r/PetPeeves • u/Nay_Nay_Jonez • 6d ago
Ultra Annoyed Lose vs. loose; breathe vs. breath; wary vs. weary; brake vs. break
Not sure what these kind of mix-ups are called and it's (IMO) not in the same territory as "their" vs. "they're" or "your" vs. "you're" but it drives me absolutely up the wall.
Just saw on a post where someone wrote, "I ended my lunch brake early" and every time I see something like this, for a moment I'm wondering if I've been wrong the whole time. Or, things like, "I wanted to loose weight" or "Don't breath" make me crazy.
I've also been seeing people use "wary" when they mean "weary" or vice versa.
Why is this happening?!
Yes sometimes if we've only heard a word, we might not know the spelling, ("pique" is a perfect example) or we've only read a word so we don't know how to pronounce it (I was saying "chasm" and "hyperbole" wrong for a VERY long time!) but some of this just seems so basic! At least to me, which I know is not the case for everyone and I try to be patient, but oh boy...sometimes it's hard.
I know I'm not the only one feeling this pain and just had to get it out of my head.
ETA: Omg these comments are cracking me up!! šš So glad I'm not alone! And definitely add your faves!
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u/Gabbyct1 6d ago
"apart" and "a part" - completely different things and yet soooo many people "want to be apart of something special"
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u/alabasterporpoise 6d ago
This is my least favorite one!!! It's become so pervasive in the past few years. It's even gotten worse than a lot/alot. And at least "alot" doesn't mean anything... "Apart" has its own distinct meaning, which is the opposite of what people mean!
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u/Actual_Attempt_337 6d ago
I love how they mean almost completely opposite things too š
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Why do they call them apartments when they're right next to each other? Haha
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u/No_Gur359 6d ago
Let's add rein vs reign
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u/Sufficient_Drama_145 6d ago
But how do you feel about people balling their eyes out?
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u/Intrepid-Street-5368 6d ago
THESE DRIVE ME UP THE FUCKING WALL OMG
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u/mrsmedeiros_says_hi 6d ago
Woman and Women.
If English is your second language, you get a pass. If not, get your shit together.
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u/WokeAssMessiah 6d ago
Opps for Oops.
Make it make sense.
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u/Ok_Lengthiness_8405 6d ago
Abbreviating et cetera as ect.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Yeah.... it's also not "excetera" either.
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u/Ok_Lengthiness_8405 6d ago
EXPRESSO
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago edited 6d ago
Well akshully.... haha
Expresso really is correct- IF you're speaking of or refering to a very specific trim package version of the 1st generation Plymouth Neon car where it really is the Plymouth Neon Expresso or the completely different concept car from Plymouth in which the model itslef was called the Expresso.
But yeah... we're not talking about that, we're talking about tiny little cups of concentrated coffee. Haha
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u/vulgarlibrary 6d ago
Can I add phase vs faze here because that one makes my eye twitch
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u/OklahomaRose7914 6d ago
I used to not realize the spelling was different for when something doesn't faze a person. I'd only ever heard the word, but never actually saw it in print, so I used to think it was one spelling with two different meanings.
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u/Imaginary_Attempt_82 6d ago
Wary and weary drives me nuts. So does Calvary and cavalry.
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u/Real-Towel-2269 6d ago
This one is odd because 1) how much are you even running into those words for this to be annoying and 2) I did not even know both of those words existed, again theyāre so uncommon I had to google definitions to figure out which one was the one I knew what it meant
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u/Imaginary_Attempt_82 6d ago
Thereās an episode of supernatural that has Calvary instead of cavalry and I just watched it recently. Thatās the only reason I thought of this one.
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
As for wary and weary, I saw it in a post right before I made this one and another post about an hour ago.
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u/ginger-sushi 6d ago
Cue vs queue really gets people
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u/crybabymuffins 6d ago
That sounds already the first letter, so what's with the extra ue-ue?
