# Merged spelling/grammar threads



## Wisdom Penalty

*[OT] We need to improve our spelling and grammar.*

I bet 78.4% of ENWorlders think that "ridiculous" is spelled "rediculous" which, frankly, is just _ridiculous_.  

Why is that one word constantly misspelled?  

I decided that I will dedicate my life to teaching the masses the proper way to spell *Ridiculous*.  Consider this post my first sally.

Thank you, and good night.

W.P.


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## EricNoah

Hmm, as this is our first "spelling lesson" thread I think we'll store those over in Meta.


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## KnowTheToe

WHAT ABOUT WRITING IN ALL CAPS?


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## Derulbaskul

Actually, it's far more important that the masses are taught the correct use of "its" and "it's". Please make this your life's work....


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## CrazyMage

Rouge vs. Rogue
Their vs. They're vs. There
Your vs. You're

If this thread hits page two, then it's time to start Pedants Anonymous.


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## Mark

CrazyMage said:
			
		

> *If this thread hits page two, then it's time to start Pedants Anonymous. *





I doubt it will make page two of META for a while...



Don't hold your breath...



...and you've misspelt "Pee Dance, Enormous"...


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## Goobermunch

And remember that their is not a gender neutral substitute for his or her.

--G


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## Tewligan

Wow! 
That's a GREAT idea! 
Can I ask you a favor, though? 
Howzabout going after those people who use smilies all the time (like this:   )
Ooh, those people get on my nerves! 

Seriously.  I hate smilies more than Steve Guttenberg.


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## KnowTheToe




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## Buttercup

Goobermunch said:
			
		

> *And remember that their is not a gender neutral substitute for his or her.*




Unless, of course, you're William Shakespeare.  Or you think that if he did it, it's ok for you to do it.      

edit: And thus I offend two pedants in one post.  Truly, my Annoy Fu is great.


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## EricNoah

Tewligan said:
			
		

> *
> Seriously.  I hate smilies more than Steve Guttenberg. *




Oh, I don't know -- I hear he hates smilies quite a bit!


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## Buttercup

EricNoah said:
			
		

> *Oh, I don't know -- I hear he hates smilies quite a bit! *




No, Eric.  You misunderstand. Tewligan hates smilies more than he hates Steve Guttenberg.


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## Crothian

How about getting people to stop using so many U's


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## KnowTheToe

Does he hate smiley face avatars?


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## KnowTheToe

How about effect and affect, do these bother any of you?


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## Cheiromancer

Here's an idea: badly spelled or ungrammatical posts could be reported to moderators, who will edit or delete them as appropriate.

Then not only will EN World be a friendly and (relatively) flame free community, it will be a sanctuary of graceful prose.

Who is with me?


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## EricNoah

KnowTheToe said:
			
		

> *How about effect and affect, do these bother any of you? *




Yeah, that's a hard one too!  You can't just say "one's a verb and one's a noun" because each actually is both depending on the meaning!


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## EricNoah

Cheiromancer said:
			
		

> *Here's an idea: badly spelled or ungrammatical posts could be reported to moderators, who will edit or delete them as appropriate.
> 
> Then not only will EN World be a friendly and (relatively) flame free community, it will be a sanctuary of graceful prose.
> 
> Who is with me? *




That's "whom."*







*yeah, I know it's not really, but SHHHH! It'll be a fun trick to play.


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## Lazybones

There was an op-ed piece in my local Sunday paper recently about the decline of writing in America.  As a former community college instructor, I can say that I've seen legions of employment-seeking adults with the functional literacy of a sixth grader.  The worst part is that most of them had no idea that they were doing anything wrong.  

But I don't get worked up over postings on a message board.  Actually, ENWorld's prose is Shakespearean in quality compared to that on some of the CRPG boards I frequent...


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## KnowTheToe

Lazybones said:
			
		

> *There was an op-ed piece in my local Sunday paper recently about the decline of writing in America.  As a former community college instructor, I can say that I've seen legions of employment-seeking adults with the functional literacy of a sixth grader.  The worst part is that most of them had no idea that they were doing anything wrong.
> 
> But I don't get worked up over postings on a message board.  Actually, ENWorld's prose is Shakespearean in quality compared to that on some of the CRPG boards I frequent... *




I know I have never had a single class after the sixth grade that covered sentence structure, diagraming or anything else focusing on grammar.  It could be why so many people still write like sixth graders.


