David K. Israel
URLs with incorrect grammar
by David K. Israel - January 27, 2009 - 6:10 PM

ob.jpg

Anyone else bothered by the grammar here? Fun idea, but really?

Besides WouldYouDoThatIfBarackWasWatching.com, any other URLs with poor grammar we need to know about? Drop a comment below and I’ll work on putting together a top-10 list and will publish it here next week.

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Comments (44)

  1. “radical” does not mean extreme, actually the opposite – fundamental.

    “troop” is a group of soldiers – not an individual. there aren’t 100,000 “troops” in iraq … there is a much smaller number of groups.

    both of these grmmatical abuse drive me nuts as they are routinely misused by folks that are in the writing business

    posted by Mike Stanton on 1-27-2009 at 6:18 pm

  2. Google.com should technically be Googol.com.

    posted by Johnny D. on 1-27-2009 at 6:21 pm

  3. Dumb question, maybe, but what’s wrong with that example?

    Reads fine to me, informal at most.

    posted by James on 1-27-2009 at 6:41 pm

  4. James, I was wondering the same thing. “You’re” is correct. “was watching” is correct. That’s subjunctive tense. So, what’s the problem?

    posted by Jenny M on 1-27-2009 at 6:43 pm

  5. Holy crap, it should be if Obama were watching. DUH. Scratch my other post; I am a dope.

    posted by Jenny M on 1-27-2009 at 6:45 pm

  6. Should it be “Would you still be doing…”?

    posted by Erin S. on 1-27-2009 at 6:53 pm

  7. The link on my name goes to englishclub.com where they explain the subjunctive tense in more detail. The grammar “error” is simply a difference between informal usage and formal usage. It’s a poor choice for an example, and the author should come up with better one for his article, otherwise he will sound like a pretentious and out-of-touch grammar snob.

    posted by Tony on 1-27-2009 at 7:04 pm

  8. it should be “…were watching”, but who really cares?

    posted by richard on 1-27-2009 at 7:06 pm

  9. Not a URL, but as a kid my mom always hated the band name Smash Mouth. She always complained, “It should be ‘Smashing the Mouths’”

    Cool mom, but not that hip.

    posted by NateJ on 1-27-2009 at 7:15 pm

  10. Mike Stanton:
    If you check dictionary.com – radical means both extreme and fundamental.

    posted by DanB on 1-27-2009 at 7:19 pm

  11. “both of these grmmatical abuse drive me nuts as they are routinely misused by folks that are in the writing business”

    Did you drive yourself crazy on this one Mike? LOL, had to do it.

    posted by Billy on 1-27-2009 at 7:20 pm

  12. I’m bothered more by the premise of the website.

    Big brother is watching over you. If Barack wouldn’t like what you’re doing, you should reconsider. Don’t rock the hope.

    posted by PartiallyDeflected on 1-27-2009 at 7:29 pm

  13. All of the websites with missing vowels. Flickr started it and now many others are doing the same.

    blogr, grabbr, scanr, socializr, ect.

    posted by Jordan on 1-27-2009 at 8:14 pm

  14. Sorry Mike, but troop in the military is slang. As a Supervisor, I have 2 troops under me. Actually, the Air Force doesn’t like that term so I have 2 Airmen under me. But same concept.

    posted by Kevin on 1-27-2009 at 8:19 pm

  15. lol…It’s funny watching you people make so many mistakes trying to talk about making mistakes. Give yourselves a nice kick in the arse.

    posted by SD on 1-27-2009 at 8:55 pm

  16. It bothers me when news anchors say, “Join John and myself later at 6″….It should be join John and ME…Myself is reflexive and should be used to refer to things that you do to yourself. i.e, the old song, “I touch myself….” Finally, I’m annoyed when people use “ect.” The proper spelling is “etc.”, short for “et cetera”.

    Jordan, we have a barber shop where I live called “urban stylez”. Drives me nuts.

    posted by Christy on 1-27-2009 at 9:11 pm

  17. This isn’t a grammatically-incorrect URL, but a URL that could have significantly different meanings depending on where you put the space:

    whorepresents.com

    (I’ll leave it to all of you very smart people to decide where the spaces go.)

    This is a real site, by the way.

    posted by Liz on 1-27-2009 at 9:39 pm

  18. This was too much fun. As a grammar fiend, and a proud member of the facebook group, “I judge you when you use poor grammar,” I had fun putting the following list together. Enjoy the bonus section, too: “URLs With Onomatopoeia.”

    Poor Grammar:
    http://www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com –Slightly racist, but more importantly, it uses the word “stuff.”

    http://www.raindrops2refuge.org – A nice thought, but I guess “raindropstorefuge” was already taken.

