# Grammar tips for new posters. Grammar Nazis please help, nicely.



## INXX (Jul 14, 2010)

Hello, 

For everyone's benefit, here are some of the more irritating grammar/spelling gaffs. Please add more or learn, as befits you. 

It's no one, not noone.

It's sought after, not sort after. 

:laughing:


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## Immemorial (May 16, 2010)

The word 'alot' does not exist. It is 'a lot.'

If you are making a long post, space it out for fuck sake. I'm not going to strain my eyes to read all of that text crushed together.

Use punctuation to separate your text. It stops it from becoming a never ending and incoherent ramble.

For gods sake, at least make _some _effort to make sure that your post is understandable.
(Forgiveable if English isn't your first language).

:dry:


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## arisblacklight (Jul 8, 2013)

May I ask what a gaff is? Not intending to be mean, just don't know... is it an error of some sort?


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## JamesSteal (Apr 14, 2013)

Svidrigailov said:


> (Forgiveable if English isn't your first language).
> 
> :dry:


Forgivable* :kitteh:


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## Flaming Bassoon (Feb 15, 2013)

Another one that constantly gets mixed up is "it's" and "its." People just don't get that its is possessive and it's is a contraction.


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## Recede (Nov 23, 2011)

- "I could care less" does not have the meaning most people intend it to have. What they really mean is "I couldn't care less."
- It's not "If they would have (done x, then y)," it's "If they had."


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

I think that the word is gaffe. Here is a definition: Noun
An unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder: "an unforgivable social gaffe."



arisblacklight said:


> May I ask what a gaff is? Not intending to be mean, just don't know... is it an error of some sort?


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

some more:

would have, not would of
between you and me, not between you and I

if you can count them, it's fewer not less. "There were fewer people in the store today than there were yesterday," not "There were less people in the store than there were yesterday."

Please don't start sentences with numerals. Spell it out. Sentences started with numerals are just... um... ugly.

Thank you!


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## Yedra (Jul 28, 2012)

I'm surprised no one has mentioned "lose" and "loose" yet.



Silveresque said:


> - "I could care less" does not have the meaning most people intend it to have. What they really mean is "I couldn't care less."


I see this one very often. Even people like Beyonce or 50 Cent used it in their songs (_Single Ladies_, for example).


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## Diphenhydramine (Apr 9, 2010)

Yedra said:


> I'm surprised no one has mentioned "lose" and "loose" yet.
> 
> 
> 
> I see this one very often. Even people like Beyonce or 50 Cent used it in their songs (_Single Ladies_, for example).


 It's an Americanism - perhaps, a feature of US English. In Britain people don't say "could" care less.

I don't have anything to add yet. Most of what I'd suggest has been already said.

The most annoying thing imo isn't minor grammar mistakes, but huge posts that are very poorly formatted; not enough spacing, loads of !!! or bolded, italicised words etc.

EDIT - I forgot. An ellipsis is three full stops. It is NOT two. ".." as an ellipsis is grammatically incorrect, it's not just a difference of effect.


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## milti (Feb 8, 2012)

DPH's last word brings us to effect vs. affect.

"Effect" is a noun. "Alcohol has a bad *effect *on me."

"Affect" is used in its most common form as a verb. "UV rays *affect* the skin."

These are the most common ways. You can use the words in the alternate ways too, but those are so complicated. Remember VANE: Verb Affect Noun Effect.


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## Glenda Gnome Starr (May 12, 2011)

Here's another:
it's bated breath, not baited breath (unless your breath really stinks, lol)


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## Yedra (Jul 28, 2012)

Diphenhydramine said:


> It's an Americanism - perhaps, a feature of US English. In Britain people don't say "could" care less.


I don't think it's an Americanism but ignorance. The sentence doesn't even make sense without the negation. If one "could care less", then this would mean that there is a degree of importance of the thing the phrase refers to in a specific context and when people use this phrase they want to say that they don't care about a specific thing at all. To convey this meaning the only correct use of the phrase is "couldn't care less".


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## mamadabinski (Jan 2, 2013)

Here's a good one I saw the other day: bear with me vs. bare with me. One asking for patience, the other is getting naked together. Pretty big difference. 

