Comments on: People Who Understand the Difference Between “It’s” and “Its”

By: VRHero

VRHero — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:57:08 +0000

Portal WIN

By: umm...

umm... — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 23:03:12 +0000

Regarding “Mike and I’s anniversary…”

While that is incorrect, it’s not incorrect because someone is trying to pluralize “I”. That is creating the incorrect first person singular possessive. Just as it would be correct to say “Mike’s anniversary…”.

I think this occurs because people have had the “I” versus “me” part of pronoun use drilled into their heads and so there is a reluctance for people to ever say “person x and me”. Consequently, “person x and I” is overused and thus the weird possessive “I’s” is born.

Irregardless [hahaha...sorry], subjects and objects are a lot of fun.

By: dogheadbuttchow

dogheadbuttchow — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:32:06 +0000

“Further” and “farther.” Ninety-nine percent of Americans evidently don’t know “farther” is a word–and that they are not synonymous. And the ubiquitous superfluous preposition (and, yes, most, but not all linguists including my father agree IT’S not a grammatical crime to begin a sentence with a conjunction, nor end it with a preposition, for that matter.) If I hear “where’s it AT” one more time I’m moving to England. BTW, I heard at 20-minute debate on BBC radio about the demise of the apostrophe, and ITS pros and cons, in which professorial types tip-toed around the fact that IT’S Americans who are bastardizing the language.

By: 42

42 — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 20:16:39 +0000

i admit its hard to tell the diffrence, but in reality (it’s) is contraction and (its) is possesion

By: John

John — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:58:08 +0000

YOU SPELLED IMPOSSIBLE WRONG… FAIL

By: giraffe giraffe

giraffe giraffe — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:02:27 +0000

m-i-s-s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g.
or was that intentional, too?

By: giraffe giraffe

giraffe giraffe — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:08:05 +0000

…what’s wrong with the second one?

By: giraffe giraffe

giraffe giraffe — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:59:27 +0000

somebody else is alot smart.

By: Christi

Christi — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:33:22 +0000

I actually saw a shirt at American Eagle for sale that used the word “your” instead of “you’re.” I don’t remember exactly what the slogan was but I clearly remember knowing it was not correct. Go look for it.

By: minipeds

minipeds — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:18:57 +0000

The $.99 makes me happy. It’s when I see the cent symbol then .99 that I wonder if I’d be one of a few grammar Nazis who’d come in asking for beer for 1/99th of a cent.

By: minipeds

minipeds — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:12:32 +0000

Similarly, I don’t like when people say “My brother-in-laws came over for dinner,” when it should be “Brothers-in-law.” My grandmother used to yell at me for misplacing the “me” in “so-and-so and me” or “so-and-so and I.”

By: john_the_actor

john_the_actor — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:27:16 +0000

“More dead” is a more-unique state of death than “somwhat dead,” no?

By: JazSpaz

JazSpaz — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:23:30 +0000

I recently took delivery of a very expensive sign for the front of my store advertising prices for various beers. Putting it up in sub-zero temperatures took its toll on my mood, but the clincher came when I stepped back to admire my handiwork.
There, in foot-high red block letters were these actual words:

BUDWEISER 12 ounce CAN’S $.99

F-A-I-L!

By: qwerty

qwerty — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:56:15 +0000

easy
It’s = it is
its = its

By: Mab

Mab — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:40:50 +0000

In addition to all the many peeves already listed here, I would like to add my seething hatred for the walkie-talkie commercials that have made more than half the country think that it is perfectly acceptable to ask, “Where are you at?” or “Where you at?”

RAAAAAGE.

By: eterrilsmith

eterrilsmith — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 21:30:43 +0000

How about defurment? I wonder if it means what is done to small doga at the grooming store?

By: gzusphish

gzusphish — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:56:16 +0000

My biggest problems are with commas a semi-colons. It’s almost as if nobody REALLY knows how to use them.

By: gzusphish

gzusphish — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:52:59 +0000

Haven’t you heard? You can be either mostly dead or all dead.

