The Vine: December 4, 2007
Hi Sars,
For one of my jobs, I need to compile a list of verbal pet peeves — the “if you will”s, “Joe and myself”s, and other grammar- and style-related mistakes that the unknowing often make.As I started making my list, I realized that it is very personal — the things that drive me nuts aren’t the same as my co-worker’s chief irritants.So in an effort to cover my bases, I hoped I might ask your awesome Tomato Nation readers to help out with a couple of the things people say in
conversations or in presentations that drive them craziest.I’m particularly interested in verbal tics and misused phrases and constructions.
By the way, what’s your verdict on “there’s,” as in, “There’s a lot of cars on the road today”?(I mean, it’s wrong, but it’s rampant. Can anything be done?)
Thanks,
Free To Be You And Myself
Dear Free,
I don’t have a huge issue with the “there’s a lot of” construction, in colloquial speech anyway; you can treat “lot” as a collective noun, I guess, if you want to find a rules-based reason why “there’s a lot of” isn’t the worst usage crime in the world, but I treat it more like the Spanish hay.My last Spanish class was quite some time ago, but if I recall correctly (and I may not), hay handily covers both the singular and the plural of “there is” or “there exists.”I think, colloquially, we’ve come to treat “there’s” the same way in English — “there’s a lot of dust in here,” “there’s 200 people coming” — not necessarily because we don’t know it’s incorrect, but because 1) we’re using it more as a state indicator, i.e. “there exists a state of 200-people-ness”; and 2) “there’s” is easier to understand in spoken conversation than “there’re.”
Short answer: I wouldn’t use it in written correspondence, except in fiction/dialogue, but in spoken language it doesn’t bother me.
Now, to the meat of your question.”Frankly”/”honestly”/”to tell the truth” is one that’s really bugging me of late — and I’m as guilty as anyone, but I’m working on it.It’s a tic, and what comes after it usually isn’t so much honesty and frankness as it is an unpopular opinion, or a statement to the effect that someone else/the reader is wrong.What’s meant, often, is not “frankly,” but rather “I disagree,” or “You’re mistaken about X,” which is fine, but just say that then.(Note: One of my mother’s pet interjections is “Oh, honestly,” and I don’t take issue with that one.)
Also, “nevermind” (it’s two words; “nevermind” is cutesy), and the rendering of the adverb “anymore” as two words.The 11C doesn’t commit to saying that a phrasing like “I don’t eat meat any more” is incorrect, only that “anymore” is preferred, but it bugs me.”I don’t have any more meat”; “I don’t eat meat anymore.”Two different uses, two different renderings.If the purpose of usage rules is clarity, well, I rest my case.
Readers?
Tags: Ask The Readers grammar
I love this thread! I can’t believe I haven’t seen these yet:
* “He called in the calvary.” CAVALRY, people. Calvary is the hill where Christ was crucified! (I heard this on NPR the other day!)
* “Ice tea.” IceD.
* Deliberately misspelled words on signs: “Live music tonite.” “Come see the holiday lites.” AAAHHH!
Alum/alumnus/alumna/alumni/alumnae no one seems to understand either number or gender when using this word and it drives me crazy. I went to an all women’s college and routinely heard women refer to themselves individually as alumni of the institution, drove me nuts.
Data is plural, datum is singular.
One bacterium quickly becomes multiple bacteria, but people love to say bacterias for some reason.
Two words. Salsa sauce.
So, translated, sauce sauce.
Hate.
And word on the deliberate misspellings.
@Amanda: Thanks for bringing up the “on accident” usage. I’ve been trying to figure out if this is a regionalism for years and can’t find a pattern. I used to say it, but I have no idea where I got it from (my father, who was a linguist by hobby, was appalled his daughter would say something so wrong, and he was quite anxious to know where I may have picked it up).
Sars’ post about J words makes me hope that maybe we can do more occasional threads to track this kind of thing; this is such an smart and diverse group of people who love language I think we could gather significant information.
Oh, and I’m from Albuquerque originally, so “on accident” is not exclusively Boston, at least.
When people criticize the mistakes of others, while having big mistakes in their own comments. And when I say “people,” I’m talking about myself.
Also, the misuse of irony/ironic.
I only know of one person who used this …but she was absolutely convinced that she was right and we were (ALL) wrong….
It seems incredulous that….