It's one thing to have one or two mistakes - we all make them, myself included. It's the posts where it's clear the writer has no regard whatsoever for the readers experience, making no effort to edit, punctuate or otherwise make the material readable. I admit to making initial judgements on a persons intelligence based on such posts. Just like I'd make initial judgements on a person's hygiene if I saw them in a mall, dressed in a leisure suit with a belly hanging out, covered in mustard stains. Think 'WalMart people'.

I am a self confessed Grammar Nazi and I approve the content of this thread.


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## WickerDeer (Aug 1, 2012)

milti said:


> DPH's last word brings us to effect vs. affect.
> 
> "Effect" is a noun. "Alcohol has a bad *effect *on me."
> 
> ...


I am guilty of this one.

I think it's partially because I associate the word "affect" with "affective." So, I know there have been times when I wrote "I effected him" rather than "I affected him," because I mistakenly assumed that to say that I "affected" him would be to say that I took up his mannerisms and mental state. 

So thanks for bringing that up.

Right? So it would be right to say "I affected him" to mean that I caused him effects? Is that right?


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## milti (Feb 8, 2012)

meltedsorbet said:


> Right? So it would be right to say "I affected him" to mean that I caused him effects? Is that right?


Yes, that's correct.

Lesson 2:
"Your" and "You're"

Your = belonging to you.
You're = YOU ARE.

The apostrophe means that letters are missing and it's a contraction. Thus, "you are" becomes "you're".

"*Your* *dress* is lovely." -"Thanks, *you're* so sweet."

Edit: I teach high school English, sorry if I come off sounding too teacher-y. :laughing:


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## Ellis Bell (Mar 16, 2012)

And another: it's "graduated from college," not "graduated college." The second makes it sound like you were the one conferring the degree, not the institution conferring it on you.

Also agree with the formatting stuff; just because you think it's pretty doesn't mean that other people will want to read it. And paragraph breaks every now and then would be nice for readability.


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## ilphithra (Jun 22, 2010)

arisblacklight said:


> May I ask what a gaff is? Not intending to be mean, just don't know... is it an error of some sort?


A* gaff* is a pole with a hook on its end.
A *gaffe* is a mistake.



milti said:


> Yes, that's correct.
> 
> Lesson 2:
> "Your" and "You're"
> ...


English isn't even my main language and I cringe at what I see... sometimes I think us foreigners know English better than the natives...



Let me add "their" and "they're".

It goes on the same lines as "your" and "you're".

Their - Possessing Adjective, something that belongs to them (3rd person)
They're - THEY ARE (verb *to be*, 3rd person)

This is *their* car. *They're* going to the cinema.


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## Abraxas (May 28, 2011)




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## Abraxas (May 28, 2011)

The difference between I.E. and E.G.​



I.e. is latin and stands for _id est._

E.g. is also latin and stands for _exempli gratia._

I.e., which starts with _i_, means "in other words."

E.g., which starts with _e_, means "for example."

_"I"_ = *i*n other words.

_"E"_ = for *e*xample.

Use e.g. when you want to introduce a series of examples, e.g., this one, and this one.

Use i.e. when you want to give something further clarification, i.e., when you need to explain the same thing in a slightly different way.​


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## Damalur_Sol (Jul 4, 2013)

mamadabinski said:


> Here's a good one I saw the other day: bear with me vs. bare with me. One asking for patience, the other is getting naked together. Pretty big difference.
> 
> It's one thing to have one or two mistakes - we all make them, myself included. It's the posts where it's clear the writer has no regard whatsoever for the readers experience, making no effort to edit, punctuate or otherwise make the material readable. I admit to making initial judgements on a persons intelligence based on such posts. Just like I'd make initial judgements on a person's hygiene if I saw them in a mall, dressed in a leisure suit with a belly hanging out, covered in mustard stains. Think 'WalMart people'.
> 
> I am a self confessed Grammar Nazi and I approve the content of this thread.


I remember having the discussion with a teacher in high school about bear vs. bare. I was on the side of bear. I had used it in one of my poems and he had marked it as incorrect.


