12.05.2010

Day 5

Top 10 Pet Peeves

You know this will have grammar stuff in it (sorry), but I tried not to let the grammar stuff dominate. I could add how periods and commas always go inside quotation marks (in the US), but I won't. ha. Gotcha.

Pretend I'm doing the countdown on Letterman. (These aren't really in order of annoyance except for my #1.)

10. When people say literally when they DON'T mean literally. "I was literally dying laughing." Really? Literally? Uh, I guess it could happen, but I don't think so.

9. When people write it's when they mean its. I know this can be confusing, so I'll explain it.
It's = it is or it has. It's a contraction, meaning you've omitted letters.
Its = all other instances/the possessive form of it. I know, possessive usually means you use an apostrophe, but you don't with its.
Just remember: it's ALWAYS means it is or it has.

8. DID YOU SKIP MY EXPLANATION IN #9? GO BACK RIGHT NOW AND READ IT (at least the part in blue). YES, I'M YELLING!

Ahem...number eight: when people say something along the lines of That picture is of Matt and I on the beach. Ah! Would you say that's I on the beach? NO!!!!!!!! I see this a lot when people put captions on  pictures. I think this happens because people are over correcting. Over-correcting? (The use of hyphens isn't my strong point.)

7. Square Utah Hair. (Yes, Utah Hair is a proper noun to me.) I have a photo file on my computer labeled "Utah Hair" where I save all amazing/disgusting pictures I come across via blog or facebook, and I soooo want to post a picture of a friend of a friend, but I'm scared my friend will recognize the picture. Too bad, because it's a doozy!

6. The use of the word epic. There's another trendy word that annoys me, but I can't remember it at the moment. I'll let you know when I think of it. I'm sure you're sitting on the edge of your seat.

5. Annoying online personalities (well, all annoying personalities, but since I mostly talk to people online and not in real life, *cough*loser*cough* I will just say annoying online personalities). I bet you're thinking, "Uh, this list is making me think YOU have an annoying online personality, Kari." *cough*screw you*cough* :) because happy faces make everything better.

4. When the TV is BLASTING.

3. Repetitive noises like people popping their gum or clicking their pen. (This is for when I see people in real life, but because of what I said in #5, this isn't much of an issue these days. This was a major annoyance when I was in college, so maybe it shouldn't be added. But it's still REALLY annoying.) Oh, the other day while I was at Harry Potter, the person behind me kept rubbing their foot back and forth on the carpet, and it was driving me crazy since my head was pretty close to their foot, thanks to stadium seating.

2. When people drive in the slow/passing lane without passing anyone. Along the same lines, it annoys me when someone drives in the HOV lane just because they can. It's like they see the HOV lane, and they're like, "Well I have someone else with me, so I have to. I HAVE TO!" and then their steering wheel takes control and swerves across all lanes of traffic into the carpool lane. And then they stay there while a line of cars piles up behind them, trapped. Is anyone's pet peeve when people say like too much? YOU HATE ME, DON'T YOU? Is your pet peeve when people use CAPS? Well I'm just in a CAPS mood, mk?

and my numero uno.....
1. When people put an apostrophe in their last name when it's not possessive. DON'T DO IT! FOR THE LOVE OF...something. Here's an example if you need one, but you shouldn't since I've complained about this a lot: To the Hobsons, for being freaking awesome. Love, the Ellises (Yep, Ellises. Plural of Ellis. Like Joneses in the saying "Keeping up with the Joneses.")

DID YOU SKIP MY #1 WHEN YOU SAW IT WAS GRAMMAR-RELATED? GO BACK AND READ IT!!

Thank you for this therapy/teaching session.

8 comments:

Alex and Kerri said...

I'm definitely LQTMing. Do you read Seriously So Blessed? So many amazing grammar errors, which makes me think she's actually quite a good grammarian (sp?). :-)

Alex and Kerri said...

And here, since I forgot to check it the first time....

Chelsi Lasater said...

My pet peeves are similar. My number one is when people say, "I could care less," when they mean, "I couldn't care less." UGHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Abby Wright said...

I now always spell check my its's and itses (How ever you plurilize those) becuase I am scared of you correcting me :)

Jon Gardner said...

LOVE this post!

tHe sMiTh SaGa said...

Good Post. I'm pretty sure I fall into a few of those pet peeves of yours. I'll have to work on that. haha

Natalie said...

Ha! You have almost all the same pet peeves as me. But I'd add that I hate when people misspell "definitely." Drives me crazy. And I think the last name thing is awkward. I just avoid saying the plural or posessive of my last name at all costs because I thing it sounds bizarre.

Melani said...

I hate the word epic too. PS it is slightly terrifying to comment on your blog. I'm always afraid I'll misspell something.