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## francisca

Lazybones said:
			
		

> *As a former community college instructor, I can say that I've seen legions of employment-seeking adults with the functional literacy of a sixth grader.  The worst part is that most of them had no idea that they were doing anything wrong.
> *




I know what you mean.  I teach part-time at a Big 10 University.  The writing is terrible.  Students get really bent when their computer teacher starts marking off for their spelling and grammar.  I usually tell them that if I am finding mistakes, they have a real problem, then direct them to the campus writing lab.  Besides, as a professional, I can't turn in a report riddled with all kinds of typos and grammatical flaws.  I tell them that its good practice to get in the habit now.

edit:  grammatical errors......
edit: and spelling....kinda ironic....


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## PowerWordDumb

KnowTheToe said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I know I have never had a single class after the sixth grade that covered sentence structure, diagraming or anything else focusing on grammar.  It could be why so many people still write like sixth graders. *




Granted, but don't people *read* any more?  I probably learned most of my vocabulary and grammatical skills (such as they are) from reading the works of good old JRRT and the like.  While I never paid any attention in a school setting, I still have far more developed language skills than most of the people I know.

I'm certainly not perfect, but I don't make at least the most rudimentary mistakes - particularly those which make reading 80% of the forum posts on the internet more torture than fun.


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## Mark

Lazybones said:
			
		

> *...compared to that on some of the CRPG boards I frequent... *




Maybe we could trick them by disguising the lessons in a familiar format!



> _Originally from the Cheaters Guide to Spelling and Grammar_
> *To go really fast hold down the {SHIFT} key and press the letter "f".  After releasing the {SHIFT} key, in quick succession press the "a", the "s" and the "t".  Hold down the {SHIFT} key again and press the "1" repeatedly... *


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## johnsemlak

Goobermunch said:
			
		

> *And remember that their is not a gender neutral substitute for his or her.
> 
> --G *




Uh, my <u>Oxford</u> guide to modern English usage says people can use 'their' as a gender free subsitute in their speech.  

So take it up with them.


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## PowerWordDumb

Even our very own Piratecat has been known (today!) to make the mistake of substituting *are* for *our*.

I guess if he'd written this post it would have opened with "_Are_ very own Piratecat..."

  Those are very aggravating as well.


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## KnowTheToe

PowerWordDumb said:
			
		

> *Even our very own Piratecat has been known (today!) to make the mistake of substituting are for our.
> 
> I guess if he'd written this post it would have opened with "Are very own Piratecat..."
> 
> Those are very aggravating as well. *




You noticed that as well.  I would never make such an error.  He is now banned this Friday night from posting on these boards.


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## Djeta Thernadier

?eromyna sdrawkcab setirw reve eno on emoc woH



(oh...and frontwards, for the record, I'm not so much a bad speller as I am a bad typer...)


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## LightPhoenix

My only big peeve is people who spell Pheonix and not the correct Phoenix.  I wonder why?


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## Holy Bovine

PowerWordDumb said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Granted, but don't people read any more?  I probably learned most of my vocabulary and grammatical skills (such as they are) from reading the works of good old JRRT and the like.  While I never paid any attention in a school setting, I still have far more developed language skills than most of the people I know.
> 
> *




I have had the same experience.  Reading (lots and lots of reading) taught me more about sentence structure and grammer than any HS or University class ever did.  I bought a nifty little book on proper grammer in grade 11 and used it throughout my academic career.  It was the rare time that I ever lost marks due to grammer, spelling or punctuation.  Of course now my skills have degraded and I find I make many more mistakes than I ever did in school.  

I wish I could remember the name of that book (it was one that was updated every few years too) it should be a required text for any HS aged student out there.


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## Buttercup

Holy Bovine said:
			
		

> *...grammer...grammer...grammer....  Of course now my skills have degraded and I find I make many more mistakes than I ever did in school.  *




:whispers: It's spelled GRAMMAR.


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## EricNoah

I think a lot of folks end up writing like they hear people talk or based on what they read, so reading a lot of well-written books will probably help quite a bit.  Propper grammar lessons aren't as necessary to most folks unless you want to have a shared vocabulary for discussing language itself, but a good background in English grammar can help prepare you to learn a foreign language (and learning a language can help you learn more about English grammar, too!).