We tried and tried and tried to ‘splain that a thing is incredible, a person in regarding the thing incredulous.
She found our explanation incredulous.
I third or fourth “supposably” instead of “supposedly”. I’ve also heard “supposively”. Argh! Ditto for “samwich” or “samwitch”.
This one doesn’t come up often for most people, but it drives me crazy: the difference between marinate and marinade.
Marinade=sauce or dressing.
Marinate=the act of soaking meat in sauce or dressing.
“Can you hand me an ink pen?”
Might be regional, but it makes my ears itch.
I’m late to the game here, but my current pet peeve is the misuse of “accurate” and “precise.” They are not synonyms people!
I despise it when people walk up to me and say “Can I ask you a question?” You just did ask me a question.
Also, since when has “ridiculous” become the new word to say all the time? I live in California and I can’t go one conversation without hearing that word.
Also, my ex used to always say “I was going to say…” even when we were having a conversation and he had clearly just thought of a new idea. “Going to say” implies some tipe of continuing action in the past, so no, you were not going to say anything if you just thought of it.
Underwears instead of underwear. Soooo annoying!
@rudeyg: The Calvary/cavalry thing is spot-on. That has bugged me for YEARS. Thank you.
I have a friend that repeatedly stated, “I was sweating like a banshee!” She refused to believe that she sounded like an idiot, even after I informed her what a banshee is. I do get some enjoyment from picturing her literal statement.
Another friend of mine likes to complain that she “was running around with her head cut off.” I don’t think she knows the whole “like a chicken with” phrase either.
“Boughten”
Example: Is that pie homemade or is it boughten?
Ear candy for all of my fellow “literally” haters: I nearly peed myself when I overheard a frat boy in the grocery store the other day loudly tell his buddy, “He LITERALLY reamed me out!”
I’m not sure you want to be sharing that kind of information with the entire produce section, my friend. :)
Dethaw. So, are you going to leave the chicken in the freezer then?
Also, I got this one from my sister – want vs. need in the drive-thru. Because, honestly, do you really think anyone NEEDS three super-sized Big Mac meals?
I’d like to also add drive-thru to annoyingly deliberate mispellings, like Krispy Kreme and Lite. The worst offender though, has to be a Wonderbread knock-off called Holsum. I kid you not. I’ve only ever seen it in the Baltimore area, and I’m sure they think it’s very cleverly named.
Well, through the over 250 post, I haven’t seen one of my biggest peeves, which makes me wonder if I am right about it, but:
You don’t TAKE a decision you MAKE a decision or better yet you decide i.e.:
“I took that decision based on ….” vs. “I made that decision based on…” vs. “I decided to go that way based on…”
I have heard this one a lot and it bugs me every time.
Other honourable mentions:
– Me, I to start a senetence. “Me, I think that’s wrong.” Could be an Italian thing though.
– Nucular (HATE)
– Irregardless
Oh, it drives me nuts when people begin a sentence, “Needless to say,” when what they’re about to say is completely out of left field. As in, “I went to the store to get some bananas, but they were all out. I ended up getting apples instead. So needless to say, when I went back outside, I ran into this guy I haven’t seen since high school!” What? How was it unnecessary to say that?
@Rachel: I don’t know where you’re from, but I bet “ink pen” is a regional thing — here in East Tennessee we say “ink pen” all the time, because “pen” and “pin” are pronounced exactly the same. Same reason I say “straight pin” instead of just “pin.”
@amused – I worked with a woman who used the phrase “For all the money in China”, which is… not correct. She also used the phrase “He looked like death warmed over” as a compliment.
Other things about her drove me so crazy I went to therapy to deal with my frustration (seems extreme, but it was a really convenient summer job and I figured it was better to talk to a therapist once in a while rather than bother finding another job!). She’d read the newspaper aloud to me, unsolicited, and would mispronounce many, many words, including adding additional syllables. The kicker was that she was an a long time member of our town council, too, and this past election ran (unsuccessfully) for mayor.
“Do you see what I’m saying?”
No, I don’t. Unless we’re in a cartoon and you have a thought bubble over your head, I don’t SEE what you’re saying.
And rudeyg: Iced tea!! However, to be fair to my southern roots, I say “iced tea,” but it probably sounds like “ice tea”
Okay, can’t respond to or comment on all of these, obviously, but would like to take a stab at a couple:
“Could care less.” I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but it’s not really wrong. It’s irony. The speaker is saying they care exactly as much as they do, which is not very much at all, but could in fact, be less.
