Why is it that hardly anyone can write (or speak, for that matter) proper grammar these days? Is it really that difficult? I was bored earlier today so I started taking one of those dumb quizzes on facebook. I had to stop after reading just the first question and its choices because it pained me at how grammatically incorrect it was! The biggest culprit is "your" versus "you're." And it is probably the one that bothers me the most. How on earth could you mix the two up? They're not even the same word! "You're" is a contraction of "you" and "are". "Your" is possessive. Just as one would say "that is MY house", you would say "that is YOUR house." It drives me nuts when I get an email, text, etc., saying "YOUR welcome"!! A 'welcome' isn't something to be possessed... You wouldn't say 'MY welcome,' would you?
Number 2 biggest culprit: their, they're, and there. Again, 'their' is possessive. "That is their house." "They're" means they are. "They are house"? No, it doesn't work. "They're going to the house" would be a proper usage of the contraction. "There" is a location. "The house is over THERE." Is it really that difficult to differentiate amongst the three?
Number 3: THEN VS THAN. "Then" is in relation to a sequence of events, an "if/then" clause, or in comparison to present versus past. "First I studied, then I took the test" or "If I study, then I will do well on the test." "Than" is used in comparisons and contrasts. "I would so much rather eat THAN starve." If you write "I would so much rather eat then starve" you are no longer saying that you want one over the other, but are now implying that you want both - you want to eat, and afterwards, you want to starve.
Number 4: ITS versus IT'S. This one drives me nuts as well - and it's so simple! "Its" is possessive. "The dog is in its cage." It is his cage. "The dog is in it is cage" doesn't even make sense. "It's" is another contraction. It is a combination of "it" and "is". If you intended on writing "It is crazy", you would then use "It's crazy." If you leave out the apostrophe, you then imply an entirely different meaning.
Also, contrary to popular belief, it is not always correct to use the word "I" when combining it with another person. "John and I went to the store" is correct, yes. But "Do you want to come to the store with John and I?" is NOT correct. Take out 'John' and read it. Now it reads, "Do you want to come to the store with I?" Newsflash: no one says that. If you are ever unsure about this one, take the other people in question out of the sentence and include only yourself. Would you say "me" or "I"? It's really that simple.
And more than one CD or DVD does NOT include an apostrophe!! "CDs" and "DVDs" - no apostrophe needed!!! Including an apostrophe turns it into a possessive form rather than a basic plural form.
I could go on, but I am quite sure that you get the idea. What saddens me the most, though, is that usually the lack of knowledge on such simple grammatical rules is a result of poor teaching. I had an amazing English teacher in 8th grade whom I absolutely loathed at the time, but am incredibly grateful for and forever indebted to now. Her nickname amongst us was "The Grammar Nazi" because nearly every assignment we had somehow tied into grammar - we even had a separate text book entirely devoted to grammar, with separate grammar homework assignments almost every night, and a grammar test every Friday. What surprised me though, was that she was the only English teacher I ever had who taught proper grammar. I never had another teacher teach - or even review - even the most basic of rules. If teachers aren't teaching it, how will any of the future generations learn it??Post title: punctuation/grammar book by Lynne Truss.
4 comments:
I think you mean "Is it really that difficult to differentiate among the three?" "Between" is used for two objects or groups, while "among" is correct for more than two objects or groups ;).
Seriously, though, I get bugged by poor grammar too. The one thing I'm more forgiving of, though, is "its" and "it's". "Its" is possessive, but so is "Alyssa's," "Marisa's", and "Bob's." When the apostrophe is so often used to indicate possession, it can be very confusing when in other cases it indicates a contraction, as in the case of "its" vs. "it's." I can understand how people make that mistake easily.
Haha thanks - it's fixed. I *did* write this at 2 in the morning. :P "It's" vs "its" is probably the one that bothers me the least too, but it's still annoying. And then we've also got ones like "affect" and "effect" and no one can ever seem to figure out which is the correct to use. But I'm glad you have good grammar! ;)
Love it love it love it! I wish you could take out a full page ad in several major newspapers and run this!
Glad I'm not the only one! lol. I was thinking this while doing a Facebook quiz yesterday too! "Your" and "you're" drives me absolutely crazy, and I think this is the one that people mess up most often. These are all things everyone should have learned in elementary and middle school! How did you graduate high school?!
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