In light of taking the GRE's last week...

In light of taking the GRE's last week, here are some of the grammar issues that are just plain ol' wrong.

Irregardless: THIS IS NOT A WORD. To get all etymological about it, let's take the leap to break this down. If you add the prefix "ir-" to a work, you are implying the opposite of the root. Irregardless is not the opposite of regardless. Some folks who use the ugly word, as irregardless should be known as, often are coming from the mistaken perspective that "gardless" is the root of the word and therefor "regardless" needs to be negated. WRONG! The "re" isn't a prefix. It's part of the darn word!! It's not like irresponsible, where the addition of "ir" negates the "responsible". This is my #1 pet peeve. Nails on chalkboard for me. And I try to find a polite way to let folks know if they are using made up words, especially if I'm in an advising/supervising role. That being said, I can read a flow chart. I had a supervisor recently who used this word regularly. And she wasn't a person I was particularly well connected to. So I just had to keep my mouth shut. But seriously...nails on a chalkboard.

Acrossed: Why is the past tense of this word used? I need to own that I didn't become aware that I was incorrectly using this word until my first year of college when a dear friend of mine, John Maslowski, would regularly correct me. And I'm told when I get really chatty and on a tired (yes...it happens), I will occasionally drop it in. So this is a word that more dings around than actually feels like paper cuts to my eyeballs.

edit: Here is how "acrossed" may be used in a sentence. "Did you see they opened a new restaurant acrossed the street?" or "I think that girl is making eyes at you from acrossed the room."

Other classic words like "ain't" don't really bother me because I don't hear them often. Perhaps this is due to educational privilege. But unless I'm at Wilson's Tap in Boone (shout out to the STBN crew), I ain't hearing ain't real often. :)

If this post comes across as being as me bring a grammar snob, so be it. I'm not an educational snob, I'm not a gastronomical snob, I'm not an adult beverage snob (go PBR!) so I will own this snobbery. I throw out props to my Granny for making sure I know how to sound educated and professional. I may not iron my clothes as much as she would like but I will always be conscious of how my language affects the perception that I cultivate.