It's the appalling spelling that I find so irritating!! Whenever I read some of the posts on Facebook I itch to correct the spelling. Perhaps it's another 'age thing'.

Many, many irritating things - pressurised instead of pressured; practise/ce; advice/se; "off OF"; the use of plural verb with a collective noun "the govt. HAVE" Grrr...
On the whole it is slovenly use of language and laziness - perhaps I'm unkind and people don't know better?
We should correct bad grammar; I'm frequently correcting my GS, telling him that sometimes it is very important to speak/spell correctly, poor child!

It's not just the written language that is irritating, I find so many people are just inarticulate: obviously, basically, literally, like, I mean, are words that pepper interviews these days.

I am a member of the Association for the Annihilation of the Aberrant Apostrophe and spot more and more every day.
If you don't know how to use them then leave them out!

The words "and" and "but" are conjunctions. They join two parts of a sentence or, in the case of "and", items in a list. A full stop marks the end of a sentence. That's why it is incorrect to put a full stop before "and" or "but". A comma marks a division between parts of a sentence. The use of a comma before a conjunction is nonsense. Pedantic rant over.

William Blake got away with it, viz: "And did those feet....etc", starting a whole poem thus !

My pet hates are:
1. Pronouncing 'th' as 'f'. i.e. somefing, firteen.
2. Pronouncing Envelope as Omvelope.
3. Saying 'upping' instead of 'increasing'.

I know language is always changing, all through history we have been influenced by other languages. In fact a lot of words we would say are English now are in fact words from other languages. But these really annoy me. Grrr.

1. is more likely to be somefink in London, Mischief.
2. I think omvelope would probably be emvelope. I pedantically don't like the way the piece of stationery has become envelope as opposed to onvelope, but I know language changes. Train station is now quite common and I accept that it's logical but I'll stick with railway station as it's what comes naturally.
Regarding f for th, it's quite usual in the London (cockney) dialect. Possibly elsewhere too. I don't mind because it's someone's way of speaking. People often criticise the London "was you"? But are more accepting of "when I were a lad". Both incorrect, but neither bothers me.

What saddens me is that there is no need for bad spelling. Every device has spell check so no excuse.

What really annoys me is the way American English is adopted, why? Is it just common use?

Media influence? Wonder if it works both ways?

My pet hate is the addition of a k at the end of words like somethink nothink anythink .

Those of you who use Facebook might like the group Extreme Pedantry where you'll find rants like all the above and many more.

No thanks, life's too short

I am sure if Shakespeare heard the language in Victorian times he would have wondered what had happened to the English language, as l am sure Dickens would have found the 50/60s language sounding alien.
My point being that language is constantly evolving and changing, how we communicate is changing, and like Dickens most of the time l wonder what is happening to our language but then the way the younger ones talk is there way of communicating.
Plus as the world gets smaller in time I envisage a universal language made up of language from many different societies

Bellanonna, I have a English friend living in Seattle I will ask her.

Apparently not Belladonna, It doesn't work both ways. In America you don't find English used unless someone has lived in the U.K. or is an Anglophile. I'm not sure if that surprises me or not?

I would just like everyone to know when to use there, their and they're correctly. How difficult can it be?

What about ' He was Sat' ? I've seen this in a lot of newspaper articles and on T V. news! Eek!!

That should have been a lower case 's' in sat. (Auto correct thinks it's a day of the week.)

How about defiantly, instead of definitely. I see this everywhere. I'm assuming it's pronounced correctly, just wrongly spelled.

I too hate the use of 'of' rather than 'have' as it simply proof that the writer/speaker has no understanding of the words. I was also taught not to use 'could' for 'would', as the first relates to ability and the other to willingness, You are obviously quite able to make a cup of tea but you may not be willing to do so.

Why have people started saying myself when they mean I or me?

123kitty 'myself' is my current irritation too. The headteacher, where I am chair of governors, keeps putting it in letters to parents. I find it so annoying.
e.g. Please speak to myself or Miss Brown!! Aggghhhh!

My irritating habit is being too liberal with !!!!!

I cannot bear the use of "good" as an adverb in answer to " How are you?" This crossed the pond from the USA. I hated it there; I hate it here.

Equally annoying is the current use of " amount of" instead of " number of". I hear it all the time, including on the BBC, which is truly shocking!

I use good, " I'm good, thank you" it irritates me to but habits are hard to break!