By: Ghost

Ghost — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:45:45 +0000

What really gets me among english speakers is the abuse of plural/singular distinctions. Every time I hear “this data is…” I want to stab someone. This also frequently occurs among: ‘criteria/criterion’, ‘media/medium’ (thanks Sherri for that one). There are others I just can’t think of them right now.

By: Ghost

Ghost — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:11:36 +0000

Wow, that’s awesome.
It’s simple, ‘Major’ is modifying ‘Sergeant’, not the other way around. Hence why you pluralize ‘Sergeant’. As far as possessive goes, that’s because it’s always the entire noun that gets the possessive, not just one.

By: stranglemeelmo

stranglemeelmo — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:27:02 +0000

You meant to say “…there IS a number of us…”, I’m sure.

By: Ghost

Ghost — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:57:47 +0000

Oh, that makes perfect sense. So then what is the long form of “Somebody Else’s”?
My point is that it’s the possessive ’s that messes up the native speakers of english, the reason being that when using many proper noun possessives, the most natural thing when using ‘its’ is to apostraphize the ’s’ as well because that is the perfectly grammatical way that we make things possessive in english.
This is the reason why we should all just stop saying “it’s” and instead go back to “’tis”. No ambiguity.

By: n8squared

n8squared — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:36:09 +0000

apparently the maker of this graph doesn’t undertand the uses of it’s or its either…

By: SarahB87

SarahB87 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 08:00:57 +0000

I hate when people use (’s) to make something plural. Didn’t anyone listen in the 2nd grade? Also, I hate when people use quotation marks to emphasize something.

(AND of course the its, it’s, your, you’re, their, there, they’re, affect & effect, then & than…)

By: juice

juice — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:51:32 +0000

I hate when someone will be like “Next week is Mike and I’s anniversary…” and it’s just like WTF is the matter with you. I seriously cannot believe how many morons I grew up with speak like that. You can’t pluralize the letter I. Would you say “That’s I’s cookie”??

Another thing that is OFTEN overlooked is the use of “him and I” vs. “he and I.”
You wouldn’t say “Him went to the store” so why the hell would you say “Him and I went to the store”?? It’s HE dammit. HE!!

Haha sorry. Even people I consider grammatically savvy mess this one up and it peeves me so.

Truly, the your/you’re thing is my biggest peeve because it’s one of the easiest things to understand, yet is the most common error I see. Unfathomable that I was in the same English class with some of those people…

By: juice

juice — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:39:03 +0000

Ah, you’re bringin’ me down, man.

We need to know there is a reason to our grammar madness.

By: juice

juice — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:37:10 +0000

I was at Knott’s Berry Farm a few months ago and one of the permanent store signs said “Her’s”…I nearly peed me-self in anger.

By: juice

juice — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:35:50 +0000

In reference to your second 3: I think it applies to the word “style” in which case it is correct. Though I totally agree with all your other discoveries of error.

And I don’t have to proofread a post 50 times to get it right.
So I guess I’m a 3.

By: juice

juice — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:31:25 +0000

I like-uh the way you think.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:07:48 +0000

Ever tried learning the word order of Norwegian? It’s a mess of old leftover forms, newly-made forms and generally used forms with specific exceptions. Let me use this example, leaving out punctuation and other stuff for the sake of making a point:
“jeg går hjem” – “I’m going home”
“går jeg hjem” – “Am I going home?”
“hjem går jeg” – “I’m going home, as opposed to going…”
“går hjem jeg” – colloquial form – “Me, I’m going home”
“jeg hjem går” – acceptable poetic form – “I go home”
“hjem jeg går” – acceptable poetic form, with somewhat more mystical connotations than the former – “To my home I’m going”

And that is a simple three-word sentence. To add insult to injury, Norwegian does not decline nouns according to case, nor conjugate verbs according to person or number. I have never to date met a single non-native speaker who mastered Norwegian word order fully.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:58:19 +0000

Because most of us type quickly without proofreading, and still get it right. It ain’t that hard.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:55:38 +0000

Actually, it is a word, the proper form requires a capital A, and it lies in Madhya Pradesh, India.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:53:13 +0000

*BEEP!* *BEEP!* Grammar police! You used the verb form “are” in conjunction with the pronoun “I”, when the corresponding verb form is “am”. The correct form is “am I not”, not “aren’t I”.

