Free reign... it's everywhere!

[CultureSucksDownWords]

I keep seeing "free reign" all over Mumsnet and in an increasing number of other places. Including a book on toddler behaviour that I got from the library the other day.

Why don't people know that it's "free rein" as in giving a horse its head? Do people make the same mistake when saying "rein check" and use "reign check" instead?

I don't know why it bugs me so much!

(And it's probably been done to death on pedant's corner anyway...)

[edamsavestheday]

Yup, it's one of the most common homophone errors I reckon. Also see 'per say' quite a lot.

[Crumbelina]

I hate "bare with me".

[Toothytwo]

I keep seeing exasperate instead of exacerbate.

[WaffleWiffle]

rain check

[CultureSucksDownWords]

It's people hearing things said by other people without ever seeing it written down, I think.

Bear/bare is a weird one, as for me the word bare is so immediately connected to naked/exposed that I can't see how people get it mixed up.

[afussyphase]

I quite fancy a free reign...

[BugaAB00]

Isn't it rain check rather than rein check though? I thought the origins were from American baseball tickets being re-issued if the game was interrupted by inclement weather.

[hudyerwheesht]

Can someone explain rain check to me? I've always wondered...

Being a rider I always got that it was free rein, but agree that free reign is annoying...

Sorry for lack of speech marks in pedants' corner, feeling lazy and a bit drunk

[hudyerwheesht]

Ah, cross post, thanks Buga...

[CultureSucksDownWords]

I knew I shouldn't have posted about pedantry... I've learnt something new. Totally assumed rein/rain check was a riding reference again!

[tak1ngchances]

There's also phased instead of fazed. Drives me potty

[onedogatoddlerandababy]

I think fir is just a typo. I do it occasionally and it's one of the few things where my blessed iPhone doesn't assume it knows better and doesn't substitute

[thatstoast]

A manager in my old job sent out an email where he wrote witch instead of which. I made a joke about it, thinking he'd just written it quickly and had a massive brain fart, but he didn't understand what the problem was. Awful.

[BOFster]

I can see the logic of 'free reign', as it seems to imply control. But it's definitely rein. And 'rein it in'. I suppose you have to be aware of the origins of the saying.

One I keep seeing in the press is 'sneak peak'. Drives me potty.

[BugaAB00]

Phased/fazed really bothers me too. Irrational I know.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

Rain check is definitely from baseball.

[FatalCabbage]

Free rein, yes, thank you!

Idioms are tricky. If you aren't sure, say something else.I never got hear here/hear, hear/here, here so I use WSS instead

[afussyphase]

at phased. Like in Star Trek, no one will be able to see you any more if you are phased ...

[seasavage]

Unless it references a phased return?