Every once in a while, I ask my readers to unleash their pet peeves — a snarling collection of gripes, groans and grimaces at the abuse of English.

Perhaps you'll recognize one of your own peevish pets.

Oren Spiegler of Upper St. Clair, Pa., detests the conversion of nouns to verbs. His latest outrage: A chief executive's vow to "bonus" his employees.

Eileen emails that the pronunciation of "our" as "are" drives her crazy, while Gigi King of Paonia, Colo., wants to shoplift supermarket signs that read "10 Items or Less" (instead of "or Fewer").

Over in the Department of Redundancy Department, Harvey Pastel of Vernon, Conn., is sick and tired of hearing "entirely surrounded" (as opposed to partially surrounded?) and "very unique" (as opposed do slightly unique?).

Likewise, Sharon Hopewell of Durham, Conn., wants to kill the unneeded "of" in phrases such as, "That's outside (of) our area of expertise." When Robert Lepore of Las Vegas hears the redundant "preplan," he wants to commit "pre"-meditated murder.

Don't use "fun" as an adjective around Judith Heath of Princeton, N.J., and keep a lid on "between he and I" as well. Barbara Rogers of St. Paul, Minn., has no patience with the double "is," as in "The problem is, is that ... "

The recent trend of beginning every sentence with "So" annoys emailer Randy Archambault. His example: "Q: What do you think of the standings this year?" "A: "So, when we look ... "

Ruth Edwards of Simsbury, Conn., is an ebullient proponent of the correct pronunciation of "ebullient" — "ih-BUHL-yint," never "EBB-uhl-lent" — and of the musical term "reprise": "rih-PREEZ," never "rih-PRYZ," the pronunciation for the legal term.

The overuse of "baby bump" gets a rise out of Carolyn McDonough, of Canaan, Conn., while Bob Bittner of Willington, Conn., can't accept newscasters' pronunciation of "veteran" as two syllables (VEH-tran) instead of three (VEH-teh-rahn).

Don from Minnesota thinks it's inappropriate ... er, incorrect to use "inappropriate" as a euphemism for behavior that's bad, wrong, stupid, rotten or illegal.

Kay Peterson of Bolton, Conn., detests the use of "myself" for "me" in sentences such as "Please give your donation to Tom or myself."

Emailer Melanie Hansen takes aim at the overuse of "awesome," "devastating" and "aim" for "intend" (Jack aims to run for office).

And if, all of a sudden, you see emailer Phil Dansdill coming, don't use "all the sudden."

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254