Don’cha just hate it when somebody says or writes would of instead of would have or should of instead of should have?
You do? Good. Me, too.
Spurred by the writing of people who should know better, I am compiling a list of phonetic spellings and related oddities.
Here are some of my favourites, supplemented by suggestions from my colleagues Kenton Larsen and Chris Petty, avid readers and writers both.
Case and point (instead of case in point)Doggy dog (dog eat dog)Low and behold (lo and behold)Run the gambit (run the gamut)Pour over (pore over)
Two reasons to be aware of such mistakes and to fix them: They jar the reader, and they reveal the writer’s ignorance.
A couple of suggestions to prevent such mistakes: Read more. And when you write something, read it aloud before publishing it.
You could also trying looking up words. That’s why God made dictionary.com.
Got other examples? That’s why God made the Comment feature.
Merry malaprop-ing!
How about “I could care less" instead of "I couldn’t care less"?
ReplyDeleteI've seen "has long as" far too many times for my liking.
ReplyDeleteMy colleague Steve Vogelsang contributes:
ReplyDeleteFor all intensive purposes (for all intents and purposes)
Just saw another one: "mano a mano" used to mean "man to man" as opposed to "hand to hand"
ReplyDeletewhen people incorrectly contract "it's."
ReplyDeleteExample: "It's been a long time coming," McMonagle said.
A lot of people talk like this, but really we should be correcting it to say "It HAS been a long time coming..."
OK, correction: you can use it's as a contraction for "it has."
ReplyDeleteI stand by my belief, however, that it's stupid and must be frowned upon by the grammatical community.
Everyone, for future reference, it's "champing at the bit," okay?
ReplyDeleteJust saw this one: "tongue and cheek" for "tongue in cheek"
ReplyDeleteAnother favourite: "peak my interest" for "pique my interest"
ReplyDeleteLove this!! Up until about age 17 I thought the saying was "all intensive purposes." Instead of "all intents and purposes."
ReplyDeleteRecent entries:
ReplyDeletetow the line for toe the line
voters heading to the poles instead to the polls (perhaps the voters are dogs)
shoe-in for shoo-in
Then there is testimate.
ReplyDeleteApparently the writer means testament.
Unless a testimate is a prosthesis.
Here, here instead of Hear, hear
ReplyDeleteper say instead of per se (today's Latin lesson)