Also, these damn latin (and greek) plurals with their attendant genders. They need to go. Period. Or the singular forms need to go, depending. Forget bacterium and datum and medium (when referring to newspapers or TV or the internet). Forget schemata. Forget octopi (although I am a fan of false greek plurals like penii and Elvii…) These are english words now and there’s no need to make the rules any different. The varous permutations of alumnus have only held on as long as they have because of their attachment to academia. (Ha, see? We don’t say academus or academe much anymore, do we?) I vote for alum and alums. Simple.
I’m going to repeat “less/fewer.” I’m in favor of the HPV vaccine, but, ladies? You don’t want to be “one less” victim. You want to be “one fewer” victim.
(I give the jump-rope girls a pass, just because “one fewer” doesn’t rhyme with its own spelling.)
JenK’s comment about being called a “Grammer Nazi” brought one of my favorite bits of verse from Pogo to mind:
“Do you herd sheep?” My Grammer asked,
And Grampaw leaped in fright.
“Your Grammer’s wrong,” he said to me,
“Have you heard sheep is right.”
–Walt Kelly
HI! I’m going to be a grammar Nazi and a sociolinguistic Nazi, because I have the degree to back myself up! Ha!
First, my grammar rants:
*fustrating — a friend in high school said this. I still don’t know if she ever knew the truth about the word
*wa-laa or wa-la for “voila”. I see it all the time in on-line forums.
*definately. Ditto. How do you actually _pronounce_ it?
*using “myself” instead of “me” to sound pretentious or hypercorrect.
*using “I” insteaf of “me” for the same reasons.
*less v. fewer. I will never win this one. My internal monologue corrects my otherwise perfect husband.
*literally v. figuratively
*organic labelling on produce. It makes think all the “conventional” produce must somehow be inorganic.
*quick v. fast. One is a adverb; one is an adjective.
*grow the economy. I know “grow” is transitive. It just feels wrong, jargon-y and evil. As if you’re trying to water it, fertilize it, and expose it to sunshine.
*I think, I mean, when it clearly is what you think and what you mean. I know they’re ordinary fillers in spoken language (see rant later), but many of them strung together are grating.
*Try and v. try to. I will never ever hear this produced correctly.
*nucular. Nuff said.
*collectible v. collectable. I’ve seen both at one store.
*orientate, as well as other redundant morphology, such as “artistical”
*feel badly. I know this was already bantered about above. I’ve been told that “feel well” is correct, as it is describing your state of “wellness”, and not your ability to intake sensory information. I just hate when people say “I feel badly”. That also conveys to me a sensory inability.
*I would have went. You’re trying, people. You know it’s some past participle. But you picked the wrong one.
*to make a long story short. Whenever my mother uses this one, it’s a segue for a much longer story. My sister has taken to giving a truncated translation for all listeners.
*abuse of “quotes” and apostrophe’s. Nuff said.
But after all that ranting on things that I deem incorrect, I shall do some ranting on things that, while they may bother me tremendously, are technically dialect features, usually of spoken language, and are therefore permissible. If not dialect features, they are due to mysterious linguistic processes.
* standing on line. I, too, heard this in college, and while it conjures up images of the Internet, it is a regionalism. I think it’s a New York/Boston-ism.
*I’ve got. I have no problem with “got” in spoken language. Yes, it can mean the same as “I have”. However, when you’ve already uttered “I’ve”, you need, for the prosody of your sentence (seriously) a new word. Just as you cannot end a sentence with “I’ve”, you cannot in America say, “I’ve three new boxes of pomelos.” Got just seems to fill the prosodic gap. You can also use it for emphasis.
*ink pen. color crayons. Yes, folks, they’re all regionalisms. Ink pen I hear in Philly now. I don’t know where I heard color crayons. Yes, it does seem redundant.
*”like” as a filler in spoken speech. It kills me. It just does. It again has to do with prosody and timing in speech, and happens just as a filler. It’s like “um” and “okay”, but grammatically has done interesting things: “He’s all like eating his ice cream.” Yes, but is he actually eating it?
