WELCOME TO TODAY'S EPISODE OF PET PEEVES WITH JUDI

Today's pet peeve is especially for the NBC commentators at the Olympics:

What is wrong with the following statement?

"He is standing beside you and I."

How 'bout this one?

"She enjoyed talking with you and I after the event."

And this?

"The skiers are skiing quickly past you and I while we talk about their skiiing."

Sensing a pattern? Ask someone who works "under" you what is wrong with the statements. Go on, we'll wait.

Couldn't find anyone? We'll give you a hint: Remove the "you and" from each sentence and see how stupid it sounds.

This has been today's pet peeve, just between you and ....

Comments

[trustf8]

do - re - MI!!!!!

[Pannus]

Isn't it always about me?

There is no I in team, but there is me.

[ArcticAl]

Youse americans all talc funnie anyways...

[nursecindy]

I agree judi! I also hate it when they say things like, her triple toe loop wasn't tight enough, or they were out of sync on that spin. Especially since most of these commentators couldn't walk across an ice rink holding onto a zamboni without falling down.

[SW]

Airheads. Nuff said.

[Just Ducky]

Thanks, judi, I'm glad I'm not the only one yelling at the announcers when they mangle the English language. In front of millions of people, for heaven's sake.

[Elon]

Cindy, that is their job, though. I can't catch every pop-fly either, but I do know that every major league player can normally grab 'em blindfolded. So I can call a miss an "error". Same there, I think. I have no idea what a triple toe-loop is, but if it is the figure-skating equivalent of a dropped catch, that is exactly what commentators should say.

[Loudmouth]

...the I of the beholder.

[funniegrrl]

Actually, nursecindy, the commenters who say things like that are athletes/coaches themselves. Ice skating in particular -- Dick Button (multiple golds in the 40's-50's), Scott Hamilton (gold), Sandra Bezic (Canadian champion and choreographer of many many champion routines like Brian Boitano, Kristi Yamaguchi, etc. etc.).

[Rayne]

My complaint is that NBC won't show the coverage on both coasts at the same time. We on the west coast get spoiled inadvertently left and right because we have to wait three hours to see what the rest of the world, it seems, already has...

[Rayne]

and judi, yes, lol. Bad language, commentators. Bad, bad.

[Bill Walsh]

How about their apparent ignorance of the name "Turin," for which they prefer the stylin' '70s Ford Torino?

[Horace LaBadie]

They all involve NBC and the Winter Olympics, neither of which would me watch.

[Siouxie]

What is wrong with the following statement?

"He is standing beside you and I."

----------

Clearly he should have been sitting.

*hair flip*

[Diva]

*applauds judi with gusto!!!*

[trustf8]

Ay Yi Yi ...

[Tinkerbell]

IMO, when young schoolkids were told that "you and me" was wrong as the subject of a sentence, they believed that phrase was always incorrect. (Although I'm not a full-fledged grammar police officer, I am active in the spelling squad.)

[Siouxie]

Seriously, I tune off when the commentators start yapping.

[zman_miami]

Finally someone else who noticed... and I thought "me" was the only one.

[trustf8]

Me-- people su-k

[Steve Haller]

Still not nearly as grating as Jack Bauer saying "nucular"...

[George W Bush]

?? What's wrong with that??

[Mark O'Polo]

I'm surprised that broadcast professionals haven't ever heard the (apparently widely-known) rule of thumb which dictates that when you're (not yore) unsure whether "I" or "me" is correct, you should substitute "myself." That makes things much easier, if you ask myself.

[I]

What is the problem?

[Wes S.]

At least Jack isn't calling combat medics "corpse-men..."

[ken in jax]

Perhaps we need to Ask Mr. Language Person what he thinks.

[Roger Nattkemper]

What's happened to "us"?

[NotMyUsualNic]

"Anyways?" Do you also say "anyhows?" Why would you pluralize anyway???

I also don't recall...ever...being taught to say "Where are you at?" by any English teacher.

[Jeff Meyerson]

Thanks for bringing a little sanity to the situation, Judi. Most commentators are paid by NBC to tout Americans no matter how poorly they do, it seems.

This morning on TODAY they began the recap of yesterday's results by showing one of the US pairs skating teams. After praising how well they'd done and how they'd scored their highest total ever, the announcer tried to slip in the line that they were in tenth place.

Please! You tell us about the Olympic spirit of brotherhood, etc. and then get more xenophobic than Dick Cheney.