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## The It's Man

Derulbaskul said:
			
		

> *Actually, it's far more important that the masses are taught the correct use of "its" and "it's". Please make this your life's work....  *



I agree .


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## William Ronald

It might be advisable for more of our members to use the spellcheck button on the post reply screen.  I have made a few spelling errors in some of my posts from time to time.   (I have edited some posts because of spelling errors.)  However, I think good spelling and grammar can improve communication.  Sometimes it seems people talk at each other and not to each other.  (This seemed to reach almost epidemic proportions in some of the D&D 3.5 threads.  Kudos to the moderators for keeping these boards relatively sane and calm.)

I do not have a problem with smilies.  They help with one of the problems of online communication: difficulty in displaying emotion.  So, I will try to use smiles and tags such as [Humor] to indicate when I am trying to be funny and when I am trying to be serious.


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## krunchyfrogg




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## Derulbaskul

EricNoah said:
			
		

> * (snip) but a good background in English grammar can help prepare you to learn a foreign language (and learning a language can help you learn more about English grammar, too!). *




I agree. I learned more about grammar during the five years that I stuided Japanese than I did from the preceeding years in which I studied English grammar.

I made the point above about the misuse of "it's" and I understand that the majority of people who post on messageboards simply do not care about getting this right, but it really aggravates every pedantic bone in my body when I see the error in professionally published material, whether a corporate web page or even a review.

Then again, there are worse things in life....  <= please forgive the smiley


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## Tom Cashel

Gutenberg has one "t".  He's not going to stop using the smilies until you get his name right.  That's what he told me.


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## Sixchan

What really bugs me is people mixing up 'lose' and 'loose'.


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## Olive

Buttercup said:
			
		

> *Unless, of course, you're William Shakespeare.  Or you think that if he did it, it's ok for you to do it.
> 
> edit: And thus I offend two pedants in one post.  Truly, my Annoy Fu is great. *




Not being a Shakespeare fan, but being a big believer that language has to evolve and therefore we whould just accept the use of their as a gender neutral term now that a large number of people want to have gender neutral terminology, I'd love a reference for this Buttercup. It'll allow me to pull it out on people who disagree with me.

In general, I mispell things a fair bit, and I'd be a wee bit hypocritical if I went around calling people on this stuff. So I don't. And generally if you can understand it, then I think you should just leave well enough alone. 

As long as no one trys to tell me to leave my 'u's out of armour and colour on the board run by an englishman, I think we'll all be fine.


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## Buttercup

Olive said:
			
		

> *Not being a Shakespeare fan, but being a big believer that language has to evolve and therefore we whould just accept the use of their as a gender neutral term now that a large number of people want to have gender neutral terminology, I'd love a reference for this Buttercup. It'll allow me to pull it out on people who disagree with me.  *




No prob.  It wasn't only the Bard of Avon, but respected authors including Chaucer, Thackery, George Bernard Shaw & Jane Austen.  Here are some citations from the OED.  I suppose I don't have to say that it doesn't get any more authoritative than that.

Simply put, if a person tries to insist that "they" is not rightly used as a singular pronoun, *they* don't have a leg to stand on.


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## reapersaurus

Sixchan said:
			
		

> *What really bugs me is people mixing up 'lose' and 'loose'. *



HALLELUJAH!

Someone else noticed this.

It's amazing to me how many people actually don't know how to spell 'lose'.
And the phrase is NOT "loose your temper."  

I don't mind typos - heck, i think they can endear a post, and make the writing more casual, but when you misspell something, and it makes the sentence read differently, than you have a serious communication problem, based on simple spelling errors/misunderstanding of words.


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## Mark

I don't "know" why "no" one mentioned that this bugs them "through" and "threw"...


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## Crass

G'day,

Inappropriate use of the apostrophe irritates me, s'eriou'sly... And omitting "u" from, for example, flavour, colour, humour... and we need to bring the USA and Canada back into line by sending them to gaol for all of the above offences. (That's easy for me to say, residing in another former English penal colony...)

Cheers,
Crass.


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## Cyberzombie

LightPhoenix said:
			
		

> *My only big peeve is people who spell Pheonix and not the correct Phoenix.  I wonder why?   *




I used to do the accounting on a mutual fund that was called the Pheonix Fund.  Yes, you saw that right: the Pheonix Fund.  I could never spell the f'in' name right.  I managed to somehow *not* tell the guy who started it that he was a moron.  How, I don't know.


