then and than; there, their, and they're

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I'm going to copy, Syd!

I used to work at my local newspaper as a proofreader. It drove me crazy when I saw grammatical mistakes.

lots of supposedly genius aspies make spelling and grammer mistakes and I dont think its anything to be ashamed of- if this site had a grammer and spell check it wouldnt be such an issue. my spelling is terrible but I dont think I shouldnt post- I think you should put up with us thickos

This is a multinational forum.

My firefox has a spell checker on it. I don't think there's that much of an excuse.
Also, it's basic English knowledge to put an apostrophe in don't and other such things.

I dont even know what firefox is and I have never managed to remember where the grammers and spellings go and I think people should be tollerant of those less able and be glad for themselves that they know the correct spelling.

Well, I HAVE seen LOTS of foreign speakers make some dumb mistakes. I NEVER used to make mistakes, like the ones listed here, but now sometimes do. 8-( check to see if the problem is CONSISTENT!

Even german speakers have problems with declension. I WILL tell you though, that I am trying to do better. I have had coworkers complement my skill set, for example, and I have already said I have had some compliments. And if they're nice to me, I'll try to be nice to them.

You DO have to wonder how English will end up in a few years.

Relax, people. It's not a big deal. If this is all you got to be annoyed about, count yourselves lucky. Quit being academic elitists and try giving other people credit for what they are saying, not how they are saying it. I don't need to remember or follow every rule that formal education imposed on me to consider myself intelligent. BTW, not everyone here is Aspie. There are also other Autistics across the spectrum. Some have language impairments, but I have never met one yet that I thought was lazy or unintelligent because of it.

I never really made those mistakes until I started using a text-to-speech device. Then I was often having to tailor the typing to how it would pronounce the word, and that has made me sloppier at spelling.

Words of wisdom.

Also Proteus - That picture is spot on.

I know someone who completely avoids using the words "their, they're, and there" in written form all together because he can't keep them straight. He's an NT, it's the one odd quirk he has. I can't understand it for the life of me. Words aren't second nature to me, they're more than that. They're the only thing that is truly natural to me, the only thing that I've never had to study profusely to have it sink in. I'm not really a grammar or spelling Nazi, I just wish to teach the world the difference between the three words so that no one will ever need to wonder "now which way was that one spelled?" again.

Funny nobody mentioned whose and who's. Those were two words I would often get confused.

What about weather and whether?

Those two actually screwed me up for quite a while...

Also witch and which.

Once in my 'location' I had 'hear hair & he're'
and i_Am_andajoy pm'd me to say :

"your location drives me to pieces.
it continually snags at my brain."

so I wrote back and said :
"Do you like wear,we're & weir better?"


i hadn't written a word for 25 years before joining WP.
Not since I left school.
Initially I had to look up "their, they're, and there" in the dictionary continuously.
I'm pretty diligent in regard to my own scribblings;
the errors of others I disregard as haste or inconsequence.
A little decryption can derive the intent and it is the message not the vessal
which is of import, so i am in agreement with Pithlet.

I have to think about to and too.
The trick I was taught is t' shorten it -that works;it's 'to'
it is t' far -that doesn't;it's 'too'

its and it's also take some thought

i remember completely zoning out during grammar at school;
Silverproteus, why can't you end a sentence with with?
adverbs,adjectives,prepositions,etc just make my head spin
stupid executive functioning disorder

I usually make sure that I do the other correctly, but I can never figure out what the difference between then and than is! I've gotten in such trouble in my History class because of it

Why, because it's a preposition!

I'm not the best person to answer your query, grammar never was my forte.