My Grammar Rant Continued

In a previous post I made an error. The expression is, "You lie like a rug". Along with that we have, "Let sleeping dogs lie". I mixed the 2 expressions together. In this article I am going to discuss acronyms, abbreviations, made up words and improper use of personal pronouns.

Let's start with acronyms and abbreviations. When I was in the US Army we used several acronyms such as ASAP which stands for As Soon As Possible. We had a test called the SQT which stood for Skills Qualification Test. I heard several people who should know better says things like, "I'm going to take the SQT test". That is the same thing as saying, "I'm going to take the Skills Qualification Test test". The "T" in SQT stands for test! Likewise, I often hear people say, "Give me your PIN number" or "What is the VIN number". The "N" in both PIN and VIN stands for number! So, they are asking for either the Vehicle Identification Number number or the Personal Identification Number number! We have bad grammar in both cases! CTT stands for Common Task Test and is given to soldiers every year. I have heard a few people says "CTT test" which is incorrect because the "T" in CTT stands for test!

To add to what I said in an earlier rant, some people say "would of" when the correct term is "would have". Similarly, "could of" and "should of" should be "could have" and "should have" respectively.

Now, I am going to talk about another kind of grammar error, improper use of personal pronouns. Personal pronouns are words like "I", "he", "she", "him", "her" and so forth. I used to have a friend named Julie. She was very smart but made one glaring error in grammar. When I would call her house and ask for Julie she would sometimes answer the phone and respond, "This is she" Using "she" at the end of a sentence like that is bad grammar. She should have responded with, "This is her" or "This is Julie". A similar mistake is something like, "Me and Joe went to the store". "Me" does NOT belong at the beginning of a sentence like that! The correct way to say this is, "Joe and I went to the store". Sometimes I hear people say something like, "He gave it to I". Correct grammar is, "He gave it to me". "I" doesn't belong at the end of a sentence!

Correct grammar would be saying something like, "I did it myself" or 'I did it to myself". If I am both the one acting and being acted upon then "myself" is correct. "She did it to myself" is not correct! If she is both the actor and the person being acted upon then "She did it to herself" is correct. "I did it to herself" is not correct! "I did it to her" is correct.

I also get annoyed with people who constantly use "like... you know". As the guy in the car commercial says, "Things either happen or they don't happen. They don't just sort of happen." I mean, you know, people sort of like say things that irritate me. Whatever! ;-)

Last, we have made up words. When I was going through training in the US Army to become a behavior science specialist I was taught by one of my instructors that making up words like "Reganomics" was a sign of schizophrenia. Ronald Regan believed in supply sided economics, whatever that is. He was accused of "voodoo economics" and someone coined the term "Reganomics". I'm OK with that because sometimes new words are needed to express or describe new concepts or inventions.

What I am not OK with is making up words like "chocaholic", "shopaholic" and "workaholic"! An alcoholic is someone who is addicted to alcohol. "Alcoholic" is short for "alcohol addict". Thus, a "chocaholic" would be someone addicted to chocahol! I have never heard of chocahol! Likewise a "shopaholic"! would be someone addicted to shopahol! I have never heard of shopahol either! I have never heard of workahol either! How can someone be addicted to chocahol, shopahol or workahol when these substances don't exist?! Perhaps these people are trying to say that a "chocaholic" is someone who is addicted to both chocolate and alcohol. A "shopaholic" would then be someone who is addicted to both shopping and alcohol and a "workaholic" is someone who is addicted to both work and alcohol.

Other made up words end in "itis". "Itis" means inflammation of. Arthritis is inflammation of a joint. Sinusitis is inflammation of the sinuses. Thus, "senioritis" would be inflammation of the senior and "oneitis" would be inflammation of the one. "Senioritis" was used to describe the "disease" that seniors in high school get when they approach the end of their senior years. They don't want to work or attend classes and thus they let their grades drop. "Oneitis" is when a guy gets hung up on one girl and will not accept anyone else. Usually the guy can't get "the one" and thus wants what he cannot have. Thus, he gets a case of "oneitis". Both "senioritis" and "oneitis" are incorrect made up words as used by the people using these terms because they are not referring to any inflammation of anything.

I hope that my articles on bad grammar will help business people improve the quality of their writings!