where the writers are
Words that Ain't Words
grammar support group

We all have pet peeves and I can personally attest to having many.  Fingernail biting, loud chewing, public nose blowing, bad manners—the list is long.  However, preeminent among these are people who are slowly and haphazardly destroying the English Language.  Their strategy is born of ignorance and perpetuated by disregard. 

Their annoying albeit unintentional mistakes can be divided into the following three categories:

Words that aren’t Words:

Irregardless—Nope, doesn’t exist.  Regardless of how many times you say it, it won’t make it a word.

Ain’t—Yes, I know we all should know but sadly I still hear it. 

Yoons—Not sure of the spelling since it isn’t a word but it is sort of like ya’ll for North to Midwesterners.  It is a contraction for nothing; it means nothing (sorry dad).

Boughten—As in the past tense of bought.  I had “boughten” the milk yesterday.  No.

Brang—Past tense of bring of course.  I "brang" the cookies but not my ability to speak correctly.

Alls"Alls" I know is it is very popular but it still doesn’t make it a word.

Unsenstive—Someone who doesn’t care that the word is actually insensitive.

Worser—If I continue the list will only get “worser” so I will stop with this one. 

Mispronounced Words:

Don't say probly, say probably

Don't Say libary, say library

Don't say fustrate, say frustrate

Don't say supposably, say supposedly

Don't say birfday, say birthday

Don't say aks, say ask

Don't say libel, say liable

Don't say upmost, say utmost

Finally, don't say it at all if you can't say it correctly.

Bad Grammar:

Drugged vs. dragged
I drugged him across the floor.  Unless you were giving him morphine shots along the way, you dragged him across the floor.

Subject verb agreement
They was always laughing.  Yes, they were laughing at your grammatical mistake.

Incorrect compound subject
Between you and I, me and her talked.  Between you and me, she and I should learn better grammar. 

Adverbs' missing "ly"
Drive safe and work careful.  No, drive safely and work carefully to learn better syntax.

Double negatives
I am not doing nobody a favor.  Of course, you are not doing anyone a favor by speaking incorrectly.

Mixing up homophones
They're not taking their books there and you're not taking your books either.
Sound the same, not the same--learn the difference.

Doesn't and don't
He don't care about grammar and it doesn't bother me.  Okay, it does... a lot!  Yes, a lot is two words (in case you were wondering).

Imply and Infer
I implied from what she said that she inferred I was dumb.  No, I implied you weren't the smartest, you inferred that I called you dumb.  Still doesn't make sense?  Look it up...please.

I could have penned a tomb on this subject but a brief expression of my exasperation has momentarily sufficed.  Don't misunderstand, I am fully cognizant and understanding of the fact that we all make our share of gaffes, goofs and grammatical errors but if we don't stop soon we will all start saying words that ain't words. 

Comments
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Some List

I'm with you on all of these.

Two More (my favorites)

1) Mispronouncing "vulnerable".  I hear this a lot: VUNrubble".  Ick.

2) "Numerous of"   As in: "I have spoken to him numerous of times about this."

Oy. Don't get me started.

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Bad Grammar

Hi Ron-

You named some good ones.  I could name hundreds.  Thanks for sharing yours :)

 

Sherry