Another (probably futile) grammar rant...

[thunderball]

I know, I know...this is the 'net and grammar doesn't matter anymore. Typos happen. Newly-formed contractions and acronyms abound. Proper sentences are for blue hairs and those people who write books. It's a young man's world and all that jazz....but still...

I don't normally comment on things of this nature (and I myself make mistakes just like anyone else) but there are a few little items that have been driving me nuts lately...if only because I've seen each one of them at least three times in two days. I hope this post will not offend and be taken in the helpful and self-improving spirit in which it was intended.

*Disclaimer: I am a bit anal about the English language and am thus probably bothered by such 'trivialities' (!) moreso than the average person. Feel free to click away from here at any time! And if, in the height of irony, I have made a grammar mistake in this post, please feel free to laugh thyself to tears, send me threatening PMs, and throw tomatoes in the general direction of Japan.

The Offending Items

1. peaked/piqued

Annoyance factor: Minor. Fingernails on a chalkboard. Eating too much wasabi. Shocking but doesn't last long. Not common enough to truly offend.

I've read three times in the past two days sentences such as: "You've really peaked my interest" or "My interest was peaked after I read your post". The correct word is 'pique' as in to 'to provoke or arouse'. Now, I can see how this mistake happens as something 'peaking' carries the image of rising up to a crescendo (eg. curiosity) but this usage is incorrect. I imagine that many people have only heard the saying 'pique my curiosity' and have never had to write it.


2. its/it's

Annoyance factor: Minor/moderate. Missing the bus. Not finding a prize in the Cracker Jacks box. Merkur blades. Rather understandable mistake but common enough that we should get this one figured out.

This has been discussed before but it's still everywhere. 'It's' is a contraction of 'It is' while 'its' is a possessive. The following sentences are incorrect: "I love Proraso; it's performance is secondary to none". Or "Its hard to decide which razor to buy next". Again, easy to see how this happens as apostrophe 's' ('s) normally does signal a possessive as in "That's Doug's beer, man!"


3. lose/loose

Annoyance factor: Moderate/high. Kicking the leg of the coffee table at a full sprint. Finding out too late your hard-fought-for date is a shemale. This is one we should all know.

Another one you see here everyday. "Help! My brush is loosing it's hairs". What?! Lose is a verb and loose is generally an adjective (though of course we all love the archaic "Archers! Loose thy arrows!" usage as well ) Your imitation Shavemac is 'losing' hairs, not 'loosing' them (well, I suppose a brush possessed by evil medieval warrior spirits could technically loose hairs at you, in which case you've got an altogether more serious problem). The head of your HD is 'loose' not 'lose'. And the Braves just 'lost' to the Red Sox, not 'loost' to them...(okay, okay, I made that last one up).


Well, that's it folks - English rant over. If I have made a mistake in my explanation then that's just hilarious. As you were...

 

[Obsessed]

Yeah, but for all intensive purposes, it really doesn't matter!

 

[ouch]

I'm from the P. J. O'Rourke school of thought, where he aks which of these sentences is correct:

A) At the present, I am impecunious.
B) I ain't got me more than no three nor four million in the dang stock market.


The correct answer is, of course, B.

 

[shm]

Great mini-lecture, and I concur.

I think we have to take good care of the language - whatever is our native language.
Not being (native) English speaking, I still have a lot to learn about the correct grammar, and I try to pick up wherever I can.

 

[thunderball]

Yeah, but for all intensive purposes, it really doesn't matter!

What purpose's are you eluding too? This effects all of us man!

 

[bythbook]

and one doesn't make a noun plural by adding an apostrophe-s ('s). Just a lonely little -s will do.

Usually.

too many apostrophe's drive me crazy.

y'know?

 

[Chimensch]

I think that you will enjoy this web page on Common Errors in English. By the way, everyone makes errors, even those who think they are fairly literate. Just the other day I found out that I was using biannually (every six months) when I meant biennially (every two years).

