Grammar faux pas!

hogfather said:
I'm not too bothered generally, but apostophes are easy, and so many people think you need an apostrophe for plurals eg "gym's" rather than just "gyms".

Random capitalisation is also annoying.
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I like to think that I can write relatively good English, be it spelling or grammar. One thing that still trips me up are apostrophes. I'm getting better though (e.g. looking back to my journals a year ago, my spelling was quite lazy and I hate to read it these days).

I guess I didn't really care about it last year, but after becoming an active member here (since I started work coincidentally!), I have become more interested in better spelling and better use of grammar. I barely got a B at GCSE English, and I'd like to think I'd get a much better grade these days!

Back to the point of the thread... I see other's (can anyone tell me if that is the correct use of the apostrophe here?) posts and often laugh or think I'm slighty superior to them, but I think I've only ever corrected maybe 2 or 3 posts. You could say it doesn't annoy me to see other people's inaccuracies.
 
*** is rong wid txt speak bcumin acpt8ble?

God I hated writing that, almost as much as I hate posters who use text speak. USE QUEENS ENGLISH YOU HEATHENS!
 
other's is incorrect.


"I see others' posts" is correct because there is more than one person (others), and the posts are written by them. Basically the posts belong to them.

The way you wrote it, I would take that to mean "I've seen a person called other write comments at OCUK" because putting the apostrophe before the 's' makes it singular.


Urgh, I'm not good at expaining it.
 
hogfather said:
other's is incorrect.


"I see others' posts" is correct because there is more than one person (others), and the posts are written by them. Basically the posts belong to them.

The way you wrote it, I would take that to mean "I've seen a person called other write comments at OCUK" because putting the apostrophe before the 's' makes it singular.


Urgh, I'm not good at expaining it.
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No, you made sense, cheers! I've been reading up on this for the past hour, and I am slowly getting a grasp of how they are meant to be used.

Thanks!
 
See - all this kind of stuff is great :)

People are *asking* about things they are unsure of, others are answering, and we have active discussion taking place. It's the way it should be :)

Contrast this with randomly jumping on the relatively minor mistakes people make when writing posts which have nothing to do with the topic of spelling or grammar. Surely this is preferable, and doesn't get on anyones nerves?
 
LordSplodge said:
Pedant! :p
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You love it! :D

Duff-Man said:
See - all this kind of stuff is great :)

People are *asking* about things they are unsure of, others are answering, and we have active discussion taking place. It's the way it should be :)
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This is what I like about this place. I enjoy reading others' witty posts and the odd time offer up a bit of my small knowledge, while I learn some of the easier parts of the English language!

I guess the reasons why I like to improve upon my language skills are to better my career prospects, and to feel better about myself as well for some reason. Oh well, such is life.

Now the challenge is to get rid of "you know", "like" and "right" from practically every other verbal sentence I speak! Help me OcUK, because I've gone wrong! :D
 
Rossmac said:
Now the challenge is to get rid of "you know", "like" and "right" from practically every other verbal sentence I speak! Help me OcUK, because I've gone wrong! :D
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Colloquialisms are great and I hope they don't die out.

Going home to Glasgow and hear people say "dead" in every sentence or saying sangwiches instead of sandwiches makes me feel at home.

So long as people know how to use common English grammar what they say in their local slang doesn't bother me.
 
The only really error that really irritates me are the "there", "their", "they're" mistakes. I really don't understand how people can get them mixed up :confused:
 
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