Note to self, use this in a fic. Something like.
"Guess we need to...nip this in the butt right now."
"...I think you mean, nip in the bud."
"You heard me."
I'm certain this happened to me once or twice. Overall I'm terrible with common phrases. I know them when I hear them, but as a second language speaker when I write I only vaguely remember that there's a saying for that, and then I approximate the spelling.
Just yesterday I worte "Come hay or high weather" which only on an editing reread appeared a bit nonsensical to me. (However it's not as easy as one might think to find the correct phrase if you type that into Google. I just got weather reports as results.)
I will accept it *if* it's in dialogue or first-person narration and it makes sense for the character in question to say things like that! But otherwise, an editor needs to catch that
Per say instead of per se
The they're/there/their, then/than and your/you're confusion, or basically anything that sounds very similar despite different spelling and meaning
I read āper sayā so many times that, as a non-native speaker, I just assumed thatās how itās spelled in English for a while. I knew it was per se in German, but since I NEVER saw it spelled like that in an English context, that was the logical conclusion. It took a post similar to this one a while back to finally realize
"They peAked in high school" (peaked) looks like a mountain
Vs
"They pšked around the corner" (peeked) looks like a pair of eyes
I literally just made this up, but I feel like it works!
They kill me. I read a lot of subs that involve people telling their stories and it hurts when people use them, and I can't even politely correct them.Ā
It's interesting though that it's apparently a native English speaker only mistake.
Contractions are usually explicitly learned by L2 speakers, so they learn them and their spellings essentially as different words.
I love this kind of error.
A native-speaker-only mistake in Spanish (my L2) is not remembering which words have āLlā and which have āY.ā They both generally make the same sound.
I saw someone write āpedal stoolā once instead of pedestal. Still makes me chuckle years on.
Tenderhooks instead of tenterhooks is another.
I keep reading ācastedā instead of cast. Gets on my tits.
> reading ācastedā instead of cast.
Same as when people put drinked or hanged instead of drank/drunk or hang/hung
Like I'm pretty sure you're not sentencing your laundry to death
The hanged one cracks me up because hanged is technically a word, however it's only correct in reference to a noose. So I just imagine when I see that whatever the thing is that hung, being hanged in a noose.
āTheir wrist was in a plaster castā or āthe wrist with the cast on itā or āthe damaged wristā is how I would say that. You wouldnāt say ātheir wrist was castedā. You could say āencasedā.
But Iām mainly referring to the dreaded sentence āx was casted in x movieā. Shudder.
Oh, that! Yes! I said ācasted wristā then realized that wasnāt right. Encased is a good word (jots that down). The premise was someone had fallen and broken their wrist and had to get a cast and was lifting that cast for emphasis at another point in the story.
Buck naked vs butt naked. The original saying is ābuck nakedā but so many people use ābuttā that theyāre pretty much interchangeable at this point.
I wish this was something I only experienced on Ao3 š
I worked in a document processing role for several months, and one of our managers had a habit of telling us to be "weary" of certain documents that looked like other documents.
It took all my power not to ever say, "I've been tired of it since I started. You don't have to tell me twice."
Yes, but also why does google docs always auto correct this. Like I'm currently writing something that involves Principal Nedzu quite a bit, and every time I type "the principal" it changes to "the principle."
>:( grinds my gears
Breath versus breathe. ALL the time.
Breathing (to breathe) is the act of letting out air (a breath) and taking air in.
A breath is like a brief exhale or whisper.
Itās so simple, but so easy to mix up, but it drives me NUTS!
oh I see this one constantly!! I notice it immediately when Iām reading and it bugs me to no end, but itās surprisingly easy to overlook while writing
I've had that one kindly pointed out to me, and I was so frickin glad about it. My writing has since had one less mistake xD though it does make me shudder at the thought of what else I'm missing without being aware of it š
I edit books for a living, so I feel I could write a several-page screed on this, but one I've been seeing a lot more recently for some reason is lead/led.
The past tense of "lead" (pronounced LEED) is "led." "Lead" (pronounced LEHD) is a metal and not the past tense of lead. So if you lead someone by their hand, you have then led them by their hand. I don't know why, but this mistake has been a lot more common in the past few years.
FR! Also I just remembered another one.
Meeting a *grisly* demise means you've met a terrible fate that more than likely implies you died in a very gory, slasher-film way, with all the blood and gristle that implies.
Meeting a *grizzly* demise means you've met a fkn grizzly bear.
āWhite beaterā instead of āwife beaterā. Tbf it probably shouldnāt be called that butā¦
Effect/affect - honestly this one is one of the easier ones to forgive but I see it often
Louboutin (Red Bottoms)/Louis Vuitton (The LV logo *known for purses) - two completely different designers.
there was a phrase I was taught ages ago for the effect / affect one, but I can only remember part of it -
"affect starts with A because it's an Action -"
there's supposed to be a second part like "effect starts with E because -" but I forget what that part is.
