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Some typos are accidental … caused by typing too fast … rewriting too quickly … not taking time to proofread. This is especially true when creating quick messages destined to litter Facebook threads and text messages.

I can live with them. The ones I make. The ones penned by others.
Sometimes they make me smile.  A few even make me chuckle… especially those sneaky silly auto-correct blunders that happen just after you hit post. Others are groaners. Ouch. Like stepping on a pebble in your shoe.

But others. Oh, my.

Those others. They make me cringe. They prick my sensibilities. They hurt my senses.  I hear them as clearly as if they were proverbial words of chalk scraping across a blackboard. They fray energy connectors in my brain that snap and hiss.

They may be unintentional. They may be accidental. But they are wrong.

And they rank high on my list of pet peeves.

Worse offenders? The ones repeatedly misused by those who ought to know better. Saying “I seen,” for instance, rather than “I saw.”

Apparently, it’s enough to cause some to stop enjoying language altogether. Not me, though. I’ll be reading and writing till the very end of my Earthly days. Typos and screechy-scratchies and misused apostrophes and the other gaffes won’t get the best of me. There’s always the chance they’ll make me chuckle.

If exposure to pet-peevy language is ruining your love of language this video I came across just might change your mind. Or at least ease the strain. Have a look and a listen.

Stephen Fry Kinetic Typography – Language

So what about you? Got some wordy pet peeves of your own?

Get ’em off your chest. Ground those loose wires. Share them in the comment section below.

  • Hey Kat, what a delightful post! Although I’m not a native speaker, those ugly obvious mistakes hurt my ears and eyes just like you! 🙂

    Love the style how you write, very entertaining! And poetic in a way.
    You’d be a great author!

    • Appreciate you sharing your thoughts, Andrea. Thanks for the kind words about my writing style. Haven’t published a new book since 2001, but I do have a dozen plus under the name: Kathy Henderson. You’ve got a delightful writing style, too. It represents you well.

  • What a wonderful video! My biggest pet peeve is the misused homonym. I do tend to overlook them in most cases, and the triggers are fewer now than they were before 🙂 I also fervently hope my grammar in this post is “correct”! LOL

    • Hi Katie! Your comment has passed editorial review with flying colors. 🙂
      Oh, yes, the grinding of misused homonyms. Such as confusing “there” (a place) and “their” (belongs to them) and “they’re” (they are). Or this one which just makes me shake my head whenever I hear or read it: using “except” (meaning to exclude) instead of “accept” (meaning to receive). Aye, yi, yi!

      Love the rationale in this article about homonyms: “…. homonyms lurk all over the English language. It’s as if they [homonyms] are there to confuse people.”
      http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-homonyms.html

  • I know the feeling!! My boyfriend adds unnecessary e’s to words at times and it drives me mad, especially when he keeps doing it. Have you seen “word crimes” video? It’s so funny, it’s set to the tune of blurred lines – well worth a watch.

    • Rachael, funny about your boyfriend’s habit. My hubby, who produces and/or directs many of our local community theater productions, can’t seem to stop adding ed when he talks about who is filling what roles, saying things like: We casted the play. “Cast” is one of those oddball words that are both present and past tense when used as a verb. But I love him anyway. 🙂

  • Loved the video, Kat!!
    And, it seems that the more persnickety I get about the grammatical errors in the writing of others, the more I seem to find in my own. (And I’m always so shocked about it! LOL) Sigh.
    So, with the intent and desire that my readers will be so enamored of my content that they’ll willingly and generously forgive me for my errors and misuses I’ve decided to read between the lines and really hear what writers are saying or trying to say, instead. Although I’m sure that I’ll still want to cringe a little when I read a then that should be a than, my intention now will be to look with softer eyes. 🙂 xo

  • I’m with you, Cindie. Even to point of being less critical of find errors in my own published writing. Love your intention: “to look with softer eyes”.

    Thanks for taking time to stop by and share. 🙂

  • Enjoyed your pet peeve outline…makes me nuts when fairly intelligent people cannot use the English language correctly. For some reason, the errors in the spoken language bother me more than those made in writing. You nailed it, Kat!

    • Now you’ve made me curious what pet peeves some of some of those we consider worst offenders have about us. 😉

      Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts, Teresa.

  • Hey Kat,

    Do you want to know what my main pet peeve is Kat? Well here it goes…

    When you “claim” to be a freelance writer and you continue to tell me how to write although every single post I read of yours has grammatical errors and misspelled words. People make mistakes, I even make mistakes but I don’t claim to be making a living by what I write and telling people in my posts how to do it when it’s obviously wrong.

    For some unknown reason I can’t for the life of me get then and than right. I KNOW better and it even irks me to no end. I had a girl call me out on the misuse of peek and piqued. I blame it all on my brain going fuzzy which is why I made an announcement on my last post which you read.

    For the most part I do really really good but I have no one to proofread my own work and I’m my own worst critique. I’ll read something five or six times and never see the mistake. Then someone will point it out and it’s like I’m slapping my forehead. I don’t know what’s wrong with me some days but I don’t mess up a lot but I do mess up so I hope you never get mad at me. I hope you would also email me and tell me what a dufas I am.

    People who use your and you’re really get under my skin. Here and hear are ones too but since I screw up then and than all the time I guess I can’t really complain now can I. 😉

    ~Adrienne

    • Hi Adrienne. We can be really hard on ourselves. Goes along with trying to always be and do our best.

      I wonder sometimes about those who seem hell-bent on never missing an opportunity to point out errors in the writings of others. There’s something going on under deep inside them that makes me feel that their error-spearing is more an attempt for self-protection from the slings and arrows aimed at them in the past … and present.

      All I know for sure is I’ve made errors in the past and will most likely make many in the future. But none more surprising than when I read the first author’s copy of my “I Can Be A Rancher” book (Children’s Press, 1990) and realized there was not a single error in the entire book! None, at least, until I closed the cover and ran my fingers lovingly across the title and read I Can Be a Rancher by Paul Sipiera. Ouch!

      Thanks for taking time to stop by and share your experiences and feelings here today.

  • I’m oblivious to pretty much all typos, intentional or other wise. I have been known to get a little ranty when persay is used instead of per se. Education is something denied to more people than it needs to be in 2016, and I don’t judge someone on their ability to use the correct grammar. I will get snarky over the misuse of foreign words… If you don’t know, use the English ones. Don’t get me started on the pronunciation of niche…

    • Oh, Sarah! You prompted the best belly laugh today with your “Don’t get me started on the pronunciation of niche…”!

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Do come back again!

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