Wednesday, August 01, 2012

11 Most Common Grammar Mistakes

Here's the link, and guess which one is #1 on the list?

15 Comments:

At 8/01/2012 10:43 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

Sometimes, we just make misteaks. Its common enough online when your writing real fast and have alot to say. Getting you're ideas out there is probably going to take presidents over careful grammer and spelling. As bad as it gets, most people will get what you mean, right?

The problem is unarguable in any medium that approaches formal writing. Whether a memo to your colleagues, or a term paper for your professor, or a letter to your Congressional representative, proper syntax and style speak for the subject.

My complaints begin with "less" and "fewer", which even NPR has abandoned for the vernacular. I also note when the prepositional object takes the nominative. "One of the cars are not running." To me, those blunders sound as ignorant as Valentimes Day, fire excapes, expresso coffee, irregardless, and a mute point. On a recent project, I lost an argument to another writer who refused to correct her claim that a document could be entitled "Variables and Data Fields."

And yet... On an earlier project, I had to take the works of engineers and edit their drafts. One guy was really bad. "How can you write like this," I asked, "when you code in C all day?" I pointed out that C has a grammar, syntax, even good style. He replied that he did not think of programming as writing, but as constructing. In his mind's eye, he was stringing pulleys and linking ratchets. Later, he came back to me. "Are these rules made up first or are they written down after the language changes?" he asked. Clearly, he offered me a rhetorical question, so I conceded the point. "Ah," he said, "So, if you follow the manual, you are not using the current version."

In closing, the use of the apostrophe to show possession was apparently a blunder by medieval philologists who argued that "the king's book" is a contraction for "the king his book." Now, of course, we hire people for QA and version control

 
At 8/01/2012 3:01 PM, Blogger $9,000,000,000 Write Off said...

loosers like you complain to much about grammar, but young people's and me have better things to do then worry about you're rules; its time to stop worrying about writing good.

 
At 8/01/2012 3:50 PM, Blogger NormanB said...

Anyone have rules for hyphens? Is it outperform or out-perform? Selfknowledge, self-knowledge or self knowledge?

 
At 8/01/2012 5:05 PM, Blogger PeakTrader said...

"5. Sentence Starters and Endings: Every sentence must start with a capital letter and end with a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point. Period."

Is that really true?

"7. Lose and Loose: This one really drives me nuts. You "lose" your keys. The dog gets "loose.""

 
At 8/01/2012 11:05 PM, Blogger JakeW said...

The best joke to use when people misuse "lose" and "loose" is this:

Your mother is loose. Lose is the opposite of win.

I think I saw that originally on thesoup.com. The lose-loose mistake is the only one that seems somewhat forgivable, imo. The pronunciation of "lose" looks like it should have the spelling of "loose." Still, it's not that difficult to memorize.

 
At 8/02/2012 2:03 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

its a mistery to me how these mistakes happen over and over again. i mean, english is not even my mother tongue and i dont make such mistakes

lol

 
At 8/02/2012 2:03 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

its a mistery to me how these mistakes happen over and over again. i mean, english is not even my mother tongue and i dont make such mistakes

lol

 
At 8/02/2012 6:04 AM, Blogger Ed R said...

As long as we are talking grammar mistakes, we need look no farther than the title of this entry: "11 Most Common Grammar Mistakes".

It is suggested it should more correctly be "11 MORE Common Mistakes" (comparative); or possibly "THE 11 Most Common Grammar Mistakes" (superlative).

 
At 8/02/2012 7:26 AM, Blogger Dave said...

This guy has a lot {2 words] to learn. His grammar is not wonderful. He also missed a most common error . That is, the use of an adverb instead of the predicate adjective when referring to the five senses. I feel bad for her is correct usage. I feel badly is not correct. Interesting stuff. My light blew out and I can't see where the keys are so good-night.

I forwarded this article to my sister "The Teach" and the above was her reply.

 
At 8/02/2012 7:27 AM, Blogger Dave said...

This guy has a lot {2 words] to learn. His grammar is not wonderful. He also missed a most common error . That is, the use of an adverb instead of the predicate adjective when referring to the five senses. I feel bad for her is correct usage. I feel badly is not correct. Interesting stuff. My light blew out and I can't see where the keys are so good-night.

I forwarded this article to my sister "The Teach" and the above was her reply.

 
At 8/02/2012 9:50 AM, Blogger Hydra said...

How about the ten most common logic mistakes? I imagine you could find plenty of good examples on this blog.

 
At 8/02/2012 9:51 AM, Blogger Hydra said...

A good pun is its own reword.

 
At 8/02/2012 4:55 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Michael:
"IRREGARDLESS" of your use of "presidents", I get what you meen, eh?

 
At 8/02/2012 4:59 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

Michael:
"IRREGARDLESS" of your use of "presidents", I get what you meen, eh?

 
At 8/04/2012 5:42 AM, Blogger Unknown said...

My peeve and one I hear very frequently by normally very intelligent people is:
"I could care less." rather than the appropriate: I couldn't care less. Would that be called a malaprop or something else?
DW

 

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