Grammar geeks – unite!
Yes I know that’s Freakazoid. Shh Actually, the funny thing is, I don’t know grammar. I can’t stand grammar, never learned it, never will, cannot dissect a sentence for the life of me. I told my 8th grade English teacher, “If someone told me to find the gerund in the sentence and held a gun to my head, I’d tell them to pull the trigger.” She thought I was joking. (And I know it should be “him or her” not “them” – but whatever.) Honest.
Nouns, verbs? You got me. (Seriously – don’t laugh. Some sentences are tricky.) Even so, grammar being my nemesis, certain things get me. “Good” or “real good” being one of them. Sometimes, people get snarky about the misuse of the word “good.”
Do grammatical mistakes bother you? I try to speak, and write properly (unless I’m going for the colloquial feel), and I figure if the syntax of a sentence seems off to me, it must be really bad. One would think grammar is my subject, but no. Not in English, or any other language.
As most of us feel the same way about grammar as we do about spiders… how about spelling? One of my fifth grade teachers threw fits when people wrote “alot.” Microsoft Word will auto correct you if you type it. Still, people write it – and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t a typo for them. I do love spelling. Etymology is a fascinating subject.Some words trip most people up – like separate, or juxtaposition, hemorrhoid, or even gregarious or loquacious (as those two go hand in hand). Thank goodness for spell check.
Do you get a little chuckle when someone is standing high on their soapbox, creating a lot of noise, and they say (or write) something that completely changes the meaning of what they intend? Well, chuckle or cringe, depending on who you are and your perspective. Those fancy English words, like onomatopoeia, alliteration, or assonance. *cringe* (I admit, I’ve messed up. Especially with foreign words. E.g. crème fraĭche. I knew what it was, but the first time I saw it in print, I was lost.)
Double negatives get to me. People’s fervent claims of “I ain’t done nothing!” on the news annoy me. Then I heard teachers using double negatives and a tiny part of my soul died. Contractions? I always get that word mixed up with conjunction. [I clearly didn’t watch enough School House Rock. Or too much.] I’ve noticed a few authors having their heroes say “I’ll not” a lot. I admit that it bothers me a bit. People don’t talk like that. (And yes, I’m talking about contemporary books.) “I won’t” is much more vernacular. Maybe they’re trying to make the hero sound more formal – or his words to be a stronger declaration. Anyone else notice this?
How about may or can? This was a big thing for my fourth grade teacher. Students would ask “can I use the bathroom?” And she’d respond, “I don’t know, can you?” and then ignore the student. Luckily, no accidents happened. In eighth grade, I was a bit mortified to learn of the difference between your and you’re. Somehow, this had been omitted from my education until I missed a word on a French test.
There, their, and they’re also are mixed up quite a bit. Same with it’s, its or its’ Or even more, affect and effect. I admit, principal and principle, capitol and capital, and indorse and endorse are tricky. The last, seems almost superfluous. Does it really matter that you indorse a check – although most other documents you endorse? Likely not.Homophones are quite fun – if you have kids, I suggest you give them the project of making a list of homophones. There are quite a few – near 100 or more relatively common ones, and this simple little game can occupy anyone from the age of 9-19. (That or me and my classmates were excessively easily entertained. Either or.)
What about you? Do you notice grammatical or spelling mistakes? Are you a blogger or writer? How do you feel if/when you find a mistake in something you wrote? If I can, I scramble for the edit button. Or plead with someone who can to fix it. Or… horrors, ignore it. [Correlating comments on reviews to people reading such reviews, few people are noticing such mistakes here anyway.]
Are you a grammar Nazi? Was your preference TV or a book? (Studies show people that read more have better spelling skills, but those that watched more TV are more likely to pronounce such words correctly.) It makes so much sense.Is this a topic that only interests me? Should I have written, “Is this a topic that interests only me?” I’ll stop now. And I’ll apologize in advance for all grammatical mistakes. Seriously – I won’t find them.
I admit, I’m a Grammar Nazi. Grammar errors bother me a lot. If I make a mistake, I can’t rest until I fix it – oh, that almighty Edit button! – also when a friend makes a mistake, I’ll correct him. I don’t care that it makes me look like a control freak geek, I prefer proper grammar!
And text messaging? Drives me insane! I’ve learn to ignore it, though. There’s my only exception.
I have to edit any of my mistakes I find.
I do notice obvious grammatical errors. Most esp. the incorrect usage of their, there, and they’re and your and you’re. Spelling has always come easily to me so I will notice those errors too. For some reason those came easily to me but the usage of good vs. well I never understood, so that one I won’t notice LOL.
