Grammar!!!! Please....

[dannymills]

No personal digs at anyone here! I hope it'll be helpful, as I hate to imagine people sending out their CVs etc with bad grammar within. But there are some real mistakes flying around this forum that make me cringe.

I.e. I just got two prestige's... My amp's are broken etc.... is WRONG.

Apostrophes are not used to indicate plural, nor are they just random things to put on the end of every word with an "s" on the end. They are used for abbreviation and possession only.

I.e. Jim's amp. Daniel's guitar. ==> The amp of Jim. The guitar of Daniel.

If it is a plural possession, the apostrophe comes after the "s".

I.e. The dogs' kennels. The footballers' changing room. ===> The kennel of the dogs. The changing room of the footballers.

If the word is already plural, just use the apostrophe regularly (before the "s") as the plural is already implied.

I.e. The women's changing room. The people's republic.

^^ Because it belongs TO the women, people etc, and they are referred to as a collective. "The dogs' kennels" must have it after the s, as otherwise it would be the kennel of the dog. This way it is the kennel of the dogs.
If it belonged to a group of women, to say "the womens' kennel" would be saying it is the kennel of several groups of women. Hence "women's kennel" = it belongs to one group of women.

Apostrophes can also be used to abbreviate words, substituting the missing letters.

I.e. The dog is running away. ===> The dog's running away.
Bob has been gone a while. ===> Bob's been gone a while.


Something that really bugs me is "I should of....", "If only he'd of..."

It's "I should HAVE bought the guitar." "If only he'd HAVE bought the guitar".

As in, I buy the guitar ==> I have bought the guitar ==> I should have bought the guitar.

Easy peasy. The reason people get confused is that it often gets abbreviated down to "would've" or "should've", which sounds like 'of'. But it's 'have' or 've.

I'm sorry. Rant over. Hope I've helped someone. Thanks guys!

[ibaraki_gaijin]

Can I just say how much I enjoyed seeing this thread appear right next to the "how can I loose some weight?" thread.

Being as loose is the the opposite of tight..
Maybe try to "lose some weight" instead.

Seems like Dannymills still has a lot of work left to do in his crusade for a mistake free Jemsite.

[dannymills]

Originally Posted by ibaraki_gaijin

Can I just say how much I enjoyed seeing this thread appear right next to the "how can I loose some weight?" thread.

Being as loose is the the opposite of tight..
Maybe try to "lose some weight" instead.

Seems like Dannymills still has a lot of work left to do in his crusade for a mistake free Jemsite.

Lmao!!!! Irony for ya...

[chlamy]

Originally Posted by dannymills

Something that really bugs me is "I should of....", "If only he'd of..."

It's "I should HAVE bought the guitar." "If only he'd HAVE bought the guitar".

Dude you are making me sooooo happy for bringing that up. Being a non native english speaker, I always wondered why so many native americans are consistently making this error on this board, and well, it makes me shiver every time. At one point I thought I was wrong and that there was a secret, by me unknown, rule for using "I would of" instead of good ol' "I would have" ... !!!

[chef21]

Originally Posted by dannymills

Lmao!!!! Irony for ya...

irony for you...

somepeople.
chef21

[dex]

Posting on forums is like txt spk.
Many posts are grammatically incorrect but they are still understandable to all posters and readers.
it's part of the whole language evolution thing.

Less emphasis on grammar, more emphasis on content.
That's what I say.

[Eggy]

Originally Posted by dannymills

No personal digs at anyone here! I hope it'll be helpful, as I hate to imagine people sending out their CVs etc with bad grammar within. But there's some real mistakes flying around this forum that make me cringe.

I.e. I just got two prestige's... My amp's are broken etc.... is WRONG.

Apostrophes are not used to indicate plural, nor are they just random things to put on the end of every word with an "s" on the end. They are used for abbreviation and possession only.

I.e. Jim's amp. Daniel's guitar. ==> The amp of Jim. The guitar of Daniel.

If it is a plural possession, the apostrophe comes after the "s".

