grammer? as in programmer? or do you mean grammar?

[flaviomatani]

I often feel a bit shy to point out inconsistencies of grammar and spelling, being after all a blodi forrener and very often hasty and careless to check before I post, but further to a lament from cyber_child (unfortunately in a protected post, so only people in his flist can see it), here is one more annoying little thing that I see every day, a very common one:

'It's' is not a possessive adjective or pronoun. It is a contraction of 'it' and 'is'. So, please, "the dog and it's puppy" would mean, if anything, that the dog was a puppy -or something like that. It would not mean 'the dog and the puppy of the dog'.

'Your' and 'you're', likewise, are not interchangeable!

Some of the other obvious ones (with the medal of honour going to 'I would of done') in Bob's post..

< /pedantic>

Comments

[reddragdiva]

As a non-native speaker, you'll be more aware of the rules and exceptions than many native speakers. (I learnt most of what I know about English grammar in French class ...) Hence the common phenomenon of non-native speakers having much better written English than native speakers.

[miss-soap.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately once people reach a certain age, if they've not properly assimilated correct use of possessive apostrophes, it's very unlikely that they ever will. It is an anomaly that "its" doesn't take any kind of apostrophe, along with "yours" and "mine", as opposed to "the dog's", "James's" etc. Ah grammar, how I love thee.

'Would of' drives me crackers; yesterday there was a thread in which someone corrected this in another's post. The OP wigged out about how she did know the correct form really, but continued to use 'should of' and 'could of' throughout her comments.

[miss-soap.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm going to be really pedantic and say your end tag should be </pedantic>

[suebeedoo.livejournal.com]

Ah an excuse to use my icon :)

[antitrollpatrol.livejournal.com]

the easiest way to remember your and you're for me is:

your - noun (used when describing a noun - your coat, your car)

you're - verb (used when describing a "feeling" etc, you're happy today)

[jupiter909.livejournal.com]

What worries me is that in many parts of the UK [see North, but not too far North] the schooling system allows things as such without repercussions:

"Me was doing me work and it were taking a long time."

I though the UK had some sort of standard body to ensure these matters did not arise?

I cringe reading that. I am not the most articulate and prose gifted of people and as such I welcome corrects within reason. What that reason entails is open to debate.

[too-many-flies.livejournal.com]

confusing your and you're really get on my nerves!

'Its' is one not many people seem to know about, although when typing speedily sometimes i do it by accident (but hopefully realise afterwards!)

general misuse of apostrophes is always annoying.

[ladymedb.livejournal.com]

My favorite running t-shirt says "Good grammar is free"

You forgot ...

[lazrus-armagedn.livejournal.com]

... innit?

When what is meant is "Aren't I?" or "Won't I?", etc.


Gah!

[ngarara.livejournal.com]

You should join the Apostrophe Protection Society