Nathanael Green

Writer of Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure, and More

A Quick Shot for You Grammar Geeks and Word Nerds

Oxford commas, splitting infinitives, impact as a verb … all topics near and dear to my heart.

But I won’t expound on them much today because I’m cheek-deep in some other projects. So this is just a quick note for anyone interested in word-nerdery like me that Buzzfeed posted a photo series titled “30 Copy Editors Tell Us Their Pet Peeves.”

It’s nice to see I’m not the only one with some of these peeves. Though I don’t agree with all of the sentiments.

So what about you? After looking through copy editors’ grievances, where do you stand on these weighty issues facing our time?

(You probably already know how I feel about the singular they.)

Nathanael Green

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4 responses to “A Quick Shot for You Grammar Geeks and Word Nerds”

  1. mandyzerr Avatar
    mandyzerr

    I didn’t agree with everything in that article and couldn’t care less about some of it, but I absolutely agree that sentences can end in prepositions and I hate “would of” and its ilk. I also love and embrace the singular they.

    Just this past weekend, I went to a restaurant whose hours were painted on their door thusly: “Open Everyday.” It looked very professional and attractive, but it was very wrong. It bugged the crap out of me. I really wanted to tell someone, “Look, I know it’s probably expensive to fix, but it should be ‘Every Day.’ Two words. Unless you are trying to confer you are an ‘ordinary, everyday restaurant’ serving ‘ordinary, everyday sandwiches,’ it should be ‘EVERYDAY.’” But I kept my mouth shut. I have purged now. Thank you.

    OH! I also HATE the word “irregardless.” Oh my God, I hate it so much.

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    1. Nathanael Green Avatar
      Nathanael Green

      Oh, that “everyday” would’ve certainly caught my eye.

      I think my biggest pet peeve is when people over correct, as if showing off their fancy grammar when it’s not good grammar. Like when someone might, “That’s a good picture of her and I.”

      Ick. Gives me the jibbly-jibblies just writing it out!

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  2. mandyzerr Avatar
    mandyzerr

    Apparently, using “” is an HTML code thing. I had typed out “EVERY DAY” in my comment above, but instead it actually took away the space from “Every Day,” which I was attempting to emphasize. Oh, the irony.

    Maybe that’s what happened with the restaurant’s hours painter.

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  3. mandyzerr Avatar
    mandyzerr

    Oh my God! It did it again! I guess I’ll have to send a screenshot of what I actually typed because it is not showing it. hahahaha

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