Posted on 08/30/2015 10:38:18 AM PDT by B4Ranch
Proper grammar seems to be a thing of the past -- why stress about tiny technicalities, right? Wrong.
You should be a grammar stickler for many reasons. Do you want to risk turning off potential clients, employers and connections because of grammatical mistakes?
Many people are so concerned with what they are saying in an email or text message that they completely forget to pay attention to how they are saying it. If you chose to turn grammar mode off when you are communicating with friends, that is one thing, but there is absolutely no reason to send a professional communication that contains errors.
Here are six grammatical errors that are so simple, yet such common offenders. Make sure you aren’t making them.
This is probably the most common mistake I see on social media, in text messages and in emails. This one is real simple -- if you are trying to say “you are” then “you’re” is correct. If you are talking about something that belongs to you, such as “your car” then you use “your.”
Many people confuse these and don’t even realize they are doing it. It’s real easy -- “two” is a number, “too” is an adverb that means “also,” and “to” is a preposition used to express motion, direction, limit of movement, contact, a point of limit in time, purpose, intention and destination -- to name a few.
For example:
“I would like to become an entrepreneur.”
“I too would like to become an entrepreneur.”
What should have been squared away in third grade continues to haunt grammar police on a daily basis. The there/their/they’re mistake is common -- but it’s really simple to avoid.
Use “they’re” when you are trying to say “they are.”
“Their” should be used when you are indicating possession.
Finally, “there” needs to be used when referring to a location.
Example: "They're going to love working there. Their company culture is amazing!"
This one is really just pure laziness rather than a grammatical mistake. Texting has completely ruined grammar and you/u is a perfect example. I understand that “u” is perfectly acceptable if you are texting a friend and are in a rush -- but it’s not acceptable in a professional email.
Here is an excerpt of an email I received last week from a C-level executive who is in charge of a company that does business worth several hundreds of millions of dollars every year:
… that would be gr8! Talk to u soon!
He managed to nail two text slangs back to back like a champ. Again, if it was a text message, fine -- but a professional email is no place for this. This email is actually what sparked me to write this article, so thank you grammatically challenged C-level executive.
When you are talking about time you use “then” and when you are making a comparison you use “than.” It really shouldn’t be that difficult to distinguish what one to use:
“We are going to grab a quick bite to eat and then head back to the office.”
“This new software update is much better than the previous version.”
This one confuses a lot of people, mainly due to the apostrophe, which typically symbolizes possession. Use “it’s” when you are trying to say “it is” and use “its” when you are looking for the possessive form of “it.”
“I looked at its owners manual to get the correct settings.”
“It’s a beautiful day outside.”
What are some other grammar mishaps that drive you nuts? Share them in the comments section below.
All y’all is plural, y’all can be singular.
I do believe it was Webster that introduced the concept of fixed spellings irrelevant of the actual sounds
Then you get in the debate between using phonics to spell and what they call the whole word system
When I went to school there were in transition between the two .. I never got phonetics but then its not necessarily correct either way since now we do a fix spelling
Then add in the fact that I'm Dyslexic...
I was was at the top of my class the entire time in school in reading comprehension and always a bottom the class in spelling..
My spelling is abysmal and always has been
The only thing that save me nowadays is spell check
“If the spell checker accepts it, who am I to argue”
Spell checkers check the spelling of words, not grammar or word usage.
I’m breathless...exactly what I mean...you are one of a kind...
Strange I never saw this thread before...
I’ve given up trying to point out when people use horrid spelling and grammar, it usually only gets me flamed as being a grammar nazi...even if I’m just trying to tell them for future reference, and point that fact out...
But if you think about it a little, you post your opinions on here, trying to impress everyone (everybody??? both will work) with your vast intelligence and all encompassing knowledge of the subject, and you’re too damn dumb to use the spelling checker built into the post editor...and too damn dumb to know how to spell it right to begin with. And you want me to be impressed by your vast intelligence.
I pay a lot more attention to people who take the time and effort to proofread their posts and eliminate all or most of their spelling and grammar errors, either they made very few to begin with or they at least know how to use the editor and take time to do so. In general I can often tell if it’s a simple typo or a gross lack of knowledge. I wonder how many of you actually know what proofread means.
I keep my spell checker in my head. Usually that red squiggly line only catches the typos, which is really handy, I type pretty fast, at least 45 words per minute, but if you include the time it takes to correct all the typos, it’s probably more like 7 words per minute...I’m not very accurate...
