If you guys would quit doing that, I’d quit doing this.
You: sending in all those pet language peeves. Me: printing them.
Oops — sorry for referring to you collectively as “guys,” which I tend to do. That offends at least one of my female readers, who notes, “Last time I checked, I was a gal.”
Bad kids
You deserve an “A” for pointing out our incorrect pronunciations and misuse of words. Here’s mine: Raise vegetables, not children. Children should be reared — or praised, admonished, punished or disowned, as the parent(s) deem necessary.
Edwina Wagner
Norton
Edwina: You are exactly right. Kids should be praised, admonished, punished and disowned, and only then forced to eat vegetables.
Not so golden
There seems to be a trend both in the general populous as well as emergency dispatchers to give the location of the Golden Arches as “Mac Donald’s” rather than McDonald’s.
Greg Santos
Canal Fulton
Greg: If emergency dispatchers are making that many references to McDonald’s, McDonald’s has bigger problems than pronunciation.
Lots more-er
When, where and why did everyone start adding “more” when an “-er” does just fine? Examples: more friendly, more dirty, more calm. Whatever happened to friendlier, dirtier, calmer? People adding “more” is like chalk on a blackboard to my ears.
Peggy Heh
Hudson
Peggy: Then take your ears off the blackboard!
Wrong temp
Why do people take things out of the freezers to “unthaw” them? Aren’t they doing the opposite?
Dan from Kenmore
Dan: I don’t know, but your last name must have melted.
Comic relief
My mispronunciation pet peeve is how people continually mispronounce “Whadda ya’ gonna do?” as “What are you going to do?” It’s so pretentious!
Alan G. Segedy
Akron
Alan: That’s too funny. Seriously. Quit upstaging me.
Blast from past
Tim Hayes, a retired Beacon Journal copy editor, approached with a gleam in his eye.
“It’s nice to see we have solved all of the world’s problems,” he said.
Huh?
“Everybody has ‘issues’ today. Nobody has ‘problems.’ ”
Double disappointment
If you’re still accepting language pet peeves, I have a couple for your consideration:
1. Adding extra syllables to words. Athlete is a two-syllable word. It is not ATH-THE-LETE. That sounds like a second-grader sounding out a new word.
2. I know it is painful to watch the Cleveland Browns, but one television commentator refers to the Cleveland offense as “ow”fense.
I shudder every time I hear these.
Charles E Hoover Jr.
Uniontown
Charles: I shudder every time I hear the phrase “Cleveland Browns’ offense,” because clearly it does not employ enough top-flight ATH-THE-LETES. Thirteen years after coming back and they still can’t move the ball.
Buck stops there
I enjoyed your articles regarding grammar. You might have mentioned our president’s “dumbing down” of the English language. He replaces the word “going” with “gonna.” He also drops the “g” off words that end in “-ing.”
If our leaders are asking us to follow their examples, then let them lead with professionalism and the best they have to offer.
Lynn Miller
Akron
Lynn: Oh, how I wish sloppy articulation were our leaders’ biggest problem.
“R” before “E”
A day doesn’t pass that I do not hear about someone who will:
“Pervide” information, “perduce” and “permote” shows, “pertect” animals and then “ferget” to feed them, “perdict” the next storm and “perject” the damage, or “perticipate in activities.”
Ken Preston
Akron
Ken: Thanks for helping to perduce my column.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.