Common grammatical errors

[Figleaf]

Frequent Error 1:

"He would rather eat fish then meat."

The proper word is than, not 'then'. 'Then' indicates a time, 'than' is for comparisons.

Frequent Error 2:

"Fred is totally bias against the Conservative party."

The proper usage is biased. You can HAVE a bias; you can BE biased.

Frequent Error 3:

"She was suppose to put the money in the bank."

The proper usage is supposed.

Frequent error 4:

"She should of put the money in the bank."

The correct word is have, or the contraction form should've.

If we can all bear these in mind, it will improve things immensely.

[scribblet]

Sheez, some people don't no nuttin guess we'd better larn em -

[M.Dancer]

This is not the sort of English up with which I will not put.

Winston Churchill

[PocketRocket]

You critisizin' my Grammar???

If she was still alive, she'd kick yer butt!!!

[Who's Doing What?]

If'n yooze gonna git all conflabergated over hows I chooses to spoke, I's jist gonna stop spoking to yooze.

[White Doors]

What about the 'loose' / 'lose' debacle?

It drives me crazy. LOSE (when you lose the hockey game) is spelled as 'loose' ALL THE TIME. I have NO idea why. drives me nuts.

There, I feel a bit better.

thanks!

[Charles Anthony]

I am not perfect when it comes to language arts (sarcasm and wry humor often get the best of me; admittedly, they alone can be a major source of confusion, worse than poor grammar) but I do believe that grammar and spelling are exceedingly important.

Some people say that grammatical mistakes make the writer look dumb. In my opinion, the level of intelligence of the writer is secondary.

Let us be practical: it is easy to misunderstand and get the wrong idea from a written work. Proper grammar is the only tool a writer has against misunderstanding and deliberate misrepresentation.

Therefore, is it not advantageous to make sure that our grammar is polished?

[RB]

The Google toolbar now have spell check for forms on the web - so it will work here!!

[stignasty]

The thing that drives me batty is when people substitute "your" for "you're."

For example: "Your not very smart." :angry:

[Higgly]

The thing that drives me batty is when people substitute "your" for "you're."

For example: "Your not very smart." :angry:

It's the apostrophe thing. Just amazes me how many people went through university (sometimes to the post-grad level) without learning the proper use of the apostrophe. You even see it in advertising on television, billboards and in newspapers. Imagine spending thousands of dollars on a billboard campaign having text that pluralizes TV as TV's

[Melanie_]

I agree with Charles, punctuation can change the entire meaning of a sentence. Try this one, which I use as a teaching tool all the time.

A woman without her man is nothing.

Punctuate it one way, it means this:

A woman, without her man, is nothing.

Punctuate it another way, and it has a completely different meaning:

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

But my pet peeve is "there", "their", and "they're". There must be some way for people to get their grammar straight; if they don't, they're going to undermine their message.

[Higgly]

Good one!

[stignasty]

But my pet peeve is "there", "their", and "they're". There must be some way for people to get their grammar straight; if they don't, they're going to undermine their message.

One of the teachers at my school uses this:

Name: _____________________ Date: _____________

Once upon a time, _______________ were three little pigs. ______________

was Curly. He was the oldest. _______________ was Wurly. He was the

smartest. And then _______________ was Flo. She was everyone's favourite

pig. Even _______________ mother loved Flo the best. Curly, Wurly and Flo

lived with _______________ mother in an apartment building in Grande Prairie.

_______________ apartment was on the 7th floor. The pigs didn’t mind this

because _______________ was an elevator that opened right in front of

_______________ apartment door. It was on the days that ___________

elevator wasn’t working that the pigs suffered. _______________ little

hoofs would be aching by the time they reached _______________ apartment.

_______________ mother would have to have little hoof baths waiting for her

three little pigs when they finally reached the top. Of course, Flo always got

the warmest hoof bath because she was _______________ mother’s favourite.

One day, Mama Pig sent the three pigs to the store to buy apples for

_______________ dinner. She gave them a list of items that she needed. She

also gave them _______________ allowance, and she told them that they could

buy _______________ favourite candy which they would eat for ______________

dessert. The three pigs put on _______________ jackets (it was winter).

They put on ______________ gloves and scarves. Next, it was time to put on

_______________ boots. Curly slipped on his bright red leather boots over

his red and yellow polka dot socks. Wurly, being the most intelligent, slipped

on his waterproof, fully lined boots over his white socks. Curly and Wurly were

ready and waiting for _______________ sister. She could not find her boots.

