aknitwit (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} aknitwit) wrote,@ 2008-11-18 14:32:00 |
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Grammar Rant II
This might not be the time for another grammar rant, with fires raging, kitties sick, and friends facing layoff--still, maybe an intellectual diversion is in order.
Looking at the Comments, it seems your pet peeves fall into several general categories: Homonyms, word confusion, then/than, your/you're.
The homonyms (hoard/horde, rein/reign, tow/toe) and word confusions (don/dawn, tenet/tenant, tack/tact) are misused in context and are, to some degree, due to ignorance of spelling or definition. There are no rules covering usage of these words, except LOOK IT UP! Spell-checker will not catch it.
The case with then/than is a little different. Not only do these words look and sound similar, their definitions are close enough to be confusing. In general, however, 'then' is temporal and 'than' is comparative. When I was a kid, one was encouraged to say 'different from' instead of 'different than', but that prejudice is slowly disappearing. In Ireland they say 'different to', which makes a lot of sense to me.
Now for your/you're and its/it's, the confusion over the possessive and the contraction. This irritates the hell out of me. "Your welcome." Grrrr. 'His' and 'hers' don't have apostrophes, so neither do 'yours' and 'its.' This should be simple to remember.
One of my pet peeves is 'he and I' v. 'him and me'. Some people, including news anchors, think it sounds ignorant to say "him and me." But in this case it is correct: It went badly for him and me. A simple test for the correct choice is to drop one of the pronouns and see how it sounds. It went badly for him. You wouldn't say, "It went badly for he." By the same token you would say, "He and I went to the mall," not "Him and I went to the mall." Use the same test. He went to the mall.
Can I just say one more thing? 'None' is singular, so make sure the verb agrees. "None was left standing." The test for this is to mentally substitute 'not one' for 'none' and make the verb agree.
It should be obvious from this rant that I am not a Punctuation Nazi, and I have probably made many mistakes regarding the ' and the ". Whatever. I can only be perfect in a limited number of areas.
This might not be the time for another grammar rant, with fires raging, kitties sick, and friends facing layoff--still, maybe an intellectual diversion is in order.
Looking at the Comments, it seems your pet peeves fall into several general categories: Homonyms, word confusion, then/than, your/you're.
The homonyms (hoard/horde, rein/reign, tow/toe) and word confusions (don/dawn, tenet/tenant, tack/tact) are misused in context and are, to some degree, due to ignorance of spelling or definition. There are no rules covering usage of these words, except LOOK IT UP! Spell-checker will not catch it.
The case with then/than is a little different. Not only do these words look and sound similar, their definitions are close enough to be confusing. In general, however, 'then' is temporal and 'than' is comparative. When I was a kid, one was encouraged to say 'different from' instead of 'different than', but that prejudice is slowly disappearing. In Ireland they say 'different to', which makes a lot of sense to me.
Now for your/you're and its/it's, the confusion over the possessive and the contraction. This irritates the hell out of me. "Your welcome." Grrrr. 'His' and 'hers' don't have apostrophes, so neither do 'yours' and 'its.' This should be simple to remember.
One of my pet peeves is 'he and I' v. 'him and me'. Some people, including news anchors, think it sounds ignorant to say "him and me." But in this case it is correct: It went badly for him and me. A simple test for the correct choice is to drop one of the pronouns and see how it sounds. It went badly for him. You wouldn't say, "It went badly for he." By the same token you would say, "He and I went to the mall," not "Him and I went to the mall." Use the same test. He went to the mall.
Can I just say one more thing? 'None' is singular, so make sure the verb agrees. "None was left standing." The test for this is to mentally substitute 'not one' for 'none' and make the verb agree.
It should be obvious from this rant that I am not a Punctuation Nazi, and I have probably made many mistakes regarding the ' and the ". Whatever. I can only be perfect in a limited number of areas.
