Pedantic Rant

[Bleh]

<rant>I understand that on this forum, there are many member who reside in countries where english is not the first language. I also understand that many of us (myself included) type our messages as we speak, colloquially, and as such, we use improper sentence format. I am partial to comma splices [as well as nested parenthesis and brackets (I go off on tangents a lot)], since they convey the way I speak, with slight pauses between thoughts. All that aside, I twitch every time someone writes "you're watch is beautiful" or "I've seen there watches, and their beautiful" or "you're watch is in better shape then mine".

SO! To keep me from twitching, and to keep me from correcting individual members' posts, I'm just going to do a thread on the correct usage, and hope that people might remember it in the future.

</rant>

<information>
Your:
Your is the second person possessive adjective, used to describe something as belonging to you. Your is nearly always followed by a noun.

What is your name?

Is this your pen?

You're:
You're is the contraction of "you are" and is often followed by the present participle (verb form ending in -ing).

You're going to be late.

Is that what you're wearing?

Than:
Unlike then, than is not related to time. Than is used in comparative statements.

He is taller than I am.

Other than the interest on a small inheritance, he had no income.

Then:
Then is used either as a time marker or with a sequence of events.

I took all of the exams in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep.

Back then we knew what was expected of us.

I bought apples from this orchard last summer, but I seem to remember paying more for them then.



They're Their There:
Their is a possessive pronoun. It always describes a noun.

Note the spelling of their. It comes from the word they, so the e comes before the i.

There is an adverb meaning "that location." It is sometimes used with the verb to be as an idiom. It is spelled like here which means "this location."

They're is a contraction of they are. Note the spelling: The a from are is replaced by an apostrophe.

Examples: Their dog has fleas. (possessive of they)

I put the collar right there. (that location)

There are five prime numbers less than ten.
(with to be)

They're 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. (contraction of they are)
</information>

Sorry.... Drives me nuts!

[artec]

<rant>I understand that on this forum, there are many member who reside in countries where english is not the first language. I also understand that many of us (myself included) type our messages as we speak, colloquially, and as such, we use improper sentence format. I am partial to comma splices [as well as nested parenthesis and brackets (I go off on tangents a lot)], since they convey the way I speak, with slight pauses between thoughts. All that aside, I twitch every time someone writes "your watch is beautiful" or "I've seen there watches, and their beautiful" or "your watch is in better shape then mine".

SO! To keep me from twitching, and to keep me from correcting individual members' posts, I'm just going to do a thread on the correct usage, and hope that people might remember it in the future.

</rant>

<information>
Your:
Your is the second person possessive adjective, used to describe something as belonging to you. Your is nearly always followed by a noun.

What is your name?

Is this your pen?

You're:
You're is the contraction of "you are" and is often followed by the present participle (verb form ending in -ing).

You're going to be late.

Is that what you're wearing?

Than:
Unlike then, than is not related to time. Than is used in comparative statements.

He is taller than I am.

Other than the interest on a small inheritance, he had no income.

Then:
Then is used either as a time marker or with a sequence of events.

I took all of the exams in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep.

Back then we knew what was expected of us.

I bought apples from this orchard last summer, but I seem to remember paying more for them then.



They're Their There:
Their is a possessive pronoun. It always describes a noun.

Note the spelling of their. It comes from the word they, so the e comes before the i.

There is an adverb meaning "that location." It is sometimes used with the verb to be as an idiom. It is spelled like here which means "this location."

They're is a contraction of they are. Note the spelling: The a from are is replaced by an apostrophe.

Examples: Their dog has fleas. (possessive of they)

I put the collar right there. (that location)

There are five prime numbers less than ten.
(with to be)

They're 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. (contraction of they are)
</information>

Sorry.... Drives me nuts!

And many, many others. The apostrophe seems to be a constant bafflement and the variety of its misuses is amazing. One of my pet hates is the mix-up between "its" (possessive) and "it's" (it is). Another is the insertion of the dreaded apostrophe in a defenseless plural, eg "...there are five prime number's... etc" Ugh!

But I must admit that I can't see what you find wrong with "your watch is beautiful", unless you think the damned thing is ugly. Are you unhappy about "beautiful" as an assertion of fact instead of as an opinion?

[Bleh]

And many, many others. The apostrophe seems to be a constant bafflement and the variety of its misuses is amazing. One of my pet hates is the mix-up between "its" (possessive) and "it's" (it is). Another is the insertion of the dreaded apostrophe in a defenseless plural, eg "...there are five prime number's... etc" Ugh!

But I must admit that I can't see what you find wrong with "your watch is beautiful", unless you think the damned thing is ugly. Are you unhappy about "beautiful" as an assertion of fact instead of as an opinion?

Agreed! And apparently I couldn't even bring myself to mistype you're, my mental filter is just too strong!

I fear I'm an occasional offender on the its/it's front, but I try my hardest not to be.

[TheWalrus]

In fairness, making these mistakes doesnt necessarily mean you dont understand how to use the English language. I know in my own case often Ill mix up your and youre simply because Im typing quickly.

