Grammar Crackers

Have you noticed people in your life who constantly mis-use words or say things that aren't words at all or speak in endless double negatives? Does it drive you crazy like it does me?

I realize that the previous paragraph, and for that matter this entire post, is probably a MESS grammar wise, which makes me a bit of hypocrite but, I digress...

I guess I'm not talking so much about grammar. I'm more thinking about words and the effect that our usage of them has on others. For example, I had an instructor in a theater class once who often used the word "irregardless." Well actually, that's not a word at all but he used it regularly anyway. This particular person was someone that I had a lot of respect for. He was one of the smartest, most interesting teachers that I've had but, every time he used the non-word "irregardless" I stopped listening and started thinking about whether or not I should tell him that the word he wanted was "regardless."

I recently met another person who dropped the phrase "and stuff" into their speech at odd intervals like this:

"I have this project to work on and stuff and I'm just getting started and stuff and I get a phone call about the other project from last week and stuff and I'm totally busy and stuff and have no idea how I'm going to find time and stuff to get all of this done and stuff."

Then there are, of course, the users of the double negative. "I don't have none" which I think means that they do, in fact have some. Whenever someone drops one of these on me, I stop listening and try to figure out what the phrase means compared to what they think they are saying.

Mostly I'm just having a little fun here. I'm not the grammar or word usage police but I do think we could all benefit from an occasional look at a dictionary. As anyone who has read this blog can attest, my grammar is far from perfect so keep that in mind. I am merely pointing out things that I have noticed, irregardless of the fact that I don't have no reason to do so.......and stuff.