There, Their, and They're

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Does anyone else get really annoyed at people who cannot differentiate between there, their, and they're? I sure do. It also disturbs me that a great portion of Americans cannot seem to differentiate between them.

I can definitely distinguish between them but I too occasionally mix "there" and "their" up

Those irritate me.

Also irritating are: "of" where people mean "off" and "could of" instead of "could have".

And adding an apostrophe at the end of every word that happens to end in an s, plural, possessive or otherwise.

It's called grammar kids. Learn it.

I can't stand it when people just use "there" for everything. I don't know how people can't differentiate between the 3 - it's not complicated. What is the reason for it?

Yup. Same with "your" and "you're."

I think your all being to sensitive about these thing's.



... and since I'm in a crowd of very literal people (and since I am one myself)...


that was a joke.

You missed your commas.
"...grammar, kids."

I totally agree with you, though. actually, my grammar has suffered since i was a chem major for a year. when i went back to anthropology, it was very obvious.

I used to, until I acquired some cognitive problems and started making some of those mistakes. Never used to, but it's just how your brain works (or doesn't); it went from being obvious to murky, but not in a noticeable way, so I didn't always realize I needed to look closer to make sure I got it right. A bit better nowadays, but people making such mistakes doesn't bother me as much, anymore.

I am somewhat of a grammar nazi. Eats, Shoots and Leaves is, perhaps, one of my favourite books of all time.

My particular pet peeve is people who use, "verbal," when they mean, "oral."

For example, the term, "a verbal contract." Every contract is verbal, since it is written out in words. I am trying to imagine a, "non-verbal" contract. I am picturing a roomful of lawyers engaged in interpretive dance. However, an oral agreement is the thing that is not, metaphorically, worth the paper it is printed on.

Okay, rant over.

I can see how that would lead to problems with one's spouse. "No darling, I didn't mean I wanted you to tell me off about something."

All of the mistakes outlined in this thread bother me, too. I'm not a linguist by any stretch, but I learned to read, write and spell properly nearly half a century ago. I don't understand what's so hard about it, or why so many people don't get it, and don't care. I also don't understand why so many of them are in charge of making signs and writing stuff that literate people have to read!

So often, I have seen sentences with "ect" at the end. Who told people that the abbreviation for et cetera is "ect"? Why is it so difficult to understand the difference between "to" and "too"?

If this kind of thing bothers you, don't go to eBay. You'll find that there is often an apostrophe in "shoes," and that they have heals and souls and a tounge. Very few people can spell Reebok, even while looking at the box, and I keep seeing new variations on Skechers that I didn't know were possible to make.

It must be even harder for children to learn the language now, with brand names being intentionally misspelled, and with URLs containing words all run together without spaces or capitals. It seems no one teaches them to be able to tell the difference.

Whoever decided that the "whole language" method was a good thing, where you get marks for trying, even if the words you spelled are not even close, should have been fired. Somebody had to come up with that insane concept, and other people had to agree with it, and still more of them had to implement it in schools. Now there have been several generations of children who have no idea how to use the only language they may ever speak.

kthxbye lol.

Ugh.

That irritates me too, though the level of indignation expressed in your post made me chuckle.

On the serious side, in a former life I had the task of sifting through job enquiries for positions in my IT department. While my own grammar is not perfect, some people's CV's were so full of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes they eliminated themselves from interview. A certain degree of literacy is required for most office based jobs.

Well, I'm not on a crusade about it or anything. And I'm not mad at the people who can't spell. I'm more dumbfounded that generations of adults have taught them that it was OK to get it wrong, at the perfect time in their lives when they could have been taught to get it right.

What about that god-awful textspeak that so many young people are into these days (boy do I sound old right now ). Every time I see someone writn lyke dis, I want to puke. This is an abomination upon the English language!

I would not say that I become very annoyed with people who insert the incorrect version of their/there/they're... I am, however, very aware of it. Homophones amuse me. I find myself chuckling when someone writes something like; "I don't know what to where.". It takes me a moment to understand that they are not poorly expressing confusion in regards to location, but rather, they mean that they do not know what to 'wear'. Then I will think to myself, "It would have been funnier had they written 'ware', so I could imagine them trying to choose between housewares to put on... would she look better in that dish set or those towels?" So goes the ticktock workings of my brain... But then I am not a grammar queen, so I have little room to be critical.