    All the ‘gimmes’:
    http://www.gimmecoffee.com
    http://www.gimmeshoes.com
    http://www.gimmetinnitus.blogspot.com I understand the shoes and coffee, but tinnitus? Why would I want anyone to gimme that when it is already occurring from poor grammar?

    Here’s a double whammy:
    http://www.gimmeyourstuff.blogspot.com
    http://www.hollabacknyc.blogspot.com – This is a site that empowers New Yorkers to respond to verbal aggression in the streets. It empowers me to holla back to bad grammar with worser grammar.

    http://www.aintitcool.com Yes, yes it is.
    http://www.youaintnopicasso.com No, no you ain’t.

    http://www.yallpolitics.com This isn’t even the correct usage of ‘y’all.’ It should be y’all’s (plural possessive). Just ask The Texan in Texas Monthly if y’all are unsure.

    Onomatopoeia urls:

    http://www.chompchomp.com – Grammar explanations, handouts for teachers and students, and interactive exercises

    http://www.buzzflash.com – Daily headlines

    http://www.chachinggroup.com – Website design

    http://www.splishsplash.com – Site for a water theme park

    http://www.mrpophistory.com – Internet archives of pop culture history throughout the decades.

    posted by Hillary on 1-27-2009 at 9:56 pm

  19. Oh yea, you’re right Christy. I knew it was short for “et cetera” but always spelt it ect.

    I shall no longer do that, thank you!

    posted by Jordan on 1-27-2009 at 10:33 pm

  20. @Mike Stanton: I think you misunderstand the usage of “troop” — it can mean a group of soldiers in the sense that “flock” means a group of birds; you can say “a flock of 100 birds” but you wouldn’t say “100 flock”. Alternatively, troop is a cavalry term for a unit consisting of two cavalry platoons and a small command unit, but then you could have a plural of troops if you are describing multiple units.

    But I think we should regard colloquial definitions of words as grammatically correct — as Kevin mentions, “troop” is commonly interchanged with “soldier”.

    posted by Wilson on 1-27-2009 at 10:39 pm

  21. “If Barack Obama was watching you, would you still do whatever it is you plan to do?”

    Uhm, how about arranging the question this way?

    posted by Shaunnee on 1-27-2009 at 11:06 pm

  22. Thanks Hillary! Some of those are priceless.

    posted by David K. Israel on 1-27-2009 at 11:29 pm

  23. I’m with you, PartiallyDeflected–this site is just more pathetic messianization of Obama.

    posted by Eve on 1-27-2009 at 11:52 pm

  24. If you want to talk about URLs with double meanings (life the aforementioned whorepresents.com), you’ve got to throw in penisland.com. Its not what you think it is.

    posted by Mike on 1-28-2009 at 1:36 am

  25. I’m a copy editor, so I take grammar very seriously when I’m getting paid. At night I can finally take that stick out of my ass. It feels good you guys, you should try it and stuff.

    posted by there are better things to worry about on 1-28-2009 at 2:10 am

  26. http://www.nuklearpower.com

    Shouldn’t it technically be NuclearPower? Its only incorrect spelling, I know… but its a great website and it was the first thing I thought of. GO 8-BIT THEATRE!

    posted by Kate on 1-28-2009 at 2:24 am

  27. @Hillary – if it’s any consolation, Gimme! has some of the best coffee I’ve tasted (or perhaps it’s because the only competition on campus was Seattle’s Best which, frankly, sucks).

    posted by Debbie on 1-28-2009 at 3:31 am

  28. If nothing else, I have learned to never to give an absolute answer on the internet. There’s always someone lurking, waiting to show how wrong you are.

    posted by Dep103 on 1-28-2009 at 6:48 am

  29. Thank you Johnny D.! Google IS misspelled. I’ve been saying that for years. What a bunch of CS geeks posing as mathematicians.

    posted by Joel on 1-28-2009 at 9:01 am

  30. http://www.postcardsfromyomomma.com is hysterical despite the “yo.”

    posted by WooHoo on 1-28-2009 at 10:12 am

  31. Forget the grammar, when did we start equating Obama and Jesus? I’ve heard people my whole life say “would you do that if Jesus were watching?” What’s up with substituting Obama? Why would the fact that Obama is watching effect what I’m doing at all??

    reCaptcha: lives pre-empted

    Pretty appropriate considering his pro-abortion stance.

    posted by Heather Dawn on 1-28-2009 at 12:21 pm

  32. “Proper Grammer” is only what we all agree it is. “Proper Grammer” is never static and evolves with our spoken grammer. With the advent of the internet and the speed at which it changes our language, you pretentios asses who still use “whom” will be left far in the past with people who still think that Greek is a language everyone should study. JEEZ-get yer heds out yer asss

    posted by rT on 1-28-2009 at 12:28 pm

  33. icanhascheezburger.com/

    That’s the first one that came to my mind.

    posted by Ben on 1-28-2009 at 12:38 pm

  34. Perhaps the only thing more annoying than people complaining about bad grammar is people complaining about people complaining about bad grammar.

    posted by amber on 1-28-2009 at 12:38 pm

  35. Hillary, I totally disagree with the y’all thing. As a Louisianian, I consider myself to be an expert on the usage of the word y’all. It is pretty much the only word I can use correctly. Y’all does not require an “s” to be possessive.
    Example: I was over at y’all house the other day.
    or
    I ate one of y’all hamburgers, and they were mighty tasty.