[Horace LaBadie]

Mr. Language Person has advocated execution without trial for offenders who say "between you and I," so I imagine that waterboarding would be appropriate for those guilty of this offense.

[cry babies]

anybody who says 'i sent that in too' ... translation: ME! ME! ME!!!!

[mudstuffin]

"Perhaps we need to Ask Mr. Language Person what he thinks."

i can't believe it took that long for one of y'all to state the obvious. thanks ken.

as far as this uninformed half-wit can tell, there are three english languages.

1. there is a correct english, espoused by many (*coff* *coff* *diva* *judi* *coff*) but spoken by no-one.

2. there is the english we were taught in school, which afforementioned espousers have informed me is incorrect.

3. then there is the english that normal people actually speak.

4. then there's those people who "put on airs" (fart) by eschewing capitalization and buggering punctuation as an affectation and several other words that end in "ation".

[nursecindy]

Make their mistake fun! Everytime they say 'you and I' drink! And, between you and me, Bob Costas is annoying and couldn't skate if his pants were on fire.

[Tash]

Send more of these to myself, and keep them between you and I, Judi.

[fivver]

What's happened to "us"?

Posted by: Roger Nattkemper | February 15, 2010 at 03:42 PM

We've grown apart. It wasn't you but I.

[nursecindy]

We've grown apart. It wasn't you but I.

Posted by: fivver | February 15, 2010 at 04:22 PM

Which all women know is 'manspeak' for, "It was you."

[Steve Haller]

"4. then there's those people who "put on airs" (fart) by eschewing capitalization ..."

Posted by: mudstuffin
______

Careful, mud, judi's already pissed off enough as it is...

[judi]

oh no, me amn't, steve! ;) me don't mind if people wanna call we elitists. us does get tired of hearing all the ignorant people on tv, since them should know better, but it's not really that big a deal to I how 'normal' people want to talk.

[Clankazoid]

No one nose how to right good no more.

[Diva]

Hey, mud?

Love,

Diva

[Siouxie]

judi, me head just exploded.

[Mike]

I'm in love
With a proofreading woman
Gonna love her till the day I die
She's got a big dictionary
Real good grammar
She never says "between you and I"

[Horace LaBadie]

Judi, call Bombast, which recently purchased NBC, and complain. They will do everything in their power to correct the common taters, or disconnect your cable.

[Andy Hoover]

Didn't Dave, Mr Grammar himself, tell us that the number one rule of grammar is "'me' is always wrong"?

[padraig]

OK, here's MY pet language peeve:

"The team were getting off the plane."

Apparently some people by virtue of being English decided a few years back that group nouns like "team" should be considered PLURAL in English. I was originally taught that the noun was plural only when it was in the plural form. Green Bay WAS on the plane, but the Packers WERE on the plane. Here's why the new "correct" way is stupid:

1) What if more than one team was getting off the plane? (Yes, I said "was", so shoot me.)

2) In one way or another, ALL nouns represent groups, unless you're talking about quarks. And it's pretty hard to find just one of those, lemme tell ya.

Seems like I mostly hear this dumb-@$$ rule applied when some sporting toff is trying to convince us he is better educated than the soccer thugs he is describing.

[padraig]

"oh no, me amn't, steve!"

Oh no, judi's been replaced by bizarro judi!

[judi]

actually padraig, that is the way they speak in the UK, at least in my experience (actual Brits may correct me!). It's "correct" English there to use team as a plural, but it's not in the US. So if you hear Americans doing that, they are indeed wrong, but if they're from England, i think it's okay! ;)

[Horace LaBadie]

Pad, the language police are on the way.

[Suzy Q]

It drove me NUTS last night when the commentators were bloviating over the awards ceremony for the women's moguls. And blocking the view, too! Grrrrr.

[Lairbo]

"I" before "E", except after (NB)C.

SZYQ: I, too.

[Horace LaBadie]

Famously, "The Birds is coming."

[queensbee]

agreed judi! i also hate it when interviewees say things like: we had went to the..... OR him and me ate dinner... both those make me lose me appetite. not watching the Olympics - just one gigantic commercial. cant take it.

[Guin]

I'd be happy to pay some sort of flat fee to be able to watch the Olympic events live, with NO COMMENTARY, just straight video of each competitor and the scores running across the crawl. I refuse to watch network tv for all the reasons above.

[Loudmouth]

I ain't gonna say me to youse. Ugh, me in heap big trouble.

[trustf8]

Nothing worse than that humorless bore, bob-what's-up-wit-cher-hair-costas.