I.e. The dogs' kennels. The footballers' changing room. ===> The kennel of the dogs. The changing room of the footballers.

If the word is already plural, just use the apostrophe regularly (before the "s") as the plural is already implied.

I.e. The women's changing room. The people's republic.

^^ Because it belongs TO the women, people etc, and they are referred to as a collective. "The dogs' kennels" must have it after the s, as otherwise it would be the kennel of the dog. This way it is the kennel of the dogs.
If it belonged to a group of women, to say "the womens' kennel" would be saying it is the kennel of several groups of women. Hence "women's kennel" = it belongs to one group of women.

Apostrophes can also be used to abbreviate words, substituting the missing letters.

I.e. The dog is running away. ===> The dog's running away.
Bob has been gone a while. ===> Bob's been gone a while.


Something that really bugs me is "I should of....", "If only he'd of..."

It's "I should HAVE bought the guitar." "If only he'd HAVE bought the guitar".

As in, I buy the guitar ==> I have bought the guitar ==> I should have bought the guitar.

Easy peasy. The reason people get confused is that it often gets abbreviated down to "would've" or "should've", which sounds like 'of'. But it's 'have' or 've.

I'm sorry. Rant over. Hope I've helped someone. Thanks guys!

Wow !!!

Imagine if you redirected that energy into you guitar playing. Perhaps you could give "them wot cant spel n rite proper" a link to a video of your playing. They could post up about how frustrating your schoolboy errors are.



Ben

[King Knall]

Originally Posted by dex

Posting on forums is like txt spk.
Many posts are grammatically incorrect but they are still understandable to all posters and readers.
it's part of the whole language evolution thing.

Less emphasis on grammar, more emphasis on content.
That's what I say.

I don't understand why it would be hard to write 'your' instead of 'ur'. I mean, it's not as if each post has a word limit.

I say that grammar should be emphasised as much as content.

[C.Thep]

Who care's? As long as you can read it, it be fine by me.

[King Knall]

Originally Posted by C.Thep

Who care's? As long as you can read it, it be fine by me.

Very funny.

[kennydoe]

I put up a post like this years (year's?) ago...i got blasted for it.

People write like dolts and they don't mind writing like dolts. it's a sad state of affairs where poor spelling and writing skills are not only the norm, but people actually DEFEND their poor skills...and make you feel like a knob for even bringing it up!

I cringed when i read "loose weight" as well. The one that gets me is your/you're. Drive's me nuts (that was on purpose)

Unfortunately, it's something you'll have to deal with for the rest of your life. Nobody's going to change a damn thing here, that's for sure.

If you think someone is going to say "Gee, thanks for pointing that out - I'm going to make sure i don't misplace any more apostrophes becuase I'm afraid people will think i'm stupid or something", keep waiting.

I have friends who are teachers who can't spell or contract worth a crap - even easy words. It's pathetic, really.

K

[timi_h]

have you ever read the book "eats shoots and leaves" with a picture of a panda eating bamboo on the cover? i think its right up your street

[andy7jem]

I'se finks' its a good idear

I mean, their woz also a recent fred about "valeking" amps and i fort too meself "wots' one of dem??"

I don't mind grammar mistakes because not everyone is perfect, and not everyone from here comes from English speaking countries. They do a hell of a lot better than i could with a foreign language!! What i do find annoying are the posts that read the way kids text by omitting letters and shortening things like your to ur and all that crap. If you read it as it's written it sounds like some-one talking with a mouth crammed full of food

[dannymills]

Originally Posted by Eggy

Wow !!!

Imagine if you redirected that energy into you guitar playing. Perhaps you could give "them wot cant spel n rite proper" a link to a video of your playing.

Actually, I could if you'd like! I'd quite like to get some opinion. Afraid I don't have a video, but I did a track a while back... amp straight into computer lol! I'll do that later mate .

[dannymills]

Originally Posted by andy7jem

If you read it as it's written it sounds like some-one talking with a mouth crammed full of food