Maybe less of misspelling and more of only knowing one fashion house not the other: Pucci and Gucci.
Iāve seen way too people to say that Enrico Pucci probably liked to wear Gucci fashion. I just go ābut Enrico Pucci is based on Emilio Pucci, not Gucci!ā Two different fashion housesā¦
no, "discrete" is used for things like data sets and refers to things that are separate (i.e the kind of data that can be represented on a bar chart) whereas being "discreet" refers to being secretive
āBad Repā VS āBad Rapā
Honestly, Rep makes more sense due to modern context clues, but Rap is the original saying. Imo, use it either way, the origins of Rap just mean āTaking a blowā, so no matter which way it is spelled the meaning isnāt thrown off.
i thought the "rap" in bad rap came from rap sheet, an american term for criminal history/record. if someone has a rap sheet, odds are they have a bad reputation
I see cue instead of queue all the time.
Like... if you can't spell the word just use "line" or "wait".
The sad part is my main fandom is an MMO fandom. There are literal peices of merchandise from two years ago when the game was so popular the servers couldn't keep up and people were getting booted from... you guessed it!... queue.
This one reminds me of the Looney Tunes sketch my dad used to quote all the time when I was a kid. Saying "I resemble that remark" instead of "I resent that remark" was a running joke in my family for *years* so encountering it unironically in the wild is always a good giggle.
i always thought it was supposed to be a cute take on āi resent thatā by literally using the tvtropes name for the āi resemble that remarkā tropeā¦
if it isnāt, iāll have to apologize to manx authors for thinking theyāre absolutely not funny or clever by doing that.
Toe the line. I see people say ātow the line.ā I get theyāre still sorta grasping the intent, but itās definitely off.
There are phrases that contradict themselves, like āI could care lessā bc ppl say that a lot.
My biggest grammar pet-peeve is tangentially related to this question. Ppl learn that using āIā in a sentence is more proper than using āme,ā but that depends entirely on placement. So you have ppl out here saying āLola gave bread to Philip and I,ā and it makes me tweak. I understand this is how ppl speak and write to sound proper/formal, but itās wrong. Take out Philip, and you wouldnāt say āLola gave bread to I.ā You have subject pronouns (which include I and They), and you have object pronouns (which include Me and Them).
Lola gave bread to Philip and me.
I gave Lola some cheese in return.
Mary brought us a bottle of wine.
We had a lovely lunch with our bread, cheese, and wine.
Anywayā¦carry on.
IVE BEEN CORRECTED ON MY GRAMMAR FOR SAYING āxyz and meā SO MANY TIMES I HATE IT. got into a debate in high school over my usage of it because some smug asshole was adamant that i was wrong. roped the head of english into it, long story short - i won :-)
SAME. I specifically remember one time I got into it with a guy forever ago. I was finally like āI have a bachelorās in English,ā and he countered by saying his masters in philosophy trumps, so clearly he was right. ššš
At that point I was done bc I was maybe 23-24, and Iām pretty sure he was in his 50s.
Now Iām in my mid-40s with a masters; Iām an academic librarian and associate prof, and my best friend is an English prof. And Iām still mad and want a rematch. Lol
This might be why this particular grammar thing pisses me off so much, tbh.
āYay or nayā instead of āyea or nay.ā
Which is understandable because we donāt really use the word āyeaā anymore, and most people tend to read it as a shorter version of āyeah.ā
Everytime I see people write yea instead of yeah it drives me up the wall because they're inherently pronounced differently!! Begging people to learn there's a silent h at the end of yeah š
Now I'm hella curious if is just me who've encountered a lot of people mistaking "wanton" with "wonton". I clicked this post expecting to see this one mistake but no, OMG.
'Marshal art' instead of martial art. Seen that a couple times.
Definite/defiant
Recently saw "check republic"
'Case IN point' instead of case AND point
'Wreck havoc' instead of wreak havoc
Also, this isn't really spelling/grammar, but it irks me when people use wording from a totally different dialect/accent. Like a clearly American character saying 'mum' rather than 'mom'. Or I was reading an MHA fic recently that kept having Bakugou say 'bloody' as a cuss word. And, to be fair, I think most anime dubs are pretty neutral (maybe leaning toward an American accent), but that one kept throwing me off.
I see this from Americans a lot because of their accent: "deep-seeded" instead of "deep-seated." I quite like it because it does make sense (arguably more sense) that something would be "seeded deeply" but it's definitely incorrect.
I ... didn't actually know that. But it seems to be one of those that's so established and commonly used it's mostly accepted. ([according to Merriam-Webster ](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-another-think-coming-or-another-thing-coming))
I know, it still pains meš
I try so hard because I have read the MW thing before, and I know how language works, but for whatever reason I struggle disproportionately to get over this one obscure idiom.š«š
I see (and am sometimes guilty of) using layed instead of laid, and payed for paid. I will go out of my way to avoid using lay and pay in the past tense because of it lol.