    Texas can suck it.

    posted by Stephanie on 1-28-2009 at 1:36 pm

  36. rT, you are just making up excuses, because you can’t spell.

    posted by stephanie on 1-28-2009 at 1:40 pm

  37. gotmilk.com

    The “got milk” campaign bothers me. No, I don’t HAVE any milk.

    posted by Jeff on 1-28-2009 at 2:30 pm

  38. I have to agree with rT. I took a few Linguistics courses in college, and it really changed the way I look at language. My professor changed my world when she declared one day that, “It is impossible to make a grammatical mistake in your native dialect.”

    Wait, what?

    Dialect refers to the specific way one’s group speaks–it differs by region, and race, and culture, among other things and one does not make a mistake in their native dialect unless inebriated or otherwise compromised. For communication purposes, Americans tend to switch from their native dialect to the Standard English Dialect. This Dialect is the basis for all the grammatical mistakes we are attacking here.

    I loved this course. It helped me lighten up AND gave me a new respect for others’ differences. :)

    posted by orange on 1-28-2009 at 2:47 pm

  39. As another copy editor, I agree that I don’t care as much about this kind of thing when I’m not being paid to. (See? I just ended a sentence with a preposition.)

    That said, rT is throwing stones at glass houses when he calls others asses. Celebrating illiteracy and careless use of language is idiotic. There’s nothing pretentious about knowing how to use the word “whom”. And, knowing a smattering of Greek root words can be helpful in deciphering unfamiliar English words.

    And while it’s true that language is always evolving, that doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all. The evolution of language is a dialectic. On one side are the radicals who use it in new ways, and on the other are the conservatives who are sticklers for traditional rules of spelling and grammar. Between them, the language slowly evolves, forcing new words and grammar to prove their worth. Where language is useful and precise, it deserves to survive. Where it isn’t, it doesn’t.

    To paraphrase a source I wish I could remember, yes, language evolves, but that doesn’t mean we should let it devolve from fingers to flippers.

    posted by Peter Lynn on 1-28-2009 at 3:58 pm

  40. Stephanie,

    Obviously, if you believe that the only word you can use correctly is “y’all”, then your life is defintely sadder as it is obvious that you are not even using that word correctly.”Y’all” is a contraction of the words “you” and “all”. Therefore, it is by definition plural and would require an s to be plural possessive. The examples you list would be better substituted with the word “your” as the context of the sentence indicates a singular meaning. Also, just so you know, I was born in Louisiana and have lived their and occasionally in Mississippi all my life which is why I am so critical of anyone who claims to be an expert on the word’s usage just because she’s from Louisiana.

    posted by Ryan on 1-28-2009 at 4:21 pm

  41. Ah, I feel your collective pain.

    While I can’t think of websites that peeve my grammatical senses, I’ve been tilting at a windmill regarding my local high school’s nickname. They are the ‘Vanguards’. My issue is that ‘vanguard’ is already plural (much like the troop argument above). Vanguard = a group of soldiers. So when I’m cheering on the football team, I shouldn’t be yelling “Go Vanguards!”, it should be “Go Vanguard!”.

    Of course, I live down the road from Lands’ End, so maybe it’s in the water.

    posted by bajakirch on 1-28-2009 at 5:59 pm

  42. Grammar does not equal spelling, nor does incorrect grammar mean less-than-awesome word choice, such as “stuff”. It’s a perfectly good, if informal and imprecise, word and is used correctly in “stuff white people like”.
    Strunk & White are your humorous uncle with the good advice, not your drill sergeant.

    posted by Emilimily on 1-29-2009 at 11:46 am

  43. David K. Israel,

    Your welcome! Its my pleasure.

    ; )

    posted by Hillary on 1-29-2009 at 9:34 pm

  44. it really should be “trooper” for just on soldier instead of “troops”. So for example, 100,000 troops x 30 troopers in each unit would be a lot more than 100,000 “troops”!

    Liz: that reminds me of http://www.penisland.net

    bwahahaha!!!

    posted by Kate on 2-5-2009 at 8:45 pm

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