My Personal Pet Peeves

In spite of the lack of posts since this blog was first begun, the actual proofreading service has been busy, both with simple proofreading and with complete rewrites.  Now, at this time, I believe it will be helpful to post samples of the problems that I encounter every day and I plan to make that my focus for the immediate future.  First, though, I have a broad sketch of the categories of problems that I see in English on the internet (and elsewhere, frankly). Most of these are problems that I see among first-language speakers of English.

1) Loss or muddling of pronoun cases, including relative or interrogative pronouns (confusing I and me, he and him, she and her, we and us, they and them, who and whom);

2) Muddling of a verb's singular and plural forms, especially with collective nouns and with introductory phrases such as there is and the thing is;

3) Muddling (or even loss) of forms of the subjunctive;

4) Misuse of prepositions - omitting them altogether at the end of a sentence (thereby changing the meaning or grammar of the sentence) or adding them unnecessarily, particularly with the word which;

5) Unconventional comparisons and unconventional use of paired conjunctions or focusing adverbs - mixing up as, than, and that or both...and;

6) Spelling errors that seem to be at the top of everyone's "Most Wanted" list: its vs. it's, your vs. you're, et sim.

All of the above (with the possible exception of #6) could be considered grammar problems.  In a different category can be found mistakes of what we used to call diction, that is, word choice.  Sometimes the problem is more of a spelling problem (advice vs. advise, apart vs. a part), in which the misspelling changes the meaning or use of a word. In other situations, actual homonyms or slightly similar-sounding words may be mixed up (rather vs. whether; portend vs. contend).

This list of potential problems comes from people who speak English as their first language. When we look at the problems from people who speak English as a second or third language, other issues arise, and that will be the subject of a future post.

Comments and questions are invited!