*Phonology lesson 101. Someone above mentioned some word where a /t/ intrudes. I cannot think of it now. A similar example is “Clemson”. When you say it fast or lazily or locally, it either comes out “clemzin” or “clempsin”. The sound intrude and here’s why: Look at your mouth when you say /m/ and /p/. They’re pronounced the same way — at your lips. It’s called assimilation: bringint two sounds closer together in the mouth. Same thing with the /z/: it’s assimilating to the voicing in the /m/. Feel your voicebox when you say /m/. On, right? Now try /z/ and /s/. On for /z/ and off for /s/. The /z/ replaces the /s/ because the /m/ is voiced.
*Phonology lesson 102. In “ice tea” and many other words that drop end sounds (from iced to ice) that’s showing the weakness of the final sounds. Think of how children learn language. First words are usually “ba” or “da” or even “ga”. They lack ending sounds. In language, end sounds are the weakest and prone to getting left off, whether by a child, or an English Language Learner. This is similar to what happened to “supposed to” and “used to”. The /d/ in supposed and /t/ in to are pronounced in the same part of the mouth. Rather than rearticulate a sound which is virtually identical (not “literally”), the weaker one (at the end of the word) gets abandoned.
So when you rant about those other things, think of yourselves as Phonology Nazis!
On the redundant word situation (like PIN number), my favorite is “with au jus.” Dude, “au jus” means “with juice!”
Also, I have a co-worker from California who, when talking about a place to put her car says “I couldn’t find a park.” By which I assume she means a parking space.
I have a friend who uses “moot” correctly but pronounces it “mute.” I cringe every time.
I hear people say “for all intensive purposes” instead of “for all intents and purposes.”
My dad’s pet peeve is using “at this time” or “at the present time” instead of a simple “now.”
I think these bother me because the speaker is trying to sound extra-intelligent, and the mistake leaves the opposite impression.
What a great topic! I burn to get these off my chest:
“fustrated” (is that a Philly thing? ’cause I’m here in Philly too)
“nucular” (President Bush, I love ya, but pleeeze learn to say “NEW-CLEE-UR” – Laura, can’t you do something about this?)
“liberry” (don’t hear this much anymore, but once worked at a liberry where the receptionist answered the phone with “Hello, X County Liberry”)
“at this point in time”
And in solidarity with so many of you: big, red, sore, hammer-pounded thumbs down on “irregardless,” “between you and I,” “liaise with,” “impact” as a verb, and misused “literally”
Kermit, I think “The dishes need washed” and “The car needs tuned up” sound perfectly fine – but maybe it’s a Philly thing. A friend from New York thinks it sounds weird, so who knows! Literally, not me.
“Ignorant” used as a synonym for “rude.” I don’t know if this is a regional thing, but I swear there are people around here who don’t even know that ignorant is NOT the same thing as rude. In fact, I’m pretty sure they don’t know what ignorant is at all.
Its the people who start of with ‘No offense, but…’ or ‘I don’t mean to be rude, but…’ that get me. Obviously they are about to say something offensive or rude, and they know it, so they do, in fact mean to offend or to be rude.
Overused scare quotes. Many here have dealt with the downright incorrect use of quotation marks, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone address the kind that are not entirely wrong, yet really annoying. For instance:
Many scholars believe that Shakespeare wrote _King Lear_ “on the fly.”
or
The partygoers seemed subdued at first, but after the alcohol started flowing, everyone began to “let loose.”
These are perfectly acceptable turns of phrase, people. Putting quotes around them simply because they’re informal will only make your writing stuffy. If you must maintain an air of formality, use more formal words to begin with.
‘Swarmy’ instead of ‘smarmy’. Sweet Fancy Moses, that bugs.
I didn’t notice until now that another Jo had posted. For clarification, I am not the one who posted about the word atheist.
“And then there’s the recent upstart: using text abbreviations as actual spoken phrases. “I was like, OMG” would be a good example of the combination of these two things.”
This one makes me want to punch people. A lot of the undergrads at my university say “OMG” and “WTF” and every time I hear it, I worry that the hatred building up inside me might cause me to burst an blood vessel.
“Salsa sauce.
So, translated, sauce sauce.”
Along the same lines: “Rio Grande river” or “the Sierra mountain range”
So many good ones listed already! My vote for most annoying goes to: misuse of “literally” and misuse of “I” and “myself” in a misguided attempt to sound smart.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned “as a person.”
“I really like you as a person.”
Really? You like me as a person? Because I really like you as a shoe.
