h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The one that has me saying 'Tautology!' as a sort of knee-jerk reaction is when people talk of '4am in the morning', or whatever.

Two other errors that I just can't leave alone are 'less' instead of 'fewer' and 'infer' instead of 'imply'.

What a sad git

An example of tautology in this very entry:

Iamb: see 'Iambic Pentameter' (qv).

The (qv) is unnecessary because the reader has already been referred there with the word 'see'. ('qv' stands for 'quod vide', meaning 'which see'.) An example of typical usage of this:

William Shakespeare made extensive use in his sonnets of the iambic pentameter (qv).

Personally, my ears fold up and my eardrums crack whenever I see that advert for washing powder: 'for less creases after the wash'.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

So I'm not the only person who yells 'IT'S *FEWER* CREASES!' at the TV? :D

It seems that there are at least three of us. Why do people have so much trouble with this? It's a fairly easy concept to grasp.

So - where do you all stand on apostrophe abuse? The sort of people who would write "apostrophe's" as a plural?

Perhaps they weren't taught proprely at school how to use them, or maybe their English teachers ignored such mistakes. If they did (and I'm not suggesting that most do) they don't deserve their jobs, or at least should be told off.

Apo'strophe abu'se drive's me nut's.

For those who like this kind of thing, I just thought I would point out that there is another terrific word to describe this kind of redundancy in sentences. In French it is the standard term for the "4am in the morning" kind of mistake, but it is also a valid English word to be found in Chambers:

Pleonasm - redundancy, esp. of words: a redundant expression.

Just for fun!

Hee hee...

IMO, decent punctuation is more important than perfect spelling.

It's a good thing to use an apostrophe, but its time is not now.

In America, they sell computers with an ad saying 'Think different' with Einstein or some other keeper of the flame. I personally 'think differently,' enjoying only beige as a color for my computer.