It doesn’t really get to me thought. I can notice it, think “heh” and move on.
I admit I am horrible at spelling and pronouncing. My little sister always corrected me or if I wasn’t sure I’d ask her and feel like a moron. No matter how many times I went over adjectives, adverbs, and all those other annoying things it would not stick in my head and I’d get everything jumbled.
Though I do notice errors, it doesn’t really bother me that much because I have no room to comment on another person’s mistakes when I make them all the time myself.
Wendy – Haha – well, if you’re nice about it, I think it’s a good thing. Just because a lot of people make mistakes, doesn’t particularly make it right. As for texting… I don’t do it much because I don’t have that as part of my plan – but a friend and I text with proper sentences, punctuation, the works.
Generally I’ll forget look over something, and too late I’ll be all “oh noooo.”
TracyS – I know what you mean- well, I’ll edit spelling mistakes I make. 😛 I think I’ve been clear that grammar I’m clueless. In English, Latin, Classical Chinese, French – all of it. No good. I’m not 100% on “good” vs. “well” but real good became popular a few years ago and… well cringe.
Sylvia, mad libs was confusing for me as a game. Haha – pronunciation, if it’s a common word, it might bother me – especially if someone is trying to sound all erudite, or “I’m so amazing.” The same when people misuse words while doing that.
I definitely don’t comment on people’s mistakes unless it’s something I know for sure (and I feel comfortable enough doing it). Generally I just notice it and cringe on the inside.
Sometimes I try to hint helpfully. Throughout college, too many of my friends said “freshmens” and that they had to go to “resuscitation” instead of “recitation” for math/astronomy, etc.
They’d say “Man, I hate resuscitation. It’s so useless.” And my response would be “Yeah, recitation is no fun.” And they’d use resuscitation again immediately after. 😛 What can you do.
I definitely notice grammar and spelling. I’m a freakin’ awesome speller, if I do say so myself. As for grammar, I’m sure mine isn’t perfect, but I definitely notice other’s mistakes.
Unnecessary “‘s” make me nuts. You see them so often on window signs and stuff, it’s like, how could you have put that up?
Devon – do translations of foreign signs make you cringe or not? Hehe some of those are baaaad. I think I notice mistakes, but I just can’t diagram sentences, if that makes sense. So my knowledge is rather cursory.
The “s” sometimes confuses me. Or, the apostrophe s. s, ‘s, s’ – too many choices! 😛
p.s. I love graphics and how tables make them easier. But I hate how tables eat formatting. *grr*
I care about grammar and mechanics and even usage! In my local RWA chater, they call me the Grammar Wench (no Nazis, please!) I don’t correct other people in writing or speaking except my kids and my husband (and I try to do it subtly). I don’t want the kids to pick up bad habits, especially because they’re going to be part of the post-txting generation that is eroding the written language! (cue melodramatic musical upswell)
I work as a proofreader in my language, so every time I see a mistake in a text somewhere, anywhere, my hands itch until I find a pen and fix it. Mistakes in newpapers make me grind my teeth and mistakes in ads, signs or shampoo bottles make me want to grab the phone and shout at them (so far I haven’t done it because I’m a really shy person). The most insulting is when I see English texts on a box or bottle that are flawless (as far as I can see – I’m nowhere near as good in English), and below you have the French translation that is so full of glaring errors as to be impossible to understand. Makes me sooooo mad.
I have a hard time with “ensure” and “insure” – a common word in professional technical literature (I’m in high-tech).
Jody – good for you! I think it’s important to maintain usage of something that’s correct “even if nobody else does it.” Texting… makes me sad. Well, middle-schooler aim “language” too. I will admit “it’s me” vs. “it is I” gets me (in that, I don’t know which to use… maybe I should have explained that above rather that “gets me” being “annoys me.” This is too complicated.). I knew the proper usage for a short period of time in high school 😛 but that’s one I know 98% of people misuse.
Mary M. – I’m rather shy too – and I can’t imagine people taking it well if you did try to call. Although I think you’d just be stonewalled by a lot of random service reps. Foreign language translations… I’ve mostly given up on. And then there are the words that simply don’t translate (and sometimes that’s too bad). English is my third language, actually, but it’s also my best, ironically.
Gwen – you’ll have to forgive me, when I first read your comment I couldn’t help but think of ensure – that… supplement drink? insure vs. ensure would be difficult. I sure as heck didn’t know about indorsing a check as opposed to endorsing other documents until recently. Yay commercial paper/negotiable instruments/payment systems. Not.