It boils down to this. You didn’t pay attention in school. Most of the errors I see are things I knew in 5th grade, with a few exceptions.
But if you want to show off how smart you are, don’t post something with spelling and grammar mistakes all over it, I’ll see you as an uneducated fool and probably ignore it.
Call me a grammar nazi, I don’t really care. I tried pointing these things out a long time ago, in an effort to simply educate people and gave it up, they don’t want to learn...they don’t want to put a little effort into it, make sure what they type is correct, look it up and find out how to spell it to begin with.
And this is also one of my biggest issues with modern education handing out diplomas to illiterates. The high school graduates of today will be running this country in 20 years, less in some cases at least locally, and they are complete dummies...It scares me to think what this world will look like when the current group of illiterates is running things. How can you run a country if you can’t even use decent spelling and grammar? You think people like Ted Cruz got through law school without knowing how to spell?
And yes I know it’s not totally correct to end a sentence with several periods. I can’t remember the rule, but that’s my one common fault I use a lot, and don’t bother to correct.
The one thing I’ve never figured out is related to plurals. Two cars is not two car’s, I know that. But how about things like CPU? (Central Processing Unit, used in computers) Two CPUs or two CPU’s? I’ve never been really sure...I think without the apostrophe would be correct but not positive. The apostrophe is used to indicate letters are missing, so CPU’s may be correct, I’m not sure.
I don’t know if I could list all the gross errors I see all the time. Many have already been pointed out in this thread.
then/than
your/you’re
to/too/two
plurals
lose/loose/loser/looser
there/their/they’re
effect/affect
were/we’re
border/boarder
choose/chose
woman/women - women is plural.
of instead of have - should have known is correct, not should of known.
whose/who’s
There are plenty others but most would require an explanation. Bear or bare, for example. I have no idea how many times I’ve seen people post something about their 2nd amendment right to bare arms...
And I hate internet shorthand. 4 is a number, not the word for. B4 instead of before. It’s just plain lazy. The only place I can almost accept it is on twitter where 140 characters is your limit. Otherwise just spell the damn word, internet shorthand is actually more difficult to read. Or should I say decipher?
If you want to impress me, learn how to spell and use decent grammar. Otherwise I’m much more likely to figure you’re an uneducated idiot and ignore you.
Tell them how you feel about estaba and estuve. ;-)
Mine as well. In spite of that I can design electronic apparatus, layout the circuit boards, and bring them to life. I can also write firmware on any micro controller, programming right down to the metal. Typically, my designs access various sensor systems and control motors and other actuator systems. For fun I design and test solid rocket motors and fabricate all sorts of stuff in my machine shop.
Spelling capability is a very poor indicator of intelligence.
In this post you demonstrate a tremendous restraint and economy of punctuation. That is commendable. My own rule on commas is, "if in doubt, leave it out". You practice that to perfection.
If you want to impress me, explain rocket motor performance in terms of the principles thermodynamic and fluid dynamics. Please factor in the affects of particulate masses of various combustion byproducts for the fuel/oxidizer of your choice.
Spelling and grammar are not even remotely an indication of intelligence. Most engineers can't spell worth a crap; however, they can land vehicles on Mars.
Not sure if its grammatical or not but can we stop beginning a sentence with “So”?
Look here http://grammarist.com
Not really sure if this is a grammar question, but there is a phrase that I word as “All of a sudden”. I have heard it as “all the sudden”, “all of the sudden” etc. Which is correct?
Bad spelling must be an engineer thing...im a network engineer
Those are basic, no debate issues. Then there is punctuation. But how about how best to cite references? Author-name-date” or “name-author-title?”
In addition, I prefer to provide parenthetical references after the period in a sentence, like as footnote usually does, but I should probably change.
“All of a sudden” is the only one I am familiar with.
Since it doesn’t add anything to the sentence I suppose we should. It’s not one of my habits.
Nothing.
>> Mine as well. In spite of that I can design electronic apparatus, layout the circuit boards, and bring them to life. I can also write firmware on any micro controller, programming right down to the metal. Typically, my designs access various sensor systems and control motors and other actuator systems. For fun I design and test solid rocket motors and fabricate all sorts of stuff in my machine shop.
Spelling capability is a very poor indicator of intelligence. <<
You managed to convey your thoughts about your skills without any spelling errors, perhaps your spelling isn’t as bad as you thought. I wish I had your skills. I could have a lot of fun doing stuff like that.
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