I am a bit of an anal stickler when it comes to the english language, I will admit. I generally ignore spelling errors (and make quite a few myself). I am not much of a typist, and OFTEN have typos in my posts. I do understand that this is a very casual environment, and because of that I don't go around correcting everyone's posts. I often break the rules of grammar when I am posting because it is easier to get my point across, or simply because I am lazy. However, there are a few VERY SIMPLE basic things that amazingly few people seem to know. These things really annoy me. This isn't meant to try and make people look foolish (that is why I created a new thread and am not calling anyone out on this). It is simply a request for people to read this and maybe take something away from it. It is NOT THAT HARD PEOPLE! Here are a few of those rules that people annoyingly break. Feel free to add some more. I may add some more too. I know people are going to want to pick this apart and look for errors (I know I would, anyway Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!) so please note the following: Disclaimer: I tried to keep it simple, so not every definition and every rule is covered. ------------------------------------------------------- There - Signifying location. As in, "The nail clippers are over there." Their - Signifying posession. As in, "They always let their nails grow too long." They're - Contraction of "they are". As in, "They're going to regret it if they get ingrown toenails." "They're going to the the salon over there to get their toenails clipped." To - Generally signifying progression or movement of some sort. As in, "I am going to the store." Two - More than one, less than three. As in, "That item will cost you two dollars." Too - Used in place of "also". As in, "I am going to the store too." Too - Signifying amount. As in, "We spend too much money at that damned store." "What a coincidence, the two of us are going to the restaraunt to eat too much too!" Were - Past tense of "are". As in, "We were tired when we got home." We're - Contraction of "we are". As in, "We're still going out tonight, anyway." "We were going to go out tonight, but we realized the we're older than we thought." Are - Present tense of "were". As in, "We are almost finished with this little lesson." Our - Signifying group posession. As in, "Our clairty is improving already." "Our grammar and sentence structure are very important if we want to convey our points clearly." (Please take note that "grammar" is spelled with an "a" and "sentence" is spelled with an "e".) "It's" ONLY EVER has an apostrophe (') when it is a contraction of "it is". If you can't replace "it's" with the words "it is" then the word is "its". "The dog wags its tail." NOT "The dog wags it is tail." And finally, for this segment, "alot" is NOT a word. "A lot" are TWO words.
sheesh dont get two anal about it I only make about too mistakes per a sentence Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
What about incorrect usage of the word "an". I thought it was only used before words starting with a vowel, like "He's an idiot!", rather than "I got an new car!", which is becoming common.
I bought two packets of mushrooms today,then sold them to a guy standing near the shop who had spikes for ears,he told me that not too far away i can go to mushroom land to pound earth worms and i can bring my friends too. When i got there,there was loads of earthworms that had spikes for their ears also,just like the man who was standing outside of the shop, one of the earthworms commented in my bewildered moments and asked "where is your spikes?" at this point i bashed it over the head,"they're in your head not mine see over there outside mushroom land there are no spikes,you were too busy in your own world to notice there isnt any outside mushroom land". The voices in my head were right,i had to get a gun and shoot all people with spikes. The end is that about right?
YES. Good one. Before words that start with a vowel sound, though. An idiot. A car. A hole. An heiress. Even though "h" is a consonant the word is pronounced (air-iss) so it is preceeded by "an".
Your - Posession. "That was your stupid idea, not mine." You're - Contraction of "you are". "You're going to pay for that comment." Yore - Days long past. "Just like in the days of yore." (Just don't even bother using this one. You can't without looking like an ass or like a Poe wannabe.)
One Raven, Do you know what I used to do to people like you who were stickler about their English? I stuck them in my ignore list......Chill or else, I'll spit all over your unattractive unpoetic Germanic poop that is missing all sort of sounds that your tonsils forgot how to pronouce that you call American English?
Go on One_raven! That's really interesting... I learnt that you use "he" for men, "she" for women and "it" for anything else. So, what about the animals? And what about the countries (I saw some members using "he" or "she" when dealing with a country)? Thanks Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
A boat is definately a 'she', as are many countries. Animals are male and female too, so they go by 'he' or 'she' depending on their sex. ..... Thanks for pointing out the three"'there's" that one bugs me a lot; same with the "to's"
Thank you New Life! But how do you know when you can use "she" or "it" for the countries? And is there something else than boats that can be called "she"? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
many non-English languages have sexes associated with all objects. so a country, I would assume is female if the native language declares it so, and male otherwise. El Salvador = a male country, because of the "el'. La CountryI'mmakingup would be female, cause of the "la" So whether a country is male or female would depend on the person you are asking, and what language they spoke. English doesn't have gender assosiations with objects, so there will always be a translation confusion. we have "a car", with is sexually neutral, but in Spanish you have "el auto", so all cars are male. vrrrroooomvrrroooom. However, motorcycles in Spanish are female. For Spanish, the sex of the object is largely determined by the last letter in the object's name. If' it's an 'A', then the object is female, otherwise, it's male. "La motocicleta" = female.
You sound like an expert in languages, can you explain the following: In the English language, we count occurances as follows. Once, twice, three times, four times. What's the basis and why not once, twice, thrice, fourice, ect. How come so much discrepency in pronouncing the double o. Root doesn't rythem with Foot. If I like your explanation, I'll give you more.
I will appreciate everybody who corrects my postings, 'se English is my second language and it's difficult to learn Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Not postings but POSTS Not se but SEE Hope that helped and there is a custom around here that everyone has to follow. In order for you not to be ridiculed for the first 200 posts you must put this phrase under every post for the first 200 posts. "Sargentlard is the sexiest biatch that ever was or will be"
whatgoodarerulesifnoonebreaks'em Nouns: gender,person, number and case Pronouns: personal, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite. Properties of--gender,person, number Verbs: Finite and infinite--Infinitive, participle and gerund. Properties of--voice, mood tense, person and number. Conjugation. Irregular. Auxiliary. Adjectives: descriptive, limiting and proper. <i>...phew!...</i> Adverbs. Articles. Preposition. Conjunction. Sentence: simple, compound and compound-complex. Meaning--declaritive, imperative, interrogative and exclamatory. Elements--subject, predicate and modifiers. Punctuation. Capitalization.
Seems useless to moan without offering some help... http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/ Myself, well, I like to think that you're all just <i>creative writers.</i> Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
