Hi. My name is John, and I'm a word snob.

My wife has a number of "food issues." Foods that she will not eat, or won't eat except in certain ways or under certain conditions. She has said that there can't be any gristle or fat on her meat...nothing to remind her that it came from an animal. She used to say "yucky broccoli" is if it were one word. I tease her about being a food snob.

That being said, I have to own up to being a word snob. I am. Grammar mistakes rub me the wrong way. People with Master's degrees who say fustrated or flustrated for example. Or writing sillyness instead of silliness or other word where they y should be changed to an ie. Using there instead of their or them instead of those are less frustrating, in that they are actual words. (Still, I can appreciate good Tigger words, such as ridictical and unbusticated as they are meant to be tongue in cheek.)

My biggest pet peeve is the gratuitous use of the apostrophe. (Gasp!) I know, the very phrase is snobbish. Still, it bothers me (note that I didn't write it bother's me). It's like getting carried away with the decorations until a room just looks gaudy. The simplest way to explain the rule is that you use an apostrophe to show possession or to replace something missing (like the o from is not becoming isn't).

Why do these things bother me? I'm not sure. Between being an avid reader (bordering on voracious) and grammar classes I took in college, I know a great deal about how words should be put together. I also think you sell yourself short when you speak poorly (think about every sterotype of a redneck or trailer trash...speaking poorly is always a part of selling that image).

So, yes, I am a snob. I never said I was perfect.


Thanks to ijnek/syel, Eva the Weaver and kokogiak for allowing use of their pictures.