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| Commonly misused words; and how to use them right... | |||
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| Tweet Topic Started: 20th December 2004 - 06:37 AM (308 Views) | |||
| Madthing | 20th December 2004 - 06:37 AM Post #1 | ||
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Chieftain
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After perusing the internet for such a long time that I've forgotten what it's like to have normal verbal communication with another human being, I've come across many, many, many instances of certain words being misused. So in an attempt to prevent myself from clawing my eyes out the next time I see them, I'm going to give a list on some of the more commonly misused/mispelled words and how to use them right. You're/Your Mainly because these two words are pronounced identically, or almost so, these are commonly misused in place of each other. You're: A contraction of 'you are', this is NOT a second person possessive. It is supposed to be used when you want to say 'you are' but are too damn lazy to pronounce/write all of it. Examples: 'You're scum!' (You are scum!), 'You're a genius!' (You are a genius!) Your: The second person possessive, 'your' is to 'you' as 'my' is to 'me' and 'his' is to 'him. It is supposed to be used to indicate something is in the possession of the person being conversed with. Examples: 'Your skaven...' (The person who I am talking to's skaven...), 'Your army list...' (The person who I am talking to's army list...) Their/They're/There A case very similar to the 'you're/your' situation, these three words are pronounced identically and so are used interchangeably by some people, despite their wildly disparate meanings. Their: The third person plural possessive, 'their' is to 'them as 'your' is to 'you' and 'my' is to 'me'. It is supposed to indicate something in the possession of a group of people not involved in the conversation. Examples: 'Their armies...' (That group of people's armies...), 'Their habits...' (That group of people's habits...) They're: A contraction of 'they are', 'they're is mainly supposed to be written when you can't be bothered with pronouncing/writing the extra space and letter. Examples: 'They're idiots!' (They are idiots!), 'They're so easily fooled!' (They are so easily fooled!) There: The word used to indicate a place that is not where the speaker/writer is located at. It is also used to indicate the existence of something and other purposes that I am at a loss to explain with words without using 'there'. Examples: 'Over there!' (Over at that location I am indicating!), 'There is a general misconception...' (A general misconception exists...) It's/Its One of the more complicated instances and messes in the English language, many people, even those highly fluent in the language, misuse these words. It's: The contraction of 'it is', 'it's' is basically supposed to be used interchangeably with 'it is'. If you know how to use one, you can use the other. Examples: 'It's stupid!' (It is stupid!), 'It's cool!' (It is cool) Its: The third person neuter possessive, 'its' is to 'it' as 'their' is to 'them', 'your' is to 'you' and 'my' is to 'me'. The word is supposed to indicate something in the possession of a genderless entity not taking part in the conversation. Examples: 'Its leg...' (The gender undetermined creature's leg...), 'Its contract...' (The legal entity's contract...) Suffixes: s/'s There seems to be a common theme to all of these cases: that is, they are a mixup between the possessive and the contraction of the appropriate 'to be' conjugation. This isn't. This is a case of when the plural suffix is confused with the possessive suffix. Suffix: s: This suffix is used to indicate that there is more than one of the noun modified. Examples: 'The spears...' (The group of more than one spear...), 'The clanrats...' (The group of more than one clanrat...) Suffix: 's: This suffix is used to indicate that the modified noun possesses something. Because of this convention, the aformentioned 'its/it's' mess was created, but this does not apply to the noun 'it'. Examples: 'The clanrat's sheild...' (The shield that the clanrat possesses...), 'The army's general...' (The general of the army...) Rouge/Rogue I'm including this one purely because I hang around far too many 40K forums than is sensible for any sane man, and it always manages to crop up. The 'rouge/rogue' mess is simply an example of poor motor control by the parties responsible, who are somehow unable to press the 'g' before the 'u'. I won't include any examples here because they are both nouns. Rouge: The French word for the colour red, and a cosmetic product intended to redden the cheeks of the person who wears/uses it. Rogue: A word indicating an out of control, lawless or otherwise unrestrained object. It is also the word used to describe outlaws, bandits and brigands. Now, I'm sorry if I'm coming off as pompous or annoying here, but because I'm a pendantic loser it is driving me slowly insane as I see more of these gramatical mistakes. This is just supposed to be a helpful guide on how to avoid such mistakes. Rant off... |
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| SneakyRodent | 20th December 2004 - 10:23 AM Post #2 | ||
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Claws of the Horned One founder member
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I'm sorry, I just can't resist this.............. ........................shouldn't that be 'grammatical mistakes' ? Drat these dyslexic keyboards, as I always say! :lol: |
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Grey Seer Skritchit Lord of the Ulricsberg Clan Virulus Holder of 'Best Post' Award 2007 here Took part in the glorious Lords of Decay Revolution of April 1st 2012 The complete works of SneakyRodent can be found here [/size]
(Scrivener on the Scum And Villainy2 characters of me, DamnedPrince and himself) | |||
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| Rattsu | 20th December 2004 - 01:12 PM Post #3 | ||
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Is writing Dragon Age fanfiction
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May I just say thank you... Now if I only could be bothered to spellcheck my own posts properly... *laughs* But seriously, the 's part was one of the hardest things for me to grasp when learning english... especially when you consider the wonders of: "The clanrats' shields" (the shields belonging to the clanrats)... unless I got that wrong. For me the problem is usually either too quick fingers that mixes letters up, or the inability to get was/were right... I know the rules, but somehow it just doesn't click in my head at times when I write... one of the things which marks me as a non-english speaker I am sure. |
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I am currently writing an epic Dragon Age 2 adventure that can be found HERE!! or on my deviantart.
