Common usage of words that drive me nuts.......

Yes - I took it that it was the words that drove the OP nuts. If it was their usage, it would have been 'drives'. But as you say, Elegran, it could be either or both!

I also get irritated by 'can' instead of 'may' and when an assistant asks 'can I help you' I so often want to say 'isn't that your job?' but of course I don't!

Not quite what the OP meant but the thing that really irritates me is PIN number!!!

Why would you put usage in the sentence if it is just the words that drive you nuts? I don't think the words do drive the OP nuts in the right context. Anything wrong with lay in relation to hens?
It is usage (or misusage) that is the important idea here.

I think the fact that the OP didn't put an 's' on drives indicates that he/she meant that it was the common usage of 'words that drive me nuts' that was objected to.

Why would anyone say that the common usage of words drives them nuts? Don't we all use common words every day?

Or commonly use words - getting in knots here!

Surely the grammatical point is that the verb should agree with the subject of the sentence.
You could try:
Misused words that drive me nuts.
Erroneous words that drive me nuts.
Deeply inelegant sentences that drive me nuts.

Lie and lay are words that trip people up. It is because they are really two different verbs. It is the old confusion of transitive and intransitive verbs.

You (present tense) lie down, and yesterday (past tense) you lay down. That is an intransitive verb - no object to the sentence.

You (present tense) lay a table, lay an egg, lay down rules - a transitive verb with an object to the sentence, the thing that you lay. The past tense of THAT lay is laid - "the chicken laid an egg"

You can lay an egg or a table, you can lay a pretty girl, you can lay down your arms or your life, but when you lie down you do it without an object.

It doesn't help that the past of "lie is "lay"

"Mother always lays the table before she lies down for a nap"
"Santa laid his gifts by the fireplace as the children lay sleeping."

The title of this thread is not a sentence. Most of it is the dependent clause starting with "that" - the only verb is in that clause. Whether the clause is dependent on "usage" ir "words" in not defined.

Mamies examples are not sentences either.

Apricot - I salute you! The dreaded 'pee' has embarrassed me from it's inception. And then insult was piled on injury by those who spoke of 'one pence' - including the boy Blair in a broadcast parliamentary statement...

Are we the only people in the world, this happy breed that don't know what our own currency is called?

But the grammarians should remember that their function is to describe the language as it is used, not to set arbitrary rules ('split infinitive', anybody?) for us...

If we look at what is implied here....
This / That is a common usage of words that drives me nuts?
Surely not, "these are a common usage of words that drive me nuts". It would have to be "these are common usages" don't you think?

I don't like it when people say "like" instead of "such as". For example they say "countries like Britain" when it should countries "such as Britain."

Usages sounds clumsy to me. I think "usage" here is like "use".

"The usage of words that drive me nuts . . ." - "is to deplored"?

We could go round this all day!

I think the fundamental problem here is the usage of usage. Misuse would be far better and "I deplore the misuse of common words", would be a much more appropriate and elegant title for pedants.

"Speak proper!" - reminds me of a Geordie joke.
Jackie Broon won £1m on the pools and decided to spend it on a good education for his son, Geordie. So he went to see the HT of the Royal Grammar school and said " This is wor Geordie - Aa want ye t'larn 'im te speak proper."
"Very well Mr. Brown" replied the HT. "We'll see what we can do. Come back at the end of term."
So Jackie goes back at the end of term, into the HT's office, and the HT says to him:
"Divvn't ye taalk te me aboot Geordie Broon!"

"Them" instead of these or those! i.e. those things, not them things!!!

Everyone on the BBC who says 'ahead of' instead of 'before'. It's so annoying. Why can't they just say before?

Also, when they describe the local new as 'the news where you are' because it isn't where I am, its just local news.

I dislike intensely the talk on TV shows of 'Drawrings ' especially in the DIY and building programmes .

Uz. Used frequently by presenters on radio,tv, it drives me mad.

Not sure why but 'some time soon' and 'any time soon' drive me nuts.

When in a café and people ask the assistant 'Can I get a coffee?'

What drives me absolutely bonkers... and with cold weather on the way, it's going to start cropping up again...

"wrap up warm"

aaaarrrrgh.... even the BBC do it !!

Whatever happened to adverbs ????

Ah grans, you are all adorable! I thought I was alone in my pedantry.... sigh!