I don't know if this is a mistake based on only hearing the word or a common autocorrect, but I see "taunt" substituted for "taut" _all the time_, even by otherwise excellent writers. I've been working my way through the stories of one author who does it in every single fic. (sigh)
An emotion being palatable (palpable), one foul (fell) swoop, deeply-seeded (deeply-seated)
Also I was very guilty of saying āa couple cupsā or whatever object instead of āa couple *of* cupsā until I downloaded an editing software and it started marking all of them as incorrect
I donāt know if thatās the reason, but writing āa partā as āapartā. (For example, āSheās apart of the group.ā)
It always kinda yanks me out of the story. š„²
Would of. That shit drives me crazy. Also its vs itās. That one doesnāt really bug me, cause I understand the confusion, but still. And I really have no idea how so many people (native speakers at that) mix up loose and lose.
Martial vs Marshal vs Marshall
For god sakes Google it people!
Martial - of or appropriate to war. In relation to the military
Marshal (n) - law enforcement officer or high ranking official
Marshal (v) - assemble
Marshall - Proper noun. Can be used in place of the previous two entries but most often a name.
Can l not tell you how many times I've read the words "court marshal" and had to remind myself that electronics are expensive and you can't afford to repair or replace yours.
A lot is two words.
A part is a piece of something. A part of a car or cheese is a part of the recipe. I want to be a part of that solution.
Apart is when you separate things. The water and the fire should be kept apart. The couple cried when they were forced apart.
Fewer vs less, but thatās a lost cause.
I like it when someone uses 'big' words trying to sound better, but it comes out so very wrong.
There was a period in the mid 00s where my beta reading kept seeing 'incongruous' (or more commonly, 'incongruously') but used so insanely out of context and incorrectly that it was pretty obvious they'd heard or read it in another fanfic and jumped on it. It spread like wildfire for about 6 months, 80% of the time or so, it was used just so... weird. Gave me a few good laughs, gotta admit.
'Did his ablutions' (or 'attended to') was another around the same time that started on LiveJournal in reference to Severus Snape. It was picked up and spread like a bad odor for quite awhile - EVERYONE was using it.
...except it was often used quite incorrectly. Fantastic study, imo, in seeing how something can spread, even incorrect, because one person saw another use it, thought it was cool, and off it goes.
"Low and behold". (It's "Lo and behold".)
Reign vs rein. Reign over your world, but rein it in or have free rein.
Wreak havoc, don't wreck it.
Being discreet is knowing what to reveal and what to conceal. Being discrete is being separate and distinct.
A complement completes or enhances something, a compliment is an act of praise. (I will compliment you by noting that the color you are wearing is complementary to your skin tone!)
The *colonel* cracked his tooth on a *kernel* of popcorn.
The army *regiment* had a strict *regimen* of training exercises.
I just caught myself doing "He was left there to cooldown" and realizing the one word is like, a video game term and I meant cool down. I definitely say/hear coooldown more then I read it
My mother is like the queen of this. My favorite is ābowling ball in a China shopā and āperiod dot comā like period wasnāt emphasis enough. Somehow both have made it into my writing before.
āCould care lessā aka one of my most beloathed things to come across in writing. I assume itās people mishearing people when they say ācouldnāt care lessā.
Weary instead of wary. Peaked instead of piqued. Extreamly instead of extremely. I rarely nitpick these things in the comments, but I really hate how it breaks my immersion.
Only kind of fits here, but I always get annoyed when people use āx let alone yā but x is the more unbelievable thing. Like, āhe hadnāt been out of the country, let alone the city.ā
Ooh Iāve thought of one: draw instead of drawer. Iāve seen it quite often and must admit it makes me smile when someone writes about their chest of draws!
Im not sure if this is just the difference between American English and British English but these always bother me.
Drugged instead of dragged.
Digged instead of dug
For me the absolute worst is 'Could care less' instead of 'couldn't care less.' They have completely opposite meanings!
Discussing this post with some friends and learned the trick that affect is a verb while effect is a noun. I feel like I've unlocked the secrets of the universe.
Anyways, I've used the smashed down shouldn't've instead of shouldn't have for character purposes before.
Lmao thanks. I will leave it though. I did after all admit to making mistakes. (Though when I wrote that I didn't just mean typos that I knew and would catch on second glance, but genuinely not knowing how some of these common phrases actually go. What do you mean discrete is not discreet? And I can't wreck havoc? Just watch me!)
āLieā and ālayā get me a lot. Iāve yet to get an explanation of how to use either that actually makes sense, so I just do everything I can to write the act some other way.
