My Twitter feed blew up
Tuesday with a bit of pop culture genius from none other than Weird Al
Yankovic.
Maybe you’ve seen it, or
maybe you haven’t, but Weird Al released a parody of Robin Thicke’s “Blurred
Lines” made specifically for grammar nerds called “Word Crimes.” And, because
Blogger seems to hate video embeds, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc
Basically, the video
highlights, in a very funny way, some of the writing world’s favorite grammar lightening
rods, including: apostrophes in words that aren’t possessive, “could care less”
(we all know it should be couldn’t, right?), and the good, ol’ Oxford comma.
As someone with a long
editorial background (first newspapers, and now freelance), I, of course,
watched the video and geeked out just like everyone else. But I also caught
myself hoping there’d be a sequel that included some of the mistakes I see time
and time again while editing, beta reading, and critiquing.
There are many I can think
of, but my top three are below (though I have no idea how to put them to
music):
1. Hyphenating modifiers that already have an “-ly”
suffix. This one is wrong ALL THE
TIME. If a modifer ends in “-ly,” you do NOT hyphenate it with the word after
it. So, there should be no “carefully-placed flowers” or “fortunately-timed
appearance.” None of that. Drop the hyphen.
2. Using “due to” and “prior to.” This one has firmly driven me nuts since my high school
journalism days. When writers use “due to” or “prior to,” they mostly seem to
do so because those phrases sound more high brow than, say, “because of “ or
“before.” But those phrases are incorrect and plain, old “because of” and
“before” are what you should be using.
Both due and prior modify
words. Do not attach a “to” to them and hope you sound smarter. You don’t. It’s
just like those people you silently correct in your head who use “I” instead of
“me” because they’re trying to sound smarter. When you use these two phrases,
you’re acting in the very same way.
3. Forego and forgo: Learn the difference. Forego is to go before. Forgo is to go without.
They are not interchangeable. The one with an “e” isn’t the Old English
spelling. If you swap one for the other, you’re doing it wrong.
The same goes for
further/farther and assure/ensure/insure. Learn them. Use them correctly.
What are some of your grammar
pet peeves?