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## Welverin




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## hellbender

I have given up on the subject of spelling and grammar online. As a former English teacher and tutor (to English as a second language students), there are so many gross mistakes from people in the United States (most of whom I assume were taught how to spell here) that I have begun to question the entire education system. I know of many, many foreign people who can spell better than a lot of people who I know were born and raised in the States.

    To me, it is also bad enough that people feel the need to write nonsense like 'Um' all the time, what is 'Um'? Is it thinking you are correcting someone else, or trying to sound dumb? I don't need to know every little sound reverberating around a person's head at any given time. And all the 'leetspeak' that is very second generation faux hacker talk, and if anything, not very elite at all. I consider myself a latecomer to the internet (first logged on in 1994 when I returned from overseas) and people never wrote like they sniffed too much glue then. If you want to be elite, spell like you have had an education.

hellbender


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## PowerWordDumb

Crass said:
			
		

> *and we need to bring the USA and Canada back into line by sending them to gaol for all of the above offences. *




Hey hey hey!  I'm canadian and I know perfectly well how flavour, armour, colour, humour, and the like are spelled.  It's generally the endless arguments with pedantic americans who insist *their* mangled spelling is correct that can beat us poor canucks into submission over time - those of us smart enough to care in the first place, that is.  I mean come on - we have to live with them right next door, while the brits get a whole ocean to buffer themselves with.  We love them, but it gets tiring after a while, just like explaining to them that yes, what they're drinking is in fact beer, unlike what they're used to at home.


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## PowerWordDumb

Ooooh, I remembered another one...  how about people who don't know that when using the possessive apostrophe (john's) on a noun which alread ends in "s", that you drop the trailing "s"?

e.g.  my buddy Bass has a guitar.  I could say either:

Bass's guitar = WRONG!

or

Bass' guitar = Correct

That one always bothers me.

Granted, I've probably buggered up the i.e. vs. e.g. usage, which someone else will correct me on.    I never said I was perfect, just pedantic!


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## Mark Chance

reapersaurus said:
			
		

> *And the phrase is NOT "loose your temper."*




That's accurate the way I do things, for, you see, my temper is like a great body of water held behind a dam. At will I can open the floodgates and loose my temper in a deluge of fury. 



			
				PowerWordDumb said:
			
		

> *Bass's guitar = WRONG!
> 
> or
> 
> Bass' guitar = Correct*




You've got those reversed. From The Elements of Style:

*Form the possessive of singular nouns by adding 's.*

Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,

Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice

Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -_es_ and -_is_, the possessive _Jesus'_, and such form as _for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake_.


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## PowerWordDumb

Hmmm, now I'm wondering whether that's a regional thing where we Canadians have messed up the convention from the original.

Because as I live and breathe, what I wrote is the rule exactly how we were taught it repeatedly throughout school.  I used to have lots of fun being a bastard and pointing out other students' errors in class.

Interesting...  I suppose it's always possible it was my english teachers who were glitching.


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## LightPhoenix

Cyberzombie said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I used to do the accounting on a mutual fund that was called the Pheonix Fund.  Yes, you saw that right: the Pheonix Fund.  I could never spell the f'in' name right.  I managed to somehow *not* tell the guy who started it that he was a moron.  How, I don't know.   *




Heh heh heh  

Spelling and grammar in this country are atrocious.  I usually blame it on less kids reading nowadays, on the internet, and on spell checking.

You better believe I'm making sure my kids are reading and not just sitting in front of the TV or computer.  Now, when I start them out on George R.R. Martin.... 

Actually, I've always had this sort of fatherly fantasy where I read my children The Iliad and the Odyssey growing up, making sure to alter some of the more suggestive and gory parts to PG versions.  They're just great stories.


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## Hand of Evil

Sixchan said:
			
		

> *What really bugs me is people mixing up 'lose' and 'loose'. *



Hey, that is me! 

I think I am going back to my old sig, 'I should proof read before posting'.  

DoN't sEe It aNymORe bUT tHis Use tO bUG tHe HEll oUt oF mE!


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## Lazybones

Nice posts... glad to see I'm not the only one. 

Seriously, I would grade papers and sometimes make 50 marks on a single page of double-spaced text.  Often the ESL papers were better than those from the students who'd spent their entire lives here.