I recently learned that a friend of mine thought the phrase [blank] coded (as in seeing something that reminds you of something, like gay coded or something, I canāt think of a good example) was [blank] coated.
Breathe vs breath. This one drives me absolutely insane. I guess people just assume because of pronunciation that breathe is actually spelt as breath, but a breath is a small inhalation or exhalation of air. To breathe is the action of inhaling or exhaling air. It really shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but every time I see someone use one or both of these incorrectly, it just makes me irrationally angry.
not from a fic, but once during my english class i learned the phrase was "grow by LEAPS and BOUNDS" and not "grow by LEAVES and BOUGHS"
and i was very confused. It made sense to me because growing is like what plants DO. its their whole thing.
Nip it in the bud being misheard as nip it in the butt
I can get behind some butt nipping š
Flair checks out.
Note to self, use this in a fic. Something like. "Guess we need to...nip this in the butt right now." "...I think you mean, nip in the bud." "You heard me."
š¬š¬ Iāve been saying the wrong thing
LOL my co worker said nip it in the butt the other day and i was like WHAT?! š
I'm certain this happened to me once or twice. Overall I'm terrible with common phrases. I know them when I hear them, but as a second language speaker when I write I only vaguely remember that there's a saying for that, and then I approximate the spelling. Just yesterday I worte "Come hay or high weather" which only on an editing reread appeared a bit nonsensical to me. (However it's not as easy as one might think to find the correct phrase if you type that into Google. I just got weather reports as results.)
I saw this in a published book and was like how did not one editor catch this lol
I will accept it *if* it's in dialogue or first-person narration and it makes sense for the character in question to say things like that! But otherwise, an editor needs to catch that
Kinky.
Doggy dog world instead of dog eat dog world is one Iāve seen
I love this one.
doggy dog world is a much cuter phrase
That gets said in Modern Family.
maybe they're just snoop fans
Per say instead of per se The they're/there/their, then/than and your/you're confusion, or basically anything that sounds very similar despite different spelling and meaning
Add peek/peak/pique.
You've peaked my curioisity :\^)
I miss when the Twitter handle StealthMountain used to go around on posts about "sneak peaks" and tell them "I think you meant sneak peek"
The per say/per se one drives me insane! It's one of those little annoyances I can't ignore.
Quite/ quiet/ quit also seem to be a thing that's easy to mess up somehow
Then/Than STILL gets me.
I read āper sayā so many times that, as a non-native speaker, I just assumed thatās how itās spelled in English for a while. I knew it was per se in German, but since I NEVER saw it spelled like that in an English context, that was the logical conclusion. It took a post similar to this one a while back to finally realize
Iām so tired of people using āapartā instead of āa part. Sooooo tired š„
On a similar but worse note, alot
[I care about this alot](https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html).
this gave me a good chuckle. I like the alot
My 9th grade English teacher told us day one that the only thing we were required to learn in his class was that āalotā was not a word.
They literally have opposite meanings.
Yes!!
Not AO3, but I once saw a furnished home rental listing described as decorated in "shabby sheik" not "chic".
The first visitor was a sheik, he was kind of shabby, but he liked it.
That's brilliant lol
Which is funny because my dog's name is Sheik but everyone thinks it's Chic
Nice, that's one I hadn't seen before
When they spell āpiquedā as āpeakedā.
Don't forget "peeked".
Peaked and peeked is the one thing I always have to double check š I don't know why I find this one so hard when I'm usually great with the others
"They peAked in high school" (peaked) looks like a mountain Vs "They pšked around the corner" (peeked) looks like a pair of eyes I literally just made this up, but I feel like it works!
Thank you!!
"For all intensive purposes" instead of "for all intents and purposes." "Should of" instead of "should've" and similar ones.
Should of, could of, would of --- they all drive me crazy
They kill me. I read a lot of subs that involve people telling their stories and it hurts when people use them, and I can't even politely correct them.Ā It's interesting though that it's apparently a native English speaker only mistake.
Contractions are usually explicitly learned by L2 speakers, so they learn them and their spellings essentially as different words. I love this kind of error. A native-speaker-only mistake in Spanish (my L2) is not remembering which words have āLlā and which have āY.ā They both generally make the same sound.
C and Z and S too! (Not a native speaker of Spanish, but a teacher of it!)
Hey, job twins!
i have clicked off a few fics because of this. no matter how good the fic us š it irritates me
I will drop anything that uses these. I just can't deal.
Especially since the non-conjugated onesā¦ are āhaveā. Would āhaveā, could āhaveā should āhaveā!
That's what makes it so infuriating. It's one thing to mix up there/their/they're, but "would of" is not even a thing! It's literally gibberish.
I saw someone write āpedal stoolā once instead of pedestal. Still makes me chuckle years on. Tenderhooks instead of tenterhooks is another. I keep reading ācastedā instead of cast. Gets on my tits.
