December daily: Grammar pet peeves

terrio prompts: Just for fun: What are your top 5 grammatical pet peeves? (can also include misspellings, misused words, etc.)

My number 1 pet peeve is grammatical errors that spring from people trying to be more correct -- like when people think that "between you and I" sounds more elevated and formal than "between you and me."

I hate it when people mix up "ostensibly" with "ostentatiously." This happens more than you might think.

In journalism school, they taught us that if you were making a comparison, and there was going to be a verb after your comparison word, then your comparison word needed to be "as" rather than "like." (You know. "Like a virgin," but "as a cigarette should.") I've about given up on that one -- sticking to it makes you sound excessively formal, like saying "It is I" -- but "like I said" still sets my teeth on edge.

In writing, I'm annoyed to an irrational degree by the lack of the comma that signifies direct address. ("Sherlock, is that my shoe?" "You should recognize your own shoes, John." "You idiot, the reason I didn't recognize it is that I've never seen it on fire before.") It seems to me that writers in England view this comma as optional. It is not optional.

And this isn't really grammar, though it's disguised as grammar: I hate to read something where the author writes this cutesy little opening that says, "Saying 'he or she' all the time is such a huge distraction and burden that I'm not going to do it; I'm just going to default to 'he.'" Funny how they never, ever, ever have that introduction and then say, "So I'm going to call everyone 'she,' and trust my male readers to be able to make the imaginative leap." Also, using gender-neutral language (in material that's written and edited, no less!) is just not that damned difficult.