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| Bassik Dwarveripper | 20th December 2004 - 01:32 PM Post #4 | ||
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Unregistered
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Well, excsuuuse me, mister English, but as you might know, we are not all Americans and Brittish. We have Dutch, Nors, Germans, and other vermin on this forum. My English aint my best part, and I like to keep it that way. *sticks nose high in the air* Affcorse, I understand what you mean, and I appriciate the help, but I don't want it. |
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| Warlord Scratch | 20th December 2004 - 03:18 PM Post #5 | ||
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Tactician
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A man after my own heart. Unfortunatly, I rarely use apostrophies on forums but i do get annoyed at grammatical mistakes i see all around me. E.G. (this is true) Have You Got A Argos Card Yet? |
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SIGN UP! Clan Eshin's Theives Network wants YOU!![]() +++ Divide by Cucumber error. Please re-instal universe and reboot +++ | |||
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| Dark Angel | 20th December 2004 - 03:39 PM Post #6 | ||
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Evil Space Wolf
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OMG THER DA USING RONG DUNKYOUATION! JEBUS CRIPERS BOOTMAN! Ha ha ha ha. I tend to mix up some of these but not all of them. But lets face it, who in the right mind would make up some dictionary like this... o sorry. O ya were not all americans either. There are germans and canadians you know. I am canadian!
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| I was one of the first! I ruled apon my clan! Than they turned on me like cowards! I walk the planet searching for awnswers to this curse! I will rule once again! Squeek-squeek! Death to all those who oppose me! | |||
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| Raticus | 20th December 2004 - 04:17 PM Post #7 | ||
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Stormvermin
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This thread just made me laugh. Madthing, I understand your pain! But this is a message board, it consists of people having conversations through type. So you see alot of acronyms for phrases, short choppy sentences, and of course lots of misspelled words. And of course as mentioned before, some people aren't as fluent in English as others. I applaud those that can communicate in more than one language! Remember, this site is for Skaven lovers all over the world. It is about Skaven, not grammar!! |
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| Warlord KrisKit | 20th December 2004 - 04:43 PM Post #8 | ||
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The dark one
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hmm I can understand what you mean but hey face it we are not all american or brittish. I am Dutch and proud of it I can speak and understand a lot languages but writing it is a lot more difficult especially grammar stuff my advise just ignore it because for a cummunity like this there are to many different people so you can't expect everyone to write fluently english
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| Skaskrit Venomclaw | 20th December 2004 - 05:07 PM Post #9 | ||
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Ex-Councilrat
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*double-checks for grammar* Not everyone is English-speaking, no, as testified by the Dutchmen in this thread (I'm another one) and the "is English your native tongue" poll. But I do not think this has much to do with the ability to spell properly (it's a pity this board doesn't have a build-in spell check) or the ability to use proper grammar. In fact, in other places on the net I've noticed some of the worst English being spoken (typed) and the worst mistakes being made (including all of the above) by the native speakers, whilst the majority of foreigners (Swedes, mostly) wrote flawless sentences. I myself sometimes feel I know English grammar better than I do Dutch, because I rarely read Dutch nowadays and lots of English. Of course, this is a message board and not a English course. If you're post is comprehensible, it's fine. And learning English is a lot more difficult for non-Dutch/Scandinavian/German people. But I think everybody here is capable of learning to avoid this handful of common mistakes. (come to think of it, I do not see them here all that often. Sure, people slip up now and then, but I can't think of anyone who consequently gets anything wrong, and I've come across people like that in other places.) Edit: Oh, and I'll take the opportunity now to point out another rather common one. To, too Again, these words are pronounced in a virtually identical way. The meaning is completely different. I'll be lazy and copy the definitions from Dictionary.com, as Too is used in these cases.
To is used in the other cases. There's a lot of them, but I'll list them for completeness' sake.
