Grammar pet peeves:

”Across the world. Last time I checked, the world was still round. You don’t go across something round, you go around it.”

”Refer back, revert back, return back. I guess folks don’t understand that the re- prefix means back, again, anew.”

”Wa-lah. I’m not sure how it is spelled, because it is not a word. It is an uneducated person’s version of ‘voila.’ That’s French, folks. If you can’t pronounce the word, don’t use it.”

”Youse.”

Quite amusing.

The Grammarphobia Blog: Fun and Games

Q: My husband and I have always said things like “That was such fun” or “This is so much fun.” Nowadays, I hear “That was so fun.” Is this new usage acceptable?

A: No, the usage isn’t acceptable, but it’s now so common that someday it just might be.

“Fun” is traditionally a noun (a thing, as in “We had fun”), not an adjective. So you usually wouldn’t use it as a modifier (“We had a fun day”). An exception would be when “fun” is a predicate nominative – a noun that follows a verb and modifies the subject (“This is fun”).

Because language evolves. “Fun Day” is a common noun phrase in the Army, referring to mandatory recreational events (at least where I was).

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