I'm begging you! If we want to laugh at the "Moran" guy, and poke fun at the hilarious ...

[11 Bravo]

misspellings on teabagger's scribbled signs; then can WE at least get it right with regard to "there", "their", and "they're"?

There: In that place: (Right there), or indicating the fact or existence of something (There is a fly in my soup).

Their: Belonging to or associated with them: (Republicans love their party more than they love their country).

They're: Contraction for they are. (The Romney campaign is becoming painfully aware that they're fucked).

Here endeth the rant. (We can deal with "your" and "you're" on another day.)

[Alduin]

1. I don't like where your going with this. Its not entirely they're fault.

[catbyte]

5. I don't think their's any there they're

Just kidding. Point taken!

[dmr]

14. Their is two!

[Courtesy Flush]

23. That's two funny. nt

[valerief]

2. Jersey equivalents, respectively, are Dere, Deir, and Dey're.

None are to be confused with Deer (Bambi) or Dear (start of a letter salutation).

[blueamy66]

18. thought that was Wisconsin!

nt

[valerief]

19. Good things travel, I guess! nt

[Curtland1015]

3. Agreed! Still, because it fits so perfectly in this topic:

[11 Bravo]

8. Love the poster!

However, since I have so much fun pointing out the stupidity of illiterate teabaggers (but I repeat myself), I just hate it when the good guys appear to be equally ignorant.

[Curtland1015]

10. Agree again.

Sometimes I think the desire to rapidly type your thoughts out leads to grammatical errors because your brain is moving faster than your fingers!

[barbtries]

17. most of my edits on DU

are to put in whole words that i forgot to type.

[SoCalDem]

50. mine are usually to remove "extra" letters & add apostrophes

[randome]

20. I find it helpful to locate my post after posting.

Then I see it from the standpoint of someone reading it for the first time. Most of my edited posts are for omissions and grammatical errors.

[oldhippie]

64. We revel in our ignorance .....

... of the English language. We doan wanna look to smart.

[Freddie]

9. Agreed! But one of my pet peeves

Is poor grammar from an "official" published source when someone was paid to write, or in advertising. If you're paying someone for their writing, the least they can do is get the grammar right!

[Surya Gayatri]

24. So true, Freddie. Especially if it's a reputable source of

reference like the BBC. Drives me nuts!!!

[hfojvt]

12. I would expect Lucy, or even Linus

to be a grammer nazi. Not Charlie Brown.

Or Violet. I could see her as a grammarnazi.

Maybe even that one girl, with the naturally curly hair.

But Charlie Brown? Come on. He never does anything write, although everyone but the beagels agree, he's one heck of a speller.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

35. Shouldn't that be spelled: "Grammer"?

[lunatica]

4. Their, their, don't get so upset

[pinboy3niner]

6. Yure know fuhn

Spoilsport!

[valerief]

7. You forgot Thayer. You know, the academy. nt

[thecrow]

29. or the painter....

or is the academy named after the painter?

[valerief]

53. I dunno. Never heard of the painter. I'm not that smart. Lemme see.

Nope, dude wasn't a painter.

Located in historic Braintree, Massachusetts, Thayer Academy was founded in 1877, in accordance with the will of General Sylvanus Thayer, a native of Braintree. Sylvanus Thayer led a distinguished life as a soldier, engineer, educator, and philanthropist. He graduated from Dartmouth College as valedictorian of his class in 1807. The following year, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, again at the head of his class, with the rank of Second Lieutenant of Engineers. After several years as a Army engineer, Sylvanus Thayer returned to West Point, becoming the youngest (and longest serving) Superintendent of the U. S. Military Academy.

In addition to founding the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, he contributed funds to establish the Thayer Public Library in Braintree, and stipulated in his will that the bulk of of his estate should be used for "the erection of an academy in which young persons of the male sex (or both male and female if my trustees deem it expedient) shall be educated." He proposed "to promote the cause of education in the Commonwealth according to my ability, and benefiting the town of Braintree, the place of my birth."

http://www.thayer.org/page.cfm?p=1135

[hfojvt]

11. I have changed my mind about this

because I have written it myself.

I used to see it in college papers that I was grading, and my red pen would fly out, and I would think, like you do, that that person did not know which word to use.

