The Curious Case of the English Language
I'm a bit of a grammar Nazi and word-police type of person. When talking to family/friends I have no problem correcting someone if they happen to use the wrong word. And English certainly has a lot of words that can be mistaken for others and/or mixed up.
The classics, of course, like the there/they're/their and its/it's. Interchanging "good" and "well" when they don't really mean the same thing. Using "decimate" to mean totally destoryed when that's really not what it means. And on occassion my sister has said "mute" when she really meant "moot" and didn't even know that was wrong.
But one that really ticks me off for some reason, and that I see endlessly on the internet, is "peak" or "peek." I don't mean mixing those two words up. I mean using them instead of "pique." As in, "it piqued my interest." I can't tell you how many times I've read an LJ or forum post, or a fic, often times written by people who otherwise seem to have excellent grammar etc (sometimes even fic writers) and seen this mistake.
Do people just not know this word exists? Or what? Have they only ever heard "piqued my interest" in conversation, TV, or movies and just assumed it was one of those other two words without ever bothering to look them up? I can't figure it out. I can't even think of a time when I saw the phrase used correctly on the internet!
And yes, I just saw this mistake in yet another LJ post which is what triggered this rant.
The classics, of course, like the there/they're/their and its/it's. Interchanging "good" and "well" when they don't really mean the same thing. Using "decimate" to mean totally destoryed when that's really not what it means. And on occassion my sister has said "mute" when she really meant "moot" and didn't even know that was wrong.
But one that really ticks me off for some reason, and that I see endlessly on the internet, is "peak" or "peek." I don't mean mixing those two words up. I mean using them instead of "pique." As in, "it piqued my interest." I can't tell you how many times I've read an LJ or forum post, or a fic, often times written by people who otherwise seem to have excellent grammar etc (sometimes even fic writers) and seen this mistake.
Do people just not know this word exists? Or what? Have they only ever heard "piqued my interest" in conversation, TV, or movies and just assumed it was one of those other two words without ever bothering to look them up? I can't figure it out. I can't even think of a time when I saw the phrase used correctly on the internet!
And yes, I just saw this mistake in yet another LJ post which is what triggered this rant.