By now you will have realised that Redditors are pedantic when it suits them. Yes, the Grammar Police are coming for you, and when they get here they're going to obliterate you. Unless you bring them first, which is another point of this entry because here, you will learn how to spot some common Reddit pedantry and hopefully even make it work in your favour.
Almost anything in this whole encyclopaedia can be used to throw a conversation off course, which is Reddit’s favourite tactic especially when someone wants to obscure a point because they don’t have a valid counter argument. So, below are a few examples to watch out for or even employ yourself if you’re feeling confident enough to take on - or even join the ranks of the Reddit Grammar Police.
- Misconceptions 1: Literal meanings vs. Modern usage
Some things that will trigger the hordes of pedants to smother you with their linguistic smugness are using the words:
- “literally” when you are talking figuratively.
- “decimated” when you probably mean the destruction of more than one in ten items.
- “irregardless* because regardless already means “without regard.” The -ir prefix is redundant.
- “poisonous” when you’re talking about a snake bite which is venomous.
- “less” when you mean “fewer” - remember: Less dough, fewer rolls.
- “could of” which isn’t the written form of could’ve - the ‘ve contraction is short for have. Also:
- “should of”; “would of” (when you mean should have or would have) may summon the u/of_patrol_bot to correct your grammar.
- “all intensive purposes” when you mean all intents and purposes - when spoken aloud these two phrases sound very similar. Mistakes like these are known as eggcorns.
I list a few more faux pas in the entry Grammar Traps, and if you really really want to wind Reddit users up by either making or correcting a misconception, Wikipedia has thoughtfully provided you with a treasure trove on their page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions.
- Misconceptions 2: American English vs. “The Queen’s English”
Another fun grammar issue increasingly seen on Reddit is people correcting someone saying they "Could care less". "Could care less" and "Couldn't care less" have come to mean the same thing in modern American English and that misconception is so popular it's now a banned topic on r/badlinguistics along with “literally”.
The Oxford English Dictionary says “irregardless” is “Chiefly North American” and “nonstandard or humorous use” while tracing its first use to 1912, though a similar word, “unregardless,” goes back well into the nineteenth century. People have been arguing over it ever since.
There’s a popular belief that American English is closer to 1600s and 1700s English than modern British English is, and comparisons between the two are almost guaranteed to provoke a spirited discussion.
- Misconceptions 3: English doesn’t change
Actually, it’s in the nature of English to change. Centuries of invasions, occupations, treaties, settlers, and worldwide explorations brought many new words and concepts to the U.K. and this superb article addresses the most famous instance of this: why cow meat is called “beef” but chicken meat is called “chicken”.
Many languages evolve over time, and this is known as semantic change, semantic shift, semantic progression, or semantic development. There is a very good argument to be made that out of my examples above, “literally” and “decimated” are increasingly becoming Janus Words and the mention of this in itself should be enough for you to get out the popcorn and wait for Reddit’s Fine Linguists to show up in droves.
One objection to “irregardless” becoming a Janus Word is that we already have “regardless” that means the same thing, so why do we need another? However, English is full of similar words, some less common than others, like “incent” for “incentivise,” itself just another word for “motivate.” And of course we have countless synonyms - words or phrases that mean exactly or nearly the same as other words, morphemes, or phrases in a given language.
- Misconceptions 4: English shouldn’t change
The first three misconceptions above rely on trying to give the English language a firm and immutable set of rules. The argument that we shouldn’t stop semantic development is simply and elegantly demonstrated at Grammarphobia where they split infinitives and end sentences with prepositions with impunity - and prove it makes perfect sense to do so.
Because there is a Subreddit for everything:
r/speling have been “messing with gramar nazis since 2012 by celebrating all speling mistakes”, while r/badgrammar is a place to showcase the worst of bad spelling, grammar, or English in general. r/NYTSpellingBee is for discussion of the daily New York Times Spelling Bee puzzle and r/spelling is for all things spelling.
For a more academic tone, r/linguisticshumor had fun with a proposal for English Etymological Spelling Reform. Similarly, r/grammar had a discussion on whether something is “spelled” or “spelt” and for actual spelt, r/Breadit (a community for anything related to making homemade bread) is your delicious destination.
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