Grammar rant

[dawgfan]

[rant]Alright, a little venting here. I'm not an english major, and I certainly am not immune from making spelling errors and other grammatical errors, but I've seen this particular error so much that I can't take it anymore:

The word is "dominant". When someone is dominating, when everytime they face you they dominate you, they should be described as dominant.

I've seen so many instances in the last few months of people substituting "dominate" for "dominant" that I finally couldn't take it anymore.[/rant]

OK, feel free to pick apart my spelling and grammar...

[Bonegavel]

dom·i·nant
adj.

1. Exercising the most influence or control.
2. Most prominent, as in position; ascendant.
3. Genetics. Of, relating to, or being an allele that produces the same phenotypic effect whether inherited with a homozygous or heterozygous allele.
4. Ecology. Of, relating to, or being a species that is most characteristic of an ecological community and usually determines the presence, abundance, and type of other species.
5. Music. Relating to or based on the fifth tone of a diatonic scale.

dom·i·nate
v. dom·i·nat·ed, dom·i·nat·ing, dom·i·nates
v. tr.

1. To control, govern, or rule by superior authority or power: Successful leaders dominate events rather than react to them.
2. To exert a supreme, guiding influence on or over: Ambition dominated their lives.
3. To enjoy a commanding, controlling position in: a drug company that dominates the tranquilizer market.
4. To overlook from a height: a view from the cliffside chalet that dominates the valley.

-------------------------------------

One is a verb and one is an adjective.

[dawgfan]

Originally posted by BoneGavel
One is a verb and one is an adjective.

Exactly. I've seen countless cases recently (not just on this board BTW) where the person has used the verb in place of the adjective. It got so bad I started wondering if I was just imagining that the adjective was different than the verb.

[Bee]

dominate post!

[Craptacular]

Dom's mate Trix dominated when he mated with the dominant domimatrix.

[QuikSand]

And just in case there's some argument that this is an "aural" error... the word dominate is pronounced with its last syllable rhyming with the word "gate," and not rhyming with "net." The two words do not sound particularly similar.

[Kodos]

This is definitely one that bothers me too.

[QuikSand]

Some other frequent ones on this site:


"core" is a center or central element - the core of an apple, the core of the earth, the core idea, etc.

"corps" is a group of people with a common purpose - an army corps, or a receiving corps (it's pronounced the same as "core")

"corpse" is a dead body, and has nothing to do with either of the above, and only the "e" is silent

- - -

"worse" is a comparative adjective - showing that one thing is worse than another

"worst" is a superlative adjective - showing that one thing is the worst of all, i.e. worse than any other

- - -

And as for apostrophes... good heavens, where to begin? How about here: there is no need to add an apostrophe to every word that you want to make plural. Cats and dogs do just fine... no need to make them cat's and dog's. The same goes for more complicated words, too. I personally prefer to never use the apostrophe for a plural, but if you must, limit it to plurals of letters, numbers, and maybe some acronyms. (The Oakland A's, the 1980's, or MIA's)

[Radii]

The only thing that makes me pull my hair out is using "loose" instead of "lose" as in "did the Cubs loose again?" This, clearly, is a spelling only mistake, not something that you can detect in speech

Oh and a friend of mine spelled "wipe" as "whipe" for months... in DAOC beta, he kept talking about "player whipes" ... that one baffled me.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally posted by Radii
The only thing that makes me pull my hair out is using "loose" instead of "lose" as in "did the Cubs loose again?" This, clearly, is a spelling only mistake, not something that you can detect in speech

You beat me to it. This must be by far the most common "typo" on the internet. I put typo in quotes because I think people actually believe the word is spelled that way. Maybe it's because it rhymes with "choose", I don't know.

[Kodos]

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

Proper usage of an apostrophe.

[cuervo72]

I agree. I would expect more from those who supposably talk English as a primary language. Its ashame they can't master it's basic elementals.

[rkmsuf]

I agree. I would expect more from those who supposably talk English as a primary language. Its ashame they can't master it's basic elementals.

