Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Typophobia

by Miriam

If, like me, you’re the kind of annoying person who corrects your friends when they use a word inappropriately or find yourself taking a pen to typos in restaurant menus, you’ll have fun with this top ten list. Some typographical/grammatical errors, in fact, are so egregious that they cross the line into delightful. I don’t know about you, but I always find myself cackling at stories of misspelled tattoos. I mean, if you’re going to permanently etch something onto your body….

What are some of your favorite grammatical bloopers?

9 comments:

  1. Worst, most embarrassing was on my dear Opa's tombstone. The dreaded "its" versus "it's" problem. If there's one place you don't want a typo, it's your epitaph: http://www.letstalkaboutwriting.com/2008/04/prodigal-daughter.html

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  2. I especially love signs posted by non-native speakers--I think they call it "Engrish."

    After hearing Lynne Truss speak at a forum, I notice misplace apostrophes -everywhere-.

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  3. The misplaced apostrophes bug me the most. Another one that makes me squirm is when someone tells a dog or a child to go "lay down." Once I commanded a dog to "lie down" and he ignored me until his owner said "lay down." Grammar gone to the dogs...

    The tats are fabuloso.

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  4. I was at a local college, taking a writing workshop for teens, and in the cafeteria there was a sign that listed the main entree "with you'r choice of chips, Jumbo Cookie, or fruit".

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  5. My friend and I keep a word document list going on a shared server at work. We call it "wordisms", and it's like a secret joke. We both go crazy over misuse of words we hear all the time. "Supposively" really? "irregardless" rrrrr...

    That's just two, and there are like sixty on our list. This post cracked me up! Good to know I'm not the only word Nazi out there! LOL

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  6. Not so much favorite, but my oldest boy started public preschool this year, and I wince every time I receive a letter from the school. Whoever does their newsletter constantly uses singular nouns/plural verbs or vice versa and can't spell to save their life. Sometimes it's so bad I have to read it three times before I can figure out what they meant to say.

    I'm always itching to send the newsletter back - edited with red pen - but I'm worried I'll either be labeled as one of "those" parents or crush the dreams of some poor 2nd grader who actually creates the newsletter. So I say nothing - and work on my child's spelling at home.

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  7. Had a former co-worker almost lose a job because she rescinded her acceptance letter instead of resending it to people she'd left off the first email distribution.

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  8. Seeing "your welcome" drives me crazy.

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