‘Net Peeves – that’s my little coined term for things you see on the Internet which affect you roughly the same way fingernails on a chalkboard would. Maybe it’s when people start substituting letters for words (“where r u? we’re gonna b l8! ne1 there?!”), although this is more common in text messages and chat programs or IM conversations.
For me, there are many. Way too many to list. I have a short list below, but I want you all to know NONE OF YOU, faithful readers, are the subjects of these items. None. I mostly get burned and chaffed by seeing this stuff in either print (yes, I’ve see it in books I’ve read from the library recently), and from people who really should know better, should’ve been taught better, need to know the rules better and don’t.
Here are a few of mine:
- “internet” instead of “Internet” – This is a proper noun, guys. It’s capitalized. And I’ve see so-called “professional writers” (like journalists) do this in print and online. Meanwhile, I can spell, write in complete sentences, and can’t seem to get a job. WTF? And similarly…
- “god” for “God” – gimme a break. And by the way, this doesn’t bother me for the reason you might think. If you mean the Judeo-Christian deity, and let’s face it you know you do when you say things like “oh my god” because I dare you, dare you to try that with the Muslim god-concept – then it’s capitalized because it doesn’t refer to a generic god-concept, neither a generic class of beings or a generic member of that class. Don’t believe me? Look it up. I guess my question is, what’s the motivation for NOT capitalizing it? ‘Cause it ain’t for good grammar’s sake. (And likewise, if you reference the Judeo-Christian religious texts it’s capitalized too: “Bible” NOT “bible”.)
- “step foot” instead of “set foot” – as in, “I won’t step foot in Yellowcat’s restaurant unless I know she’s not there!” If you’re going to be so hackneyed as to use a stupid cliché, at least get the cliché right! (There are a LOT of others, but this one came to mind while writing this post.) Again, I see so-called “professional writers” do this. Correct: “I won’t SET FOOT in Yellowcat’s ….”
- “would of”/”could of”/”should of” for “would’ve”/”could’ve”/”should’ve” – C’mon, are you serious? You’re really telling me you think the word “of” should and can follow would, should or could? That you really didn’t know the correct term is a contraction for would have, should have or could have? Really?
- supposably (or some equally stupid variant) for “supposedly” – If Microsoft Word’s spell checker hates it, there might be a reason. Why not look it up? If you’re writing for Internet (see the uppercase “I” there?) and using a program without a spell check feature, you need to be sure you know what you’re doing and have sufficient mastery of the language to get by. Typos are one thing; ignorance of vocabulary is another. We all have limits to our vocabulary; that’s what dictionaries are for. If you can’t install a spell check utility (there are tons of really awesome free ones out there), why not use dictionary.com or something? Please.
Okay, those are a few of mine. How ‘bout yours? Do you have a few ‘Net Peeves which drive you to rip your hair out and gnash your teeth when you see them? And more importantly, do you see them here, on my blog? (Egg on face!! Tell me so I can FIX it!) Maybe you hate when I write “gonna” instead of “going to” or “lemme” instead of “let me”. Whatever it is that grinds you, sound off.
Sound off and lemme have it! 😉
-JDT-
DarcKnyt 
I agree with this completely, especially the would of / could of / should of part. Also “loose” instead of “lose”. You see that all over the internet. I mean Internet. 😉
LOL! Laurita, how nice to see you here! Thank you for stopping by and stepping foot n my blog here on teh internet! If I’d of known you were coming I would of baked U a cake. Now U R just hungry and it’s 2L8. 😉
Seriously, thank you for stopping by and I hope to see more of you!
My god, I should of step foot on the internet.
C’mere so I can choke the sh!t outta you, boy.
SUPPOSABLY!
Dammit, forget one.
You’re slippin’.
Seriously though, my biggest peeve is when people say or write “boo-urns” as though it is a stronger version of the negative chant “boo.” It’s not the negative chant, it actually means the opposite. It is a positive chant or cheer for somebody named “Burns.”
I know, I saw the episode. But I have a tough time finding this peeve of yours around, except on your blog. 😉
#1- It depends on whether you use the word as a noun or adjective.
I disagree. This would be the same as using the name Mozart as an adjective; you would still capitalize Mozart. The only time using a lowercase “i” is correct is when referring to a generic internetwork of computers or computing devices, but not those which are part of or comprise THE Internet or World Wide Web.
