Wrongly used words - a pet hate

That might be a wise approach, however, the Chicago Manual of Style: "spell out whole numbers one through one hundred."

But what does the SL Forum Manual of Style say?

Pony

Can't argue with that.

We need to learn people to talk proper like what we does.

Or look one in the mouth

I had to go over to the Warcraft forums for an answer:

ohemgelolroflcoptergoessoisoisoisoisoilololroflmaoomgimonfiresomeonehelpmeimgunadieshahahshsHAHg

Inconceivable.



All of the pet peeves people have mentioned are mine, too. I'm a linguist and I teach English. I translate. I edit. I have to force myself to NOT say something or people will accuse me of being a grammar nazi (yes, Godwined! sorry!). I enjoyed "Eats, Shoots and Leaves". I'm proud to be anal about language, because it's my darned JOB. I AM bovvered.

And I'm apparently the only user with a wiki page that belongs to the categories of Old and Middle English speakers. Don't any of you native speaker types learn them olden langwidges anymore?

Can't argue with that.

One thing that really irks me is when native English speakers don't use capital letters on country names and nationalities when writing messages about how some people don't use the English language properly : -)

DG

well, i was taught to spell out numbers lesser than (and including) ten.

'Less' or 'fewer' are correct in certain phrases:

'There's less water in that bottle than before - you must have drunk some.'
'There are fewer bottles of water than before - he must have stolen one.'

'Fewer' is used when you can count the objects (e.g. bottles), 'less' is used when you can't (e.g. water). Whilst it is the norm to write numbers under ten in word form rather than as numbers, you can't have 'numbers lesser than ten'. What you can have is numbers 'under' ten...

Excellent! We have our own pedantic English thread.

DG

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The only 'speech' that irks me is when people forget various letters of the alphabet. Namely the vowels. I won't buy from those people.. I may befriend them, but I'd never buy from them.

No one is perfect, though, and you can't knock someone for having been taught different. Some cities are lucky to have schools, and there's alot of schools around where I live that have simply shut down. Those kids have little chance of learning 'correct' grammar unless someone takes the time to teach them.

Instead of mocking someone for their 'incorrect usage', next time coach them on the correct word(s) to use. But do it kindly.. Some people have their own 'slang' and 'accent' that they are fond of. I do, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

No, but I've always thought a certain verb should work like this:

shit, shat, hat geshotten.

Me too! Wonderful little book.

No. What I said is true. Some people think they are the correct words. I've seen it through the years in forums, and I've always assumed that it's due (not owed ) to the people's accents where they pronounce 'than' as 'then' - southern U.S.?

Whoops, comma before "and."

That's right - it's correct and optional.

"Keep in mind, of course, that a comma is incorrect when the word “and” joins only two equal, or coordinate, elements in a sentence "

http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/020204.htm

DG

ok, so how many 'hads' can you have in a row in a sentence for it still to make sense and be correct? Might as well get away from the 'I speak/write more better than what you do' bit...

This comment hardly warrants a reply, however;

The first thing someone low on the ability to think in any creative way, is to label their adversary a "troll". I gather it's a similar tactic to the "hitler defence".

My point - which clearly was completely lost on Mortvent - was that "good" grammar is no substitute for wooley thinking.

You can boast about how you got the apostrophe in the right place but if you have no concept of what constitutes a 'valid argument' then the outcome amounts to nothing more than a grammatically well constructed nonsense.

MortVent and your supporters - I can recommend Kelley's 'The Art of Reasoning'.

Why would I want to keep that in mind (wherever it came from)? I prefer what I learned at school.

Punctuation is difficult to make rules for, and is to be used intelligently to aid the understanding and flow of sentences. It's sort of made up on the fly. For instance, it doesn't matter whether quotes are used solely for quoting things that were written or said, of if they used for hilighting (I prefer the cleaner 'hilight' than the ugly 'highlight' ). There isn't a rule for it. Commas are used as the writer sees fit, as long as they are used properly.

But why do you scratch away at what I write, Rebecca? You're not funny, if that's your intention. All the grammar stuff in this thread is nothing to do with me.

Same site I took my quiote from.