Now I know better, because I often re-read, and sometimes correct, stuff that I, myself, have written. I know that I know what the various forms of their, they're, and there mean. So I also know that if I have used the wrong one, it is NOT because I don't know which one to use. It is because what is thought and what is typed are sometimes not the same thing. Like the way I will often type "and" when I want to type "an".

Thus, if you see those kinds of errors, it is not necessarily the case that the person making them does not know any better. It just may mean that they are writing in a hurry and not anally proof-reading everything they write as if what they write is going to be read by a humorless grammarian who will wrap they're knuckles 4 every errer.

[pinboy3niner]

13. Says the guy who left most of the vowels out of his username and forgot to edit

[Electric Monk]

21. It's a simple cypher. Just shift each letter one spot earlier in the alphabet.

h => g, f => e, etc

[dragonlady]

68. Aha!

Smart.

[ToxMarz]

15. Grammar vs. Irony

The humor of the "Moran" guy was in the irony.

[SoCalDem]

51. and people who use "series" instead of "serious" probably will not even notice our perfect

spelling, grammar & syntax

They may threaten to alert the "spocksman"..or to cast "asparagus" on us, but they wouldn't recognize rational thought if it bit their noses off..

[barbtries]

16. it's and its

loser!!!! NOT looser. don't get me started.

[Ikonoklast]

46. But it *is* 'looser', if you forgot to tighten it.

[Surya Gayatri]

22. 11 Bravo, you're (not your) a person after my own heart...

When I see the egregious spelling and usage mistakes on DU, I have to bite my tongue (mouse) to keep from playing the "grammar cop".

ARRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH! We laugh at the RW knuckle-draggers, but frequently show the same disdain for the written word.

Good spelling and usage are a sign of respect for one's readers.

[JesterCS]

25. that is my biggest spelling/grammar pet-peeve right there.

People and their misuse of them, makes me twitch. They're either too lazy or just that uneducated. Wonder what school was like for them, did they learn anything there?

[CakeGrrl]

26. "Should have", not "Should of" - and random apostrophes and possessives

instead of plurals:

Two dogs, not two dog's.



Oh - and "WHINING", not "whinging".

[Mad_Dem_X]

28. Apostrophe abuse is my main pet peeve

Especially if I see it on a business sign. Drives me up the wall!

[Surya Gayatri]

33. Could of, would of, should of, take your pick...

But, as for whining and whing(e)ing, they are in fact synonyms:

vb whinges, whingeing, whinged (intr)
1. to cry in a fretful way
2. to complain

v. whined, whin·ing, whines
v.intr.
1. To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint.
2. To complain or protest in a childish fashion.
3. To produce a sustained noise of relatively high pitch: jet engines whining.

So, they can in fact be used interchangeably in certain cases.

[CakeGrrl]

54. Ah - I'll get used to that one then!

[eppur_se_muova]

27. Sorry, theirs no "there" they're. nt

[socialindependocrat]

30. Don't forget then and than n/t

[Surya Gayatri]

34. One of the most pernicious and ubiquitous usage mistakes!

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!

[Oilwellian]

31. My grammar peeve is...

"woman" and "women"... it's almost always men who misuse their singular and plural forms. Thank you for providing this opportunity to air this long held grievance.

[RebelOne]

36. Yes, bothers the hell out of me also. n/t

[TahitiNut]

39. You mean the plural isn't "wimmen"??

[progressoid]

61. It's either "wimmens" or "wimmenfolk".

[SheilaT]

32. Personally, I think there should be some kind of severe

punishment for the constant misuse of it's and its.

I T apostrophe S is a contraction, meaning it is. Reread any sentence that has "it's" in it, substituting "it is" and you'll immediately know if you've used it correctly.
ITS, no apostrophe, is a possessive pronoun.

Also the all-too frequent use of " 's " to indicate a plural. Sigh.

I do sympathize with misspellings, because goodness knows I make my share of them, but it's clear that an awful lot of posters here simply have no clue about some of the basics of grammar.

[RebelOne]

40. Another grammatical error that totally pisses me off.

I am a former copy editor and I see so many errors in grammar, spelling and punctuation that
I am amazed that some posters even got past 9th grade in school.

[WillowTree]

37. There's also the difference betwee "breathe" and "breath", which many people miss.

And that reminds me of one horrible boss I has who sent an e-mail to the whole management staff saying that she'd heard that there was a problem with "moral" in the office and wanting our suggestions as to what we could do to try to raise the general "moral".

