Some Common Errors in Writing

[Paolo]

Peeves of mine. Save this page, and feel free to contribute:

There, their, they're - in order, they mean: a location - possessive - contraction for 'they are'.

"I put it over there."

"We went to their house."

"They're not home."

Its & It's - first one, possessive of the pronoun 'it'. Next, contraction for "it is".

"He grabbed its tail." - possessive.

"It's a nice day out." - contraction for "it is".

This is one case where you will not use the apostrophe to show possessive case.

Breath & Breathe - noun and verb

"I took a deep breath and held it."

"I can't breathe!"

You breathe with an extra 'e', my teacher told me.

Apostrophes - this thing '

See it? '

In English, it takes the place of dropped letters, as in contractions, or shows possession.

"That is Tommy's toy."

"That's Tommy's toy."

It is NOT used for simple plurals, unless they are possessive.

"There are two cats in the house." - no apostrophe on "cats".

"Those are the cats' toys." - this sentence is OK, for more than one cat.

To, too, and two - verb helper, in addition, a number.

Two = 2, the number.

too = meaning "also" or "in addition". Remember this - "There's too many O's in 'too', also."

to - the most common. "We're going to go to his house."

[Unregistered (imported)]

I know this sounds elitist but I didn't know most of those rules until I went to college. I'm not proposing that people that go to college are better in any way; merely that this country should place a higher priority on providing funding for EVERYONE to go to college. I know that makes us more like Denmark; it's a risk I'm willing to take.

-Christopher

[curious_guy (imported)]

Peeves of mine. Save this page, and feel free to contribute:

Its & It's - first one, possessive of the pronoun 'it'. Next, contraction for "it is".

"He grabbed its tail." - possessive.

"It's a nice day out." - contraction for "it is".

This is one case where you will not use the apostrophe to show possessive case.

It's can also mean "it has".

It's come to my attention that some of you are making errors.

Some of my peeves are:

The use of unique with modifiers. For example: "This is very unique."' Unique means "One of a kind" You would not write "This is very one of a kind."

Hopefully to mean "I hope" or "we hope".

Impacted to mean "hit" or "affected".

Importantly to mean "Important".

[transward (imported)]

Am I the only one to notice ... snip ... the more ignorant the grammar and spelling.

Transward

And what does what you said have to do with grammar and story submissions? Keep these opinions in the Political Forum, please, and don't answer that question here. - P.

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Thankyou! Thankyou very much Paolo!

I tried to add to your reputation, but I have to spread some reputation points around a bit first.

On this subject, like most subjects, I feel a bit ambivalent. But I have to come down on the side for better grammar and correct spelling. I know, some writers have excellent stories to tell but lack the education and skill to tell those stories well. Fine example of this is Earnest Hemingway, LOUSEY writer but great stories to tell.

In the last decade, I perceive a horrible degeneration of our language, "web-speak" and cell phone text message expressions creeping into everyday letters and correspondence (e.g. "ne" in lieu of "any"). When I must read crap like "i hav 2go2 trafik klas bcuz i wuz speeding," I actually get a bit angry at the writer. Really, it is NOT that much more trouble is it to type out "I now must go to traffic school, I got caught speeding" instead of making your reader try to decode some ridiculous phonetic abbreviations.

[jemagirl (imported)]

Just don't... I mean just do not use contractions and you will avoid about one third of these problems. When in doubt throw it out.

[socky1965 (imported)]

Just don't... I mean just do not use contractions and you will avoid about one third of these problems. When in doubt throw it out.

Does that also apply to unwanted genitalia?? LOL

[skivvynine (imported)]

I Learned the rules of English grammar in grammar school both in this country and Bermuda. That was fifty years ago. Also, the abbreviations i.e. and ect. I usually do not use. It is id est for i.e. and et cetera for ect.

I have noticed that there are authors that are British here. The British spell words differently than Americans. Some examples are: colour for color, programme for program, pædophile for pedophile, tonne for ton, realise for realize, and so on.

Have a greast day everyone.

[kristoff]

I Learned the rules of English grammar in grammar school both in this country and Bermuda. That was fifty years ago. Also, the abbreviations i.e. and ect. I usually do not use. It is id est for i.e. and et cetera for ect.

I have noticed that there are authors that are British here. The British spell words differently than Americans. Some examples are: colour for color, programme for program, pædophile for pedophile, tonne for ton, realise for realize, and so on.

Have a greast day everyone.

One of my peeves is using "ect." instead of the correct form "etc." for "et cetera."

[Paolo]

Good point, CG. Any left out letters when forming a contraction.