A pet peeve or three
i’ve been reading some “customer reviews” of books this afternoon, and here are three things that really bug me:
- When people use “would of” instead of “would have.”
- When people use “dribble” as a noun instead of “drivel.”
- When people write “here, here” when they really mean “hear, hear.”
(Groan.)
6 comments Christopher Heard | writing
[...] Heard at Higgaion has posted some of his pet peeves. Since I am simultaneously snowed in and bored with proofreading the New Interpreter’s [...]
I am with you on all three counts.
I spend a good bit of time on a forum associated with an online game. The forum only accepts adults, so we can assume everyone is either out of high school or close to it.
There is a great deal of political debate, with a great deal of intellectual posturing.
The above three errors are quite common, as well as this fourth: “then” used in place of “than”.
Grrr.
People who write “alot” irk me much.
Pet Peeve: bloggers who delete polite but critical replies to their blunt, polemical posts. Not you of course, Chris. But there is a certain Baptist blogger whom we both know who does it ALL the time!
Isn’t #1 really “would’ve”? Or are contractions in general a peeve. :-)
Chris B., you’re right; “would of” is really a miswriting of “would’ve.” I have no peeve with contractions themselves, as long as they are spelled correctly in written communication (though I generally discourage them in my students’ term papers).