What Peeves you?

[enterprise01 0]

Bad punctuation irks me, like when someone places the period on the outside of the sentence (instead of where it belongs.) Especially teachers since they are apparently teaching kids wrong!

Hate to tell you, but you're wrong on that one. The period belongs outside the parenthesis if the parenthetical is phrase that is part of a larger sentence. It belongs inside the parenthesis if the parenthetical is a complete sentence that stands on its own.

Example: I hate shopping for swimsuits (as we all do).

Example: (I’m practically suicidal after a day of shopping.)

[kyethra 0]

One thing my wonderful husband does that makes me want to call in professional help or a tv show or somebody or something is the way he makes a mess. I will clean something off, like say the couch or the entertainment center. After I have cleaned it off I will talk to him and explain how it is organized and how it needs to stay clean and that he needs to find another place to put all his stuff and I don't care if his office is full of junk because he can clean that and put stuff in there. I tell him it is important to me that he keeps things clean. I make him promise he will keep things clean. Does he keep things clean? Nope. Pretty soon there will be all sorts of mess like papers all over the couch or the entertainment center along with his excuses. That makes me want to go all radioactive and flame-like like that one guy on hereos. I dream of hurting him when he does that. When I explained that to him I think he started to understand, and now he says he's going to clean up this or that. Of course his plans for cleaning up aren't actually plans for cleaning up. His plans for cleaning up involve contrustion projects that will somehow enable him in some roundabout way to clean up. Yeesh. Bring on the ninjas.

[momlambert 77]

Bad punctuation irks me, like when someone places the period on the outside of the sentence (instead of where it belongs.)

Sorry, Valley Girl, but it should be "(instead of where it belongs)." The punctuation goes outside of the parentheses in that case. (Bad punctuation irks me, too)! It also bugs me when people but the period outside of the quotation marks when it's not part of the quote. Ex: Sue said, "he better not go there". Argh!

[momlambert 77]

Sorry, Valley Girl, but it should be "(instead of where it belongs)." The punctuation goes outside of the parentheses in that case. (Bad punctuation irks me, too)! It also bugs me when people but the period outside of the quotation marks when it's not part of the quote. Ex: Sue said, "he better not go there". Argh!

Hmmm. I just read Enterprise's quote and, according to her, I should have written (Bad punctuation irks me, too!) I think that can be the case but I believe is only true if that parenthetical is included within a sentence and the punctuation applies only to the parenthetical--then you still need a period after the parentheses. Ex: John told Sue he loves her (can you believe that?)! However, my punctuation rules are archaic at times so she could be right about that.

[Valley Girl 0]

Hey, what do you expect from a blonde Val? Or is it blond?

[anonemouse 1]

Women are blonde, men are blond. I just learned that yesterday, in fact!

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I didn't know that. Wonder why?

[anonemouse 1]

I think it is just one of the quirks of the English language. Here's the entry I learned it in (it was a listing of pet-peeves in online fanfiction):

Dumb Blond[e]: Chris is a blond. Mary is a blonde. This is one of the few adjectives in the English language to make this kind of masculine/feminine distinction. For some reason it's more irksome to see Chris as a blonde than Mary as a blond. Maybe blond will eventually take over for both. In the meantime - well, Chris just isn't the type to be a cross dresser.