 

[thunderball]

I think that you will enjoy this web page on Common Errors in English. By the way, everyone makes errors, even those who think they are fairly literate. Just the other day I found out that I was using biannually (every six months) when I meant biennially (every two years).

Of course, of course, but if some of those errors are due simply to not knowing the correct usage then I think it is reasonable and constructive to point those errors out (preferably in a friendly and constructive manner!). Typos and errors made by a momentary lapse of attention are something different (I do this all the time). In the first instance the person really doesn't know they are wrong and will predictably repeat the error; in the second instance the person knows the correct usage but simply failed to execute it for one reason or another.

I used the world 'lengthly' instead of 'lengthy' until I was in university...I was blown away it took me almost 25 years to be corrected on that one! I also thought 'remuneration' was 'renumeration'.

 

[PaulX608]

Yeah, but for all intensive purposes, it really doesn't matter!

Oh man, that's one of the ones that gets my goat. I'm a bit of a grammar watchdog myself, and am constantly correcting people. I'll go ahead and list three that have me seeing red regularly.

1) Your/you're. I see this every day and it bugs the crap out of me! You're is a contraction of you are. Your is a possessive form of you. Correct examples:

You're not going to be disappointed with that razor!
Your razor looks very good now that it's clean.

2) Would've/should've/could've. These are contractions combining the words would, should, and could with the word have not of. Incorrect example:

I should of cleaned that razor better before I took that picture.

Correct example:

You could have(or could've, I'm not condemning the contraction when used correctly) had that 195 adjustable if you'd bid $5 more at the last second.

3) Intensive purposes. I'm certain not very many caught that joke by Obsessed above. The correct phrase is, of course, "for all intents and purposes."


OK, rant over.

 

[Obsessed]

I think that you will enjoy this web page on Common Errors in English.

+1 That's a great website.

 

[mdunn]

i dun no wot u probblam b, but yu is torking boot strang speekingz - y4 no leme do talkings fo meye waie, no fo theyre way

 

[SRock]

I think that you will enjoy this web page on Common Errors in English. By the way, everyone makes errors, even those who think they are fairly literate. Just the other day I found out that I was using biannually (every six months) when I meant biennially (every two years).

I thought your link was going to take me here.

I see a great deal of this sort of thing but I understand how it happens. I mean can you even imagine what it might look like if I tried to write something in Kanji, Hiragana or Katakana? Short of simple things like Inu (&#29356 It'd be a wreck.

楽しんでゆっくり歩く

 

[thunderball]

I thought your link was going to take me here.

I see a great deal of this sort of thing but I understand how it happens. I mean can you even imagine what it might look like if I tried to write something in Kanji, Hiragana or Katakana? Short of simple things like Inu (&#29356 It'd be a wreck.

楽しんでゆっくり歩く

Engrish.com is one of the best websites...ever. Even my Japanese students love it!

 

[SRock]

Engrish.com is one of the best websites...ever. Even my Japanese students love it!

That's how I knew it wouldn't be offensive to post here. I work with many local contractors and Engrish.com is a frequent topic of conversation and laughs.

 

[thunderball]

That's how I knew it wouldn't be offensive to post here. I work with many local contractors and Engrish.com is a frequent topic of conversation and laughs.

A few I have seen personally in Japan:

(on a hotel air conditioner)

"If you can't control yourself please take advantage of the maid"


(on a chainsaw in the hardware store)

"Do not attempt to stop chain with hands or genitals"

 

[SRock]

One of my favorites that I've seen in more than one location is "Erection in progress." For those of you with dirty minds clearly they meant 'election'.

 

[ouch]

A few I have seen personally in Japan:

(on a hotel air conditioner)

"If you can't control yourself please take advantage of the maid"

More reasons to move to Japan.

 

[lenard]

The one I see mixed up all the time on the net is advice/advise.

