Lose vs Loose

[asphalt-cowboy (imported)]

Yesterday I read about this topic on a blog. There was also a picture illustrating the proper use of some words:

For some of us English is not native language. Moreover, some have never learned English at school, such as in Eastern Europe, where during the communist dictatorships, the English language was prohibited. Only Russian and French was taught.

On the other hand, I fear that the degradation of language is a universal phenomenon. I know two European languages ​​better than English and I can see the same phenomenon. As a part time job I'm working at a local newspaper. It is frightening to see how ordinary people write wrong, people who write only occasionally. On the other hand I think that things stayed the same in the past, only that without the Internet and electronic communication that was not so easily visible.

Deficiencies can not be solved in adults today. But it is very important to treat with the utmost importance to education of children. And one of the most important things, besides school, is reading. Nothing can replace the effect it has reading on developing communication skills in children. When adults in a few minutes see if you have to face a man who has read several books in his life or one that just watching TV. The differences are great especially if communication is written, not verbal.

[Quillman (imported)]

When it comes to spelling, some words are difficult to remember. My Sunday School class teacher (a Dr.) keeps spelling "Judgment" as "Judgement" . The first spelling is right (or is that write?)

I would prefer Judgement although Oxford has BOTH as being acceptable and correct. This will be the right spelling of course!!

QuillmanUK

[gandalf (imported)]

A joy to read this thread and get a good laugh. I like to read it. I read it yesterday also.

[tugon (imported)]

A joy to read this thread and get a good laugh. I like to read it. I read it yesterday also.

I also read it yesterday.

[Richard_Less (imported)]

A semicolon would not be appropriate, but a colon might be. "I'm inviting the prostitutes: Dave and Jerry."

Interesting - it's been a long time since I’ve learned grammar in school, but I seem to remember that a semi-colon is used when a list will follow, such as the names of the prostitutes in the given example. Perhaps this is one of those many ambiguous rules in our beloved language; 'I' before 'E' except after 'C', 'Y' is sometimes a vowel, silent letter such as the 'T' in tsunami, and 'one' sounds like 'won' but 'tone' sounds like 'own', etc. Or maybe I'm just wrong.

I sometimes pity those having to learn English - at least those not brought up with it.

As far as "nitpicking" people's spelling and grammar on the forums I play by the rule that if I can understand what was written, however poorly, let it slide (unless I know that they can handle some good humoured jesting). If someone asked me to proof read their work then I'll pick it all apart... for them. Of course if someone is going to get all obnoxiously technical on someone else, yet make their own errors, then off come the gloves. I dislike hypocrites even more than poor language.

When it comes to stories, if the grammar and spelling errors are too much then I stop reading. There have been several stories here that gave me a headache trying to decipher them - while I sometimes like trying to decode things, particularly poor language skills, especially inconsistent ones, are just not worth the effort. It can be such a shame too since some of those stories had such an interesting and promising subject or plot. Please, if you want your stories to be enjoyed, use spelling tools and proper spelling - not 'txt' spelling. Like Vizzini, it may not mean what you think it means.

[Slammr (imported)]

You follow a colon with a list separated by semicolons. They were prostitutes: David; Jerry; Sam; and Mary.

[sailorboy (imported)]

This is a great thread and people who might make spelling or punctuation errors should not be offended when constructive criticism is used. Prior to submitting a story to the Archives, I proofread it 2-3 times and DON'T rely on the Spell-Check because if the word is spelled correctly, but inserted in the wrong place, then the author may miss it. Anyone who writes a story for EA tries to provide and interesting an, for them, a grammatically correct story, but we sometimes miss our own errors, as I have done in the past, and have to (return to the scene of the crime) and edit the story because I am a perfectionist!!

[sailorboy (imported)]

You will notice that spell-check failed to recognize that "an" in the fifth line should be "and."

[Slammr (imported)]

It always seemed that I could read and re-read a story before submitting it, not finding a mistake until I had submitted it and it was too late to change it, when suddenly, the mistake would be glaringly obvious.

I just pulled out my Strunk and White, Elements of Style, and I'm reading through it again. It's a handy little guide.

[gareth19 (imported)]

You follow a colon with a list separated by semicolons. They were prostitutes: David; Jerry; Sam; and Mary.

NO. A colon is used to append a list to an otherwise complete sentence.

These are a few of my favorite things: stunning white gowns with green sashes, snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes, and brownpaper packages tied up in string.

You do not punctuate between a verb and its object or a preposition and its object even if the object is a list.

Jack the Ripper enjoyed murder, mayhem, and torture.

NOT Jack the Ripper enjoyed: murder, mayhem, and torture.

He often killed his victims with knives, daggers, and biting satire.

NOT He often killed his victims with: knives, daggers, and biting satire.

The elements of a list are connected with conjunctions or with commas to replace deleted conjunctions except for the last which is retained to identify the lost conjunction (and in the list above). Old-fashioned writing replaces commas with semicolons if the elements of the list have internal commas as their punctuation, but there is no justification for semicolons in a simple list.

Washington has many notorious prostitutes: John Boehner, Michelle Bachmann, and Karl Rove.