"Curly and Wurly," she said, "have you seen my boots?"

Curly and Wurly looked at each other and then they looked at _______________

sister. "I’ll tell you where they are," said Wurly, "if you’ll give us your

allowance to hold while you go and get them."

"Okay," agreed Flo as she handed the boys her allowance.

"_______________ are your boots, over _______________ ," said Curly.

"Where?" asked Flo suspiciously.

"Over _______________ !" squealed the boys as they pointed to the window in

_______________ living room. "_______________ over _______________ behind

that curtain."

Flo slowly walked toward the window. They boys followed closely behind

_______________ sister. Just as she reached the window, Curly opened the

window and Wurly pushed Flo through! Curly and Wurly squealed with delight

as _______________ sister fell 7 floors. Curly and Wurly were thrilled that

_______________ plan worked. They were rid of Flo and they had her money!

Luckily for Flo, she landed on a huge snow pile and was not hurt. Her brothers

were not so fortunate. Mama Pig heard the commotion, ran into the living room,

and when she realized what they had done, sent the boys to live with

_______________ Uncle Oscar Meyer. Uncle Oscar always knew what to do with

bad little pigs.

The boys protested. They were just doing Flo a favor by helping her find

her boots; it wasn’t _______________ fault that she was clumsy. But Mama

would not listen to _______________ excuses and off they went to Uncle

Oscar’s.

Flo and Mama Pig still live on the 7th floor of the apartment building in

Grande Prairie, and _______________ very happy _______________ . Now Flo gets

her brothers’ allowance since _______________ not _______________ .

[Remiel]

I am sure that my grammar could use some work, but ever since I starting MUDding and chatting online, I have always endeavoured to use proper spelling and punctuation when I was " speaking " . There are exceptions of course, such as when I add " , hehehe... " to the end of a sentence, or use some similar gesture.

As for there, their and they're; I think it would be a mistake to assume that every time someone uses the wrong one means that they don't know which is the right one. I know exactly what they mean, yet sometimes I type the wrong one, and I find it infuriating.

However, this is a chat forum, not an academic paper. As long as people are trying to spell and arrange their words correctly, that should be good enough. When Members of Parliament start quoting Maple Leaf Web members, *then* we can start organizing writing lessons for posters, .

[theloniusfleabag]

Dear Stignasty,

QUOTE(Melanie_ @ Dec 7 2006, 04:01 PM)

But my pet peeve is "there", "their", and "they're".

Your example is wonderful, but the only way I could make it work was by using one of the three above words coupled with 'fucking' to have the paragraph make any sense.

[geoffrey]

Dear Stignasty,

QUOTE(Melanie_ @ Dec 7 2006, 04:01 PM)

But my pet peeve is "there", "their", and "they're".

Your example is wonderful, but the only way I could make it work was by using one of the three above words coupled with 'fucking' to have the paragraph make any sense.

I had the same problem.

[stignasty]

Dear Stignasty,

QUOTE(Melanie_ @ Dec 7 2006, 04:01 PM)

But my pet peeve is "there", "their", and "they're".

Your example is wonderful, but the only way I could make it work was by using one of the three above words coupled with 'fucking' to have the paragraph make any sense.

I had the same problem.

Huh?

[Higgly]

I vote we elect a Grammar Cop. Any posts that are grammatically incorrect will be placed by the Grammar Cop in a new forum called Grammar Rocks. It will stay there and any member will be able to attack it like the vultures of Sysiphus. It will never be able to escape.

[Riverwind]

There must be some way for people to get their grammar straight; if they don't, they're going to undermine their message.

My pet peeve is people who complain about grammer on internet forums. Some posters are not native English speakers. Others may simply not have the time to proof read their posts (good grammer is not natural to many people even if they know the theory). Others were never taught properly in our school system. In all cases, these posters would not likely post at all if perfect grammer was a requirement.

[Higgly]

I see this like someone who goes to the opera wearing sweats. If you can't be bothered dressing for the occasion, then don't bother to show up.

[Riverwind]

I see this like someone who goes to the opera wearing sweats. If you can't be bothered dressing for the occasion, then don't bother to show up.

ROFTL - an internet political forum is more like a local pub than the opera. You should be happy that the number of fist fights is keep to a minimum.