Not that this is a be-all, end-all source or anything, but here’s a Wikipedia article about it. I think it also has a section which argues as you do, so it might make for an interesting read. 🙂
The Wikipedia Article
I maintain popular usage should NOT be allowed to dictate correct word usage; there should remain correct and incorrect, and why should those who are correct kowtow to those who aren’t? My opinion. 😉
#2- I do justify my usage. When I write dialogue, I choose to write “oh my god” or “for christsake” or “goddamn” because my characters aren’t referring to any Judeo-Christian deity when they say those things.
I use lowercase in all those terms (except the “Oh my God” example) too, because they’re curses and not proper uses of the names. LOL. 😉 So I get where you’re coming from on those.
The only peeve that comes to mind for me is the use of “teh” for the.
I do this as a typo a lot. LOLCats has made it a standard. For some stupid reason, it doesn’t get under my skin. I have NO explanation for that, at all. Hehehe!
Thanks for sharing your views Linda!
I hate when people substitute letters for words in blog posts, unless it’s for a reason. I hate reading the same abbreviations in status updates and tweets as well, though I understand people are texting from their phones and don’t hold it against them.
In Tweets and text messages, I can understand; there are character limits and the format limits what you can do. That’s fine. A blog post? That tells me the blogger is just lazy or dumb. Whichever, it ain’t good. 😉
And hey, I do two of those things all the time! I use the lower-case god a lot, and I actually don’t like capitalizing internet. I only do so I won’t annoy you! lol
I understand why you use the lowercase god, because I understand your worldview. But honest injun, our worldview has nothing to do with good grammar, and that’s where I’m going with this post. Not into a theological evangelistic tone. 😉 And the lowercase Internet? Well, dolly, that’s just wrong. 😉
This isn’t a ‘Net peeve, but I really hate when people think license is plural. Maybe they think it’s spelled licens. “You got your license yet?” “No, I’m getting them tomorrow.”
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that one, but I bet I’ll notice it more now! Thanks a LOT, Sher! LOL!!
Love ya sweetie, much.
It’s a Southern thing, I think, and it seems to be a spoken quirk only.
THAT I can see — spoken only. But I can’t think of a single instance where someone’s inquiring about multiple licenses to use the singular. I need a f’rinstance I think. Plus, I like to write redneck horror and that’s good to include, so any help I can get on that would be awesome. If you’re a mind to. 🙂
On the internet/Internet thing, the Wiki article you cite says, “Critics of the usage as a proper noun argue that other things that are unique yet distributed, such as “the power grid”, “the telephone network”, and even “the sky”, are not considered proper nouns, and are thus not capitalized.” That makes sense to me, especially since it’s preceded by the.
Yeah, I thought the Wiki article was pretty well done. But it’s the same thing the god/God-bible/Bible thing. I’m only NOW starting to see this in print, and somewhere along the way people got the impression it’s okay to just do what they WANT and the language will adapt to THEM, to their usage. I remember the formal push for “ebonics” in the 90s — seems like a similar idea to me. I think standards should be taught — and ENFORCED — in schools, and IMHO this is where the breakdown is happening.
‘Course, I haven’t ANY solid evidence to that effect. It just seems to be a bigger problem with younger people, hence I blame the school. But maybe it’s the interwebz fault? Dunno, now that I’m thinking about it. Hm.
I am on a sports forum. I always see people typing “loose” instead “lose”. I have no idea where people got this from but thousands of people are making this mistake.
I agree Bob, that’s a very common one. I think it’s just people not learning the correct way to do things despite being taught in school or wherever. Laziness, maybe. Or they’re just dumb. 😉
I am probably one of the offenders because I like to use “gonna” and “sorta” because that is the way I speak and my blog is me, speaking on whatever subject I find myself writing about.
None of the fine folks who read and comment here are the subject of the peeves listed, sweetie. Those you gave, well, I use ’em too, Delaney. If anyone don’t like it they can kiss my … 😉 Or YOURS! Your blog is for YOU. 🙂 And for the record, I LIKE your blog. 🙂
No one will ever mix me up with a “real” writer.
LOL! Oh, Delaney — the same could be said for ME!!! HA! 😀
You picked all the worst ones! In general I don’t like text-speak. I advertised a job recently, and got e-mails from applicants saying things like “Thank u for ur time.” No no no!
OH WOW, someone emailed you in a PROFESSIONAL communique with NETSPEAK?! OMG how dumm R U? SRSLY?
😉 (That is pretty stupid, if I may say so. Goodness.)
LOL, yup, it’s pretty bad!
Living where I do, I assumed that ‘step foot’ was something new since I see it so often these days.
LOL! New … and WRONG!
The one that gets me — and I leave it alone when I’m critiquing other people’s work, because it seems to be an American colloquialism — is ‘off of’. To me ‘off’ is adequate. Why ‘get off of me’ instead ‘get off me’??