It's also starting to emerge in the business world.  Some time ago I went into my local bank and saw a banner ad (professionally printed, I assume that they made a lot of these) for a loan program that had BOTH an it's/its error AND an apostrophe after a non-possessive plural.  

I mean, it was Washington Mutual, but come on!

The down side is that work has gotten out at work that I'm one of those "grammar people" and now I find myself proofreading most of the major documents that we produce in my office...


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## PowerWordDumb

I feel your pain, Lazybones.  I work for a major Canadian bank, and while all the promotional material which comes from corporate is flawlessly error-checked, the individual regional managers and branches have broad leeway to run their own promotions and campaigns as they see fit, so it's not uncommon to walk into a branch and see flawless corporate banners, and directly beneath them a locally-produced banner with many of the same words as the banner above, but spelled differently, or with grammatical constructions that would make an english teacher blush.  One might not notice (well okay, I would) if it were only the local banners, but placing them directly beside a flawless example of the language just points out in very clear detail the kind of attention to detail you can expect from the business you've just entered.  If they can't even speak and write english, how are they going to deal with the complexities of managing your mortgage?

It's one thing for people to be shaky in a foreign language.  We all can understand that and give people the benefit of the doubt - but when exactly did it become acceptable for people to be completely incapable of forming a clear statement in their own native language?

What's next, are expressive grunts and whistles going to replace language entirely, since it's just too hard for people to speak and write their own language?

I make mistakes too, as is evident by a prior post.  But at least I have the good graces to be horrified and embarrassed by my errors, and I try to avoid repeating them.  It's common now for people to take offense at being corrected, as if it were their inherent right to be perceived as an idiot.


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## PowerWordDumb

Bah - the General forum isn't moving much, so I'll keep adding thoughts here.

It's ridiculous the number of people who think the world is spelled 'rediculous'.  You'd think all the clues they need are in the word's pronunciation.  Come on, don't they even know how it's pronounced?  The root word is ridicule, and you sure don't pronounce that 'ree-dic-yule", so I don't see how people get "ree-dic-you-luss", unless they're from texas or something.


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## WanderingMonster

I don't have a particular spelling/grammar issue that bugs me.*  For me, it's the use of the word "pedantic".  I find that people who accuse other people of being pedantic are severly anemic, and self-medicating with some much need irony.  "Pedantic" reeks of superiority (I guess that's why it's used so much in flamewars).  I better stop before I get stomped by an Irony Golem.


_* Actually, should of/should HAVE bugs me.  Should of ever replace have? You should HAVE learned that in school! _


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## WanderingMonster

PowerWordDumb said:
			
		

> *Bah - the General forum isn't moving much, so I'll keep adding thoughts here.
> 
> It's ridiculous the number of people who think the world is spelled 'rediculous'.  You'd think all the clues they need are in the word's pronunciation.  Come on, don't they even know how it's pronounced?  The root word is ridicule, and you sure don't pronounce that 'ree-dic-yule", so I don't see how people get "ree-dic-you-luss", unless they're from texas or something. *




Duh.  

*Re-dic'u-luos*(_v._)  1. to diculous again.


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## Dinkeldog

My favorite pet peeve is the subjunctive mood.  If only people were to use this correctly, the world would be a better place.


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## PowerWordDumb

Dinkeldog said:
			
		

> *My favorite pet peeve is the subjunctive mood.  If only people were to use this correctly, the world would be a better place.   *




I don't even know what that is, so I'm probably using it wrong.  

It wouldn't be the only thing, that's for sure.  I have a nasty habit of writing run-on sentences, and I rely on passive phrasing far too much.  At least I recognize these issues and try to work on them.  That keeps me from feeling hypocritical as I'm gleefully picking apart the errors that other people make.


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## Mark Chance

PowerWordDumb said:
			
		

> *I don't even know what that is, so I'm probably using it wrong.  *




Subjunctive mood found here.


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## Dinkeldog

PowerWordDumb said:
			
		

> *It wouldn't be the only thing, that's for sure.  I have a nasty habit of writing run-on sentences, and I rely on passive phrasing far too much.  At least I recognize these issues and try to work on them.  That keeps me from feeling hypocritical as I'm gleefully picking apart the errors that other people make. *




Obviously.  

Of course your second sentence could appear as:



> I have a nasty habit of writing run-on sentences; I rely on passive phrasing far too much.




That eliminates your comma splice.


