OT - Another grammar venting thread

[QuikSand]

We've done this before... I'll start another one. It's therapeutic for me.


When people posted about the use of the word dominate when the user wanted to say dominant, I really didn't see it as any issue. But now, I seem to see it all over the place, including frequently here at FOFC.

Just in case you're unsure:

dominate (DOM-en-AYT) - verb only - to control; to defeat mightily

dominant (DOM-en-unt) - adjective only - to have great might or power; to possess the power to dominate



And the one that got me back on this topic. I work with lawyers, and I cannot believe how frequent this mmistake is:

moot (moot) - adjective - pointless; already decided

mute (myoot) - adjective - unable to speak or make sound


I cannot believe how many educated people I see/know who talk about a point being mute.



I hereby grant license to anyone who wishes to vent about grammar to do so here in this thread, without anyone being called a dick except me.

[Fritz]

you are a dick

[Bee]

Originally posted by Fritz
you are a dick

Shouldn't that be "your a dick"?

[dawgfan]

That post was dominate Quik, but I believe it's a mute point.

[Hands to the Face]

OK, I'll take advantage of the immunity to register my disgust about the increasingly frequent misuse of the word "myself" when either "I" or "me" are correct, as in "The only people in the room were Fritz and myself."

"Myself" is a reflexive pronoun used only in self-referential cases like "Fine! I'll just do it myself" and is not an all-purpose substitute for simple pronouns.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by QuikSand
I hereby grant license to anyone who wishes to vent about grammar to do so here in this thread, without anyone being called a dick except me.

Oh, so you think having the title "President Of The General Partner" gives you the rights to grant license around here???

Communicating with teenagers often via IM and e-mail affords me the opportunity to get frustrated quite often. Here are my two pet peeves:

"alot"--Don't even get me started. I see it around here a lot too. Drives me NUTS. Grrrrrrrrrrrr!

"your"--(as in, "Your a good guitar player.") Do they not teach what a contraction is in Government Schools any more???

[Fritz]

Originally posted by Hands to the Face
OK, I'll take advantage of the immunity to register my disgust about the increasingly frequent misuse of the word "myself" when either "I" or "me" are correct, as in "The only people in the room were Fritz and myself."

"Myself" is a reflexive pronoun used only in self-referential cases like "Fine! I'll just do it myself" and is not an all-purpose substitute for simple pronouns.

Now Quik is being a real dick

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Bee
Shouldn't that be "your a dick"?

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

{Runs from room, screaming}

[SplitPersonality1]

"dominate/dominant", "moot/mute" - whatever.

It doesn't bother me much. But I guess I'm just one of those people that takes things for granite.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Fritz
Now Quik is being a real dick

Now you get it.

[Fritz]

I hate Georgian grammatical supremacists...

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Fritz
I hate Georgian grammatical supremacists...

You'll get over it.

[Franklinnoble]

One of the things that ticks me off is a bit of poor grammar my stepson picked up from my mother-in-law. Any time he wants a drink from the kitchen, he asks,

"Can I get me a drink?"

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhh! Nails on the fricken' chalkboard, if you asked me. Of course, I reply,

"No, simply because of your butchery of the King's English. The proper way to ask is 'May I have a drink?' or perhaps 'May I get myself something to drink?' But for now, if you're thirsty, go outside and drink from the garden hose."

[cuervo72]

I just spotted this one again: definatly. Not a grammatical error, but something I see too often.

[Bee]

Originally posted by cuervo72
I just spotted this one again: definatly. Not a grammatical error, but something I see too often.

your definatly write.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally posted by Bee
your definatly write.

You're going to make Ol' SkyDog spontaneously combust if you don't watch out.

[Bee]

Originally posted by SkyDog
You're going to make Ol' SkyDog spontaneously combust if you don't watch out.

I think there's a guy named Happy offering a reward for that...