 

[raisindot]

2. its/it's

Annoyance factor: Minor/moderate. Missing the bus. Not finding a prize in the Cracker Jacks box. Merkur blades. Rather understandable mistake but common enough that we should get this one figured out.

This has been discussed before but it's still everywhere. 'It's' is a contraction of 'It is' while 'its' is a possessive. The following sentences are incorrect: "I love Proraso; it's performance is secondary to none". Or "Its hard to decide which razor to buy next". Again, easy to see how this happens as apostrophe 's' ('s) normally does signal a possessive as in "That's Doug's beer, man!"

I hate the misuse of "it's/its" more than just about any other kind of transgression. But its misuse is not limited to cretins. I've been reading the Adams-Jefferson letters, and our third president, writer of the Declaration of Independence and the best writer of his generation, routinely used "it's" as a possessesive in his correspondence. Of course, Adams butchered the language in a huge variety of ways, but he was long past caring about it by that point.

Jeff in Boston

 

[Captain Flint]

I know, I know...this is the 'net and grammar doesn't matter anymore. Typos happen. Newly-formed contractions and acronyms abound. Proper sentences are for blue hairs and those people who write books. It's a young man's world and all that jazz....but still...

I don't normally comment on things of this nature (and I myself make mistakes just like anyone else) but there are a few little items that have been driving me nuts lately...if only because I've seen each one of them at least three times in two days. I hope this post will not offend and be taken in the helpful and self-improving spirit in which it was intended.

*Disclaimer: I am a bit anal about the English language and am thus probably bothered by such 'trivialities' (!) moreso than the average person. Feel free to click away from here at any time! And if, in the height of irony, I have made a grammar mistake in this post, please feel free to laugh thyself to tears, send me threatening PMs, and throw tomatoes in the general direction of Japan.

The Offending Items

1. peaked/piqued

Annoyance factor: Minor. Fingernails on a chalkboard. Eating too much wasabi. Shocking but doesn't last long. Not common enough to truly offend.

I've read three times in the past two days sentences such as: "You've really peaked my interest" or "My interest was peaked after I read your post". The correct word is 'pique' as in to 'to provoke or arouse'. Now, I can see how this mistake happens as something 'peaking' carries the image of rising up to a crescendo (eg. curiosity) but this usage is incorrect. I imagine that many people have only heard the saying 'pique my curiosity' and have never had to write it.


2. its/it's

Annoyance factor: Minor/moderate. Missing the bus. Not finding a prize in the Cracker Jacks box. Merkur blades. Rather understandable mistake but common enough that we should get this one figured out.

This has been discussed before but it's still everywhere. 'It's' is a contraction of 'It is' while 'its' is a possessive. The following sentences are incorrect: "I love Proraso; it's performance is secondary to none". Or "Its hard to decide which razor to buy next". Again, easy to see how this happens as apostrophe 's' ('s) normally does signal a possessive as in "That's Doug's beer, man!"


3. lose/loose

Annoyance factor: Moderate/high. Kicking the leg of the coffee table at a full sprint. Finding out too late your hard-fought-for date is a shemale. This is one we should all know.

Another one you see here everyday. "Help! My brush is loosing it's hairs". What?! Lose is a verb and loose is generally an adjective (though of course we all love the archaic "Archers! Loose thy arrows!" usage as well ) Your imitation Shavemac is 'losing' hairs, not 'loosing' them (well, I suppose a brush possessed by evil medieval warrior spirits could technically loose hairs at you, in which case you've got an altogether more serious problem). The head of your HD is 'loose' not 'lose'. And the Braves just 'lost' to the Red Sox, not 'loost' to them...(okay, okay, I made that last one up).


Well, that's it folks - English rant over. If I have made a mistake in my explanation then that's just hilarious. As you were...

Jolly good show, Dave. Let's uphold Shakespeare's language! I particularly abhor the it's/its mistake.