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## hong

Dinkeldog said:
			
		

> *
> That eliminates your comma splice.   *




Indeed, she should never have quit the Splice Girls.


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## William Ronald

Of course, Comma Splice made out better than DNA Splice.  Then again, DNA Splice made her last appearance in the remake of the Island of Dr. Moreau.


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## Fanog

hong said:
			
		

> *Indeed, she should never have quit the Splice Girls. *



Wow, that was hilarious. Nearly brough tears to my eyes. Thanks!  

To add to the topic: WanderingMonster beat me to the punch on the subject of "Should of". That one just amazes me. For the sake of completeness, I'd like to add "for all intensive purposes" to the list.

Fanog


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## Felix

*[OT, grammar] sputter... gah... ARRRGH!*

Sorry folks, but I just have to say this.

YOUR: second person possessive. An adjective. Applied to things that other people own, or possess.

YOU'RE: a contraction; "you are". second person conjugation of the verb "to be", modified by the pronoun "you". Used when indicating the action or condition of the second person.

YORE: a noun; time long past.

For the love of all that is holy, and for my beloved mother tongue, English, please, please, please learn and love the differences in these words and use them properly! Homophones are our friends!

Or I will cry!


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## pogre

Your wrong and you're ranting won't pay!


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## alsih2o

pogre said:
			
		

> *Your wrong and you're ranting won't pay! *




 yore just goading him on!


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## Felix

AGGGgggghhhh! It burns! It burns!

*runs away screaming like a schoolgirl*


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## EricNoah

We typically keep the grammar police in the Meta forum.   There's another grammar thread in there; it may not be way up at the top, but you can see that each person has his or her own pet peeve.


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## pogre

Felix said:
			
		

> *AGGGgggghhhh! It burns! It burns!
> 
> *runs away screaming like a schoolgirl* *




What's yore problem?







I'm done now.


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## EricNoah

Here's that other fairly recent grammar thread. 

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=57978


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## Felix

Hmmm... Meta forum? It has been almost 500 posts and a year and a half. Guess I will check that out. Heh.

Much obliged, Eric.

Clay, pogre: consider the line in the sand drawn!


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## Mercule

Felix, FWIW, I feel your pain.

I really hate having to read a sentence twice because the person writing it used a word that makes no sense.  Yes, I can figure it out, but I could also figure it out if everytime someone meant "car", they wrote "cargo".  The mistakes are on about the same level.


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## alsih2o

Felix said:
			
		

> *Hmmm... Meta forum? It has been almost 500 posts and a year and a half. Guess I will check that out. Heh.
> 
> Much obliged, Eric.
> 
> Clay, pogre: consider the line in the sand drawn! *




 mine is there/their...my pbp crew makes my skin crawl with that one.


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## Heretic Apostate

*ROGUE!!!! * 

It's rogue, darn it!  Not rouge!  Rogue, rogue, rogue!!!!

What?

Oh, right, medication time.

How about people who use contractions, but then don't contract?

For instance, "I'am" instead of "I'm".  That's bothersome...


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## the Jester

Its and it's bugs me, and so do the whingers.  I don't quite know what whinging is....


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## pogre

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *
> 
> mine is there/their...my pbp crew makes my skin crawl with that one.  *




Their, their, Clay - your just sensitive.

BTW - Elvis needs boats any ETA on those?



No, really - I'm done this time


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## Derulbaskul

Fanog said:
			
		

> * (snip)To add to the topic: WanderingMonster beat me to the punch on the subject of "Should of". That one just amazes me. For the sake of completeness, I'd like to add "for all intensive purposes" to the list. Fanog *




Yep, I was about to add a rant about these two as well although my pet hate for all time will be the confusion between "its" and "it's". Frankly, I don't understand why people would not want to write better particularly as these are the messageboards for a fan site devoted to an extremely verbal game.

Cheers
D


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## johnsemlak

Since we're talking about things that irritate people, one thing that irritates me a lot is (or 'are'?) grammar police.


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## Felix

Please, use the proper term.

Grammar Nazis. Not grammar police. Not grammar po-po's. Not grammar rollers. Grammar Nazis.

ARE YOU UNDERSTANDINK?


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## Ashwyn

How about misusing "literally"? As in, "I was so hyper I was _literally[i/] climbing the walls!" That drives me crazy. Figuratively speaking of course. Well, typing anyway._


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## Dinkeldog

Sounds like it's the spelling police really.