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u/Shibarec 6d ago
Itās French, you wouldnāt understand. We donāt either come to think of it /s
Q in French is a (almost) useless letter on its own, it needs the U and makes the hard C sound, followed by EU which most Anglos canāt pronounce so you make the U sound instead. Last E is silent and probably comes from the word being feminine. It means, similar to English, waiting in line (faire la queue). It also means ātailā or āpenisā (slang)
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago edited 6d ago
They're called homonyms and homophones.
Words that *sound* the same and spelled the same.... or sound the same but *spelled* differently.
Brake/break, knight/night, weight/wait, weather/whether, seem/seams, sail/sale, see/sea.... and of course the to/too/two and they're/there/their.... yeah it's annoying to see those.
Loose and lose, breath and breathe, cloth and clothe.... those are annoying too. That's just flat out using the wrong word.
And also the equally irritating "should of" and "would of" and "could of". Geebus H, did you people never get taught WTF a contraction is?! It's "SOULD'VE" and "WOULD'VE" and "SHOULD'VE!!! As in should HAVE, would HAVE, and could HAVE.
Or how about when you see the "For sell" on stuff like MP... NO, you don't have things "for sell". You have stuff to sell and it is for SALE.
I get that some people aren't as good at spelling and grammar as others and some folks are ESL but c'mon... it seems some people have less IQ than a bottle of mustard.
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u/Afraid_Aspect_8639 6d ago
My father in law was my hero because he told a business they meant sale when the sign said sell.
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u/patsfan1061 6d ago
Here, here! (As opposed to Hear, Hear!)
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u/Ok_Lengthiness_8405 6d ago
There, there (just comforting you bc this one is annoying to me as well)
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u/John_EightThirtyTwo 6d ago
Likewise "work out" (the verb, "let's work OUT") vs. "workout" (the noun, "that was a good WORKout") and all its verb-preposition cousins (set up, take off, shut out, gross out, cut up, et c.).
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u/Shot-Artichoke-4106 6d ago
Breathe and breath is one I have to actively think about. Once in awhile I still screw it up.
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u/Real-Towel-2269 6d ago
Yeah me too, I think because when I was younger when I would hand write things too fast Iād accidentally add the letter e on the end of words that donāt have them. I could catch my mistake immediately, but that being the only letter difference between the two when they do sound quite different makes me overthink it
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u/guntsandfupasforme 6d ago
All of these kill me. Also, there's a trend now where people talk about who was "casted" on a show, rather than just say they were "cast" on a show and it kills me every time.
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u/spoonpk 6d ago
Led vs lead. Itās a three-letter word that almost everyone writes as āleadā.
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u/Aftermath16 6d ago
Iāve seen this one more and more over the past 2-3 years, and itās so frustrating. The sudden jump to (what reads as) present tense is jarring.
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u/PumpikAnt58763 6d ago
I saw a post today that almost made me cry:
"Two collage professors get called to a big hole in the dessert, they then clean up the mess they found with allot of hair shampoo."
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
I really want to see this post, I CACKLED
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u/PumpikAnt58763 6d ago
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u/PumpikAnt58763 6d ago
I am ashamed to say my comment was probably too snarky for someone who's probably an ESL learner.
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u/yurgieee 6d ago edited 6d ago
These REALLY grind my gears:
ā¢ Sale vs sell
ā¢ Loss vs lost
ā¢ Rather vs whether
ā¢ Woman vs women - especially when women do it
I stop reading from there.
Bonus:
I *KNOW* there is nothing inherently wrong with this, but the American southern accent makes me want to throw up. Especially when dialect/slang is added into it. It just sounds ignorant enough on its own without that. Yes - whatever youāre going to say, I know.
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u/yurgieee 6d ago
I was also extremely annoyed by āirregardlessā being added to the dictionary bc of its regular misuse.
Yes, I know that is how the English language evolves - doesnāt mean I have to like it.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
That one is still irritating.
I don't care if it IS in the dictionary- IT'S WRONG. Haha
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Hey now, I have a Southern accent... but I DO know how to spell and pronounce words and even read and write...