Sadly, none of us had the guts to tell her that we could substantially raise both the "moral" and the "morale" around that office by getting rid of her.

[malokvale77]

59. What's betwee?

Sorry had to do it.

[WillowTree]

62. ROFL!!

[SheilaT]

65. I used to make grammar and spelling corrections on memos that came down from managment

and post said memos on the bulletin board. Now, this was a room that management generally did not enter, so they never saw what I did. But, it got to the point where fellow employees came to me to read over anything they wanted to post on the bulletin board.

My friends call me The Grammar Witch.

[onenote]

38. I know. When I see that sort of thing, it makes me loose it.

[RebelOne]

43. Hope you are kidding about loose it. n/t

[onenote]

66. You have to ask?

[formercia]

56. Giving it some Air?

[emmadoggy]

41. This bugs me too.

Certainly I've made mistakes also - as someone upthread said - not due to not knowing the correct word, but simply brain and fingers not agreeing. But obviously that is not always the issue.

The ones that bother me are:
there, their, they're
it's, its
could of, would of, should of - which should be could've, would've, should've
then, than
your, you're
to, too, two

But the one I seem to see far more than any others that makes me crazy is: lose, loose. For the sake of all that is good in the world, people!! It is LOSE as in: Be careful not to LOSE your keys. And LOOSE as in: My pants are too LOOSE.

Ahhhhhh, rant over.

[Bossy Monkey]

42. Here here! (Just kidding.)

The "here here" thing makes me crazy, too. But it seemed appropriate here.

[LittlestStar]

44. Maybe people can quit thinking "alot" is a word also. Its "a lot", TWO WORDS!!!!nt

[Auntie Bush]

45. Question.

How do you spell hear, hear? (like in agreement) Or is it here here? I noticed people spelled it here several different ways.

[malokvale77]

60. Maybe it should be...

hear here, as in, I hear you here.

[moriah]

47. Being partially raised by an English major, I sympathize.

My pet peeve: "ofTen".

"Do you "sofTen" your hands as you do dishes?" was drilled into my head so many times as a child that I really do have to restrain myself from correcting that particular pronunciation error.

[socialindependocrat]

52. My father used - irregardless all the time.

Now I have to catch myself.

[Flying Squirrel]

48. What bugs me is people who think "Jim and I" is always correct grammar.

Like, "This has always been a problem for Jim and I." NO! It's Jim and ME in this context. As in, "This has always been a problem for me." Not, "This has always been a problem for I." So annoying.

[Curtland1015]

49. Oops, forgot to add mine: "I could care less"

COULDN'T! You COULDN'T care less!

Saying you could is saying the EXACT opposite of what you mean!

Aaaaaargh!

Okay, that did feel good.

[ElboRuum]

70. No, actually you can never truthfully say "I couldn't care less"...

The only way that a person couldn't care less is if they didn't care at all. If they care even a little bit, they could absolutely care less.

When you speak the phrase, you must always care a little bit no matter how small, or you wouldn't have bothered to say that you couldn't care less, so therefore, I couldn't care less is always a false statement. You could only make it true verbally by not speaking it, and you could only make it true as a thought by not thinking it. Therefore the only truthful verbal statement that even looks like this phrase is "I could care less", which, of course, in the absence of precisely how much you actually do care at that moment, really says nothing.

Besides, I prefer the much less ambiguous, "If it were possible to give a negative fuck, I would."

[Brigid]

55. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

Some may think it isn't important, but I think it is. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I was in school we were expected to learn it and use it. I think it's a sign of self-respect and respect for your readers (or hearers) to pay attention to it.

BTW, "it's" is a contraction, as in "it is." "Its" is possessive, as in "That house has its own car elevator." That one drives me nuts!

[spanone]

57. they're you go again!

[ladym55]

58. Huh

And here all the time I thought those grammar/usage whoopsies were to make the freeper lurkers feel more comfortable and at home. (I expect most of the words used here at DU may be difficult to sound out.)

This has been a fun thread to read.

[Sugarcoated]

63. I don't know if this has already been posted

But there's not supposed to be a space before punctuation!!!!!

[ProfessionalLeftist]

67. Please address its and it's and here and hear too. n/t

[ElboRuum]

69. Grammarianism is a religion deserving of blasphemy

I feel compelled to share...