I must admit, I'm not a grammar goddess by any means. I forget whether the quotations go inside or outside the punctuation. I can write a mean run-on sentence. Semi-colons...let's not even go there. Oh, and lately, I've become a huge fan of the ellipse. (That's those 3 periods together - ...) All too often, I begin a sentence with a conjunction, which I believe is a no-no. (And, But and Or - they'll get you pretty far...)
The thing that really bothers me most is when people use the wrong word. For example:
Then vs. Than
Your vs. You're
To vs. Too
There vs. Their
Its vs. It's
Your vs. You're
To vs. Too
There vs. Their
Its vs. It's
Those are the biggies that come to mind. Then vs. Than is one of my favorites - mainly because my husband has a major problem with this one. (I'd love to be able to blame it on the MS, but I don't think that's the problem!)
Then - refers to time.
Than - refers to a comparison
Your - belongs to you
You're - contraction of you are
To - not sure what to call/describe this one, but it's different than...
Too - also
There - a place
Their - belongs to them
Its - belongs to it
It's - contraction of it is
I guess I should thank my 10th grade English teacher. I apparently learned something. While I'm here, I'll point out another trick he taught us: How to pick the appropriate verb to go with a compound subject. For example:
Me and Heidi are going to a scout meeting. WRONG! You wouldn't say "Me are going"; you would say, "I am going."
Heidi and I are going to a scout meeting. RIGHT! Drop one of the parts of the subject and make sure the verb agrees.
Let's switch it up...
Heidi went with Karl and I to a scout meeting. WRONG! You wouldn't say "Heidi went with I to a scout meeting" you would say, "Heidi went with me to a scout meeting." Again, make sure subject/verb agrees.
Heidi went with Karl and me to a scout meeting. RIGHT!
Ok, so now that I've opened myself up for incredible scrutiny, I'm going to stop. I apologize in advance to any English teachers/majors/writing professionals (Greg!) who could spend the rest of their existance analyzing and editing my blog posts!
3 comments:
LOVE IT!
I readily admit I am no grammar goddess either. In fact, I am down right horrible and love learning what is correct both with the written and spoken word.
Thanks to your English teacher, I too am now learning. It's a gift that keeps on giving.
AMEN Sister! At least they taught us SOMETHING at NHS, huh. I am a grammar and spelling dork and I spend half my day wondering if I should go into businesses that have misspelled billboards...but I wonder if I would still be alive if I did that!
Me and him are going to have to disagree with you on the whole not starting a sentence with And or But thing .... you have to do it carefully, but when done well, it can be very effective. (But when it's done incorrectly, it makes the writer look stupid!)
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