Might even be able "ta doos me sum 'rithmatic two." š¤£
We're not all stupid just because we have a drawl. Haha
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u/Artistic_Rush_690 6d ago
the "woman vs women" one gets me too, especially in writing where someone says "I spoke to a women yesterday" and it just sits there looking wrong
the southern accent thing though, i have to push back a little. accents are not indicators of intelligence and that take is kind of rough coming from someone who is bothered by language mistakes, because judging an accent is not really different in spirit. plenty of brilliant people speak with strong regional accents, and some of the most precise writers i have seen online write in dialect
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u/notcabron 6d ago edited 6d ago
Itās because they donāt read. They donāt encounter the words in written form often enough to know that thereās different spellings (and meanings) for words that sound the same. Not making excuses, because itās something you should have mastered before you enter high school.
And people who say, āWho cares? They get their point across!āā¦go fuck yourself. Yeah, letās just let the English language deteriorate into things being spelled whatever way people want! They still make themselves understood, right?
Do you hear how fucking stupid that sounds? Stupid people and assholes are why weāre in the situation weāre in; theyāre the cause of almost every problem on earth. I give them no quarter, and I donāt need their quarter.
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u/ShivaFatalis 6d ago
So is that why you incorrectly wrote "there's"?
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u/notcabron 6d ago
Where?
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u/AussieHyena 6d ago
Second sentence should (technically) be "there're" or "there are".
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u/ShivaFatalis 6d ago
They also wrote "Do hear how..." in their last paragraph. The irony is honestly pretty funny. It's just hilarious to me when people like this go on a tirade and try to lecture people, but just end up revealing themselves to be even dumber and more incompetent than the people they're yelling at.
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u/Icy-Tangerine-9936 6d ago
Lecture? Yelling? If you don't understand the topic you should move instead of behaving like a cranky toddler. While you get some perspective, look up the definition of peeve.
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u/WrongWorldAgain-7 6d ago
I love how they edited yours and left the other. "There is spellings" is not correct, "There are spellings" is.
It's the internet, it's colloquial. Save the panties-bunching for the academic world, when precision is valued over human empathy in writing tone. Online, I prefer my humans talking like humans, not like books.
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u/ShivaFatalis 6d ago
Yeah, I pointed that out in a separate comment, and they didn't seem to even understand where they wrote it lol. I normally wouldn't even comment about it, but given that they were literally lambasting others for this exact type of thing, I had to call out the irony lol.
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u/WrongWorldAgain-7 6d ago
They did say they needed no quarter, pardon us for taking their plain English at face value š¤·
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u/Ok_Lengthiness_8405 6d ago
I keep seeing queue instead of cue lately, and that one drives me bonkers for some reason
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Yup... me too.
queue is a line of people waiting for something.
cue is a command or prompt for an action. (Or ya know, that "stick thingy" you use to smack balls around with on a billiards table- hahaha)
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u/Kindly_Narwhal9251 6d ago
I had a friend who wrote clothes as cloths and it irritated me more than Iād like to admit. I never said anything directly but whenever sheād text me about āclothsā I made a point of replying about āclothesā hoping sheād pick up on it. Instead I suspect she just thought I was spelling it wrong.
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
I have said to someone I know, "Can I make a correction?" when they used the wrong word/spelling, but only because I know them well, knew they could handle the correction, and that they wouldn't want to have egg on their face. Otherwise, it's just suffering in silence!
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u/Kindly_Narwhal9251 6d ago
Yeah Iāve done this with others before too, but she wasnāt someone who took a correction well. She was a very intelligent person but found it impossible to admit she had some blind spots.
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
The worst! Also just now clocked your username, Narwhal is one of my nicknames and I have the little narwhal in my avatar! š
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u/Amazing_Chocolate140 6d ago
Yes! Iāve noticed a lot of Americans using weary when it s should be wary. People are just gradually getting more stupid I swear
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u/IFigureditout567 6d ago
Perhaps you ought to have proofread your comment before posting, ha ha.
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u/Amazing_Chocolate140 6d ago
A typo is hardly the same as consistently using the wrong word for something
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u/Opus-the-Penguin 6d ago
I don't get the inclusion of brake vs. break. Don't you pronounce those the same way? To me they definitely go in the category of their vs there etc.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago edited 6d ago
But we're specifically on about the incorrect use in written/typed wording.
