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Grammatical pet peeves
Jun 11 2003 01:42am

JavaGuy
 - Student
JavaGuy
Someone else brought up grammar on another thread, and I can no longer keep silent. I'm generally not into nitpicking grammar on individual posts, so I'll make a general post on grammar:

-They're, their and there: People use these interchangeably all the time, and it drives me bonkers. Nobody should be allowed to enter High School without knowing this, but an amazing number of kids get their (that's _their_) diplomas still not knowing it.

They're = "They are," a contraction.
Their = The possessive form of "they," that which belongs to "them," whoever they are.
There = At or in that place, as in "over there."

-Your and you're: Another one of these.

You're = "You are," another contraction.
Your = The possessive form of you, belonging to you.

-It's and its: An excusable mistake.

It's = "It is," a contraction.
Its = The possessive form of it. Possessive pronouns don't have the apostrophe.

-Should of, would of, could of: All wrong! It's should have, could have and would have. Those can be shortened to should've, etc., which sounds kind of like "should of," which explains the confusion, but it's "should have."

-Who and whom: "Who" is a subject, e.g. "Who totally owned you in Matrix?" "Whom" is an object, e.g. "Whom did you totally own in Matrix?" It doesn't matter if it's a direct or indirect object or an object of a preposition.

And one last grammatical pet peeve:
"Someone is working on their combos in there." Note the subject of this sentence, "someone." That's a singular. "Their" is the plural form. If it were more than one someone, "Some people are working on their combos," okay. The singular form, however, is "his," as in "Someone is working on _his_ combos in there"--and yes it's "his" in the gender-ambiguous case where the sex of the "someone" is not known unless you actually want to write out "his or her."

Okay, I'm done. Now I'll post this and probably see that I've made some egregious grammatical error myself. ;p
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Comments
May 23 2009 04:47am

Augusta_Mintaka
 - Student
 Augusta_Mintaka

What is, my potentially capitalist peer?
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"Deos fortioribus adesse."

May 23 2009 03:38am

Xanatos
 - Student
 Xanatos

..lol. This is stupid :P
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This comment was edited by Xanatos on May 23 2009 03:38am.

May 23 2009 02:03am

Augusta_Mintaka
 - Student
 Augusta_Mintaka

Quote:
Quote:
We aren't exactly in an academic environment and you might come off as condescending if you're critical on grammar.


perhaps you missed the name of the website? :)


I said academic environment, not academy! :D
_______________
"Deos fortioribus adesse."

May 22 2009 11:17pm

SaZ
 - Student
 SaZ

Quote:
Quote:
We aren't exactly in an academic environment and you might come off as condescending if you're critical on grammar.


perhaps you missed the name of the website? :)


its JEDI academy, not GRAMMAR academy. :P

its just like those projects on walls in universities. they suck. maybe they offer the information you would expect from academic project, but the way its presented... its not academic at all. sad thing is - you could only expect 'the way its presented' to be top quality in art academies etc.
its just an example, but i think it applies to ANY academy, university that exists.
i mean that not every aspect can be of top quality...
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playing jk3 since 30th of january (2005), member since 1st of february. [Unofficial Master to Vision and Z�diac ] If you can make a fool of yourself infront of 300 people you can do anything - Jaiko D'kana

This comment was edited by SaZ on May 22 2009 11:22pm.

May 22 2009 07:58pm

Jaina D'Kana
 - Jedi Instructor
 Jaina D'Kana

Quote:
We aren't exactly in an academic environment and you might come off as condescending if you're critical on grammar.


perhaps you missed the name of the website? :)
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INTP

May 17 2009 12:41am

Augusta_Mintaka
 - Student
 Augusta_Mintaka

The only thing that bothers me are text walls, but that's not even a grammar issue. Honestly, if you can read it, then it shouldn't really bother you. We aren't exactly in an academic environment and you might come off as condescending if you're critical on grammar.
_______________
"Deos fortioribus adesse."

May 16 2009 10:36pm

Masta
 - Jedi Council
 Masta

Quote:
Quote:
If I was a dog, I would bark for the fun of it.
and
Quote:
If I were a dog, I would bark for the fun of it.

Are those OK? I've seen "if I were" used a lot, but is it grammatically correct?

As far as i'm aware, "if i was" is indicative and "if i were" is subjunctive, which means that the latter (in this case) denotes a situation that is impossible, and the former (in this case) indicates how things are/have been.

That's why you say, "if i were a good JKA player, i'd totally beat your yellow, but because i am not, i'll just whine about it", in contrast to "if i was on the server last night, then i definitely did play against you".

I hope that's right.
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Find out more about the Jedi Academy Aurochs here and more about Masta here!
Married to Kain.


This comment was edited by Masta on May 16 2009 10:40pm.

May 16 2009 10:02pm

Maher
 - Jedi Knight
 Maher

bwhahahaha :D


Finglish rules!
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Still here | My Lightsaber

May 16 2009 09:47pm

ZantuS
 - Student
 ZantuS

Quote:
If I was a dog, I would bark for the fun of it.
and
Quote:
If I were a dog, I would bark for the fun of it.

Are those OK? I've seen "if I were" used a lot, but is it grammatically correct?
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Happiness is the ability to say "So what?"

May 16 2009 04:43pm

Monteeeeeee
 - Nugget
 Monteeeeeee

Quote:
The worst, worst, worst thing is SMS speak. When you text something there is nothing worse than reading something like this.

"Wot u up2? il b out l8r"

THERE IS A REASON YOU HAVE PREDICTIVE TEXT. lol

Mini rant over.


i dont use sort hand SMS text myself but i do understand why young people use it, to say half the things they want to say in a SMS message if they didnt shorten it would cost them like 3 messages, hence a way to make it cost 3 times less.

still it annoys me too :P
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If you add me to MSN, tell me who you are :P

Best Movie Character EVER!!