Actually, use too and to however you want to. That's an awful lot of rules to learn. And I thought it was so easy... |
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"I have a post-Armageddon vision. We and all other large animals are gone. Rodents emerge as the ultimate post-human scavengers. They gnaw their way through New York, London and Tokyo... within 5 million years, a whole range of new species replace the ones we know. Herds of giant grazing rats are stalked by sabre-toothed predatory rats. Given enough time, will a species of intelligent, cultivated rats emerge?" Richard Dawkins, The Ancestor's Tale | |||
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| Stinkhair | 20th December 2004 - 06:09 PM Post #10 | ||
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Dabbling GM. Clanrat loon. 6th Edition Aficionado. Bitter.
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i know the feeling too, but i check my fluff/post for spelling errors before posting it, and sometimes i miss things that are blindingly obvious to others, people posting on this forum are generally good english writers/speakers, but almost everyone types fast which can lead to simple mistakes with letters in the wrong order or 'MIA' totally. and even people who check (like i do) miss things like-
simply because they dont have the time to read the whole thing throughly, some of the things you said (like were/where getting mixed up) are annoying, but you just have to deal with it......... |
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| Grey Seer Arqueek | 20th December 2004 - 10:37 PM Post #11 | ||
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the Lurker
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I try to check over my posts, unless I don't have the time or I am too lazy due to the ammount of time being spent typing essays. I usually edit them at a later time, when I notice any mistakes. I don't mind spelling or grammar as long as I can still understand what the intended message is. It's an online forum after all, and I don't like pressing people to have perfect grammar or spelling. And no 'leet' speak. I hate that crap. but the mutate button is cool.
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"What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie" -The first member of the Cult of Screams | |||
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| Verminous Fang | 21st December 2004 - 12:44 AM Post #12 | ||
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I have to say "thank you" for this post. I've been thinking of a polite way to bring this up, since I know that there are a few people who aren't native to the English language.
The funny thing is that where I am, grammar purists would insist that a comma be placed after 'along' as such: "He's coming along, too." Proof that even dictionaries and grammar nazis can get it wrong. And as long as we're venting:
That would be "Of Course"
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Go forth my brethren, that we shall nibble at the roots of the old world! We are the rats in the shadows. We hold the blades of corruption, aimed at the very heart of the Old World. We are The Council of Thirteen. Second place in the UnderEmpire painting competition! | |||
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| Warlock Rageaganish | 21st December 2004 - 01:56 AM Post #13 | ||
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I used to be schizophrenic, BUT WE'RE OKAY NOW!
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Well, I must say that I'm sorry to be one of the bunch who misspell or missuse (see! I'm nearly sure I didn't get those right!) the english grammar. Well I know that I sometime do the its/it's mistake, and the where/we're/were mistake is the one that cost me the most time to figure out when I post. I'm a french canadian, and I've been learning english since I'm 10 years old (I'm now 23) and yeah, well... I still make mistake... and I'm not too proud about that. But I always make sure that everything I post is understandable by anyone with a little english ability. To learn to understand a language is rather easy, to learn to express yourself in that language is another matter altogether. Well I think that as long as everyone makes an effort, the english by being tolerant, the non-english by doing their best to sound coherent, we can all live together without too much friction, it's an online message board after all... |
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| Decker_cky | 21st December 2004 - 08:22 AM Post #14 | ||
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Master of the Deamonic Leash of Numbers and the Armor of Updates
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i no wut u meen with the post, but cmon... Sorry, I couldn't resist starting out like that. I'll do it properly now. I know what you meant with that post, but I think you're being rather strict in a situation where it's not needed. IMO, language on the internet is necessary to the point of communicating one's meaning clearly. Perfect grammatical usage is neither necessary nor sufficient for this, and is not needed to see the point of a post. I think abbreviations, spelling errors etc.. are totally acceptable within the confines of a forum. I'm not saying people should degenerate to the level of speaking 1337, and its a definite fine line, but be accepting of the fact that not everyone can/wants to/feels like speaking perfect english on a forum. By trying to enforce it, you're at least as inconsiderate as someone not putting the effort into having perfect grammar. Decker |
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| Verminous Fang | 21st December 2004 - 09:37 AM Post #15 | ||
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Well, no one's actually trying to enforce anything (except the no 1337 rule), this is in OT just because of venting (I do think that people should ensure that their fluff is grammatically accurate, but that's different). However, consider that some people use this forum through a translator. With so little knowledge of English that one cannot pronounce those tricky words (specifically there/their/they're), then the rather odd translations that follow can make the post unintelligible. Come to think of it, that may be why I haven't seen Monty Gudmar in over a month... |
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Go forth my brethren, that we shall nibble at the roots of the old world! We are the rats in the shadows. We hold the blades of corruption, aimed at the very heart of the Old World. We are The Council of Thirteen. Second place in the UnderEmpire painting competition! | |||
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I am canadian!






