That Which Doesn't Kill Us. . .

I've made my share of punctuation and grammar blunders. I routinely committed several "non standard" (otherwise known as "incorrect") language faux pas, ingrained since childhood. Unlearning them was painful. To my ears, saying, "I'm going to go lie down now," instead of "lay down," seemed uppity, pretentious and just wrong—maybe even immoral. Our ears are tuned to accept what we’ve heard in our early years as right and normal. It takes quite a bit of effort to retune our ears to accept what the Grammar book says over what the family says. At first it was a frightening leap of faith to make myself say it correctly. I struggled like a nicotine fiend trying to quit smoking. But eventually “lie” sounded just right.

I’ve suspected I probably have other language habits that make listeners cringe as much as I do when I hear some of my language pet peeves. I’ll confess, there are times I find myself being a Pharisee about it, (you know, the holier-than-thou-type.)mentally patting myself on the back and thinking, “At least I’m not like idiots who say things like:

You’ins (or Yous) git in here. The cornbread’s done. (I’ve heard it.)

God has a plan for you and I. (My theory is that some people think “me” somehow sounds more self-centered than “I.”)

Give all the boys their own hat. (Surely everyone can't wear one hat.)

More movies—less commercials! (Wouldn’t you think advertisers would be tend to be proficient in language?)

They was so sorry for being late. (I’m not lying!)

But then I began to remember other grammar and usage areas I was foggy with, like when to use that and which, for example.  I might consider it a trivial error, but boy was I chagrined to find that this error was on someone else’s list of grammar/usage pet peeves!

 

34. The That Pronoun (serving at the start of relative clauses)

Incorrect-The movie which we watched was entertaining.

Correct-The movie that we watched was entertaining.

Tip: The pronoun that can refer to unspecific, or general, people or things. Use the pronoun that when the clause is needed to understand or restrict the meaning of the rest of the sentence.

35. The Which Pronoun (serving at the start of relative clauses)

Incorrect-A dog, which is compliant, is easy to train.

Correct-A Golden Retriever, which is compliant, is easy to train.

Tip: The pronoun which can only refer to specific things. Use the pronoun which in clauses that provide additional, but not necessary information to the rest of the sentence.

I say all this to remind us all not to be judgmental about the way people use our language. At the same time, you yourself should strive for standard (correct) English, because people DO judge you by the way you speak. Listeners and readers will dismiss the all-important content of your work if they get distracted by errors in the mechanics. Now, with that out of the way, I invite you to post YOUR language pet peeves.

Comments

[Dani Frye]

hey, now ma'am, i say ya'll all the time. i also grew up with my step-mom sayin' You'ins. i think its homely. and i wanted to point out the fact that i may kinda sorta wrote this, not out of ignorance, or "computer talk", but just to bug ya. oh yeah. i said ya.... made my punctuation horrible, and went all southern on ya. but, you definately make me notice how i type and now think about going back, spelling things out properly, and doing the punctuation perfectly. you should know that it took me forever to get out of being such a stickler for being a perfectionist with my english. now it doesnt phase me so much. reading this definately made me smile. miss you debbie!

[Debbie Heal]

Hey, Dani, miss you too. Thanks for commenting. Hope you're well.