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English and Grammar Rules

miloblithe said:
It's nice if you're clear, but no spelling or grammar police are needed here.
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I agree with you. I do not critique those who make such errors as long as the post is understandable. However, while reading the various comments in this thread, it was somewhat surprising that the proper placement of quotation marks was not mentioned. The following type of mistake is frequently observed in sentences using quotes.

Incorrect: He said, "I made dinner reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant".

Correct: He said, "I made dinner reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant."

Also, when placing quotes around successive words, the marks go after the commas. Example: "Rapid," "swift," "quick" and "speedy" are synonyms for "fast."
 
slooksterPSV said:
I have to congratulate all of you. You have done a wonderful job of taking what I thought would be a dead thread and making it into a 2 page discussion after a few hours. I posted it thinking people would bash it, of course. I do admit I don't have the best of grammatical skills, but I try. [I were born in a US and still don't not know how to spelt them their words.] Hehe. Congrats, and thanks for fixing my grammar in my first post.
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I did my best not to be brutal but to be helpful. After all, you were trying to be helpful, weren't you? :D

Abstract said:
You're all lucky you only have to read what I'm trying to tell you. I actually sound like Ali G when I speak.

Yeah......so consider yourselves lucky.
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What? You have an allergy? ;)
 
BakedBeans said:
Wow!

People really do have that much free time eh? Do you have such easy and perfect lives that something like this is important?

It seems like you must have perfect jobs, perfect homes, perfect family that are never ill or needy. Because if you don't surely worrying about those things is more important.
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You're absolutely right. Everyone posting about spelling and grammar is solely concerned with the intricacies and nuances of the English language and nothing else. They don’t care at all about anything else in their lives like their families or occupations. What a ridiculous and pointless thing to say – it could be applied aptly to almost every thread on this board or almost every discussion ever held. I take it that you only post in or start threads discussing the wellbeing of your family or the most important aspects of your life? Actually, why stop there? Why not just spend some time thinking about what the single most important thing in your life is and only talk about that?

If anything, a discussion on how poorly used and understood the English language is by its native speakers (including myself) is more worthwhile than the majority of threads on this board.

No one can be an expert on everything (spelling in particular is quite arbitrary – especially in a language as linguistically untidy as English) but there are several simple rules, a few of which almost everyone gets wrong at some point. Classic examples are:

Your/you’re – ‘you’re’ is short for ‘you are’ so (and I’ve seen this a lot) it’s never “your wrong there...” as you’re saying “you are wrong there...”.

It’s/its – ‘it’s’ is short for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ whereas ‘its’ denotes belonging “the dog banged its head...”.

Their/there/they’re – if you’re saying ‘they are’ it’s 'they’re', if something belongs to someone, it’s ‘theirs’. So 'there' you have it.

I’ll stop there as I’ve got to work and this could take all day – even just the simple rules.

Qoxiivi

PS: This is not meant to be a supercilious post – I used to get this kind of stuff wrong all the time before I became a copywriter – which only goes to show how poorly I was educated.
 
Deepdale said:
Incorrect: He said, "I made dinner reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant".

Correct: He said, "I made dinner reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant."

Also, when placing quotes around successive words, the marks go after the commas. Example: "Rapid," "swift," "quick" and "speedy" are synonyms for "fast."
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American and English grammar disagree on the finer points of quotation placement.
 
Ok, I usually don't care about spelling and grammar (specially when I'm writing in foreign languages [note how I use parentheses to avoid run-on sentences]), but for Arn's sake, the word is affected NOT effected. I'm mexican, and even I know that!! :mad: :D
A little more info on this subject:

Usage Note: Affect and effect have no senses in common. As a verb affect is most commonly used in the sense of “to influence” (how smoking affects health). Effect means “to bring about or execute”: layoffs designed to effect savings. Thus the sentence These measures may affect savings could imply that the measures may reduce savings that have already been realized, whereas These measures may effect savings implies that the measures will cause new savings to come about.
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P.S. please feel free to point out the myriad of errors and inconsistencies that can be found throughout this post.;)
 
floyde said:
Ok, I usually don't care about spelling and grammar (specially when I'm writing in foreign languages [note how I use parentheses to avoid run-on sentences]), but for Arn's sake, the word is affected NOT effected. I'm mexican, and even I know that!! :mad: :D
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* especially
 
floyde said:
Mr. Merriam begs to differ:
specially ;) :)
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Perhaps. But Mr. Oxford says:

USAGE There is some overlap in the uses of especially and specially. In the broadest terms, both words mean ‘particularly’ and the preference for one word over the other is linked with particular conventions of use rather than with any deep difference in meaning. For example, there is little to choose between: written especially for Jonathan and | written specially for Jonathan, and neither is more correct than the other. On the other hand, in sentences such as | he despised them all, especially Sylvester, substitution of specially is found in informal uses but should not be used in written English, while in | the car was specially made for the occasion, substitution of especially is somewhat unusual. Overall, especially is by far the more common of the two.
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But I'm just nitpicking I guess. ;)
 
floyde said:
Ok, I usually don't care about spelling and grammar (specially when I'm writing in foreign languages [note how I use parentheses to avoid run-on sentences]), but for Arn's sake, the word is affected NOT effected. I'm mexican, and even I know that!! :mad: :D
A little more info on this subject:



P.S. please feel free to point out the myriad of errors and inconsistencies that can be found throughout this post.;)
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Yes, of course, you're correct about affect and effect. I consider that most foreigners can be much better because they aren't allowed to learn the bad habits.
 
dops7107 said:
Hmm. Can you use "critique" as a verb? ;)
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Of course. Oxford:

verb ( -tiques , -tiqued , -tiquing ) [ trans. ] evaluate (a theory or practice) in a detailed and analytical way : the authors critique the methods and practices used in the research.
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emaja said:
No they're not - but won't and can't are.

