In case you missed the one from March -- and you probably did since it only occurred as a tweet -- something piques (not peaks) your curiosity. What I find interesting about this is that there is some false intuition that lends itself to "peaks": if there were a chart of your curiosity level over time, then something intriguing would perhaps "peak" it. But alas, there is no such chart (at least not for me), and "piques" is correct.
There was no grammar tip for April, since I just decided to implement this plan today. But had there been, it probably would have been about how you need to replace splicing commas with semicolons (or add more words). This would have been hypocrisy at its finest, since I'm a prolific comma splicer. (And yet, notice how the word "since" makes that comma appropriate... but picture the horror of that sentence without "since"!)
Grammar tip of the month
The word mischievous is a three-syllable word pronounced MISS-chuh-vus.
Yeah, I sense the wheels are turning. It's not miss-CHEE-vee-us. That is always wrong. If you look closely at the word (and where the second i is located), I'm sure you'll realize how untenable that popular but incorrect pronunciation is.
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Please send me ideas for future posts or future grammar tips, volunteer to guest- or co-author, etc.
Jon
I am soooooo excited this will be a recurring theme (I hope). Those who abuse my language pain me greatly and I hope these segments will help stop the bleeding (however small the impact will be). Jon, I could send you a list of common, poor grammar or spelling mistakes or I'd love to guest- or co-author something. Let me know!
ReplyDeleteJon, as I read this post and I examined the word mischievous I let out an audible "wow" at the fact that I have been led so far astray my whole life. I would have previously said that someone who pronounces the word MISS-chuh-vus was pretentious, but now I just know that they're right and I'm wrong. Man, I hate being wrong.
ReplyDeleteJon. One word: APOSTROPHES - not for plurals, but for possessives and contractions only!!!
ReplyDeleteTom Lebo--you're hysterical. Jon--that graph made my month.
ReplyDeleteThese peeves aren't grammatical in nature, but it's valentiNe, not valentime. Also:
-tyLenol, not tyenol
-alZheimer's, not alltimer's
And lastly, a personal note to my mother-- it's pronounced as "bah-rock," not as an army barrack.
P.S. You should write a blog about the necessity of agreement between pronoun and possessive... as in a mistake like this: "A PERSON looks to THEIR God when in trouble." This pops up alarmingly often in sermon notes, and it makes me cringe! I just have to pray through it, breathe deep, keep praying... :-)