May 16 2009 03:34pm

Cuthalion
 - Padawan
 Cuthalion

The worst, worst, worst thing is SMS speak. When you text something there is nothing worse than reading something like this.

"Wot u up2? il b out l8r"

THERE IS A REASON YOU HAVE PREDICTIVE TEXT. lol

Mini rant over.
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<MaherSenatu> guh... you are just... I'll keep sure that your kind of people will never be knights... <MaherSenatu> That's my mission... Master to Kain Sol

May 16 2009 03:14pm

ZantuS
 - Student
 ZantuS

Thanks for the clearings :D I'm sure I can think of more troubling expressions soon :P
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Happiness is the ability to say "So what?"

This comment was edited by ZantuS on May 16 2009 03:14pm.

May 16 2009 01:15pm

Jaina D'Kana
 - Jedi Instructor
 Jaina D'Kana

Quote:
But is it nowadays actually OK to say "should of"? I think I've seen it used in some pretty official and professional contexts...:o


No no no no. Unless you wish to sound like a chav, using "of" instead of "have" is never an ok thing to do.
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INTP

May 16 2009 03:42am

Augusta_Mintaka
 - Student
 Augusta_Mintaka

I always liked that saying! I could care less, but I don't care enough to care less. Brilliant irony!
_______________
"Deos fortioribus adesse."

May 16 2009 03:26am

Virtue
 - Jedi Council
 Virtue

"I could care less" is actually something that has bothered me for the longest time as well, Gil.

Good point.
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Academy Architect

May 15 2009 11:54pm

Xanatos
 - Student
 Xanatos

I can, care !less if this is bumped? why should of i ? NO! I DO! not.


just kidding.
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This comment was edited by Xanatos on May 15 2009 11:55pm.

May 15 2009 11:45pm

Gil-Galad
 - Student
 Gil-Galad

Quote:
Lol gotta love that first post :D
Quote:
-Should of, would of, could of: All wrong! It's should have, could have and would have. Those can be shortened to should've, etc., which sounds kind of like "should of," which explains the confusion, but it's "should have."


Haha that had puzzled me for so long! But is it nowadays actually OK to say "should of"? I think I've seen it used in some pretty official and professional contexts...:o


No. Anyone who uses it in that way in any offical capacity should be demoted at the very least.

Good bump by the way!

Mine: 'I could care less'. This annoys me because it means the exact opposite of what people are trying to say with it. Correctly, the phrase is 'I couldn't care less', but seems to have been changed by someone along the way and the incorrect form widely adopted. The meaning is to express how little you care about a given thing, so by saying 'I could care less' you are in fact saying exactly the opposite. This annoys me far more than it should. Feh.
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|JAA| since 02/05/06

Green for life


May 15 2009 10:00pm

ZantuS
 - Student
 ZantuS

Lol gotta love that first post :D
Quote:
-Should of, would of, could of: All wrong! It's should have, could have and would have. Those can be shortened to should've, etc., which sounds kind of like "should of," which explains the confusion, but it's "should have."


Haha that had puzzled me for so long! But is it nowadays actually OK to say "should of"? I think I've seen it used in some pretty official and professional contexts...:o
_______________
Happiness is the ability to say "So what?"

Jun 17 2003 10:47pm

Battlin' Billy
 - Student
 Battlin' Billy

True! On any kind of chat thingy, I don't use caps and don't use much punctuation. It's easier that way!

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Midbie Council Member #2 - Profile ID 2073 | Member of B@rtM@ulS@ar | Owner of Monty's 2000th comment & D@RtHM@UL's 8100th comment |
Former Padawan of SilkMonkey & Arcuss
JA Goaltender & NHL Fan | Fellow Rush fan to Axion|Plo Koon is my oldest JA friend
Post your RL pics HERE! | Post you JK2/JK3 screenies HERE!


Jun 16 2003 02:43pm

Jacen Aratan
 - Student

One thing is chat where it goes fast, another thing is on the forums where there's no race. *cough*

Jun 16 2003 11:16am

genes!s
 - Student
 genes!s

Sinestro said:
yeah, all that l337 speak crap, or however you spell, is so stupid, ash and me only use it jokingly.

Also, commas and periods. USE THEM!!!


I seem to be the only one using them on mIRC, and on MSN. :D
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I am the purifier, the light that clears all shadows.

The most inactive active member of the JA.


Jun 16 2003 04:09am

Flamori Athena
 - Student
 Flamori Athena

What???
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«±» 21st on the Midbie Council, Profile ID: 2027 «±»
True wisdom is the knowledge that you know nothing.


Jun 15 2003 07:40pm

Battlin' Billy
 - Student
 Battlin' Billy

Yeah, what DJ said!

Here's another common mistake, even our President does this:

nuclear - pronounced new-clee-arr, not new-cue-lar

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Midbie Council Member #2 - Profile ID 2073 | Member of B@rtM@ulS@ar | Owner of Monty's 2000th comment & D@RtHM@UL's 8100th comment |
Former Padawan of SilkMonkey & Arcuss
JA Goaltender & NHL Fan | Fellow Rush fan to Axion|Plo Koon is my oldest JA friend
Post your RL pics HERE! | Post you JK2/JK3 screenies HERE!


Jun 15 2003 05:05am

ioshee
 - Student
 ioshee

<---owned... by Javaguy
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One of the Belouve boys

Jun 14 2003 06:03am

DJ Sith
 - Jedi Council
 DJ Sith

Menaxia: A spelling mistake or 3 or 5 is cool by me. Lord knows I fo that often enough. :) I direct my ire towards the "KTHXBYE" or "LOLOLOL U R GAY" crowd. :)
_______________
My car is made of Nerf.

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