My spelling peeve is "diety".  What, are you saying it's like a diet?  "Rouge" takes a close second, though.


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## Sixchan

LOSE: To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; to mislay.

LOOSE: Not fastened, restrained, or contained.

I hate this one.


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## Wulf Ratbane

BREATH / BREATHE


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## alsih2o

pogre said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Their, their, Clay - your just sensitive.
> 
> BTW - Elvis needs boats any ETA on those?
> 
> 
> 
> No, really - I'm done this time *




 sept 17


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## Hand of Evil

A little OT here but I find as I get older the more I have been making errors, some of it I know the cause (health) but at other times I feel it is the rebel in me.  Yes, I have a little bit still inside and it is against  execu-speak that language that is political, vague, multi-phased, repetitive, BS, that is taking over the world, allowing people to talk a lot but not say anything and cover their butts and blame the other guy.  

There a rant.


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## Barendd Nobeard

I hate all those inaccuracies, to.  I mean, how hard is it two use the proper word?  Picking the correct word only takes a second or too.


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## ColonelHardisson

compl*e*ment and compl*i*ment - a note on usage from Dictionary.com :



> _*Usage Note:* Complement_ and _compliment_, though quite distinct in meaning, are sometimes confused because they are pronounced the same. As a noun, _complement_ means “something that completes or brings to perfection” (_The antique silver was a complement to the beautifully set table_); used as a verb it means “to serve as a complement to.” The noun _compliment_ means “an expression or act of courtesy or praise” (_They gave us a compliment on our beautifully set table_), while the verb means “to pay a compliment to.”


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## ColonelHardisson

Pour: To make (a liquid or granular solid) stream or flow, as from a container.

Pore: To read or study carefully and attentively.

Courtesy Dictionary.com again.


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## Dakkareth

alsih2o said:
			
		

> *
> 
> mine is there/their...my pbp crew makes my skin crawl with that one.  *




thanks


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## Ankh-Morpork Guard

Barendd Nobeard said:
			
		

> *I hate all those inaccuracies, to.  I mean, how hard is it two use the proper word?  Picking the correct word only takes a second or too. *




I completely agree with yore statement. I think their are two many people who worry about spelling Rouge right and when they loose, they just pore all they're anger on everyone else. 

EDIT- Spelling.


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## Bleys

the Jester said:
			
		

> *Its and it's bugs me, and so do the whingers.  I don't quite know what whinging is.... *




From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) : 

  Whinge \Whinge\, v. i.
     To whine. [Scot.] --Burns.


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## Dinkeldog

tact vs. tack


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## Morrus

Mine is "I could care less".  No, the correct phrase is "I couldn't care less".  If you think about what you're actually saying, you'll see why the latter is correct.

But it isn't the fact that you can work it out if you think about it; it's the fact that it is a well-known and popular phrase in the English language, used so often (and for so long) that you really should have heard it enough times by now to get it right.  "I could care less" just sounds stupid, to me, as opposed to "its/it's", a mistake I can understand.


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## Umbran

Morrus said:
			
		

> *Mine is "I could care less"*




I understand your grief here.  But there's one major plausible reason why we say it the way we do.  There's some reason to believe that the phrasehas been contracted from, "As if I could care less?"  As a whole sentence, we don't use it properly, but as a sentence fragment it might make more sense.


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## Morrus

Umbran said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I understand your grief here.  But there's one major plausible reason why we say it the way we do.  There's some reason to believe that the phrasehas been contracted from, "As if I could care less?"  As a whole sentence, we don't use it properly, but as a sentence fragment it might make more sense. *




But that makes no more sense!  "As if I could care less?" is just as nonsensical as "I could care less". 

Also, even if it did make sense, it seems a bit like an "explanation after the fact" to me.  If "I couldn't care less" didn't exist, I might be convinced, but to me it seems much more likely that people are getting it wrong, and that the wrong version seems to be spreading and gaining popularity.


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## Buttercup

My peeve is the disappearing past participle.  As in, "I have went."  What?  It's I have *gone.*  I've seen this in actual published D20 products, and it bugs the hell out of me.

Past participles are vanishing all over the place, but the went/gone mixup is the one that irritates me most.