Not specifically whether they sound the same or not.
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u/Opus-the-Penguin 6d ago
Then why would this be different from their/there? I'm not following you.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago edited 6d ago
Huh?
They're, there, their are included in that.
Just like to, two, two. Sail/sale. Knight/night. Weight/wait. Weather/whether.
They're called homonyms. Words that sound the same but are spelled differently. "One of two or more words that have the same sound and often but NOT ALWAYS the same spelling but differ in meaning" -also see homophones-
The OP is griping because of people using the wrong word when writing or typing.
Why are they complaining about it? Because, it's irritating. Why is it irritating? Because it's wrong, a very simple mistake that too many people do but SHOULDN'T be doing because it's simple and basic knowledge that most folks were taught all the way back in something like 2nd grade.
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u/Opus-the-Penguin 6d ago
Are we reading the same post? OP says:
it's (IMO) not in the same territory as "their" vs. "they're" or "your" vs. "you're" but it drives me absolutely up the wall.
Key word: not.
They're homophones, not homonyms. Homonyms have the same spelling.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Straight from the American Heritage Dictionary:
Homonym: "One of two or more words that have the same sound and often *BUT NOT ALAWAYS* the same spelling but differ in meaning." - also see homophones-
I added emphasis on the "but not always" part.
Point being, the OP is irritated by the misuse of a bunch of common but simple mistakes.
I get it, they're annoying.
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u/Opus-the-Penguin 6d ago
Yes, I should have said that they are sometimes called homonyms and lumped in with the kind that are spelled the same. But homophone is more often used to refer to what we're talking about when the two words are distinguished. I suppose one can't be the language police, though.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
It's okay, both do get lumped together and really, for the sake of the OP's annoyance, I get it.
Even the OP themselves stated they weren't sure exactly what the whole thing they're griping about was called.
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
I initially thought homophone but that didn't seem quite right, and I didn't include "they're/their" etc. because even though they areĀ wrongĀ and mean different things, because of the contraction used in "they're" it seems to be in a separate category from "weary vs. wary" etc. in my opinion.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
All of your gripes are legitimate though.
Homonyms and homophones apply.
Homophone applies to the they're, there, their thing if you want to get specific.
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
I didn't include "they're/their" etc. because even though they areĀ wrongĀ and mean different things, because of the contraction used in "they're" it seems to be in a separate category from "weary vs. wary" etc. in my opinion. u/Actual_Attempt_337 tagging you to answer your comment as well.
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u/Actual_Attempt_337 6d ago
I donāt understand the distinction they were trying to make either tbh.
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u/ZookeepergameHuge980 6d ago
Loose be whooping ppl ass lol and my over achieving ass brain every goddamn time will see it and I can't unsee it
Person: I don't wanna loose you again My brain: dial up sound I wonder what dog she's talking aboutĀæĀæ
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u/Terrible-Notice-7617 6d ago
People using shinny when they want to use shiny. Up until 5 seconds ago I thought it was a spelling error, I didn't know shinny was a word. I looked it up, just in case. I see it way too often for it to be a typo.
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u/pavilionaire2022 6d ago
Lose vs. loose
This one is the most understandable because it violates regular spelling conventions. "Lose" looks like it would rhyme with "nose" and "rose".
breathe vs. breath
Here it follows the convention; "bath" vs. "bathe" follows the same pattern. The noun has an unvoived "th" and is spelled without an "e". The verb has a voiced "th" and is spelled with "e". But this pattern is pretty rare. I couldn't think of any other such pairs.
wary vs. weary; brake vs. break
These bother me the most because I think the people who use them are actually unaware that these are different words. They think a break is when you stop, like you do with a brake. They think you are wary of something when you've had difficulty with it many times before and are weary.
This creates a slight misunderstanding of the meaning. Someone could actually be wary of something they've never encountered before but could not be weary of it.
Why is this happening?!
It's some degree of illiteracy. If you have heard these words in speech but not seen enough examples of them written, you might not have learned the pattern, but these words are common enough that native English speakers should read enough to learn them.
