas-pachio" when it is pronounced "gathpacho", it infuriates me

"Z" is only pronounced as a "th" in Spain. Elsewhere, it is to be pronounced correctly as an "s". Technically, both are correct, as Spain went through a similar pronounciation change as UK/IE did, and the Americans didn't evolve the pronunciations for English and Spanish as their European counterparts did.

Not victimizing you, but this misunderstanding is one of my pet peeves. Myriad can be a noun or adjective, therefore both are correct.

I'm aware of this, but most people misuse it as "a myriad of" regardless of context, and that is what bothers me.

The generic name for drinks like Pepsi and Coke would be cola, ask for a cola and you'll get whatever brand they choose to serve and you can't complain.

I've tried that, but even when I say cola, they still think I'm asking for a coke as ask if Pepsi is okay. This is all due to Coke marketing themselves as Coca-Cola, whereas Pepsi rarely, if ever, markets themselves as Pepsi-Cola.

TEG
 
"Febuwerry"

Hmm, maybe this is regional, but I've never heard anyone actually pronounce the "r" in February. Any other NY/NJ folks gonna back me up on this? :confused:

Come to think of it, I think quite a few of these examples are simply regional accents at work. I don't think pronunciation variation is nearly as annoying as adding or taking away entire letters/syllables of words.
 
Hmm, maybe this is regional, but I've never heard anyone actually pronounce the "r" in February.

We don't say it in California either.

In fact, it's probably the strongest reason as to why February is misspelled so often.
 
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