IT'S also A SHAME that those being critical are morons.

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by rkmsuf
IT'S also A SHAME that those being critical are morons.

Gee, I see you picked up on my subtle errors......

Ugh.

[rkmsuf]

I'm sure it was intentional...

[Fonzie]

And let's not forget the ever popular "your" vs. "you're."

That one drives me absolutely bonkers. Or more bonkers than usual, as the case may be.

[SplitPersonality1]

My biggest pet peeve is the proper use of adverbs.

For example: I am going on a trip to Minneapolis this weekend. My co-worker says: "Drive careful."

Outwardly, I smiled and said thanks.

In my head I am screaming :"LY!!... CAREFULLY!!! You are modifying the verb; use the adverb. Aaargh!!!!"

:sigh:

Thank you for allowing me to vent.

[dawgfan]

Originally posted by QuikSand
And as for apostrophes... good heavens, where to begin? How about here: there is no need to add an apostrophe to every word that you want to make plural. Cats and dogs do just fine... no need to make them cat's and dog's. The same goes for more complicated words, too. I personally prefer to never use the apostrophe for a plural, but if you must, limit it to plurals of letters, numbers, and maybe some acronyms. (The Oakland A's, the 1980's, or MIA's)

Apostrophes are probably my biggest weakness. Generally speaking, shouldn't they be mostly used as either an indicator of possession ("...that guy's stuff") or of conjunction ("...don't touch my stuff")?

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by dawgfan
Apostrophes are probably my biggest weakness. Generally speaking, shouldn't they be mostly used as either an indicator of possession ("...that guy's stuff") or of conjunction ("...don't touch my stuff")?

If everyone could just understand it that far, I think the relatively small errors that would remain woul be pretty easy to live with. Even most grammatical hardliners would take that deal, I think.


An understandable, but troubling, element of using apostrophes is possessive pronouns. We're used to refering to the things belonging to Alice as Alice's things. It's troubling that when we refer to Alice by the pronoun her, we then are tempted to follow a similar convention and speak about things that are her's. And suddenly we have an apostrophe where we don't need one, in the word hers. It's a similar leap to the word its, used as a third person singular possessive pronoun (e.g. the cake and its candles)... and you have a huge number of peopl who similarly want to insert an apostrophe there, too.

The apostrophe in it's represents the missing letters of a contraction. It's is a shortened form of it is. Occasionally it has. That's it, end of story.

it's = it is
its = belonging to it

[MJ4H]

i tend to intentionally leave out apostrophes and capitalizations. im just lazy i guess. i understand them, i promise. i just dont like having to hit the stupid shift key

[korme]

I am glad to no that I'am good at english.

But seriously, my friend has never spelled isn't right. Easiest word, and he spells it i'sant.

English mistakes are my biggest pet peeve.

I think TheSpark.com's Personality Test sums it up best in one of the questions:

Suppose a girlfriend or boyfriend that you were *really* into said one day, "You and me just aren't right for each other," and dumped you right there. Did you notice the poor grammar?

[korme]

Originally posted by QuikSand
We're used to refering to the things belonging to Alice as Alice's things.

AHA! A first! The GAG (God of All Grammar) has mispelled something!

[wbonnell]

You guys are too damn picky.

[dawgfan]

QS makes a number of typos, so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt here.

I fully acknowledge being picky by starting this thread, but if it serves to educate someone as to proper english is that a bad thing?

[MJ4H]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
AHA! A first! The GAG (God of All Grammar) has mispelled something!

misspelled

[dacman]

How ironic.

[Qwikshot]

I speek good.

[Rembrandt]

I'm a big fan of G.W. Bush, but it really bugs me when he says "nucular" when referring to nuclear weapons.

I also hate it when people are talking about themselves and say "you". e.g. Brad Pitt might say, "You just get sick of people following you around and taking pictures of you all the time."

Or athletes say, "You just have to step it up when you're playing in the Super Dome."

No I don't, because that doesn't happen to me.

[Qwikshot]

How about people that use words in the wrong connotation...like literally...

