Grammar Pet Peeves

All writers have certain pet peeves when it comes to improper grammar. Although I did not major in English, nor do I quite consider myself a grammar expert, I do consider myself a writer, so I thought I should take a moment to list some of my personal grammar pet peeves here. 

“Try To” vs. “Try And”

A common phrase one might use is, “I will try and do that for you.” This probably sounds natural to most people, but it’s grammatically incorrect. 
“I will try to do that for you” is the proper form of the sentence. Recalling some basics from English class, a complete sentence only has to consist of a subject and a verb. In the proper form of the sentence above, “I” is the subject and “will try” is the verb. However, if “and” is used instead of “to”, it can create confusion over which verb (“try” or “do) is associated with the subject, or whether or not there is actually a compound verb (both “try” and “do”). Further, the transitive phrase “to do” is broken if “and” takes the place of “to”. Now, I don’t imagine that those things come to mind for the average person, but the point is that “try to” is the phrase that ought to be used.

Plurals vs. Possessives

I’ve seen some differing opinions about some of this, but here’s my preferred assessment of plurals vs. possessives. In English, the plural form of a noun frequently ends with the letter “s”. A simple example would be the word cat, where the plural form is cats. Too often I see the use of an apostrophe before the “s” when the context clearly indicates the plural form is meant (e.g. “I love my cat’s”). This is incorrect, as the apostrophe-“s” should be used only when referring to something belonging to or related to the noun, such as the cat’s fur, or the cat’s meow.

Most people understand and apply the above correctly, but it can become confusing when applied to acronyms and initialisms. In my work my coworkers and I commonly use the initialisms MSB (main switchboard) and PDU (Power Distribution Unit). I pluralize these initialisms as MSBs and PDUs, following the rule of using only the letter “s” to refer to multiple units. However, in the course of reading work emails and reviewing project-related documentation I have encountered many instances of “MSB’s” and “PDU’s”. When I point out that I consider this an error, many adjust to using only an “s”, but one person told me it helps him keep things clear in some cases. For instance, when using all caps (as is common on engineering drawings), the “apostrophe-s” makes it clear that the plural form is being used as opposed to an unfamiliar initialism (“PDU’S” vs. “PDUS”). I understand the argument he presented, but in such cases I would just make the “s” lowercase.

Anyway vs. Anyways

I’ll keep my comments on this third pet peeve short. Technically, probably both anyway and anyways are acceptable words to use in speech. However, “anyway” is an adverb, and adverbs do not have plural forms, so it is more proper to use “anyway” without the “s” in writing. My very strong preference is for “anyway” (no “s”), so I will cringe and emphatically, mentally correct anyone who says “anyways”.