[FrogMan]

As many of you may know, I'm French Canadian (boo, hiss, okay, I get it ) but what you may not know is that I started learning English in 5th grade. My parents never spoke to me in English, heck they know about 10 English words in all I later worked for two years in the States and now I like to think that I have a fairly good English vocabulary and knowledge of the English grammar .

Sure, any of you could pick apart that last paragraph and point all the syntax error, but you get my point.

I'm always amazed at how many times I will see the "your/you're", "too/to", "alot/a lot", "there/their/they're". I get the feeling people just get lazy when they're in front of a keyboard. Reason I say this is because I see some similarly stupid mistakes in French communications (emails mostly). Most of the time, it's some stuff so basic, you learn in 4th grade.

I mean, it's not because you are sitting in front of your computer that you have to stop being intelligent and articulate. For me somebody might be making a perfectly valid point in an argument, but if it's full of mistakes like the ones mentionned above, the point loses credibility...

FM

[cthomer5000]

People at FOFC often go around congradulating each other. Unless this is a cute play on words specifically relating to someone graduating high school or college, it's painful to look at.

[scooper]

People spelling Cincinnati C-i-n-c-i-n-a-t-t-i.

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Franklinnoble
"No, simply because of your butchery of the King's English. The proper way to ask is 'May I have a drink?' or perhaps 'May I get myself something to drink?' But for now, if you're thirsty, go outside and drink from the garden hose."

Funny, this issue just came up somewhere else last week....

DON’T DRINK FROM THE GARDEN HOSE!

There is nothing quite like a long, cold drink from the garden hose during a hot summer day of gardening or playing with the kids. But there could be a hidden danger in drinking from the garden hose.

Hose linings are made from scrap recycled polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In extreme temperatures, PVC can leach vinyl chloride directly into that water that you or your pets are drinking. Chemical experts say that’s one more harmful chemical that you might be putting in your body or on your vegetable garden.

Nobody is going to warn you about the alleged danger from the PVC hose unless you buy your hose in California. That’s because voters there passed Proposition 65, which requires a list of all potential carcinogens and reproductive toxins (birth-defect-causing chemicals) to be compiled. The law also requires all products to carry a warning label if they expose users to any trace elements of these chemicals. And it prohibits release of such chemicals into drinking water.

In California, garden hoses, faucet fittings, paint, baby powder and even lawnmowers carry these safety labels. Warnings are not offered in the other 49 states unless manufacturers voluntarily supply them. So why is California the only state requiring these labels? The answer is that voters clearly wanted to know everything they were exposed to that could be harmful to their health. The law exempts companies from including the labels if they can prove that the amount of known carcinogens will cause less than one excess death in every 100,000 individuals exposed or if the amount of reproductive toxin will cause no observable effect even if multiplied by 1,000 times.

Some companies have tried to take advantage of safety-conscious shoppers by selling hoses made exclusively for drinking water. However, they are more expensive, and you still have to watch out for back flow. Back flow is a common problem where low water pressure allows dirty water, pesticides and other liquids outside the hose to flow back into it.

The best advice public health officials have is to keep watering your lawn and let the kids spray each other down I hot weather. But when you need clean water to make iced tea, lemonade or other drinks, get the water from a safe source such as a tap in the kitchen sink or a sealed water bottle.

For more information on the California safe environmental labeling law and on potential carcinogenic elements used in everyday products, go to:
www.prop65news.com
www.calprop65.com
www.oehha.org/prop65/background

Article reprinted from The Costco Connection
Written by: David Horowitz, consumer advocate

[Abe Sargent]

I'm a paid writer. Just signed a three article deal for $450, which is a pretty good sum for Internet writing. My regular deal is $25/weekly column.

My ever dwindling point is that I am a writer, and yet, there are some grammatical issues that I can't scale. Oh, I'm good enough with the basics - you're vs your; it's vs its and all that. But there is one area that I am most difinately deficiant in:

Fewer
vs.
Less

TO THIS DAY, I have no idea how one is different than the other. I look them up, people explian them to me, doesn't matter. Two days later I've forgotten and start using them interchangably. Drives my editor batty.