“Off” alone IS adequate. It’s like “backwards” instead of “backward” and “forwards” instead of “forward”, etc. It’s just horrid. 😦 😉
Geeze, DK, wouldn’t you allow “Mozartesque”? Art history was my undergrad major and “esque” after an artist’s name drove me nuts.
I LIKE the “-esque” in small doses. 🙂
My big peeve: “Him and myself went…” “He and I” is the bit, biddies. If one more person uses myself outside the infinitive fence, I will burst my… my…myself!
HA! That’s a HUGE thing in our area of the world. People use “…such as myself” or “Mr. So-and-So and myself will be…” UGH! But that’s more spoken than written to my eye. If you see it in writing, STOMP ON IT. 😉
I have a good Mozart and it cuts the grass really well. 🙂
At least it’s good for SOMEthing. 🙂
I meant lawn Mozart.” Grrrrrrrr
We knew what you meant. 😉
DK – sorry – It’s late and I misspoke above “if one more person uses “myself” in place of “I” … e.g. Jane and myself went to town. “Jane and I went” is it. Not so great on rules anymore. Copy of Chicago Manual dusty. Guilty am I of all of your peeves. Yoda
Ah, well … There is only do, or do not. There is no try. 😉
LAWL, u got almost all teh 1’s dat make me go WTF W*#@!*^& but U 4got too/to/two n all dose kind 😉 i sayz STFU too dose ppl cause dere too lay-z n dey jus go lmfao n i’m all TTFN!
(I think I died a little bit inside when I wrote that. My biggest pet peeve is when people spell things wrong when they know perfectly well that that is exactly what they are doing.)
I almost cried. Then I saw the last part of your comment and felt saved a little. 😉 That’s made of so much win my sides hurt, Jen.
I’m glad you got a kick out of it =D I don’t know how people actually type like that. I had a hard time trying to come up with a thick chat speak response.
The misuse of commas is also a big pet peeve! >=O
Ha! Abuse of commas is something I’m guilty of myself. 🙂
I never capitalize Internet. I never thought of it, but I will from now on. See, people can learn things by reading your blog.
You would be amazed how much I’ve learned by reading yours, sweetie! I’m set to be the best customer a barbecue restaurant ever saw if I ever get to eat out again! 😀
My biggest ‘net peeve is when people are trolls because they can get away with it in cyberspace. If you can’t type something nice, close the laptop and go pick a fight with your neighbour. Let us know how that turns out for ya.
Amen to that! Use that big mouth in PUBLIC, in the REAL world, and let’s see how often you do it? But you know what? The people you’re talking about are timid, wall-flowery people who don’t make a peep in real life. I know what you mean; all too well.
This made laugh and be sure I’ll be watching out for any mistakes you make!!
Aw, now — let’s be fair here! I’m not talking about TYPOS and such. Accidents happen to everyone. These are deliberate choices and errors people make through refusal to learn. NO PICKING ON THE BLOG HOST! 😉
I’m not sure I agree with you on the Internet one though. I think it will inevitably evolve to the internet. But then, that is one of the main and fun characteristics of language, it changes with time and we’ve got to keep up with it.
Language does evolve — for better or worse, it DOES evolve. None has ever evolved so much as English has, though, and I think sometimes etymology is better left alone. “Internet” and “internet” are not yet both acceptable, but I suppose one day they will be in capitulation to those who refuse to spell it correctly, but for now, capitalizing it is correct. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Sarah, and I’m glad you liked the post! Please, feel free to stop by again anytime!
Love, love, LOVE this post. Really. I agree with you on all the ones you mentioned – the net speak and “could of/should of” particularly. Nothing makes me cringe quite like “will c u l8r”. Right up there is the misuse of apostrophes. PLURAL WORDS DO NOT REQUIRE APOSTROPHES!!! Thanks for sharing and for opening the forum for the rest of us to sound off as well.
I’m only too happy to provide a place for folks to air their ‘Net Peeves, Kimberly! And I’m glad you stopped by and sounded off on your own. The misuse — nay, dare I say ABUSE?! — of apostrophes is terrible. And I have to fight it, right here at home! My wife — my own spouse!! — abuses apostrophes RIGHT BEFORE MY VERY EYES! Oh, the pain! The pain of it all! 😉
Thank again for coming by; be sure and leave me a link to your website next time so I can stop by and say hello. 🙂
Hey! No fair picking on the wife, you grammar Nazi you! Don’t forget, I can cover you in apostrophes while you sleep.