(sorry about the 'wit-cher', judi)

[Horace LaBadie]

Is peef the singular of peeves?

[pogo]

All y'all, this is just the sort of errant pedantry up with which I shall not put!
- with some apologies to Sir Winston

[Lairbo]

Make that "I" before "ME".

[Chris]

It's amazing how many people (including those who are on camera as a profession), out of fear of using "me" when they should use "I", default to using "I" whether or not they should. Happens ALL THE TIME!!!

[Cheesewiz]

Three cheers for Judi!

Maybe four.

[nursecindy]

Pogo, here in the south it is not necessary to say all before y'all. We also say you'uns as in, "Where you'uns going?" The correct answer is always, " Over yonder for a bit. We ain't taking the young'uns either."

[nursecindy]

I should probably translate that. "Where you'uns going?"-"Where are you and your friend going?"
" Over yonder for a bit. We ain't taking the young'uns either." --"Somewhere other than here. We will not be taking the children with us."

[Tash]

Prad -- YES that also has been bugging I. Just between you and myself. The happy couple are going for a walk.

[ibid]

“I” before “e” except after “c?” Weird, maybe science can fix this.

[Renee (the First)]

I know what you mean, judi. But in this particular Olympics, what's bugging me even more is that no one can seem to keep their countries straight. Yesterday, thanks to one such foul-up, I got to hear this gem after the pairs' short program: "It'll be a battle between the Russians and the Chinese [pause, pause, pause] with the Germans in between." And then this morning, Mirai Nagasu of the U.S. suddenly belonged to Japan. Don't they have people to keep track of these things?

[Merri Lee]

I cannot be more angry that the games are on a tape delay on the West Coast. it was bad enough when the games were live on the east coast (if they had an 8pm eastern start)when the games were in Beijing, but why must I watch something tape delayed on my own coast?

The low light of the games has been the spoiler VISA commercials; e.g., an ad ran congratulating the first American to medal in the nordic combined. This immediatly preceded Bob Costas announcing , "history is made at the games..." Thanks Bob, Morgan Freeman just told me that.

[Ralph]

"You and me" might have been the correct pluperfect subjunctive accusative, but "you and I" is not the correct disjunctive particulate for formal speech. It should be "us guys," as in "He is standing beside us guys, so youse guys can fuggedaboutit."

[Steve D]

"How about their apparent ignorance of the name "Turin," for which they prefer the stylin' '70s Ford Torino?"

Because the name of Turin in Italian (that's where it is) is "Torino."

[mikey]

What i hate is this:

Myself and Jud went out to shoot possum.

MYSELF?????

IF we shoot people who say this can we get off with justifiable homicide?

[Dad-O-Lot]

Judi is actually Mr. Grammar Person?????

I agree with the peeve.

or would that be Me agree with the peeve?

[Mike]

Last night I heard Mary Carillo tell Bob Costas, "Ninety percent of Canadians live between their border and ours."

[Allen at Division]

Bill, far be it from me to offer a defense for these linguistic illiterati, but...in Italy, the city we refer to as "Torino" is called "Turin". Perhaps an understandable confusion.

[Indignation Junkie]

Do we talk about Venezia and Firenze and Roma? No, we do not. The English name for the place Italians call "Torino" is "Turin," as in Shroud of. Calling it "Torino" when you're speaking English is not an understandable confusion. It's pretentiousness, multiplied by idiocy, to the power of d***waddishness.

[Kristina L.]

Guin, some TV's have a mute button. That might work for you.

I also hate it when people who aught to know better misuse the English language that badly ("you and I" when it should be "you and me"). I remember, before I was 10 years old, my parents telling me the rule about taking out "you and" nd hearing what sounded right. Also, when I was a kid and said something like "Can me and Erik go play", they'd combine the sound of "me and" to get "mean" and say "Mean Erik? Erik's not mean". I still want to do that when I hear people say "me and < someone else >".

And don't get me started about "it's" vs. "its". So many intelligent, college-educated people do not remember which to use or just don't care!

[christine]

My peeves are the tragic punctuation abuse of the innocent apostrophe. Does anyone remember the difference between plurals, contractions and possessives? What is WRONG with you people? The other big one is the demise of the the adverb. I hear it all the time by newscasters and on ads and see it in papers. No, dummies, it does not "go good." Most adverbs now dwell in grammar heaven.

[oneblankspace]

I have to remind you that it is pronounced of'en, not oft-en. Do you people who say oft-en use fabric soft-ener?

That, and farther/further, less/fewer, mobile phone for portable phone, have went....