#21: English Language Pet Peeves

A number of years ago I took voice lessons for nine months. What I learned is that I am not a singer. However, I enjoyed the lessons and the teacher. He and I had several things in common, including that both our fathers were preachers—his Methodist, mine Presbyterian—and that both our mothers were English teachers.

No doubt as a result of the latter, we both had pet peeves about the English language, as did our mothers. I don’t recall any of his mother’s pet peeves, but his was singular verbs with plural nouns, such as “There’s lots of choices.” This seems benign to me, compared with other atrocities visited upon the English language, but that was his.

My mother had several pet peeves. For one, she hated modifiers with superlatives, such as, “that’s pretty unique.” As she would point out, “unique” means the only one of its kind. Clearly something can’t be somewhat the only one of its kind; it either is or is not the only one of its kind. For another, she objected to the phrase “each and every one” as redundant. And, she observed, Tiny Tim, in Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, says “God bless us, every one!” not “God bless us, each and every one.” She was also convinced that “different from” was superior to “different than,” as in “Apples are different from oranges.” She explained to us why this was, although it never made sense to me, and she never addressed the British usage of “different to.” Personally, I still use “different from,” but that is just so I can feel superior to anyone who doesn’t.

However, I do have plenty of pet peeves of my own when it comes to the English language.

First off—and this drives me absolutely nuts—and I hear it all the time from all sorts of people—including educated people—and even people who have advanced degrees from respected universities and should really know better!! Anyway, it is this formulation: “Me and Peggy went to the store.” No: it is “Peggy and I went to the store.” My mother, who knew her stuff, had an easy test to figure out the right way to say this: remove the “and Peggy” and see what you are left with. No one would say “Me went to the store.” Well, maybe someone speaking pigeon English would. But you’re not speaking pigeon English! Get a clue!

Heard less often, but equally irritating, is “She gave it to Bill and I.” “She gave it to I”? Really? In what universe? Use your brain, people!

So many people have apparently never learned the difference between “lie” and “lay.” Being instructed to “Please lay on your stomach” or told “I was laying down for a nap” are both incorrect and both make me crazy. There is an easy way to remember this one, also courtesy of my mother: “people lie; chickens lay.” So, you “lie down,” you never “lay down.” It’s straightforward. And then remember the past tense of “lie” is “lay,” and the past tense of “lay” is “laid” and you’re done!

Then there is the strange habit creeping in of saying “all of the sudden” rather than “all of a sudden.” Where did that come from? Why do we suddenly need a specific sudden when any random sudden has been sufficient for generations?

And speaking of things creeping into discourse, or in this case creeping out: why have people stopped using the verb “die”? Suddenly everyone avoids saying, “When Gershwin died in 1937...”, instead saying, “When Gershwin passed in 1937...” as if he had been taking his driver’s test. If you are a funeral director talking to the recently bereaved I can understand wanting to avoid any direct reference to “die” and instead saying “passed away,” but otherwise, “die” is the appropriate verb in English. There is nothing wrong with it! Use it!

I could go on, but my blood pressure seems to be rising.

Do you have English Language pet peeves? Let me know in the comments section!

Phil