By the way – I absolutely LOVED Freakazoid when it was on TV. Cracked my shit up, it did.
Gwen – haha, yeah I loved freakazoid too. [For a tiny second I thought it was “Geekazoid” when I had to look for it.] Awesome clip.
And for whoever fixed the formatting – thanks! Spacing est good!
I’m a Grammar Nazi in both English and Spanish.
When people misuse good I want to cry. I can spell all those words you mentioned easily. (Not to say that there aren’t some that give me trouble.)
It’s really no surprise that I’m half an English major. Or that I can’t properly pronounce half the words.
(I should note I’m a Grammar Nazi in American English – it’s more forgiving than the Queen’s English, in which I’m fairly competent.)
Liv – that’s real good – ok sorry. Couldn’t resist.
Hehe – I actually tried to think of “hard words” and had a mind blank – so I picked words I knew. But to be honest, if my life was on the line for spelling hemorrhoid or something, I would not be a happy girl. Other words, no problem. Sometimes the easiest words are tough – like receive, separate, calendar etc. Some, due to pronunciation.
My debate coach had a cow over separate. We were debating separation of church and state and apparently no one was spelling it write in the drafts of their cases. The sad thing is it’s spelled like it’s said.
And Lime? I will hurt you.
Liv – Oh debate. Mine was a moron. And not a real coach, so … it didn’t matter. Policy debate (Oregon or whatever)? I love me some fast talking. Some people say it like seperate. I think it came to head in 11 Eng AP for me when we read A Separate Peace – good book.
Also… good thing you live nearly 14K miles from me, huh? *angelface* Pretty much all my friends picked up “R.G.” 3-4 years ago… and I could have cried. Just sharing the love/pain.
Here’s the tricks I employ to remember how to spell a couple of words:
separate: “separate a rat” then I usually sing in my head “a rat rat a rat” to the tune of London Bridge is falling down. No. I don’t know why. My brain is not a pretty place.
they’re/their/there: They are there for their wedding. They’re there for their nuptials. Again. London Bridge going on.
Gwen – I love it! Haha – and that is kinda scary. I know separate b/c of the Latin-ness, and figured out they’re and their after I learned it from the vampire.
Receive I know how to spell, but it’s the one where I’m always second guessing myself and retyping. The whole “i before e, except after c…” never helps me b/c I don’t know the rest of it 😛
I before e, except after c, or when sounded like a as in neighbor or weigh . . . or when it’s weird.
Some of the weird exceptions include: codeine, either, leisure, neither, seize.
Liv – thanks. Now I’m “more” confused because I know how to spell all of those words without spell check getting me 😛 maybe I just know how to spell those words but some 3rd grade part of me is still convinced I don’t.
Simon & Schuster says “I before e except after c,” applies to only eleven out of the 10,000 most common words of English…” (and yes, I googled it. The interwebs feeds and answers all my curiosities.)
I wish I’d never heard that silly rhyme from the start. It seems to only have caused me grief.
It’s useful in some cases . . . ceiling for instance. I don’t know how many times I see cieling. Yuck.
I think the ‘a’ words get people the most.
beige, feint, feisty, foreign, forfeit, heifer, height, heir, heist, reign, rein, seismometer, their, veil, vein . . .
Obviously not all of those are ‘a,’ but you get the point.
Liv – whoaaa “cieling” – everything in me went a bit twisty when I saw that. cringe – hehe feisty. Good word.
I’m fascinated with the show Surviving History – and trying to find Diana Palmer books. [Both are rather sad/trying.]
There’s a Diana Palmer for sale (25 cents) at my library. Looking on amazon it might have been Blind Promises.
Want me to pick it up if it’s still there?
Feisty goes well with fierce.
Liv – Nope, thanks! I just bought it!
Heh. Fierce – ANTM made that one popular. 😛
I got it from Project Runway. Pfft.
I don’t have Bravo – I had it for a few weeks and loooooooved Top Chef 😀
I don’t have it either. I don’t even have an antenna – my house currently gets ABC and sometimes FOX.
But my sister watches a lot of cable.
(My fave is TLC because I like What Not to Wear.)
Liv – That’s…. too bad. I didn’t grow up with cable – but we moved when I turned 18 – and the new house had 0 signal, so we’ve had satellite tv since. (Basic package) I haven’t seen many episodes of What Not to Wear but I so so want to get on that show. It’d be great to get a new wardrobe! And finally have clothes that fit me. Food Network (go figure) is my stand by.