by Nicoline Ambe, Ph.D
Ok. You’re not a seasoned writer for the New York Times. You never claimed to be the Editor-in-Chief of any Magazine. You don’t even own a publishing company, and have no plans of ever owning one. You could possibly write a book someday in the future but have yet to give that any serious thought. English is not even your parents’ first language….yada, yada, yada.
Alright, so we know that writing is not an emergency for you, although you can boast of having passed first grade English, and you love to update your status on Twitter and Facebook.
Some grammatical mistakes in your brief writings will eek your readers and make you look dumb. Here they are:
1. Too and To:
Please don’t use “to” when you mean “too.” “Too” is an adverb which means excessive, overly, to a fault, also, or as well. This kind of mistake will seriously irritate your readers because “you are much “to” old to be making this kind of mistake.” Oops! That should have been “too.”
2. Their, They’re, there, and theyre:
Where do I begin with these? “Their” is a possessive pronoun used as a modifier before a noun. For example, “their house” is nice. “They’re” is a contraction for “they are.” “There” has multiple meanings. Please refer to your dictionary. As regards “theyre,” I’m sorry to break the news. There’s no such word that exists anywhere in the English Language.
3. Your, you’re and youre:
“Your” is commonly used as something belonging to you, or done by you. It is the possessive form of you. “You’re” is a contraction for “you are.” For example, you’re too old to make such mistakes at your age. As for “youre,” refer to “theyre” above.
4. capitalizing the first letter and the “I” word:
It is totally grammatically unacceptable to start a sentence with a lowercase letter. i was taught in the first grade to start each sentence with a capital letter. why i don’t do it as an adult beats me. even my word processor rejects it as grammatically inaccurate but i keep making the same awful mistake. i really need to get it together! i need help. maybe i need to go back to the first grade?
Of course, I’m feeling mischievous today! I know that you know that I know that these mistakes are not really grammatical mistakes…“their” just typos…ya!
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Social networking site’s (I beg your pardon, “sites”) have given people a pass for crucifying the Queens language (ooops! That should have been “Queen’s”) in the name of shorthand or brevity. I sincerely hope this article helps.
None of these are grammatical rules. They’re spelling rules. The rules of grammar generally don’t address orthography.
Ha ha – you hit the nail on the head. Those errors make my eyes water everyday on Facebook! I am guilty, however, of not capitalizing my first letter of a sentence – only in informal writing on Facebook though. Good one!
Bob in my view spelling is a component of grammar.
As a grammatical purist, I find this article quite thought provoking and request that you kindly write more. I am sick and tired of the laxity people show in grammar, spelling and presentation as a whole. How a man or woman can dress smartly and then speak or write shoddily beats my imagination. Every self respecting man or woman should NEVER allow anything they write to go out without reading it over at least twice. Just shows lack of class. It is worse than not brushing your teeth. Yikes! Poor writing is a travesty to a language. If it is official, such as a translation, at least one colleague should proof it. Would you dare leave your house without looking in the mirror (ladies do it 4 times on the average and see how pretty they look lol!)to see everything was in its proper place?
Well done Nicoline! Well done Dunia!
This is a great writeup, adding now to my bookmarks!
I love http://www.duniamagazine.com! Here I always find a lot of helpful information for myself. Thanks you for your work.
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