Maybe it’s not wrong but it bugs me…
Oh, another one is “added bonus”. Redundant.
I definitely agree with the “these ones” and also “those ones.” It had never bothered me until I had a roommate who would correct me all the time, now I cringe whenever I hear it.
(Also ending sentences with prepositions, something that I tend to do much more than necessary- see above.)
In defense of stores labeling fruits and vegetables (and meats) “organic”… I believe most of the time they are highlighting the “legal” definition for labeling foods as organic, which demonstrates the food item meets certain criteria by law.
(It bugs me, too, but I have to accept it and let it go.)
Another funny thing I just thought of: “Live Nude Girls” outside of strip clubs. I know I’ve seen comedy bits riffing on this before, but is that as compared to “Dead Nude Girls”?. (I realized at some point that “Live” meant “In person”, ie not recordings, but the image it conjures up is amusing/frightening.)
I’m going to defend ending sentences with prepositions. Sometimes it does sound awkward or unclear, and then it needs to be corrected for reasons of euphony. But the sentence-ending prepositions that are flat-out wrong (unless you’re reporting colloquial conversation) are the superfluous ones, like “Where are we at?” or “Where are we going to?” (I suspect that schoolmarms used to make up the “rule” as a way of weeding out such usages.)
Speaking of superfluous: Near the top of my personal list is the superfluous “before.” Someone asks me in the corridor “Have you even been skiing before?” And I want to respond “No, and I’m not doing it now, either.” (I usually don’t, but sometimes the snark wins out.)
I HATE “Where you at?” It sounds so stupid, and makes the speaker sound uneducated and lazy.
“For all intensive purposes” makes me laugh- it’s “for all intents and purposes”.
I hate when people write “rediculous” instead of “ridiculous”.
I don’t mind so much when people say “who” when “whom” is correct, but when they say “whom” incorrectly, it bugs the crap out of me.
Double negatives are irritating.
And there’s chatspeak, of course, like using “ur” instead of “your” and “you’re”. It makes anybody who uses it seem like a twelve-year-old.
And I can’t stand it when people use too many commas. Somebody did a presentation yesterday regarding a sleep study, and she wrote “studied 15, 20 year olds”. Drives me nuts.
My brother always says “The thing is, is…” You only need one “is”!
I’ve got to let this go, but first: “Reflect back”, “report back”, “remember back”, and “continue on” must die. They are redundant and wrong, and cause nosebleeds.
When people answer, “I’m doing good,” when really they mean “I’m well,” not that they are literally, out in the streets doing good for the world. I have no idea why this one bugs me so much.
Also, when answering the phone and you ask for someone and they say, “This is her,” rather than, “This is she.” Another one that I have to face every day.
“Salsa sauce.
So, translated, sauce sauce.”
Along the same lines: “Rio Grande river” or “the Sierra mountain range”
Or “Manos: the Hands of Fateâ€.
Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
Though if we followed the no redundancy even when mixing languages rule, there are very few rivers we could refer to as the “X River”. Cuyahoga, Mississippi, Ohio, etc.
I remember being a child and reading a book where someone said “Voila!†I played the VIOLA at the time, so I had a hard time with this word. I remember the happy light bulb feeling when I connected the printed “voila†with hearing people say “wa-laa!†– the use in context was the same. (I also may have asked my mom…) People never think to ask these sorts of things?
Not that this jusitification should mean people aren’t allowed to continue to be bugged by this, but I got to thinking about the “… obviously.†thing. I’m less trying to insult the listener by pointing out that what I said should be obvious, as I am making fun of myself for annoyingly or long-windedly explaining something that’s obvious.
@vancity
“”I really like you as a person.”
Really? You like me as a person? Because I really like you as a shoe.”
This phrasing does actually have a logical reason…it means “I respect that you are a human being with positive qualities that can be admired…but I don’t really personally LIKE you. I don’t like you as a friend, or even really as an acquaintance, and certainly not in any romantic way. I don’t think you’re evil or anything, I just don’t personally want to spend any time around you.”
In other words: harsh, but trying to phrase it as nicely (and briefly) as possible.
Also, @Kyle…no. “Could care less” is wrong. You’re correct that it isn’t GRAMMATICALLY wrong, but I will keel over in a dead faint if you can show me one person who has ever, ever intentionally used it that way. People who say “could care less” are not being ironic. They’re being lazy (or ignorant) and dropping the “n’t.”
