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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135977
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | 1
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Something that was drilled into my tiny brain by my ninth grade English teacher is that there is a degree of courtesy involved any time we list activities with one or more other people. We should list them first. Thus, it’s not “me and Bob” but “Bob and me”. (Or “Bob and I”.) Hardly anyone follows this rule, but it bugs the heck out of me when I see or hear the misuse.
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Brian Miller
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 28 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 31949
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 12:44pm | IP Logged | 2
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Don’t come to the south…
The one that REALLY gets my goat recently is people writing “could of” or
“would of” instead of the actual contractions they actually saying. Even in
articles, nowadays. It’s like grammar has been dropped from any kind of
writing curriculum these people may have graduated from.
And apparently, this is NOT an easy mistake to make on an iPhone. It’s
taken me 10 minutes to get the autocorrect to stop changing “of” to “have”
like it’s supposed to be.
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Michael Roberts
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 20 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 14916
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | 3
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Could/should/would of annoys me so much. (Ha! I just had to fight with the latest version of iPhone’s autocorrect as it was aggressively fixing it. Skynet is ready to start Judgement Day.)
My latest peeve is people using I’s as the possessive. “Bob and I’s book” instead of “Bob and my book”
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Edward Aycock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 July 2024
Location: United States
Posts: 177
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | 4
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Yeah, I also was told often about that polite usage, and I've always used it.
The incorrect usage of "myself" also drives me nuts.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135977
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | 5
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I wonder how much of this is even taught anymore?
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James Johnson
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 March 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 2366
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | 6
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"Bobby McGee & Me"? 🤔
It wouldn't work as a song lyric. ..... 😊
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135977
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | 7
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Dialect takes liberties. Witness Ben Grimm!
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 13153
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 2:13pm | IP Logged | 8
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Speaking of courteous expression, I've never found myself able to like the sound of "I'm good" in place of "no, thank you" to decline an offer.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 135977
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | 9
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I find myself annoyed by how “no problem” has replaced “you’re welcome”.
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Brian Hughes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 June 2015
Location: United States
Posts: 420
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 2:48pm | IP Logged | 10
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Thirty years ago, I started my career in tech by working phone support of laptop users. At first, most of my customers were well spoken and articulate. As time went on and the cost of laptops went down, the voice on the other end changed.
I found I had an interesting ability though. Without thinking, I would pick up the speech mannerisms of the people I spoke to.It did not matter if they were from Boston or the deep south, I was speaking to them on their level and no one ever though I was mocking them. Not one complaint. My Manager referred to me as a social chamelion.
The grammar part was the oddest part, as while I understand and try to follow the rules in my normal discussions, even correcting others in some situations. But in those moments where I was conversing with the customers, I found nothing wrong with speaking wrong while relating to the customer. It was like someone with a stutter singing a song. It just flowed.
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Michael Hogan
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2096
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 4:32pm | IP Logged | 11
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I agree wholeheartedly, JB...and not just with the objective
case ("They prepared a meal for Bobby and me.") but even more
so with the nominative case ("Bobby and I are going to
dinner.")!
Edited by Michael Hogan on 10 April 2026 at 4:33pm
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Evan S. Kurtz
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 July 2022
Location: Canada
Posts: 265
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| Posted: 10 April 2026 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | 12
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JB, I teach Grades 5 and 6 in what would be considered an "inner city school." All my students are immigrants, the kids of immigrants, or the grandkids of immigrants. You're asking about whether or not this is taught today? Man, I'm just trying to get them to use punctuation and capitalization in their writing correctly and I can barely achieve that. And don't even ask about inferring.
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