hummingwolf (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hummingwolf) wrote2003-05-03 10:52 am
hummingwolf) wrote2003-05-03 10:52 am
Entry tags:
Pedant Mode: ON
Look, I am hardly qualified to be a grammar maven. Among other things, I pepper my writing with sentence fragments, I am overfond of use of "but" as a conjunction, I sometimes perpetrate run-on sentences that could enter and possibly win the Boston Marathon, I love to cruelly split infinitives, and I will surely be arrested one day for punctuation abuse and denied visitation rights with all but the most mature and strong-willed of exclamation marks. That said, a few things in other people's writing have been getting under my skin lately and I need to say something before they take up permanent residence in my endodermis.
"Your" is a possessive word. Use "your" when speaking of something belonging or somehow connected to the person you are thinking of as "you", as in "Your housemates would be much happier with you if it weren't for your habit of leaving your dirty socks all over the kitchen counters."
"You're" is a contraction of "you are." Yes, many possessive words have apostrophes and "you're" has an apostrophe, but the presence of an apostrophe does not make "you're" possessive any more than the presence of an apostrophe makes "can't" possessive. Example: "You're not leaving this house like that, are you? You're dressed in nothing but your dirty socks! You're a disgrace!"
"Its" is another possessive word without an apostrophe. Please do not misuse "its" as "its" has its dignity and will resent its humiliation for years to come.
"It's" is a contraction of "it is." While "it's" is frequently misused and should probably be used to its mistreatment by now, it's still not happy about it.
On to another peeve: If your place in a sentence would normally be filled with the word "me," the presence of another person does not turn you into an "I." If you would say "She gave Buckingham Palace to me," then do not say "She gave Buckingham Palace to Fred and I." You have not become a subject of the sentence just because you have someone else around to back you up. You also have not become owner of Buckingham Palace--you are delusional and need to adjust your medication.
Between you and me, "between you and I" is never good grammar. If you don't believe me, ask yourself whether you would say "I swear that evil teddy bear lying between us looked at me and growled!" or "I swear that evil teddy bear lying between we looked at me and growled!" If you would say "between us," then stick to the same case and say "between you and me." If you would say "between we," you are not speaking English; you may be speaking a pidgin or creole based on English, but you are not speaking English.
Now it's time for me to fix myself a nice cup of tea and spend the rest of the day wondering how many sad and silly grammatical errors I've made in this post.
Pedant Mode: OFF
[Edit: I don't mean to criticize people's LiveJournal posts. After all, it's your journal and you should be allowed to say whatever you want however you want as long as nobody gets hurt. What I'm tired of seeing is a profusion of certain basic errors in published writing passed along to the public by editors who really should know better.]
"Your" is a possessive word. Use "your" when speaking of something belonging or somehow connected to the person you are thinking of as "you", as in "Your housemates would be much happier with you if it weren't for your habit of leaving your dirty socks all over the kitchen counters."
"You're" is a contraction of "you are." Yes, many possessive words have apostrophes and "you're" has an apostrophe, but the presence of an apostrophe does not make "you're" possessive any more than the presence of an apostrophe makes "can't" possessive. Example: "You're not leaving this house like that, are you? You're dressed in nothing but your dirty socks! You're a disgrace!"
"Its" is another possessive word without an apostrophe. Please do not misuse "its" as "its" has its dignity and will resent its humiliation for years to come.
"It's" is a contraction of "it is." While "it's" is frequently misused and should probably be used to its mistreatment by now, it's still not happy about it.
On to another peeve: If your place in a sentence would normally be filled with the word "me," the presence of another person does not turn you into an "I." If you would say "She gave Buckingham Palace to me," then do not say "She gave Buckingham Palace to Fred and I." You have not become a subject of the sentence just because you have someone else around to back you up. You also have not become owner of Buckingham Palace--you are delusional and need to adjust your medication.
Between you and me, "between you and I" is never good grammar. If you don't believe me, ask yourself whether you would say "I swear that evil teddy bear lying between us looked at me and growled!" or "I swear that evil teddy bear lying between we looked at me and growled!" If you would say "between us," then stick to the same case and say "between you and me." If you would say "between we," you are not speaking English; you may be speaking a pidgin or creole based on English, but you are not speaking English.
Now it's time for me to fix myself a nice cup of tea and spend the rest of the day wondering how many sad and silly grammatical errors I've made in this post.
Pedant Mode: OFF
[Edit: I don't mean to criticize people's LiveJournal posts. After all, it's your journal and you should be allowed to say whatever you want however you want as long as nobody gets hurt. What I'm tired of seeing is a profusion of certain basic errors in published writing passed along to the public by editors who really should know better.]
no subject
I am a writer, but I know my lj posts are peppered, liberally, with mistakes cause I'm not looking to get paid for this shite and I'm not looking to spend more time in here than I already do.
I roll my eyes liberally at poor writing and spelling, but I loathe the grammar police. Prepare for your spanking.
no subject
Pfft. You just want to spoil all my fun.
Either that, or you really want to give somebody a spanking.
Re:
no subject
Re:
I don't think a school with no journalism track should have a fucking newspaper!
no subject
I think it's great you posted about your pet peeves, hon. I do it all the time myself. It's not you saying to one particular person "you should stop that, you moron." It's just a gripe at the world in general. And that's part of what our LJs are for!
*hugs*
no subject