Grammar Demons Exorcised!
By Chrissy Scivicque
Published: April 14, 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, I ask you to bear with me today as I cleanse my soul of the pain I've been carrying for quite some time...

You see, I'm a comma compulsive. I'm a punctuation perfectionist, a giddy grammar gal. And ok, I'm an admirer of alliteration. As a lover of language, I loathe the linguistic lawlessness of our land.

Today, let us cast out the venom of our vocabulary and cleanse the palate of our pronunciation!

Ok....that's a stretch. But you get the idea. Here are a few of my verbal pet-peeves. Feel free to add yours to the lists in the comments section below.

A Whole Nother

What the heck is a "nother"? Have you ever seen this infamous "nother" that people speak of? I swear I heard Barack Obama use this phrase and it almost made me change my vote! Seriously people. It's become so commonplace we all forget that "nother" isn't even A WORD! Instead of saying, "That's a whole nother thing," which makes my skin crawl, try any of the following: "That's a whole different thing," or "That's another thing altogether," or "That's totally different, man!!" Just take the non-word "nother" out of the equation.

Irregardless

Regardless means "without regard". The prefix "ir" means without. It's redundant to put "ir" in front of a word that already ends in "less". I have heard incredibly intelligent, professional individuals use this word and it's truly upsetting to me. Regardless of what you've heard in the past, please take note: irregardless is irmeaningless.

Supposably

For the life of me, I can't understand why people have such a problem with this word "supposedly". I've heard people say "supposily," "supposivly" and "supposably". The word is "supposedly". The "ly" is a modifier that is added to the word "supposed".I certainly hope this helps clear up any confusion out there. Might I ask that, in an effort to make the world a better place, everyone please pass this along to a whole nother person who might benefit :)

And please add your own verbal violations below...I know you have them.

 


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