English For Dummies

I'm a little sick of seeing a few common mistakes; so here is a cheat list for anyone writing on the boards who don’t know the difference. I'm talking about native English speakers, not those of you who speak it as a second language (I can forgive that.)

There- in or at that place. in that matter, particular, or respect. At that point in an action, speech, etc.: "Your suitcase is over there."
Their- a form of the possessive case of they used as an attributive adjective, before a noun: "That's their suitcase."
They're - contraction of they are.: "They're on their way."

Your- a form of possession. "Your room is dirty."
You're- a contraction of you are. " You're looking sick."

I goes before E except after C, or when sounded as an a as in neighbor or weigh.

When a word ends in more than one consonant, do not double the final consonant.

When a verb ends in ie, change the ie to y before adding ing. Example: trying.

We're not all perfect and lord knows typo demons happen but if you don't know the basics then I suggest you look them up on wikipedia. With the world of knowledge at everyone's fingertips then there isn't any excuse to not know the basics.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
11 replies since 20th October 2011 • Last reply 20th October 2011

Reply #1:

I am the Copy Editor for my school's newspaper and yearbook, and I'm in an advanced placement literature class, and I would like to say thank you for posting this. Happy

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #2:

It bugs me when people don't spell properly, but there isn't much that you can make them do about it. I wish people would spell properly on their tutorials, and get their grammar correct.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #3:

I know what you mean, Dragoness. It makes me want to put my head through a wall sometimes.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #4:

Happy This makes me sad, because I am terrible at spelling and writing in general. In fact I just downloaded Google Chrome to be my new browser for the sole reason that it has spell check on it. I am born and raised in the US, learning English of course, but even with my mom being a teacher I have never been able to get the hang of grammar. Even simple everyday words still trip me up with their spelling. Don't judge people too harshly on here, some of them don't speak English as a first or even second language, and other like me just really struggle with it, lol.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #5:

Pamela...I don't think less of people or look down on them because they can't get the hang of English, it just frustrates me. I think because it's not something I really get, because I just take to it naturally. Similarly, there are teachers who I have put in absolute agony, because I don't understand how to improvise with even simple math formulas.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #6:

I don't like when people purposely misspell words to be cute or something. I hate when people purposely put numbers in words for letters. I know there in 1337 and such, but unreadable posts I just ignore.

Ex: "Wh4t d0 u lyk3?"

I have to keep a spell check in my browser to correct my mistakes.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #7:

Pamela, I am not the best with grammar and spelling either. I have to really work on it. But I know for a fact that if you live in the US and it is your native language than it is something worth knowing and working hard to get correct. There is little excuse for not knowing how to spell in your own language other than sheer lazyness.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #8:

I have a spell checker in firefox and chrome. I'm dyslexic and I know other people with dyslexia, my fiancé spells words phonetically because of his dyslexia, which is a bit hard to read at first but I'm used to it now. Autocorrect on his old phone was bad, especially as it was with predictive text.
I once had a message from one of the users on here complaining that I never read the first post and that my bad memory and dyslexia was no excuse, neither was my current situation, which she got wrong and other things about me she got wrong. Her hurtful words almost made me leave but I decided to stay.

@Pamela, I think what people mean is that they don't like it when people don't take the effort to check what they write. I now have to use the capslock key because my shifts are broken and sometimes I just can't be bothered or remember to use capslock.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #9:

A basic summary of the first post: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling
One of my favourite comics, personally. Happy I'm a huge English lover, and it annoys me when people make so many mistakes in a single post that it becomes unreadable - I want to read, not decipher. If English isn't your first language or you struggle, I understand, but some things are very easy to learn and understand if you make a habit of them.

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #10:

ha ha Lauren I love that! That is perfect!

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam
Reply #11:

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

courtesy of Mr. Oatmeal

Edit Delete
Moderate: Hide this post Mark as Spam


Reply