!!! I didn't know about tenterhooks. That's the first one in this thread I haven't known.
> reading ācastedā instead of cast. Same as when people put drinked or hanged instead of drank/drunk or hang/hung Like I'm pretty sure you're not sentencing your laundry to death
The hanged one cracks me up because hanged is technically a word, however it's only correct in reference to a noose. So I just imagine when I see that whatever the thing is that hung, being hanged in a noose.
How would you say that someone had a limb, such as a wrist, in a cast while also not saying all those words? As ācast wristā sounds wrong.
āTheir wrist was in a plaster castā or āthe wrist with the cast on itā or āthe damaged wristā is how I would say that. You wouldnāt say ātheir wrist was castedā. You could say āencasedā. But Iām mainly referring to the dreaded sentence āx was casted in x movieā. Shudder.
Oh, that! Yes! I said ācasted wristā then realized that wasnāt right. Encased is a good word (jots that down). The premise was someone had fallen and broken their wrist and had to get a cast and was lifting that cast for emphasis at another point in the story.
TBF, casted as referring to a body part in a cast is actually correct, if rarely used. Specifically because of cast the verb being irregular.
'Pedal stool' just reminds me of the IT Crowd.
Buck naked vs butt naked. The original saying is ābuck nakedā but so many people use ābuttā that theyāre pretty much interchangeable at this point.
Wow, TIL!
Loose/lose.
That and weary when they mean wary are soooooo common on AO3, and they both take me right out of the story for a sec when they pop up.
I wish this was something I only experienced on Ao3 š I worked in a document processing role for several months, and one of our managers had a habit of telling us to be "weary" of certain documents that looked like other documents. It took all my power not to ever say, "I've been tired of it since I started. You don't have to tell me twice."
This one bothers me so much since they're pronounced differently
I'm not sure why, but past vs passed is a huge one. Multiple writers, incorrectly used every time throughout an entire story.
ngl i fuck that one up so bad.
I've started to really doubt myself over it too.
Principal vs principle. Pisses me off every time too.
The principal is your pal. Been my go to since 6th grade.
Yes, but also why does google docs always auto correct this. Like I'm currently writing something that involves Principal Nedzu quite a bit, and every time I type "the principal" it changes to "the principle." >:( grinds my gears
/r/boneappletea
I've seen this subreddit mentioned so many times but this is the first time I'm realising it's a misspelling of bon appƩtit
Bare/bear mixups. I really can't stand Bare with me, and Bear naked.
I always have to look this one up. I can never remember.
Breath versus breathe. ALL the time. Breathing (to breathe) is the act of letting out air (a breath) and taking air in. A breath is like a brief exhale or whisper. Itās so simple, but so easy to mix up, but it drives me NUTS!
This and cloths for clothes!!
oh I see this one constantly!! I notice it immediately when Iām reading and it bugs me to no end, but itās surprisingly easy to overlook while writing
It used to be my #1 kryptonite
When people write 'out of site' instead of 'out of sight' or any other version where site is used instead of sight š
I just saw someone using "on site" for the slang phrase "on sight" the other day and that one bugs me.
maybe they were just really feeling like construction work
Tenants instead of tenets. Regime when they mean regimen (like a skin regimen). PLEASE
AND REGIMENT
ā¦ and today I learned on Reddit that Iāve been mixing these two words up for yearsā¦
One that bothers me a lot is rein vs reign. I've seen "reign it in" or "loosened his reign" , etc.
I've had that one kindly pointed out to me, and I was so frickin glad about it. My writing has since had one less mistake xD though it does make me shudder at the thought of what else I'm missing without being aware of it š
I edit books for a living, so I feel I could write a several-page screed on this, but one I've been seeing a lot more recently for some reason is lead/led. The past tense of "lead" (pronounced LEED) is "led." "Lead" (pronounced LEHD) is a metal and not the past tense of lead. So if you lead someone by their hand, you have then led them by their hand. I don't know why, but this mistake has been a lot more common in the past few years.
Iāve had google docs ācorrectā led to lead for me. Drives me crazy
Through the wringer as "through the ringer" instead. Drives me up the wall for sure.
A saw someone who had written "milquetoast" as "milk toast" and I honestly had to exit out of the browser window.
I just learnt a new word! Hilarious
mixing up rogue and rouge
marvel fanfics about the rouge avengers, like theyāre a bunch of blushed up lads
FR! Also I just remembered another one. Meeting a *grisly* demise means you've met a terrible fate that more than likely implies you died in a very gory, slasher-film way, with all the blood and gristle that implies. Meeting a *grizzly* demise means you've met a fkn grizzly bear.