Honestly, don’t worry too much. The first rule I learned in linguistics class was that language is a form of communication, and as such your language is acceptable as long as it conveys what you intend to communicate in such a form as to be easy to understand.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:45:26 +0000

No, that’s pronunciation. In grammar, there are rules.

With wouldst if yours agree this scrambling the I perhaps doesn’t like grammatical.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:42:45 +0000

Would you accept “a whole ‘nother”, then?

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:39:44 +0000

I’m Norwegian. We don’t even have the apostrophe in our language except as quote marks and a few very specific nouns. But people still use it.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:36:16 +0000

Funny. The LPD mentions this as a discouraged pronunciation, but under RP, not AE. No mention of it under the latter. Now, granted, the LPD is a bit too conservative for its own good, but that still implies that “aks” is or has been more common in the UK than the US.

By: Somebody Else

Somebody Else — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:33:35 +0000

This is seconded. Really, native speakers, it’s simple: The apostrophe means something has been left out. If you can say the exact same thing with two words, then you use the apostrophized version. Thus, “it’s” can be replaced by “it is”, whereas “its” can’t (Which is in turn short for “can not”). “They’re” can be replaced by “they are”, whereas “their” and “there” can’t.

As for “would of”, “could of”, etc., it is supposed to be “have”, not “of”, and it can actually even be contracted to “could’ve”, “would’ve”, etc.

[/doing my majors in grammar]

By: AngelMax

AngelMax — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 20:16:49 +0000

I am a Grammar Nazi.
WIN!!
That’s all I’m going to say.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:04:20 +0000

It’s rather sad that people don’t know such simple grammar. Those who are English-first, that is. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen things ruined by such simple and stupid mistakes.

The same rule applies to the “Your-you’re” and “To-too-two” business.

Just sad. It’s so easy to learn how to apply the rule(s)…it takes about 3 seconds. Yet so many simply can’t be bothered to learn it. What a lazy world we live in.

By: Akagi

Akagi — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:58:46 +0000

If we’re gonna get all high and mighty about this, I hate it when I see you ‘merkins on T.V. “Aksing a question” instead of simply “Asking a question.”

I mean honestly, how difficult is the word “Ask” that you have to pronounce it as “Aks” instead?

By: AnaDemeter

AnaDemeter — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:40:29 +0000

That’s almost as bad as people who say “itch” when they mean “scratch”. Grrr!

By: AnaDemeter

AnaDemeter — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:38:02 +0000

There is only one “rule” about the English language: there are no rules!

By: AnaDemeter

AnaDemeter — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:35:33 +0000

I was working on a farm in Wales with a bunch of multinationals. The Italian asked the Englishman “Why is it that when the German, the Canadian and the Turk speak English I can understand them, but I DON’T UNDERSTAND YOU???”

By: AnaDemeter

AnaDemeter — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 11:33:14 +0000

I find it amazing how many people type “quite” for “quiet”.

By: poodle_face

poodle_face — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:24:16 +0000

(grin) Don’t get me wrong – I do know which is which, and when you should use the apostrophe and when you shouldn’t. But think of it from the point of view of a kid who is just learning it……

And yet people still say English is an easy language to learn!

By: pointman

pointman — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 05:38:19 +0000

Ditto. I was unaware that death came in various degrees.

By: JM

JM — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:59:50 +0000

Oh my effing eff! It’s really actually very simple! I hate it when people confuse “its” and “it’s,” because they make that mistake more than any other grammar mistake ever, and it’s so annoying! We should start shooting people until they get it right!

By: Bird

Bird — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:55:56 +0000

I find that very very few people *even of those who get it right* actually know why “its” doesn’t have an apostrophe – and it’s usually people putting an apostrophe in “its” that is the issue rather than people skipping an apostrophe in “it’s”. Most people seem to say “because there’s no letter missing” as if the asker is an idiot – ignoring the fact that “’s” ( apostrophe s ) is also used for ownership.

By: giraffe giraffe

giraffe giraffe — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:01:03 +0000

beth is alot smart.