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## Damalur_Sol (Jul 4, 2013)

Recently, there have been times when I have had to correct myself of certain mistakes (especially the there/ their/ they're nature). I believe it is because I have seen so many of these mistakes that they are rolling around in my mind and starting to infest areas. Hopefully, I have caught the problem in time to exterminate them before they take root.


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## Ellis Bell (Mar 16, 2012)

On the other hand, despite my peeves about grammar (and I am pretty stringent with it in my job. A period means nothing if an entire paragraph should come out), being on an informal discussion forum like this means that I'm willing to be a bit more forgiving of mistakes... especially since we get a lot of non-native English speakers 'round these parts.


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## mamadabinski (Jan 2, 2013)

Damalur_Sol said:


> I remember having the discussion with a teacher in high school about bear vs. bare. I was on the side of bear. I had used it in one of my poems and he had marked it as incorrect.


High school teachers don't know everything (said the high school teacher). When you stop to think of the many ways we use 'bear', it makes sense and only one of them has anything to do with a furry animal.

One might: bear fruit, bear a child, bear down, bear gifts, bear cost, bear right or left, bear witness, bring to bear, bear a grudge, can not bear him, bears marks of violence, see a bear, etc etc etc.

I can think of only a couple ways to use 'bare' and it always implies naked or unassisted. Bare hands, bare your heart, bare naked bums...


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## Damalur_Sol (Jul 4, 2013)

mamadabinski said:


> High school teachers don't know everything (said the high school teacher). When you stop to think of the many ways we use 'bear', it makes sense and only one of them has anything to do with a furry animal.
> 
> One might: bear fruit, bear a child, bear down, bear gifts, bear cost, bear right or left, bear witness, bring to bear, bear a grudge, can not bear him, bears marks of violence, see a bear, etc etc etc.
> 
> I can think of only a couple ways to use 'bare' and it always implies naked or unassisted. Bare hands, bare your heart, bare naked bums...


Yes, I was definitely using the "to carry a load" type in my poem. Other than this episode, he was a good English teacher for the level.

Here's another mistake I see a lot: "awe" instead of "awwww." 

"My boss yelled at me." 
"Awe... *hugs*"

Or 

"You're so funny!"
"Awe... *blush*"

Am I missing something? I don't get why one ought to be in awe of these things.


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## Bear987 (May 13, 2012)

:shocked: Another member! Good thing you joined - see you around on the forum!


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## Rafiki (Mar 11, 2012)

This may hurt, but I believe written language and spoken language should be treated as independent bodies, or appendages of the same beast. Written language demands precision, and in all cases except for things like written dialogues (which lean more toward spoken language grammar rules) precision is necessary for reaching the most lucid and accessible ways of explaining anything. One can say precision and accessibility are even with each other, perhaps favoring precision This is especially important as written dialogues rarely allow for a discussion with their authors. Spoken language however, must err on the side of convenience and communicational ease, favored over precision. Spoken language is first to receive new input from converging groups, assimilated outside influencer, and dialectical breeding, and so written rules of grammar lose their dominance over preferred colloquialisms. On a separate note, this is virtually unavoidable.

I don't think speech should be eyed for grammatical correction as writing must.

Again on a quasi-rseparate note, writing has visible forms of punctuation that affect a way a single reader interprets text. In a dialogue punctuation is given and typically unproblematic. 

I'll probably add to this later.. 
Thoughts?


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## italix (Sep 26, 2015)

So with that being said, would you call posting on here to have the rules of written or spoken language? I can see both sides of the coin so I'll have to think about it more before I could come to a conclusion myself... my boyfriend and I are opposite types, so a lot of time we stumble upon communication issues in texts. Most of the time boils down to two things:

1) is that he does not add punctuation and I read everything literally
2) I can see multiple meaning to words like "it" and other vague terms. So what happens is I don't check my phone for some odd minutes and by that time I can't remember what we were talking about and attribute every possible thing I can think of to the undefined term. Then he gets annoyed that I can't figure it out - I try my best ha

me = ENTP
him = ISTJ

To my knowledge, texts use spoken language to use your term. I try to incorporate both spoken and written language rules when I text now, to make things flow easier ~ would that be best way to write on here?

I am new here and see no one has posted for a few years.... do people continue threads this long after? If anyone has thoughts on that, I would love to hear!


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