I laugh so hard I literally sh*t my pants...

He hit that guy so hard he literally ripped his head off!

[QuikSand]

I am admittedly a rampant typo-er (which bothers me very little, unless it leaves a word incomprehensible)... but overall a pretty good speller. Still remember most of the words I missed in the Erie County spelling bee back in elementary school, too.

[Ksyrup]

I freakin' missed noodledom in my county spelling bee in 6th grade. It was obvious that I wasn't hardcore. I should have known "dom" means the "world of".

I did win the school bee, though. Chick magnet I was.

[Dutch]

I don't (do not) really appreciate all my new found (judge check - is it supposed to be new-found? I don't know) Buccaneer fans who say "GO BUCCS!" Because the breakdown of the word BUCCANEERS is BUC-CAN-EERS (I think) and the short title would then simply be "BUCS" based on the first syllable (guessed on spelling)....it really just chaps (burns) my ass (buttocks) to such an extend (oops, extent) that I feel obliged now to post about it.

Or maybe I'm just being a smart ass and don't really give a shit (couldn't care less) because I don't want to scare off hordes of people from communicating on the Internet because there (their) typing is bad (poor) or the grammar is off (poor).

Who friggin' (fucking) cares people. (Should have been written as a question) When they submit their English tests in high school or are unlucky enough to get a job in the real world that hounds them on grammar...well....it will all come out in the wash. (They will be fucked then)

So lighten up! (relax)

hehe (haha).

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by rkmsuf
I'm sure it was intentional...

It certainly was intentional, if there are any doubts. I purposely used "it's" for a possessive when it correctly is "its", and "its" for "it is" when it should be "it's". I also don't "talk" English, but speak it. I don't recognize "supposably" as a valid word, at least not how it's used instead of "supposedly". Throw in "ashame" and that I would use "elements" over "elementals", and I figure I did a fine job of butchering the language. Moreso than I would normally, that is (my SAT Verbal trailed my Math score by a good number of points, though I did once post a 60+ in the TSWE portion).

[cuervo72]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by QuikSand
We're used to refering to the things belonging to Alice as Alice's things.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by Shorty3281
AHA! A first! The GAG (God of All Grammar) has mispelled something!

Actually, if Quik was (were? This one I honestly never remember....) dealing with browser environment variables, he'd be correct:

$ENV{'HTTP_REFERER'}

Someone who helped develop the protocol couldn't spell either

[dawgfan]

Originally posted by QuikSand
And as for apostrophes... good heavens, where to begin? How about here: there is no need to add an apostrophe to every word that you want to make plural. Cats and dogs do just fine... no need to make them cat's and dog's. The same goes for more complicated words, too. I personally prefer to never use the apostrophe for a plural, but if you must, limit it to plurals of letters, numbers, and maybe some acronyms. (The Oakland A's, the 1980's, or MIA's)

Someone forwarded this comic to me and I immediately thought of QuikSand:

[cuervo72]

Hmm....howabout excessive, random use of quotation marks?

(following paragraph stolen and molested because I couldn't come up with one on my own).

When Camden Yards "opened" in 1992, the average major league "payroll" was roughly $29 million. A decade later, after a dozen retro-parks had opened, the "average" payroll had "increased" to about $67 million.

For instance, my grandmother sent my son a birthday card with the following:

Happy Birthday "Cole"

As if his name was some sort of alias.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by dawgfan
Someone forwarded this comic to me and I immediately thought of QuikSand

I'm flatterd you thought of me, and I heart the surly, angry flower.

[moriarty]

My pet peeve is the "they're", versus "their", versus "there" useage (sorry Cuervo for the quotes).

Also the to, two, too confusion.

[EagleFan]

Maybe your "grandmother" suspect's that "you" havent told "her" you're sons correct "name"?

[cuervo72]

Originally posted by moriarty
My pet peeve is the "they're", versus "their", versus "there" useage (sorry Cuervo for the quotes).

Also the to, two, too confusion.

It only bothers me when it's unwarranted.

And very funny EagleFan