😉
Hmmm… I still hate when people type IN ALL CAPS. I just want to smack them repeatedly with an oversized Caps Lock button. They should make them for just that very purpose. I also used to have a customer who wrote every detail of every email in the subject line.
Have heard many times it’s like shouting. I see it more often than I should, that’s for sure. Never understood why people still do it.
Speaking of email; is it email or e-mail? The lines get blurred sometimes.
That one’s debatable I think. Try Googling it and see what you find.
Now this isn’t a ‘Net peeve but it’s close. ‘JC Penneys’ instead of ‘JC Penney.’ Or ‘Krogers’ instead of ‘Kroger.’ What makes people pluralize this stuff? C’mon!
I wonder why people pluralize the word “all” … but that’s more a spoken thing.
On a totally unrelated note; I’m trying to get myself some more ‘Net time while Little Miss is asleep. I’m slowly coming back to the land of the living after being sucked into Mommyland for the past year. Looking forward to getting caught up!
~k
Yeah, yeah … we’ve heard this one before, sister. Besides, unless I don’t get it, you’re STILL a mom.
I make a lot of typos, but I really dislike “teh.” And that text letter nonsense drives me crazy. I’ve resorted to a few short cuts for twitter, but I have to really want to post something to do that.
Yeah, it’s a stretch for me too. Maddening to try and figure out when you see it in print, too.
I love a line in a movie where the character says, “Tell me where you’re at and I’ll come where you’re to.” Where are you at is wrong.
Ouch.
Hopefully is used wrong by almost everyone. This is where you have to really decide how you feel about the popular use vs. correct use. Language is living. It changes. We are not speaking the same English we spoke hundreds of years ago. Just ask Shakespeare.
Curious about what you said here, I looked up “hopefully” on dictionary.com and got a series of definitions from various sources, all of which indicated the only uses I’d seen for it were correct — at least, correct since the 1930s when it came to mean “in a hopeful manner” or “something which is hoped for”. How have you seen it incorrectly used? I guess that one got by me. Also, it’s an indication of the evolution of language you spoke of, which annoys me in many ways.
Since I teach English, I can tell you how grammar books differ. One book had this rule and another book has a contradictory rule. I’ve heard grammar teachers have crazy arguments over where to put a comma. One teacher takes 15 points off for starting a sentence with “however.”
I’ve always heard it’s incorrect to start a sentence with “but” or “however” — I have to fight the urge myself.
There is an great example of a language that doesn’t change–Latin. And scholars have tried to dictate the changes and the rules. If the populace doesn’t want to say it, it isn’t going to be said.
Oh, I know several which don’t — Koine Greek, Aramaic, Sanskrit, Sumerian, Phoenician, Mayan, Incan … the list goes on and on. But no language evolves and just morphs into modern usage the way English does. None. Ever.
Anyway, I agree with most of your rules. Some of them I never heard of, but you make a good case for your side!
Well, thanks! 🙂
Oh. The ones I hate? I hate something that is “very unique.” And I’m tired of the overuse of the word “genius.”
Except in reference to the genius of the blog host, of course. 😉
Well, I didn’t mean Latin was alone. That was just the only one I thought of. It is late and I’m not going to look up those hopefully references right now (lazy!) but I do know that if you do something hopefully, you should do something filled with hope. So, you can write, “She looked at him hopefully.” If she feels hope.
But you aren’t supposed to write, “Hopefully, we will go to the store later.” Unless you mean that your heart was filled with hope to find Twinkies. So the error, as I understand it, is that “hopefully” is not the same thing as “You hope a certain thing will happen.” And is, therefore, not correct. Have I made any sense. Feel free to argue. I use hopefully incorrectly every day.
There’s a really interesting apologetic on that page from one of the reference sources — The American Heritage Dictionary, maybe? I dunno … something like that — which presents the case for using it as it wasn’t intended. It is NOW an accepted form of use because it’s been done so long. Isn’t that pathetic? I hate that. Oh, and they say there’s no word which is equivalent, so it’s been adopted. *Sigh* I really hate that crap.
Have you ever seen/heard Grammar Girl? She’s got a lot of arguments for different grammar points, including the however-can’t-start-a-sentence and the at-after-where.
Yeah, I love Grammar Girl. I don’t listen to the podcasts but I do check out her page on a regular basis to read. 🙂
This was amusing to read. None, that bother me, come to mind right away though. Mind you, I do loathe people who cannot seem to form a sentence without articulating it with over use of the “eff” word.
Oh, I swear like a sailor IRL. 😉 Glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