Okay, shoot me!

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WriteRead

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I know, I know! I'm an ESL (Eng Sec Lang), but I can't stand it anymore!! No, no! An end to the scandal, here and now! One of my pet peeves. Anyone who feels like me, has a standing invitation to add. We're writers, aren't we? The words, the grammar, the syntax, are our tools, aren't they? So, w your permission, here it goes:

"NOWADAYS", NOT "NOW DAYS"

"DEFINITELY", NOT "DEFINATELY"

"A LOT", NOT "ALOT"

"SEPARATELY" NOT "SEPERATELY",

and if you really wanna kill me while still young, go ahead and continue to write with an inversed infinitive, like "to better do (it)".

Thanks for the attn, folks! I'm on the run!

Dan

P.S. - and pulllllleeeeese, I beg, I ask, I kneel,
icon7.gif
, use the "to" and write "I promised not TO stay", not "I promised not stay". The infinitive conjugation of the verb is a basic must in the context, so "TO" is absolutely necessary before the verb: "What did I promise?" "Not TO stay".
 
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SLake

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WriteWrite!

Oooh, your onto real technical stuff that realy gets alot of people down now days, definately!

Hehe, sorry -- and now I'm tittering at the vision of an enraged hair-pulling person at a keyboard.

But I bet you'd be a really terrific editor -- (sorry about beginning sentence with conjunction:---)!
 

aadams73

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The people who can't tell the difference between "your" and "you're" drive me bonkers. I've also found those same people (even among writers) don't seem to care about their poor grammar.
 

JoeEkaitis

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aadams73 said:
The people who can't tell the difference between "your" and "you're" drive me bonkers. I've also found those same people (even among writers) don't seem to care about their poor grammar.
We told them they were making you upset, so their waiting over there by they're luggage.
 

WriteRead

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another bonker of mine is who vs whom is

very easily broken in pieces by the:

if replaceable w the personal pronoun, then "who";

if by the him, her, etc., then "whom"
 

Lucky Penny

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Hmmmmm, maybe it's a second language thing.

I learned German as my second language and I know I hate listening to my hubby speaking German. I was always quick to answer anyone who spoke to us in German when we still lived in Europe, simply because I couldn't bear to listen to him butcher German grammar.

I also have a French friend who really is 'precise' when it comes to English grammar. *shrug*
 
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WriteRead

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Penny said:
Hmmmmm, maybe it's a second language thing.
To be a writer, sec lang or not, doesn't entitle one to some basic res/pect/ponsibility toward the basic tool with which s/he works, the word and its shaping? I'd think that this is a given, no offense or disrespect, really.

Dan
 

maestrowork

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Most importantly, theirs no reason to not to learn the tools if you want be a writer.

(are we playing "spot the gaffes"?)
 

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Yes, and did you spot the other gaffe? ;)




And believe me, writing those two sentences practically gave me a hernia
.


We told them they were making you upset, so their waiting over there by they're luggage.

Yes, as a matter fact, I did.<<<<<<<<<giggling hysterically because it's the first time it wasn't her fault.
 
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aadams73

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JoeEkaitis said:
We told them they were making you upset, so their waiting over there by they're luggage.


Bwahahahahhahaha!
 

Maryn

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The one that makes me insane is it's. That's only short for "it is" or "it has." Never, ever, under any circumstances, the possessive for it. I used to tell people it made no more sense than hi's or her's, until someone wondered what was wrong with those.

This one's a losing battle.
 

JoeEkaitis

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The word is spelled "comfortable." Why do so many pronounce it "comfterble"? Did we all wake up one day and start saying "comfterble" or are we expected to just accept it as we accept "Woostersheer" as the correct way to pronounce "Worcestershire"?

I wonder how many people in Worcestershire say "comfterble".
 

Paint

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Heyawl! I think I may be one of those people who drive ya nuts! I love slang. I think it is fun!
My word processor is trying to teach me different, but I like
'Sup?
'Shappinin?
'Kay?
Wha?
'Da Bears, etc.
Sure it could be seen as humanity sliding into a pit of verbal sloth, but really what do these small notes mean in the great symphony of the universe? Sorry, slipped into poetry...
Can I take a nap now?
 

WriteRead

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For Paint

We're not talking slang, here. Slang IS fun, and even I, an ESL living w an American, reading daily the newspapers, the web, etc., use it, and you can read it quite a few times in some of my posts.

What we talk here is pointing to the use, seemingly w/o blinking twice, of pure incorrect grammar, syntax and spelling. Those are the most basic tools a writer uses. To write, and in a writers' forum, no less, it's instead of its, their instead of they're, etc., and vice versa, is a bit, and maybe more than a bit, awkward. No disrespect or offense meant, of course.

I am not crusading, I'm just pt'ing to it and try to draw attn to the issue, that's all. Due modesty, I think it's of good service. :)

Dan
 

mmm... pancakes

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I AGREE! And I even wrote about it a few days ago in the 'pet peeves' thread.

I'm an EFL teacher (English as a foreign language), so maybe I care more than most. But we're supposed to be WRITERS here! Surely it should come naturally to us in the same way it should come naturally to English teachers? Especially basic stuff.

One or two of you might be interested in this (EFL teachers having a crack at the spelling and grammar of other teachers): http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=26990 There are people on that thread claiming that "alot" is perfectly acceptable...
 

reph

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mmm... pancakes said:
But we're supposed to be WRITERS here! Surely it should come naturally to us in the same way it should come naturally to English teachers?
Probably a minority of people here are professional writers.

I'd like it to come naturally to everyone, but it doesn't, nor do those to whom it doesn't come naturally seem to learn it.
 

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JoeEkaitis said:
The word is spelled "comfortable." Why do so many pronounce it "comfterble"? Did we all wake up one day and start saying "comfterble" or are we expected to just accept it as we accept "Woostersheer" as the correct way to pronounce "Worcestershire"?

I wonder how many people in Worcestershire say "comfterble".

And "Colonel" pronounced as "ker-nul."

I struggled with that one all through elementary school, and I'll probably never understand the reasoning behind it.
 

WriteRead

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reph said:

Probably a minority of people here are professional writers.
The pun has not gone unnoticed, and it was a well pointed one :)

I'd like it to come naturally to everyone, but it doesn't, nor do those to whom it doesn't come naturally seem to learn it.
Okay, let them acknowledge, learn and apply.

IMO, when a writer writes "alot" and the like of them, scandalous basic mistakes, it's like a cook who burns the hundredth cake he bakes. He should know, by then, how to bake a cake, shouldn't he?

If one says that he is a plumber, let him show the professionalism of plumbing, the same w a doc, or an electrician. Let us take pride in our trade and be professionals.

Dan
 
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Lisamer

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I just received an email from someone accusing me of "slaughtering" her all over town! Frightening, considering she works as a political lobbyist.
 
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