Grrrrrrammar!

[ravan]

Gaaah! Where's my spork?

Grammar, spelling, and the proper use of the apostrophe are pretty easy to do when you can go back and edit what you wrote. Why in the hell can't people learn to use these tools correctly?

it's == contraction of "it is"
its == possessive of "it"
they're == contraction of "they are"
their == possessive of "them"
there == a place, opposite of here
(plus many, many, more...)

Hell, LJ even has a spelling checker for postings.

Why are people so damned illiterate?

Comments

[treecat]

I get twitchy whenever I see these errors too. I just today saw someone who had previously posted in favor of being judgemental about such things use "effected" instead of "affected."

However I also have caught myself in the act of actually typing some of these abominations myself. Which frightens me... I wonder how many times I've missed it and left the wrong word. Never "effect" and "affect", but it's for its or there for their. Those are the ones I've most often seen escaping from my fingers. Eeek.

Spell check won't fix any of these. They are all real words. You'd need grammar check. That's why they are more disturbing than just misspellings... they're the wrong word altogether.

It's curious to see what people type for some expressions. Say "rein of terror" for example. Or sometimes not even homonyms, they just have some other word completely. They must hear differently or something. Some just don't make any sense at all. I can at least imagine how in a Reign of terror those in charge are Raining terror upon people to Rein them in...

The Acorn has become a tree!

[jemyl.livejournal.com]

I showed your rant to your mother. She is still chuckling. She keeps walking around her house going "hehehe eep" like a little rabbit or squirrel. She is also wearing your grandfather's famouse "shit-eating grin." You see, I happen to know that exactly what you wrote about above is her pet complaint too. It is like fingernails on a chalkboard to her. The spelling isn't so much it, as she has been married to a dyslexic for nearly 12 years now. The problem is that these people don't even realize that they are in error!

Anyway, your Mama wanted me to tell you that she is ever so glad that the little acorn learned basic grammar and usage at home as well as in school and has grown into a beautiful tree of knowledge of literate usage. I think she's kind of proud of that, judging from her actions.

Have a great day, Ravan. Love ya!

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, when I'm tired, I swap in homonyms, and am not sure why my brain does it. You know, right for write, to/too/two, etc. But I am horrified when I see them later. (I also sometimes type "and" for "an" and "one" for "on." But that's a typing thing..."

But my personal horror word seems to be internet-based. At least, I seem to see it only on the net: "noone." It took my a while, when I first saw it (about 1989) to figure out that they meant "no one." If I see it, my mind automatically translates it to something forsoothly, rather like "noon" but drawn out, with a vaguely Scots accent!