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Thank you, I thought I was losing (loosing!!!! :D) my mind trying to find the singled out individual.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
As a grammatically challenged individual, I appreciate this thread. :o
snap "who has been known to run posts through the Word grammar checker" dragen
I think I know of whom Knot refers, but my world is a bit happier I guess, as the thought never passed my mind that the OP was directing this at anyone in particular.
I'm not a huge grammar stickler -especially in formats like a forum, where I actually appreciate (and use) lots of non-standard punctuation to simulate more of a conversational rhythm in a written form. I think if I didn't, I might sometimes come across as a bit deadpan or be misunderstood, because no one else can hear the voice in my head that carries all of the emotion and intonations...
I've also been studying a foreign language recently, and it's an Asian one, so I have little expectation of ever being able to read more than a few words here and there.... The fact that I'm really concentrating on spoken language and trying to understand normal every day conversation has made me very aware of how incredibly different written language and spoken language really are. People simply speaking to one another rarely speak in complete formal sentences - to do so makes you sound very stilted and strange. When we write it's totally different - and I think it is because there isn't immediate context, so writing in sentence fragments becomes very difficult to understand.
Now...(love my elipses too.) Let's get this back on track and teach me some more 'o this grammer stuff. I'm not going to delete any of the off track posts, I'll leave that up to the posters themselves . (Oh god, do I need any more apostrophes?)
........... whee!!!
I finally got around to reading Eats, Shoots & Leaves last year. I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but it's a very enlightening read.
Just remember ... in a world without punctuation, stuff like this happens all the time.
But folks like Shakespeare communicated their ideas fine without strictly standardized punctuation (or spelling).
That would be an interesting job interview..:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
You mean: Most of these types of questions depend on the style book to which you are referring. Right? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by bluebug32
SheFly (That is a situation up with which I cannot put. Mark Twain)
eta - I just read to the end of the messages. This post is NOT a target at Bluebug, nor anyone else on the forum. MY personal grammar pet peeve happens to be dangling participles. That and using phrases like "In order to" instead of just saying "to". My issue only. Oh wait - I think I just wrote an incomplete sentence!
Fixed that for ya. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by SheFly
Anyone remember the Barbara Cartland novels which were quite racy back in the day? At camp we used to read them aloud . . . including the dot-dot-dots.
Back then (yes, the Dark Ages) it all would have been typeset. Oy.
Oh. Sorry. Oy . . .
You guys might find this funny.
At Target, at the pharmacists' counter, they have a little pamphlet:
Where's it at? Here's a map!
"Where's it at?" Really, Target? Your editing staff didn't catch that? It MIGHT be acceptable if "at" rhymed with "map." But it doesn't. It makes me cringe so badly that I may email corporate to ask what on earth they were thinking.
I should have taken a picture of the sign at the grocery store last night. A professionally printed sign, I might add.
Turkey's $0.99/lbs
Late in. I have my pet peeves, but then I have my blind spots too. I can blame them on being bilingual but truth is there's a limit to how much I want to check on my posts.
A few thoughts: good spelling, grammar and syntax are assets when trying to communicate well. But so is a clear idea of what you're trying to say, to whom. You have terrible spelling and still get your idea or message through loud and clear, and you can write technically flawlessly, and have people going "huh?" It's the idea that gets communicated in the end that matters most to me, not the technique along the way. And on this board I enjoy a lot of the random rambling too.
Back to apostrophes: in Norwegian we use a single apostrophe to indicate possession if the name ends in a s, like Jesus' someone mentioned above. Is this not used otherwise in English at all? I think it looks rather elegant :p
Veronica, thanks for teaching your students these sorts of things. I used to work in our public community college, and I was appalled at the inability of most of the students to write a complete sentence. These days, one of my friends teaches English at a for-profit technical school; we can all tell when she's been grading papers from her foul mood. She says most of her students are functionally illiterate, despite having a GED or high school diploma.
Um, Isn't "where's" a contraction of "where is"? I thought we used an apostrophe in a contraction. /confused.Quote:
Originally Posted by jessmarimba
The apostrophe is fine. I thought the problem was the preposition at the end of the sentence.
Veronica
Yep. "Where is it?" would be acceptable. "Where is it at?" just drives me up the wall. Totally unnecessary.Quote:
Originally Posted by Veronica
Reviving this thread, not without trepidation, to share this thought-provoking piece.
It looks like they need a "Bob the Angry Flower" poster
http://www.angryflower.com/aposter.html
reminds me of William Safire and his painful nit picking of bad grammar.Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
I make no bones about it. I gave up on it long time ago. Like LPH, I really do not have a first language. My other language is Japanese and let me telll youuuu that the grammar is worldly different that it might as well be (been) an alien language. Even Chinese have some similarities to English but not Japanese. Tis why the Chinese are able to speak more correct American or British English whereas Japanese, well :o, not so much.
Spoken language is alive, vibrant and full of life. It should change with generations. How else can it express each generations unique view of the world? We had the rat pack, '50s generation had theirs, hippies, yippies, yuppies, X-gen, valley talk oh my gawd!!, grunge talk. Makes it more interesting. And now with texting, even spelling is going through some major transformation. It's amusing not bemused. ;)
... and just saw this one (best image I could find and I'm not going to type it over, sorry): :D
Those are great!Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
I should have posted a reply in the theme, but my brain isn't working so well, as it were. :rolleyes:
The misplaced apostrophes really bother me.
Enough said. It hurts my eyes.
I missed this thread earlier and want to thank you for starting it, Veronica. I have two "friends" on Facebook who are teachers and both of them are constantly butchering the English language with grammatical and spelling errors. They are teaching our children for goodness sake! I find it surprising.
Five pages on an apostrophe thread and no one has mentioned Bob the Angry Flower?
You can google it. Some people think it is offensive.
The misuse of "loose" and "lose," bugs the crap out of me. I can't help it, it just does.
Wasn't that just posted? What could possibly be offensive about it? Did someone with a Grammar Impairment Syndrome get their feelings hurt?Quote:
Originally Posted by malkin
Yup -- right up there ^Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showp...3&postcount=57
:D
That poster is hysterical. Really, I doubt anyone with G.I.S. would get their feelings hurt, because they can't recognize they are using the punctuation incorrectly.
Generally, people who do the apostrophe thing wrong also can't get homophones (their, there, they're), things like lose and loose, or spell words like definitely that it seems like no one can spell. For some it's laziness, but for a lot of the people I know who do this, it's a form of a learning disability. I bet if you asked, a lot of these people would say they are not good readers or writers.
LOL "definitely" is one I really have struggled with, and I am a decent speller. I forget the little rule I had to memorize.
Anyway, I posted this on my business page yesterday. Is it correct? I know it's partial sentence fragments. I was wondering about the use of the apostrophe.
Best way to end the week: the finicky machine doing it's jobs smoothly!!
No apostrophe if "its" is used to show possession. It's is the contraction it is.
We're working on that in class right now - well this past week actually. :D
Veronica
Angry Bob shows possessive use as OK.Quote:
Originally Posted by Veronica
"It's job" is a possessive, correct?
/confused.
I remember hearing about two friends who went across the country correcting signs, and they wrote a book....
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Typo-Hun.../dp/0307591077
.
Its is a possessive pronounce and is the counterpart to his and her. It's is a contraction meaning "it is" or "it has."Quote:
Originally Posted by Irulan
I just had to link to this. Sorry for reviving the thread, otherwise. :o
I love that strip!
I love Girls with Slingshots. And the one that Oak posted reminds me of
this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8