Grammar Gripes

Got a gripe about bad grammar or diction?

I hate it when folks say anxious when they mean eager.

Ditto incredible when very will do.

How about, "I had went to the store when the delivery man came." EEEEKKKK. Like nails on a blackboard.

I worry sometimes about being too prissy, too strict in my annoyance when I hear the English language misued. Any language changes, modifies, flows and adapts to new usage. The misuse of hopefully for instance is ubiquitous.

The Vocalbula Review delves into mysteries of language.

"Hopefully" is an adverb qualifying a verb.

"Hopefully" describes the way (or the spirit in which) the verb is/was performed.

"The grapes looked too high but Aesop's wolf jumped hopefully (he hoped to grasp them)".

Unfortunately the word is abused by those who live in fear of hubris or of "tempting Providence" and such mortal dangers:

where such people at one time never made an appointment without uttering the proviso, "God Willing!" they now utter the cringing (and ungrammatical) "Hopefully".

Nome sane? [Know what I'm saying?]

Comments

[nonni walters]

ditto that. here's another one: he wished he was on vacation. he wished he WERE on vacation. nyw

[Sarabaite]

"Hah!" to the prudes:
Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

hopefully (adv.)


is a sentence adverb that has raised the hackles of some conservatives, but probably its overuse has made most of the trouble; it had been a perfectly good sentence adverb for generations before the recent objections were heard. Those who don’t like it usually urge that I hope that or It is hoped that be used instead, but hopefully is in fact Standard, just as are most other sentence adverbs

On the other hand, I cannot understand why "as to" is considered acceptable. "About" or "concerning" makes sense. Linking two prepostions together when one will do sounds ridiculous. However, since I can't find any websites citing a complaint with "as to," I'll have to resign myself to my idiosyncratic objections on the matter.