-Anxiety

[QuikSand]

Anxiety, the fewer versus less is one that my co-workers confise all the time, and the explanation doesn't seem to stick. The best I have is this, for nearly all circumstances:

Fewer/less are adjectives used to say "how much" of something...
If the thing is singular, use less.
If the thing is plural, use fewer.

So, it's:

less fat but fewer calories
fewer dollars, but less money
...and so forth.

Basically, fewer is used when you are "counting" things - even if it's a measurement (like fewer gallons of gas). When the thing is something that is just in a general quantity, use "less" (like less gasoline).


Maybe a useful mnemonic is this:

Less ends with an "s" - which means it goes with the singular noun.

[Killebrew]

As many of you know, I am against the over use of the term "that said". That being said, there are occasions when the term is appropriate. Having said that, the term is often redundant, so over use to appear more intelligent can backfire. Having just said what I just said, I commend Quik for this thread as it may encourage others to speak more gooder English.

[Bee]

Originally posted by Killebrew
As many of you know, I am against the over use of the term "that said". That being said, there are occasions when the term is appropriate. Having said that, the term is often redundant, so over use to appear more intelligent can backfire. Having just said what I just said, I commend Quik for this thread as it may encourage others to speak more gooder English.

That was well said.

[Fritz]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Anxiety, the fewer versus less is one that my co-workers confise all the time, and the explanation doesn't seem to stick. The best I have is this, for nearly all circumstances:

I hate it when people mix up confuse and confise.

[JeeberD]

The one that always drives me crazy is there, their, and they're. It's easy enough to figure out which one to use, so why do people screw it up so often?

[korme]

isant

my friend is possibly the worst speller I've ever seen.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by QuikSand
Basically, fewer is used when you are "counting" things - even if it's a measurement (like fewer gallons of gas). When the thing is something that is just in a general quantity, use "less" (like less gasoline).

So it's the same they teach us how to use "how much" and "how many". If you can count, it's "how many", if you cannot count, it's "how much". Am I right? If so, thanks, I've just learned something I didn't know...

FM

[Fritz]

Originally posted by FrogMan
So it's the same they teach us how to use "how much" and "how many". If you can count, it's "how many", if you cannot count, it's "how much". Am I right? If so, thanks, I've just learned something I didn't know...

FM

if you can not count I would not worry about perfect grammar.

[korme]

Originally posted by JeeberD
The one that always drives me crazy is there, their, and they're. It's easy enough to figure out which one to use, so why do people screw it up so often?

That and to/too/two. Probably over 50% of the people I talk to online NEVER use too. Maybe it's just online talk, but it isn't difficult.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by Fritz
if you can not count I would not worry about perfect grammar.

You're funny Fritz, really

[scooper]

Originally posted by Killebrew
As many of you know, I am against the over use of the term "that said". That being said, there are occasions when the term is appropriate. Having said that, the term is often redundant, so over use to appear more intelligent can backfire. Having just said what I just said, I commend Quik for this thread as it may encourage others to speak more gooder English.

You don't say.

[FrogMan]

Originally posted by Shorty3281
That and to/too/two. Probably over 50% of the people I talk to online NEVER use too. Maybe it's just online talk, but it isn't difficult.

Hey, they save one letter every 50 or so words, that's gotta count at the end of the day

I agree, I don't understand why people always feel the need to cut words short on IM...

FM

[SackAttack]

Originally posted by Anxiety
But there is one area that I am most difinately deficiant in:

And it isn't spelling?

[Franklinnoble]

Originally posted by Ksyrup
So why is California the only state requiring these labels? The answer is that voters clearly wanted to know everything they were exposed to that could be harmful to their health.

I call bullshit.

[start rant]

California requires these labels for the same reason that they require over 3 times the vehicle tax, twice the income tax, at least 10% more sales tax, stricter and more expensive emissions requirements for vehicles, and a resultant chronic budget deficit as compared to any other state in the union.

