Dropping some knowledge on your asterisks

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  • mandemonious
    mandemonious Posts: 217 Member
    My pet peeve:

    then =/= than

    You'd be surprised (or not) how many college graduates still don't get it.
  • ErinBeth7
    ErinBeth7 Posts: 1,625 Member
    My pet peeve:

    then =/= than

    You'd be surprised (or not) how many college graduates still don't get it.

    As much as I complain, I catch myself doing that a lot! I'll be the first to admit it.
  • Indy_Mario
    Indy_Mario Posts: 532 Member
    My pet peeve:

    then =/= than

    You'd be surprised (or not) how many college graduates still don't get it.

    As much as I complain, I catch myself doing that a lot! I'll be the first to admit it.
    I am the designated editor for one of my friends, specifically due to this atrocity.
  • mandemonious
    mandemonious Posts: 217 Member
    I heard someone complaining about "a whole nother" a few months back and realized that I said it often. Now I catch myself and hear others saying it a lot. I've never written it that way, as it is much easier for me to see those little screwy things I do with language when it's written. Speaking brings out little bits of southern and working class influence that some find so endearing and others dismiss as ignorance.

    It's a matter of perspective really.

    :wink:
  • mandemonious
    mandemonious Posts: 217 Member
    Me, too Mario. Thought I'd be cursed to becoming an English teacher for the longest time. And though I'm a far cry from an English teacher, the amount of editing I do for my job is mind-numbing. It never ceases to amaze me how I can read something that I've written seventy billion times and still miss some ridiculous little typo. Luckily, (or unfortunately?) I am much more critical of the work of others and do a much better job. :tongue:

    Edited for punctuation. :laugh:
  • Indy_Mario
    Indy_Mario Posts: 532 Member
    I heard someone complaining about "a whole nother" a few months back and realized that I said it often. Now I catch myself and hear others saying it a lot. I've never written it that way, as it is much easier for me to see those little screwy things I do with language when it's written. Speaking brings out little bits of southern and working class influence that some find so endearing and others dismiss as ignorance.

    It's a matter of perspective really.

    :wink:

    Hahaha, I just believe that when one speaks, the tone and all those vocal cues make a whole world of difference in the way we're perceived and understood. When one's writing, however, it's clarity and brevity what're most vital to being properly understood.

    I do find the southern twang a bit... appealing. However, I hate the little bit of accent I still have due to my Hispanic origins, although others don't seem to mind (or even hear) it as much as I do. :grumble:
  • mandemonious
    mandemonious Posts: 217 Member
    Being someone that telecommutes and communicates via text for most of my day everyday, I can definitely value the added context provided by tone and inflection. It's the only thing that keeps me from knowing that I am not actually a robot. :laugh:
  • duharvalgt
    duharvalgt Posts: 319 Member
    Here are some other common grammatical mistakes:

    1) Using the third person conditional twice in a sentence when it should have only been used once. For example:
    The sentence: If I'd read the book, I'd have passed the test. The sentence should conjugate as: if I had read the book, I'd have passed the test.
    2) The incorrect use of don't and doesn't, don't is the negative first person singular and doesn't is the negative third person singular.(make sure it relates to the object receiving the action.)
    3) Most verbs of motion are used incorrectly: when you view something from a point of arrival you always use the verb to bring and when you view something from a point of departure you always use the verb to take.
    4) The incorrect use of fewer and less: if the item is a countable quantity the word fewer should be used and if it's not less should be used.
    5) To have and "of": whenever you form a compound tense relating to action that implies the past it uses have (excluding the preterit), for example: I will have cooked, I have cooked, I had cooked and I would have cooked.
  • VictorianJade
    VictorianJade Posts: 705 Member
    Not sure that this fits here, but pet peeve turn of phrase is: "New & Improved"


    .... if it's new, it can't be improved. If it's improved, it can't be new.

    Newly Improved is far more apt.
  • duharvalgt
    duharvalgt Posts: 319 Member
    Not sure that this fits here, but pet peeve turn of phrase is: "New & Improved"


    .... if it's new, it can't be improved. If it's improved, it can't be new.

    Newly Improved is far more apt.

    that is correct , I think once advertising decided to use the praising comment "new and has been greatly improved" parts of the phrase were omitted in order to make it more rememberable, which now conveys a different meaning.
  • VictorianJade
    VictorianJade Posts: 705 Member
    Not sure that this fits here, but pet peeve turn of phrase is: "New & Improved"


    .... if it's new, it can't be improved. If it's improved, it can't be new.

    Newly Improved is far more apt.

    that is correct , I think once advertising decided to use the praising comment "new and has been greatly improved" parts of the phrase were omitted in order to make it more rememberable, which now conveys a different meaning.

    Thanks for that- I thought I was nuts for being so irritated by that. :)
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