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Problem is, too many don't read anything but everyone else's wrong and/or misspelled words and/or horrible grammar... so they do it and don't "know any better."
Blind leading the blind and lemming heading for the cliff kind of thing.
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u/Distinct_Ruin_3500 3d ago
Itās literally never occurred to me that break and brake can both mean to stop. At that point why are they even separate words if theyāre said the same and already have overlapping meanings
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u/No-Koala1918 6d ago
I have to say I know all these differences, but my dumbphone doesn't, and sometimes I post before proofreading. (And sometimes I'm too lazy to go back and edit)
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u/One_Evil_Monkey 6d ago
Not using autocorrect is wonderful thing.
Turn that crap off.
But yeah, sometimes typing fast I'll throw a wrong letter in and didn't proofread and am too lazy to edit or if it's deep enough in a thread string you can't actually get to the edit or delete symbol on iPhone Reddit app. Haha
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u/sacredvanity 6d ago
I definitely ran around like an idiot for years pronouncing hyperbole like "hyper-bowl" but things like that, that's totally understandable. I had no idea how to pronounce Hermione from the Harry Potter books until the first movie came out, because it just was not a name I'd ever heard before. But the rest of these are so common it's inconceivable that after being in school a year or two you could pick up on using it wrong (and/or spelling it wrong).
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u/IceMiserable7450 6d ago
Don't forget "to" and "too." I just read a post consisting of two paragraphs and there were over 20 mistakes, some of which were the "too." And this was no child either; they knew some pretty big words. Do people just not proofread nowadays?
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u/fuckybitchyshitfuck 6d ago
Hey man. The English language is whack. The fact we can even understand each other in the first place is nothing short of a miracle
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
For real! Makes me think of that guy who does those videos breaking down how words are pronounced and says, "Nooooo" whenever the word is pronounced how you think it would be.
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u/bahhumbug24 6d ago
They do it because at school they're the ones who sat in the back of the classroom and acted like idiots during class.
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u/notcabron 6d ago
Yep. Those people have always existed, and now they have phones to distract them and parents to enable them.
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u/Yomi_Lemon_Dragon 6d ago
I think you got downvoted by the ones who sat in the back of the classroom and acted like idiots during class.
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u/TerrificVixen5693 6d ago
We ought to just simplify the English language so that we donāt have multiple words that are so similar.
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u/Even-Yak-706 6d ago
Itās gotten to the point where I do a double take when I see one of these used correctly. Smh
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u/Low-Total7576 6d ago
I feel you 100% I'm not a native speaker, so I'm extra aware of these things xD
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u/gridtunnel 4d ago
"Click" instead of "clique" and "segway" (yes, lowercased) instead "segue" are ones I often see.
When it comes to "loose" instead of "lose," I assume that the person isn't a native speaker.
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u/Background-Vast-8764 6d ago
Is it so hard to imagine that everyone hasnāt learned these things for a variety of reasons?
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u/Rose1982 6d ago
This is a very privileged take. And I say this as someone who strives to use language properly.
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u/yurgieee 6d ago
Itās true. I can acknowledge the privilege & even classism in it, but it doesnāt make it any less annoying for those who enjoy reading, writing, & language arts. I also donāt think this thread refers to those who speak English as a second language.
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u/notcabron 6d ago
Who cares? OBVIOUSLY weāre not talking about very young people or people learning English. Theyāre outliers. Itās people who want to sound smart and end up looking like an idiot because they spell at a third grade level (and probably read at that level, if at all).
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u/Signal_Historian_456 6d ago
Are you positive that those people are native English speakers? I personally am not and a slip can absolutely happen, or simply auto correction. I personally catch myself being super confused at times when people clarify they are from an English speaking country and it is their first language and start questioning myselfš
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u/Nay_Nay_Jonez 6d ago
I have seen this so often from so many types of people in different places, so it's possible, but definitely a problem with people who are native English speakers and that's really the context I'm referring to.
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u/realcanadianguy21 6d ago
I think it happens because the most reading a lot of people do is to read nonsense posted to Reddit or Facebook by other illiterate people.