Sorry, but I just had to do it - LOL!
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not sure in which manner you're taking the piss, so i'll just back my assertions:

wont
adj.
1. Accustomed or used: “The poor man is wont to complain that this is a cold world” (Henry David Thoreau).
2. Likely: chaotic as holidays are wont to be.


cant
n.
1. Monotonous talk filled with platitudes.
2. Hypocritically pious language.
3. The special vocabulary peculiar to the members of an underworld group; argot.
4. Cant See Shelta.
5. Whining speech, such as that used by beggars.
6. The special terminology understood among the members of a profession, discipline, or class but obscure to the general population; jargon. See Synonyms at dialect.

intr.v. cant·ed, cant·ing, cants
1. To speak tediously or sententiously; moralize.
2. To speak in argot or jargon.
3. To speak in a whining, pleading tone.
 
emaja said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by zimv20
"wont" and "cant" are both words.

No they're not - but won't and can't are.

Sorry, but I just had to do it - LOL!
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Wont - as in 'It was her wont to dine at seven'
Cant - as in 'The slope or cant of a roof' (and I think there are some other meanings as well).
To be precise, 'wont', 'won't', 'cant' and 'can't' are all words.
 
xsedrinam said:
Redundancy and being succinct are mine.
Please look over your words to be sure you are spelling and using grammar correctly.
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Actually, I think it would be

Please look over your words to be sure you are using correct spelling and grammar.

The adverb "correctly" in the original sentence incorrectly modifies "grammar," a noun, vs. "using," a verb. Adverbs only modify adjectives and other adverbs
 
mac 2005 said:
AAdverbs only modify adjectives and other adverbs
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they can modify verbs, as well. for example, "happily ran".

(and that's british-style double-quoting, fwiw)
 
State your preference (or pick your poison):

1. Keep this forum a relaxed place in which to share information and personal experiences or ...

2. Transform it into an advanced seminar on writing, with an abundance of criticism provided after every infraction of established rules is uncovered.

I will go with the first option.
 
Ooh, do you know what I hate?* The use of "lol" as punctuation.

For some reason I've seen it a lot recently, here and on other forums. To clarify, I don't mean "Sorry, but I just had to do it - LOL!" as emaja said above, and I don't mean "LOL! You crack me up." I don't especially like the use of "LOL" and I think it's overused, but fine, 'talking' on the internet does perhaps need a way to express laughter, and "LOL" is the standard way.

What I really, really hate, is the use of it like this:

Wow I love you xamiexnicolex! *hugs* Thanks lol. Sorry for the lots of details, I think it's my ocd lol.
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It's using it as puctuation, and it's so pointless and messy and stupid. I can't quite put my finger on why it annoys me quite as much as it does, but I actually feel my blood pressure rising every time I read a post with it in. :mad:

* I pretty much get angry at bad spelling and bad use of grammar anywhere, but this really gets my goat in particular. :D
 
Deepdale said:
State your preference (or pick your poison):

1. Keep this forum a relaxed place in which to share information and personal experiences or ...

2. Transform it into an advanced seminar on writing, with an abundance of criticism provided after every infraction of established rules is uncovered.

I will go with the first option.
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I'll go with the second, without the personal criticisms.
 
bousozoku said:
Since you're concerned about spelling and grammar, I thought I'd give you a little help with yours. :p
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Actually, the that is normally implied; therefore, it could be considered correct.

I'm not perfect in my spelling or grammar on MacRumors, but I try to be as long as I'm not in too big of a hurry. I certainly do not criticize others in their spelling and/or grammar mistakes.
 
Deepdale said:
1. Keep this forum a relaxed place in which to share information and personal experiences or ...
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But part of having a pleasant experience on these forums is the generally high level of literacy in posts. If you are used to reading quickly, you generally just scan the text and missing apostrophes and misspellings jar. It throws you out of sync entirely.

I don't think we're usually so anal that we point out passive voice or subjunctives which have been misplaced. And aside from in spelling/grammar threads, we don't pick out the single words which might have been miskeyed at speed.

The only times I've ever really seen people turn into 'grammar police' is where an entire post is so badly worded that it's difficult to read. Or where someone's being so critical about something else, that they criticise in turn.

If we're covering personal bugbears while we're here, mine is using 'loose' instead of 'lose'. They mean entirely different things and are pronounced differently so I don't understand how it can be such a common error!
 
Originally Posted by Deepdale
State your preference (or pick your poison):

1. Keep this forum a relaxed place in which to share information and personal experiences or ...

2. Transform it into an advanced seminar on writing, with an abundance of criticism provided after every infraction of established rules is uncovered.
Click to expand...
I'd go with both of course, without the criticism. The banter and information will continue to be interesting enough or not, depending on the topic; but a little "now and then" of grammar awareness helps spice things up and can serve as a positive purpose for overall posting. I think MR is exceptionally graced with those who tend to express themselves well.
 
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