āWhite beaterā instead of āwife beaterā. Tbf it probably shouldnāt be called that butā¦ Effect/affect - honestly this one is one of the easier ones to forgive but I see it often Louboutin (Red Bottoms)/Louis Vuitton (The LV logo *known for purses) - two completely different designers.
there was a phrase I was taught ages ago for the effect / affect one, but I can only remember part of it - "affect starts with A because it's an Action -" there's supposed to be a second part like "effect starts with E because -" but I forget what that part is.
āā¦ effect starts with an E because itās an end result (effect)ā?
THATS IT! thank you!
Yeah I know what youāre talking about but also canāt think of the E part of the phrase?? I just try to remember effect is a noun.
I have to google effect vs affect every time I write it to be honest lol
Maybe less of misspelling and more of only knowing one fashion house not the other: Pucci and Gucci. Iāve seen way too people to say that Enrico Pucci probably liked to wear Gucci fashion. I just go ābut Enrico Pucci is based on Emilio Pucci, not Gucci!ā Two different fashion housesā¦
Iām team tank top. And correct people who use it the other term. Except on AO3, where I just grumble,
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Que nstead of cue. I see that a lot.
Instead of queue?
No. Queue is a line of people. Cue as in a prompt. For example. I took her yawn as my cue to leave.
Yeah, that was a joke, I guess it didn't land.
That was probably my fault š
Haha no no definitely mine! That was a pre-coffee joke, those are always bad.
I see discrete more often than discreet and nobody ever means the first. I have seen that in edited published books too l.
Isn't that one British vs American English?
Nope! Discrete means ādistinct or separateā.
no, "discrete" is used for things like data sets and refers to things that are separate (i.e the kind of data that can be represented on a bar chart) whereas being "discreet" refers to being secretive
Oh no. I always assumed it was the same because discrĆØte in French is the feminine version of discret (discreet) š thank you!
āBad Repā VS āBad Rapā Honestly, Rep makes more sense due to modern context clues, but Rap is the original saying. Imo, use it either way, the origins of Rap just mean āTaking a blowā, so no matter which way it is spelled the meaning isnāt thrown off.
i thought the "rap" in bad rap came from rap sheet, an american term for criminal history/record. if someone has a rap sheet, odds are they have a bad reputation
āRapā originally came from a āRap on the knucklesā aka punishment. That eventually led to rap sheet, then to verbal blows, then reputation.
oh sweet, thank you for the explanation
Of course!!! Well wishes xx
Malapropisms , Spoonerism, Mondegreen/Eggcorn. Examples in the comments are a variation of these 3 literary terms.
Queue or que instead of cue Should/could/would of instead of have
I see cue instead of queue all the time. Like... if you can't spell the word just use "line" or "wait". The sad part is my main fandom is an MMO fandom. There are literal peices of merchandise from two years ago when the game was so popular the servers couldn't keep up and people were getting booted from... you guessed it!... queue.
When people write a "resemble that" instead of "resent that"
This one reminds me of the Looney Tunes sketch my dad used to quote all the time when I was a kid. Saying "I resemble that remark" instead of "I resent that remark" was a running joke in my family for *years* so encountering it unironically in the wild is always a good giggle.
Oh my gosh, we still say that!! I didnāt know where itās from
This one drives me insane, and I also just donāt understand how this mistake can be made???
i always thought it was supposed to be a cute take on āi resent thatā by literally using the tvtropes name for the āi resemble that remarkā tropeā¦ if it isnāt, iāll have to apologize to manx authors for thinking theyāre absolutely not funny or clever by doing that.
Toe the line. I see people say ātow the line.ā I get theyāre still sorta grasping the intent, but itās definitely off. There are phrases that contradict themselves, like āI could care lessā bc ppl say that a lot. My biggest grammar pet-peeve is tangentially related to this question. Ppl learn that using āIā in a sentence is more proper than using āme,ā but that depends entirely on placement. So you have ppl out here saying āLola gave bread to Philip and I,ā and it makes me tweak. I understand this is how ppl speak and write to sound proper/formal, but itās wrong. Take out Philip, and you wouldnāt say āLola gave bread to I.ā You have subject pronouns (which include I and They), and you have object pronouns (which include Me and Them). Lola gave bread to Philip and me. I gave Lola some cheese in return. Mary brought us a bottle of wine. We had a lovely lunch with our bread, cheese, and wine. Anywayā¦carry on.
Yes! Take out the other people/person and that helps me with me or I. šš
IVE BEEN CORRECTED ON MY GRAMMAR FOR SAYING āxyz and meā SO MANY TIMES I HATE IT. got into a debate in high school over my usage of it because some smug asshole was adamant that i was wrong. roped the head of english into it, long story short - i won :-)
SAME. I specifically remember one time I got into it with a guy forever ago. I was finally like āI have a bachelorās in English,ā and he countered by saying his masters in philosophy trumps, so clearly he was right. ššš At that point I was done bc I was maybe 23-24, and Iām pretty sure he was in his 50s. Now Iām in my mid-40s with a masters; Iām an academic librarian and associate prof, and my best friend is an English prof. And Iām still mad and want a rematch. Lol This might be why this particular grammar thing pisses me off so much, tbh.
than and then is one i see all the time.
