As an English major and a journalist, I'm of course fascinated with language. Dr. Grammar is a fun site listing a batch of common English mistakes people make.
It correctly points out that it's "A lot" and not "alot," but neglects to include a pet peeve of mine, it's "all right," not "alright."
(Via Coudal.com)
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6 comments:
I'm all for accepting alright and alot as new compound words. "None" "never" and "tomorrow" are all single words that began as two, and developed that way because it was so common to stick the two words together that it just made more sense that they be one.
I remember reading that in the 18th century there was a big stink being made about whether the word "can't" should be accepted in print.
They don't have my peeve: "everyday" when "every day" is what is meant.
Your bosses at Microsoft used that one wrong in an ad a couple of years ago.
I had a teacher in elementary who would draw huge bold black slashes between the "a" and the "lot" if we wrote it "alot". I never, ever forgot that lesson.
"Could care less" is the one that drives me bonkers. It's "couldn't", people.
i don't care what he's missing; this man should be praised:
"All commas and periods go inside quotation marks. There are no exceptions."
THANK YOU! Why do so many writers, including writers for major news organs, feel that this rule doesn't apply to them?
People get confused I think because the dash, semicolon, question mark and exclamation point go within the quote marks when they apply to the quoted material only. They go outside when they apply to the wider sentence. My freelancers know this is a pet peeve with me.
He got my pet peeve as well. I hate it when people use "try and" instead of "try to". I don't even consider it colloquial, just simply incorrect. I catch it in print regularly now, especially Harry Potter.
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