[rcoreytaylor]

<rant>I understand that on this forum, there are many member who reside in countries where english is not the first language. I also understand that many of us (myself included) type our messages as we speak, colloquially, and as such, we use improper sentence format. I am partial to comma splices [as well as nested parenthesis and brackets (I go off on tangents a lot)], since they convey the way I speak, with slight pauses between thoughts. All that aside, I twitch every time someone writes "you're watch is beautiful" or "I've seen there watches, and their beautiful" or "you're watch is in better shape then mine".

SO! To keep me from twitching, and to keep me from correcting individual members' posts, I'm just going to do a thread on the correct usage, and hope that people might remember it in the future.

</rant>

<information>
Your:
Your is the second person possessive adjective, used to describe something as belonging to you. Your is nearly always followed by a noun.

What is your name?

Is this your pen?

You're:
You're is the contraction of "you are" and is often followed by the present participle (verb form ending in -ing).

You're going to be late.

Is that what you're wearing?

Than:
Unlike then, than is not related to time. Than is used in comparative statements.

He is taller than I am.

Other than the interest on a small inheritance, he had no income.

Then:
Then is used either as a time marker or with a sequence of events.

I took all of the exams in the morning, and then I spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep.

Back then we knew what was expected of us.

I bought apples from this orchard last summer, but I seem to remember paying more for them then.



They're Their There:
Their is a possessive pronoun. It always describes a noun.

Note the spelling of their. It comes from the word they, so the e comes before the i.

There is an adverb meaning "that location." It is sometimes used with the verb to be as an idiom. It is spelled like here which means "this location."

They're is a contraction of they are. Note the spelling: The a from are is replaced by an apostrophe.

Examples: Their dog has fleas. (possessive of they)

I put the collar right there. (that location)

There are five prime numbers less than ten.
(with to be)

They're 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7. (contraction of they are)
</information>

Sorry.... Drives me nuts!

Your rite! I seen this lots of times when someone rites there comments. Wood it be ok if you borrowed me this post so I can show others there mistakes?

(Kidding! - Just kidding! Ha!) I agree 100% !!!

Cheers
RCT

[v76]

The grammar N@71 in me approves heartily of this thread.

[In_Front]

I've seen those mistakes so many times that it doesn't bother me anymore. I just live with it, because we're not on the forums to become English professors .

[Bolaberlim]

And many, many others. The apostrophe seems to be a constant bafflement and the variety of its misuses is amazing. One of my pet hates is the mix-up between "its" (possessive) and "it's" (it is). Another is the insertion of the dreaded apostrophe in a defenseless plural, eg "...there are five prime number's... etc" Ugh!

But I must admit that I can't see what you find wrong with "your watch is beautiful", unless you think the damned thing is ugly. Are you unhappy about "beautiful" as an assertion of fact instead of as an opinion?

I was thinking the exact same thing. I think you forgot an apostrophe on that sentence.
To be honest, I also make a lot of mistakes when writing, mostly due to typing too fast.
Also, I think that there are probably as much people from the US or UK or other English speaking countries that make such mistakes, as from other foreign language speaking countries in this specific forum.
The mistakes made by a foreign language speaker are usually more obvious, like in sentence construction or words spelled wrong or used in an improper manner. Let's not forget that if a foreign language speaker masters English well enough to not make obvious mistakes, it's because he had proper English education or training, and is therefore, unlikely that he won't know the distinction between they're and there (as an example). On the other hand there are some native English speakers that couldn't care less about correct sentence construction, grammar, or spelling, simply because it's their native language and they're sure they can master it just fine.
I for one, had a formal English education in public school, from the 5th grade until the 11th grade (our schools starts from grades 1 to 4 in grammar school and goes on from 5 to 12 in High school followed by college, 12th in my time was pre-college year, where we didn't have general education like English or Portuguese, it's more focused on our college preferences- in my case Math and Chemistry- little did I know that I would drop out of engineering and go to Design School a few years later) and those distinctions are quite clear to me, by contrast with a colleague whose native language is English, and often uses there in place of they're, for example.
It doesn't bother me much to read those mistakes, it bothers me more to read SMS talk. It makes no sense whatsoever. Like "I <3" whatever. Those are not words, and that is not a language.

I'm satisfied with my level of English, although it's far from perfect. But I have to keep perspective, I do speak Portuguese with most of the people I know socially, and speak English in work related environments only. It's understandable that my English isn't perfect, but it's quite good for public school standards, so I can't complain.

[watch-man7777]

Happens all over the place, not just here on WUS. One must learn to get used to it because it will only get worse.

[Janne]

I think we should adopt a couple of new Rules:
1: If you are a native English speaker, only gramatically correct Queens English is accepted.
Pavement. Aluminium. Bonnet. Elevator (Just some examples!)

2: If English is NOT your Native Tongue, try hard to be correct, but misstakes are accepted.
Alternately, we can adopt another language, maybe one used most by people in the World.
Mandarin, anybody?


End of joking. I accept many misstakes, but not the Texting-English.