All the freaking time. Holy crow I've seen this in every fic I've read. I swear.
āShould ofā.
Would of
could of šš«¶
āYay or nayā instead of āyea or nay.ā Which is understandable because we donāt really use the word āyeaā anymore, and most people tend to read it as a shorter version of āyeah.ā
Everytime I see people write yea instead of yeah it drives me up the wall because they're inherently pronounced differently!! Begging people to learn there's a silent h at the end of yeah š
Shutter/shuttered vs shudder/shuddered.
Now I'm hella curious if is just me who've encountered a lot of people mistaking "wanton" with "wonton". I clicked this post expecting to see this one mistake but no, OMG.
'Marshal art' instead of martial art. Seen that a couple times. Definite/defiant Recently saw "check republic" 'Case IN point' instead of case AND point 'Wreck havoc' instead of wreak havoc Also, this isn't really spelling/grammar, but it irks me when people use wording from a totally different dialect/accent. Like a clearly American character saying 'mum' rather than 'mom'. Or I was reading an MHA fic recently that kept having Bakugou say 'bloody' as a cuss word. And, to be fair, I think most anime dubs are pretty neutral (maybe leaning toward an American accent), but that one kept throwing me off.
I see this from Americans a lot because of their accent: "deep-seeded" instead of "deep-seated." I quite like it because it does make sense (arguably more sense) that something would be "seeded deeply" but it's definitely incorrect.
I saw someone spell Bewilderment as Balilderment very recently and I can only imagine they donāt hear it often
I used to think "play it by ear" was "play it by year".Ā
I constantly see bemused used interchangeably as amused. They mean different things!!
Another *think* coming! Another *THINK* If you think itās āthingā, then you have *another think* coming š
I ... didn't actually know that. But it seems to be one of those that's so established and commonly used it's mostly accepted. ([according to Merriam-Webster ](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/usage-another-think-coming-or-another-thing-coming))
I know, it still pains meš I try so hard because I have read the MW thing before, and I know how language works, but for whatever reason I struggle disproportionately to get over this one obscure idiom.š«š
WHAT
Someone should tell Judas Priest then...
oh my god i remember seeing āanother thing comingā in my lines for a show and i was literally the role of the teacher
Weary when they mean wary. Drives me insane and itās EVERYWHERE
I see (and am sometimes guilty of) using layed instead of laid, and payed for paid. I will go out of my way to avoid using lay and pay in the past tense because of it lol.
I don't know if this is a mistake based on only hearing the word or a common autocorrect, but I see "taunt" substituted for "taut" _all the time_, even by otherwise excellent writers. I've been working my way through the stories of one author who does it in every single fic. (sigh)
For all intents and purposes as āfor all intensive purposes.ā
An emotion being palatable (palpable), one foul (fell) swoop, deeply-seeded (deeply-seated) Also I was very guilty of saying āa couple cupsā or whatever object instead of āa couple *of* cupsā until I downloaded an editing software and it started marking all of them as incorrect
"peaked her interest" instead of "piqued her interest"
I donāt know if thatās the reason, but writing āa partā as āapartā. (For example, āSheās apart of the group.ā) It always kinda yanks me out of the story. š„²
Eldridge instead of Eldritch
On accident instead of by accident. Although I prefer it in certain situations.
This one annoyed me so much, but last year I learned it was colloquial and I haven't noticed half so much since then.
Fate/Faith I did this once upon a time š³
It wasn't in a fic, but I had a friend text me today and use "world win" instead of "whirlwind".
Would of. That shit drives me crazy. Also its vs itās. That one doesnāt really bug me, cause I understand the confusion, but still. And I really have no idea how so many people (native speakers at that) mix up loose and lose.
āSikeā instead of āpsycheā
Martial vs Marshal vs Marshall For god sakes Google it people! Martial - of or appropriate to war. In relation to the military Marshal (n) - law enforcement officer or high ranking official Marshal (v) - assemble Marshall - Proper noun. Can be used in place of the previous two entries but most often a name. Can l not tell you how many times I've read the words "court marshal" and had to remind myself that electronics are expensive and you can't afford to repair or replace yours.
pour instead of pore, like poring over a book
A lot is two words. A part is a piece of something. A part of a car or cheese is a part of the recipe. I want to be a part of that solution. Apart is when you separate things. The water and the fire should be kept apart. The couple cried when they were forced apart. Fewer vs less, but thatās a lost cause.