I will grant you that if you DID use it that way, it would be correct. But that isn’t what people are complaining about here.
“definately.” Ugh. And I know someone who insists on the following: “wierd” “woah” and, oddly – “yey!”
“giving him free reign.” It’s REIN. Has no one read Black Beauty?
“tow the line” it’s TOE the line, it means to be right at the boundary of something but not quite stepping over it.
anything that is supposed to end in “s” but it spelled with a “z”. Bratz dollzzzzz, I’m looking at you.
This one might just be a NJ/NY thing, but in the place where “yadda yadda” might fall, you sometimes get “Buh da buh da buh da.” OMFG, WTF, that bugs.
“””I really like you as a person.”
Really? You like me as a person? Because I really like you as a shoe.”
I used this just the other day in reference to a professor. I think she’s a cool person. She’s a nice and intelligent woman and I’d probably go have a beer with her, but she’s not a very good teacher. So, “I like her as a person.”
I agree with Leigh that those who say “I could care less” are not attempting to be ironic, but are simply being lazy. I’ve never heard a single person use that phrase ironically.
Sars, I’m surprised you didn’t quote your own original and wonderful essay on the topic, “Sincerely Your’s” (https://tomatonation.com/?p=578).
ferretrick: Organic and natural are technical terms in food marketing use. Organic means much more than “pesticide free” (starting with the fact that no artificial fertilizer is allowed), and natural means ‘originally derived from plant or animal sources’, compare to ‘artificial’ which can come from a laboratory.
Hartman’s Law is apropos for posts like this.
(http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002035.html)
Just saw this one in a magazine and realized that it drives me nuts, although you don’t see/hear it very often: not knowing how the DefCon system works.
I know not everyone may have seen “WarGames,” but DefCon 5 does NOT mean that the country is in a state of war. It’s the opposite, “the condition used to designate normal peacetime military readiness.” DefCon 1 is the one which “refers to maximum readiness [and] is reserved for imminent or ongoing attack on US military forces or US territory by a foreign military power.” (Citations from Wikipedia.)
So if you’re describing a chaotic situation or terrible mood, it’s not DefCon 5. It’s DefCon 1.
Anyone for a nice game of chess?
– “Acrost” instead of “across”…there is no T in that word
– “Ya’ll” instead of “y’all”…what exactly do you think the apostrophe is replacing? Same goes for the abbreviation of “continued” as “con’t”
– Keep me “appraised” (OK, you’re worth 50 cents) and “physical year”
– Finally, any noun that is converted to a verb just because the speaker can. I heard a presenter talk about career “pathing” the other day.
Kill me now.
I was just reading Merriam-Webster online, and the site says of the word “myriad”, “Recent criticism of the use of myriad as a noun, both in the plural form myriads and in the phrase a myriad of, seems to reflect a mistaken belief that the word was originally and is still properly only an adjective…. however, the noun is in fact the older form, dating to the 16th century. The noun myriad has appeared in the works of such writers as Milton (plural myriads) and Thoreau (a myriad of), and it continues to occur frequently in reputable English. There is no reason to avoid it.”
I DO NOT CARE. I still hate when people say “I had a myriad of peanuts.” I hate it. It makes me angry. It sounds wrong. You had myriad peanuts, and that is the end of it.
I’m also irritated by the local (I live in New Mexico) tendency to pronounce the silent “g”. It is singing, not singinguh. Thinking, not thinkinguh. And for some insane reason, people here say “sangwich” for “sandwich.” What is that?
Most of all, the way other lawyers write makes me want to kill myself. Just say, “I went to the store,” you ass, not “I perambulated to the retail outlet.” Say, “I sued him,” not “I brought suit against him.” You drive a green car, you dork, you do not “operate a motor vehicle that is green in color.” Sheesh.
I apologize if this has been mentioned, but one that drives me crazy is “I’m nauseous.”
I want to yell, “no, your grammar is nauseous. You are nauseated!”
My college roommate used this all the time. She really was nauseous, though, so I let it slide from her.
@Megan: That one used to bug me too, until a friend of mine informed me that “nauseous” is 1) not incorrect to indicate feeling, as well as causing, nausea; and 2) is actually the older coinage of the two.
I still prefer and use “nauseated,” but don’t correct it in the writing of others anymore.