Linguistic Pet Peeves

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

Okay, y'all. In spite of what some people will say, your use of language will influence what people think of you, and how intelligent and/or competent they think you are.

My current number one: You don't LOOSE your license, you lose it. (If your license is loose, you need to capture it...)

Don't even get me started on loosing YOU'RE license...

What are other some other linguistic "nails on chalkboard" for folks?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Then/than

Their/there/they're

Advise/advice

To/two/too

A post riddled with grammar and spelling errors is one that I am likely to skip over. I'm not perfect; no one is, but there is a difference between typos/autocorrect and blatant misuse of words.

[brynrawr]

Nauseous is the word for something that causes nausea. Spoiled milk is nauseous.

Nauseated is the word for someone experiencing nausea. A patient can be nauseated.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Irregardless.

Supposably.

While technically correct, Pearson Vie Trick is nails on chalkboard for me:sarcastic:

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Y'all is not a word, or even a proper contraction.

[Sage611]

I agree about "loose" and "your/you're." It always bothered me when people said, "it affected him and I." I call it Grammar Overreach LOL. My husband says "supposively" instead of "supposedly," but I love him too much to correct him. I am a grammar snob.

[Sage611]

Y'all is not a word, or even a proper contraction.

Neither is "ain't." I say "y'all" but don't write it.

[Sage611]

"Could care less."

[Sour Lemon]

It drives me crazy when people say "jealous", but mean "envious".

[Sage611]

Y'all is not a word, or even a proper contraction.

It's in the Oxford Dictionary.

[Sage611]

Thought of some more: odor vs. scent and anxious vs. excited.

[NuGuyNurse2b]

hahahah I said this a few times in other threads and I always get the usual "we're nurses not writers" response from someone. I wholeheartedly agree with OP - your linguistic skills says a lot about you. Maybe not as a new nurse but as you move up the food chain and start to deal with higher up people, that deficit begins to affect how you are perceived intellectually, regardless of how good you are as a nurse. And as for using "ya'll" - this is what we call satire, specifically, irony. Not only is your ability to write important, so is your ability to read. For you to understand the tongue in cheek nature of the OP's sentence there, you needed to understand the point OP was making.

we had a director who was sending out mass emails with very basic grammar errors (you're/your, they're/their/there). I think at some point, someone reached out to her about it and her emails got a little better.

Here's one that leaves me stunned when I see online bloggers do it: its vs it's. Just because autocorrect changes it doesn't mean it's correct.