The bureacracy here is practically socialist, for all intents and purposes. I've been drinking from garden hoses since I was old enough to suck on anything aside from my momma's tit. My dogs drink water taken from the hose. My garden is watered from the hose. You know what? Nothing's dropped dead, developed cancer, or contracted mad cow disease.

I didn't even know we had this stupid law here, but now I know why I'll pay 20% more for a frickin' rubber hose here than I would anywhere else in the U.S.A.

You know what? The other 49 states don't care. People wanna go to Home Depot and buy the cheapest damned hose on the rack. And it's perfectly safe to drink from it. If you let the water run long enough for the hot water to run out and the cool water to start flowing, chances are anything potentially harmful has just been flushed.

[/end rant]

[Fritz]

Franklinnoble is one of my favorite posters

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by SackAttack
And it isn't spelling?

I sincerely hope that you recognize that my published writing has a completely different set of criteria than my posts of some Internet chat board.


I hope

-Anxiety

[SackAttack]

That's what they all say, my friend. That's what they all say.

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Franklinnoble
I call bullshit.

Ha! Someone took that warning seriously, but it wasn't me. Like I said, the subject came up elsewhere and it popped into my head when I read the previous thread, so I found it and pasted it. I don't know whether any of it is true or not.

Isn't Fritz Comanche for "drinks from hoses?" Ask him.

[Kodos]

Originally posted by SplitPersonality1
"dominate/dominant", "moot/mute" - whatever.

It doesn't bother me much. But I guess I'm just one of those people that takes things for granite.

Okay, if nobody else will give sp1 credit for some nice work here, I will. Nice job, sp1!

And "Our team was dominate today" drives me batty!

[SplitPersonality1]

Thanks Kodos. I'm glad it didn't go unnoticed.

[Desnudo]

u r all noobs. lmao

[albionmoonlight]

When someone says "She gave the book to Robert and I."

This mistake gets me more than "Me and Robert went to the store."

In the second instance, I can just assume that the person does not know the difference between objective and nominative case and is using the lazy way of speaking.

In the first instance, you have someone who obviously cares enough about grammar to try to get it right, but who does not care so much to actually learn the proper usage. It's like they have a vague sense that smart people say that "Robert and I went to the store," but really have no idea why smart people say that. Instead of learning why--they just start to use "I" in all cases, apparently on the assumption that its what smart people say instead of “me.”

If you are not going to learn the rule, just don't learn the rule. Don't try and sound like you know that about which you are speaking when you do not.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by albionmoonlight
When someone says "She gave the book to Robert and I."

. . .

If you are not going to learn the rule, just don't learn the rule. Don't try and sound like you know that about which you are speaking when you do not.

Hmmm. I know quite a lot of educated people who make this mistake with regularity.

I never thought to assign them such malice, though. I always just thought it must be an easy mistake to make, for some reason.

[Craptacular]

Ill never seize to be amazed at the kind of crap y'all talk about in this hear place.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by Craptacular
...this hear place.

On an unrlated note...

When you want to exalt your enthusiastic agreement with something someone just said, the phrase is:

"Hear! Hear!"

...and not "Here, here!"

Think of it as "Hey everyone, come hear what this guy just said."

[scooper]

Irregardless. That one gets me. It's regardless.

[QuikSand]

Originally posted by FrogMan
So it's the same they teach us how to use "how much" and "how many". If you can count, it's "how many", if you cannot count, it's "how much". Am I right? If so, thanks, I've just learned something I didn't know...

Yes, correct.

Use "how many" and "fewer" when you are talking about countable, discrete* items, which are amlost always plural.

Use "how much" and "less" when talking about items that are not countable but just in quantity, which are almost always singular.



* - not to be confused with discreet items, such as 10-inch vibrators

[SplitPersonality1]

Originally posted by QuikSand
* - not to be confused with discreet items, such as 10-inch vibrators

I was not expecting this that line. I had just taken a big swig of soda and almost lost it all over my monitor.

Quik. Could you give a bit of a warning next time!