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## Morrus

Buttercup said:
			
		

> *My peeve is the disappearing past participle.  As in, "I have went."  What?  It's I have gone.  I've seen this in actual published D20 products, and it bugs the hell out of me. *




I can't say that I've ever seen anything like that, but if I did I imagine it would irritate me immensely!


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## Piratecat

*Re: [OT, grammar] sputter... gah... ARRRGH!*



			
				Felix said:
			
		

> *
> For the love of all that is holy, and for my beloved mother tongue, English, please, please, please learn and love the differences in these words and use them properly! Homophones are our friends!
> 
> *




Felix is right. We don't discriminate against homophones here.  Honest.


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## Ravellion

the Jester said:
			
		

> *Its and it's bugs me, and so do the whingers.  I don't quite know what whinging is.... *



Don't whinge just because your English isn't the Queen's English. It is pronounced differently than 'whine', it is spelled differently, but it pretty much means the same thing.

Rav


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## Teflon Billy

Fanog said:
			
		

> *...For the sake of completeness, I'd like to add "for all intensive purposes" to the list...*




Thank you! I was about to post this one, but thought I would read the thread first and see if anyone had beaten me to it.

it's INTENTS AND PURPOSES you halfwits! Not "Intensive Purposes".

*whew*


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## Kahuna Burger

I have only one peeve, which I hold in check most of the time because such grammer peeves are just silly. But sicne this is the thread to mention it and no one else has... 

"The point is mute."

well, since points can't talk, I guess they are mute, but what you want to say is that the point is MOOT! The only thing worse than people writing this is when they SAY IT!!!!!

Now I feel so much better...

Kahuna Burger


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## johnsemlak

Dinkeldog said:
			
		

> *My favorite pet peeve is the subjunctive mood.  If only people were to use this correctly, the world would be a better place.   *




My pet peeve is also the subjunctive mood.  Many people try to say it exists in English because they studied it in Ancient Latin or Greek or whatever.  

Subjunctive is pretty much dead in English.  Get over it


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## Morbidity

Crass said:
			
		

> *G'day,
> 
> Inappropriate use of the apostrophe irritates me, s'eriou'sly... And omitting "u" from, for example, flavour, colour, humour... and we need to bring the USA and Canada back into line by sending them to gaol for all of the above offences. (That's easy for me to say, residing in another former English penal colony...)
> 
> Cheers,
> Crass. *




Oh yes! Definitely bring back the 'u's. Armour has a 'u' in it and I refuse to believe otherwise!


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## Morrus

I'm going to merge the two spelling/grammar threads - mainly because I haven't used the nifty "merge" function in a while.


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## Dinkeldog

Morbidity said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Oh yes! Definitely bring back the 'u's. Armour has a 'u' in it and I refuse to believe otherwise! *




I could never understand why you wanted it spelled "aurmor".


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## Kahuna Burger

Teflon Billy said:
			
		

> *
> it's INTENTS AND PURPOSES you halfwits! Not "Intensive Purposes".
> *




All indents and porpises?

All incense and portages?


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## Mercule

Ashwyn said:
			
		

> *How about misusing "literally"? As in, "I was so hyper I was literally[i/] climbing the walls!" That drives me crazy. Figuratively speaking of course. Well, typing anyway. *



_

Oh!  Sign me on for this one.  

'Literally' != 'extremely'.
'Literally' != 'figuratively'.
'Literally' = 'exactly as written (spoken)'.

Most of the mistakes listed above bug me, but one I haven't seen mentioned yet that just sends shivers down my spine is "thx" or "tnx" for "Thanks".

And along the same lines as our British friends and their "u"s in armor, etc. I hate to see "Light" turned into "lite" or "night" to "nite".  Hey, I'm not even real happy about "donut" vs. "doughnut", but I've reconciled myself to that one.

Man, I just realized how truly anal I can be._


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## Barendd Nobeard

Kahuna Burger said:
			
		

> *I have only one peeve, which I hold in check most of the time because such grammer peeves are just silly. But sicne this is the thread to mention it and no one else has...
> 
> "The point is mute."
> 
> well, since points can't talk, I guess they are mute, but what you want to say is that the point is MOOT! The only thing worse than people writing this is when they SAY IT!!!!!
> 
> Now I feel so much better...
> 
> Kahuna Burger *



And people who say "mute" when they mean "moot" here in Milwaukee also refer to someone's area of expertise as their "billy whack"--I thought the world was *bailiwick*, but apparently I've been wrong all these years.


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