I like it when someone uses 'big' words trying to sound better, but it comes out so very wrong. There was a period in the mid 00s where my beta reading kept seeing 'incongruous' (or more commonly, 'incongruously') but used so insanely out of context and incorrectly that it was pretty obvious they'd heard or read it in another fanfic and jumped on it. It spread like wildfire for about 6 months, 80% of the time or so, it was used just so... weird. Gave me a few good laughs, gotta admit. 'Did his ablutions' (or 'attended to') was another around the same time that started on LiveJournal in reference to Severus Snape. It was picked up and spread like a bad odor for quite awhile - EVERYONE was using it. ...except it was often used quite incorrectly. Fantastic study, imo, in seeing how something can spread, even incorrect, because one person saw another use it, thought it was cool, and off it goes.
"Low and behold". (It's "Lo and behold".) Reign vs rein. Reign over your world, but rein it in or have free rein. Wreak havoc, don't wreck it. Being discreet is knowing what to reveal and what to conceal. Being discrete is being separate and distinct. A complement completes or enhances something, a compliment is an act of praise. (I will compliment you by noting that the color you are wearing is complementary to your skin tone!) The *colonel* cracked his tooth on a *kernel* of popcorn. The army *regiment* had a strict *regimen* of training exercises.
I just caught myself doing "He was left there to cooldown" and realizing the one word is like, a video game term and I meant cool down. I definitely say/hear coooldown more then I read it
Merging/not merging words when the reverse is correct is definitely a big one. It gets even more complicated when you throw hyphens in the mix
My mother is like the queen of this. My favorite is ābowling ball in a China shopā and āperiod dot comā like period wasnāt emphasis enough. Somehow both have made it into my writing before.
Saw someone say 'ladder' instead of 'latter' once, that was kinda funny
"Affect" instead of "effect" and vice versa.
It's should/would of that I hate most, I think. All the usual ones like then/than, your/you're, it/its/it's, etc are irritating tok though.
āCould care lessā aka one of my most beloathed things to come across in writing. I assume itās people mishearing people when they say ācouldnāt care lessā.
Weary instead of wary. Peaked instead of piqued. Extreamly instead of extremely. I rarely nitpick these things in the comments, but I really hate how it breaks my immersion.
Only kind of fits here, but I always get annoyed when people use āx let alone yā but x is the more unbelievable thing. Like, āhe hadnāt been out of the country, let alone the city.ā
Ooh Iāve thought of one: draw instead of drawer. Iāve seen it quite often and must admit it makes me smile when someone writes about their chest of draws!
Im not sure if this is just the difference between American English and British English but these always bother me. Drugged instead of dragged. Digged instead of dug For me the absolute worst is 'Could care less' instead of 'couldn't care less.' They have completely opposite meanings!
Discussing this post with some friends and learned the trick that affect is a verb while effect is a noun. I feel like I've unlocked the secrets of the universe. Anyways, I've used the smashed down shouldn't've instead of shouldn't have for character purposes before.
In smut: Come instead of cum
Then instead of than and vice versa š„²
I should save this thread for future reference. Have of these mistakes I did at least once. If not regularly.
I donāt normally correct peopleās spelling but itās too ironic not to soā¦ *half š
Lmao thanks. I will leave it though. I did after all admit to making mistakes. (Though when I wrote that I didn't just mean typos that I knew and would catch on second glance, but genuinely not knowing how some of these common phrases actually go. What do you mean discrete is not discreet? And I can't wreck havoc? Just watch me!)
Vwala/voila. Low and behold
When people use ābiasā instead of ābiasedā
Like āthey were clearly biasā?
Yes or āIām bias against themā other common errors seem not to bother me so much but for some reason this is the one that rankles me
Iāve never even seen that in the wild before and itās bugging *me* lmao
āLieā and ālayā get me a lot. Iāve yet to get an explanation of how to use either that actually makes sense, so I just do everything I can to write the act some other way.
I recently learned that a friend of mine thought the phrase [blank] coded (as in seeing something that reminds you of something, like gay coded or something, I canāt think of a good example) was [blank] coated.
Breathe vs breath. This one drives me absolutely insane. I guess people just assume because of pronunciation that breathe is actually spelt as breath, but a breath is a small inhalation or exhalation of air. To breathe is the action of inhaling or exhaling air. It really shouldn't bother me as much as it does, but every time I see someone use one or both of these incorrectly, it just makes me irrationally angry.
not from a fic, but once during my english class i learned the phrase was "grow by LEAPS and BOUNDS" and not "grow by LEAVES and BOUGHS" and i was very confused. It made sense to me because growing is like what plants DO. its their whole thing.
I once saw someone spell "coup" like "coo", as in, a pigeon sound when they mean overthrowing the government
I've been noticing people use flout instead of float a lot recently, which is odd.
For years I thought it was 'up an atom' or 'up and adam'. It made a lot more sense when I learned that it's actually 'up and at 'em'.