Words people get wrong

Saul Goodman wrote:

My wife calls it "Baskin and Robbins" and it drives me nuts.

(Somewhat) similarly: People say "Barnes & Nobles" instead of "Barnes & Noble." Amazing how much a little thing like that can irritate.

I may have missed it, but I haven't seen mention of "lie" and "lay".

You LIE on a bed. You LIE on the floor. You LIE down and go to sleep.

You LAY a book on a table. You LAID that book on the table yesterday.

She LIES on her bed. She LAY on the bed yesterday. She HAS LAIN on this bed several times before.

These words are used incorrectly about 90% of the time.

Oh wait -- this explains it better than I can: The verb to lie means to rest or recline and is conjugated lie, lay, have/has lain (that’s right—lain), lying. He lies silently in his bed. Yesterday, I lay on the beach. The dog has lain on the couch many times. We are lying down.

The verb to lay means to put or to place and is conjugated lay, laid, have/has laid, laying. We lay the books on the desk when we’re finished reading. He laid the baby in the crib yesterday. He has laid the keys on the table every day this week. She was laying the book on the shelf as the telephone rang.

In order to avoid this grammar error, just remember that when you use the verb to lay, there should be an object after it—the thing that you are laying (putting or placing).

Another one that grates on my nerves is "I should of ran a couple more miles yesterday". AAAGGGHHH!!!

I SHOULD HAVE RUN ... I WOULD HAVE RUN ... I COULD HAVE RUN ...

Good Lord, is verb conjugation not taught in school anymore??? IT'S NOT THAT DIFFICULT!

literally

who's / whose.

I see these incorrectly used >50% of the time, even from otherwise well-educated people.

Deer Letsrun,

Its to rediculous. I should have ran my penultimate lap at sub-55 sec. Then, head home to lay on my bed only to realize wala, its the next day. For all intensive purposes, I wasted my entire night and defiantly missed my dinner. I have to drive to our state's capitol city today. I will be using my GPS because the directions are cut and dry. I could care less how grammer police think of my message.

Typical letsrun post wrote:

Deer Letsrun,

Its to rediculous. I should have ran my penultimate lap at sub-55 sec. Then, head home to lay on my bed only to realize wala, its the next day. For all intensive purposes, I wasted my entire night and defiantly missed my dinner. I have to drive to our state's capitol city today. I will be using my GPS because the directions are cut and dry. I could care less how grammer police think of my message.

well played, sir!

Triathalon/triathlon. I've known triathletes who even said it wrong.

Typical letsrun post wrote:

Deer Letsrun,

Its to rediculous. I should have ran my penultimate lap at sub-55 sec. Then, head home to lay on my bed only to realize wala, its the next day. For all intensive purposes, I wasted my entire night and defiantly missed my dinner. I have to drive to our state's capitol city today. I will be using my GPS because the directions are cut and dry. I could care less how grammer police think of my message.

"Should OF ran my penultimate lap", surely?

Principal / Principle.

I see people on LinkedIn showing their job title as "Principle Scientist at Pfizer". WTF? It's YOUR JOB and you can't spell it?

Two that immediately jump to mind are (1) mute point/moot point and (2) using "ironic" to mean coincidence.

Nucular bomb

Using irony for coincidence is not actually incorrect provided that the coincidence is unexpected.

One popular New York sports radio announcer constantly says, "take a different tact". And am I wrong or if you are "behind the 8 ball" you're screwed? Because he constantly refers to someone being behind the 8 ball as being in a favorable position. In addition, there is no letter R in soda and idea. Ok, I'm done.

When things agree or align with each other, they "jibe"--they don't "jive." People frequently get this one wrong.

Also: things can be "jerry-built" or "jury-rigged"--they can't be "jerry-rigged" or "jury-built."

ray wrote:

One popular New York sports radio announcer constantly says, "take a different tact". And am I wrong or if you are "behind the 8 ball" you're screwed? Because he constantly refers to someone being behind the 8 ball as being in a favorable position. In addition, there is no letter R in soda and idea. Ok, I'm done.

Different tack. And yes, behind the 8 ball is frequently misused. People use that phrase to imply they're behind or slow in doing something. It really means you can't shoot at an object ball because the 8 ball is in the way, so your only way out is to foul or do something tricky.

One that drives me crazy is "common" instead of "come on."

Misusing less and fewer grates on me, but the worst offender to my ears is the misuse of I, me and myself. E.g., "Contact Bob and myself if you have any questions." Argh!

Also, lots of people (i.e., almost everyone) confuse e.g. and i.e., but that one doesn't bother me so much.

maybe I missed this but...

Drives me crazy. Even the talking heads on TV blow it

wreaks havoc, NOT wrecks havoc. idiots

that one is ridiculous - should be nuclir bomb.

People misuse the word "Solinsky" frequently.

The word is a noun that people mistakenly use to refer to a motivated and competitive distance runner, when it actually refers to either an individual of dubious character, or to an occurrence normally considered as evidence of said dubious character, such as "He pulled a Solinsky."

The word has been so often misused that said misuse has entered the vernacular, and as a result, to alleviate confusion and recapture the original meaning, a helpful variation on the word has been introduced:

Solinskrap.

Examples of Solinskies: Lagat, Manzano, Centrowitz

Examples of Solinskraps: 1. whining, quitting, not starting,

not finishing

2. Solinskrap herself