A Grammar Break

I am not an expert on grammar. In high school and college I loved the literature portion of English classes, but could barely diagram a sentence to save my life. Still, having spent 10 years as a journalist, I grasped an understanding and appreciation for correct grammar.
Sure, you could go through my blog and find errors. I'm more likely to end a sentence with a preposition than rework it into a proper format. Still, there are certain words and phrases that drive me nuts.

• "For certain" or "For sure"

As in, "I'm not for certain" or "I'm not for sure." I picked up this pet peeve from mother. She was constantly annoyed by a high school friend of mine who would always respond with "I'm not for certain" when he didn't know an answer. Take out the "for" please. You're not certain, you're not sure. I think it was a regional thing because once I moved away from my hometown I never heard that phrase again.

• "Completely destroyed" or "Totally destroyed"

News reporters love to use those two phrases. Here is my beef: how can something be partially destroyed? It can't. Thus, the house that burned down is destroyed. Period. Whenever we hear that phrase during the news Hubby looks at me waiting for my rant.

I have no idea what inspired today's rant. For some reason those phrases have been stuck in my head lately. As I said, I'm no "grammarian." I have slip ups, just like everyone else. I don't judge people who use those phrases. I just really needed to get that off my chest!