Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Pour Your Heart Out...Grammar Police


This is my 2nd participation in Pour Your Heart Out...last week's was just plain ugly. This week's is a lighter more comical approach to my pet peeve... 8-)

Click on the box below to link up at Shell's for this bloghop and connection...



I don't know why this bugs me as much as it does, but it DRIVES ME CRAZY!!

~Why do people NOT understand the use of the apostrophe????

For example...people put apostrophes in "CD's" when simply describing multiple cds. The cds are not possessing or owning anything when used in this way. And why is it capitalized anyway? It's (an appropriate use of apostrophe- in a contraction) an abbreviation for two words that neither one of them need to be capitalized. Yeah, yeah, and those of you who make fun of ME still calling them records, back off. At least I don't write "record's"! Like others write "mom's" when they simply mean "moms".

~Another example I've seen of late: "tattoo's". Is it because the word ends in a vowel that this is troublesome??? What is the tattoo possessing ---if ANYTHING the owner possess the tattoo, but the tattoo itself doesn't possess anything.

~Conversely, NOT using an apostrophe where one is needed, drives me equally as crazy! For example..."I left my dads house". Wait. I guess theoretically you COULD have two dads --remember the show "My Two Dads"??? But, in THIS sentence, it's wrong. WRONG!
~I think what's irritating me of late, regarding this grammar issue, is that people are no longer able to distinguish what is actually correct. Remember when people used the word, "Funner" and we KNEW it was not a word? There is an entire generation of people who believe it is actually correct.

~People mix up "your" and "you're" all the time....THIS IS AN EASY FIX! Read the sentence you are (you're) writing and SUBSTITUTE "you are" if you have written "you're". If it makes sense then odds are it's supposed to be there.

Example: "You're going to need to re-take English." --this one makes sense. Putting "Your going to need to re-take English." doesn't work. I suppose you have to have an understanding of the contraction though. And I KNOW this one bugs other people too.

~G's irritant is "then/than". Example: "I'd rather hear nails down a chalkboard THEN deal with bad grammar." THIS IS WRONG!!! It should be THAN.

Think about it for a moment...you use the word "than" when you are making a comparison—it is a conjunction (conjunction, conjunction..what's your function) You use the word "then" when you want to say something regarding time (it is an adverb) ---"First, I pissed them off, THEN I fixed my grammar." Make sense???

~I think I'm going to close with "affect/effect"….perhaps this ranting blog will have an effect on someone who reads although, most of you who know me will be unaffected because you know of my grammar pet peeve. How brilliant was that sentence to use BOTH of them in there correctly! HAHAHAHA!

I don't edit and grade everything everyone writes, I just notice. It's like an internal honing device I think. Some people don't like to hear mouthbreathers or to walk under ladders --- bad grammar is my pet peeve.

P.S. "Normality" is the word, not "normalcy".

P.P.S.S. "LOL" shouldn't be used in professional writing. EVER.

The end.

Happy Wednesday!

10 comments:

  1. You crack me up! I heart you so much! I betcha when you read my blog ya wanna break out the highlighter and send it back to me LOL.....

    You are so funny!
    Oh and the spider thing is still giving me the heebie jeebies.....eeeeeek
    xoxo
    Summer :0)

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  2. Yeah I dont understand the use of the apostrophe either. Like when are you's supposed to use it and when are you not supposed to?

    I guess Ill never understand ;)


    Great post!

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  3. hahaha! I can write with correct grammer when I want to, but I find that when writing a blog post I just don't care at times. I use ... waaaay too much to care, lol! but when I write for real...it is actually grammatically correct! craziness.

    funny post! I hate how my husband never uses adverbs and adjectives correctly

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  4. lol i have grammar problems sometimes too. I try to work on it, and since I have been in college it has gotten easier. LOL! <--- notice my ! when it should be an . I will get the hang of it one day.

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  5. This cracks me up! Former English teacher here and I have to say that I know my grammar is not always perfect. Sometimes I do it for effect. Though, not the things like using the wrong form of "you're."

    I also admit that there is a meme out there that I would totally do...if all of the words on the button for it were spelled correctly. I'd feel awful for pointing it out, but I can't do it with a word spelled incorrectly.

    Thanks for linking up!

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  6. haha I can totally tell you are a teacher! I'm lazy sometimes, I promise if you see an apostrophe mistake on my blog it's just because I'm typing quick and not because I am a lame-o!

    Ya know what bugs me people that type in "text" all the time or even talk in text...ugh! I just want to kick their butts!!!

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  7. Thanks for stopping by to read my blog today. I once worked for a woman who hated any and all contractions so she made us right everything out. I love the title of your blog, it cracked me up!

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  8. I have the same pet peeve. It is so irritating to read some one's post when they use incorrect grammar. Now mind you, I'm not tooting my own horn because my run on sentences and paragraphs are horrible.
    I think the one I hate the most is the misuse of your and you're. Grrrrr.
    Sadly, the generation now is going to have that LOL in the dictionary.

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  9. Argh...I so understand! I see poor grammer and I cringe... but I also know that I may screw things up... So - Affect and Effect I mix up sometimes are there any easy way to figure out which to use when? Thanks!

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  10. I found you via "Pour Your Heart Out." This post was hilarious. I used to teach college English (but make many of these mistakes on any given day.) The you're/your thing makes me absolutely insane.

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