what confuses me is the apostrophe is used when it is a contraction ("don't" for "do not") and one is used when it shows possession ("debi's book"). I think that's the biggest reason I confuse them. The rule applies to both and I can't remember how to differentiate.

This is why some people are afraid to ask questions, or respond to a question here on CC.

For it's/its just remember the one version. Remember that whenever a letter is missing, an apostrophe always denotes this. So it's is short for it is (apostrophe for the missing i). Always substitute 'it is' into the sentence (in your head) when you are using it's to see if it makes sense. If it doesn't, use the other its. Stick with the contraction rule rather than the possessive rule (which is more complex). Don't try to work it out with the reasoning, just remember it's = it is.

I know an old woman that always says "I had the best ideal today". I want to pull my hair out and correct her. The word is idea, not ideal. Very different meanings.

My husband is from MI. His entire family and everyone of his friends I know but 1 that is from MI says "I seen it" instead of "I saw it" or "I have seen it". The other saying is "It don't matter". Oh, but it does matter - it really does. I have corrected my husband enough that he no longer says either saying but I won't correct his family (his family and I tolerate each other and correcting them would not go over well). Now when we are around his family and he hears them say "I seen it" or "it don't matter" he corrects them because it now drives him crazy. It "don't" go over well when he corrects them either.

OK, here I go again. Apparently, my charity is short-lived. (I do try, however.)

I have such a difficult time hearing my little granddaughters' poor grammar. My son was taught well, and it pains me to hear that it was not passed down. I am eternally grateful for my dear mother's insistence on speaking correctly. (Her father was a school teacher and wouldn't even let his children sing the lyrics to a song if it contained poor grammar.)

I remember getting so aggravated when she would stop me, mid-sentence, and have me repeat, using correct grammar. This continued even into my teens. It was nice, however, not to worry in English classes, even if I couldn't necessarily recite the rule.

Even teachers are not free from blame. I once sent back a note from my son's teacher, correcting her grammar--(yes, we did have issues), and she responded by telling me that grammar and spelling were incidental to getting "getting the concept, the idea, across!)

And, sadly, I believe a lot of the blame falls on the current use of texting and other technology. It is inevitable, for who nowadays even hand writes a letter?

While I don't really want to criticize others, for I have a genuine concern for those who might be too intimidated to post, it is gratifying to see that the degradation of our language does trouble others, too.

Jan

Looky here, Walla-Walla is a real place in the far flung corner of my state - Washington; and although it is home to some vineyards, it is NEVER confused with "voila'" ... Hmmm, "Wall-Walla Voila Vineyard" might have a nice ring to it.
Our language peeves seem to depend on where we were raised and our ages. My improper use of "take" vs "bring" drove my husband crazy until we took a little trip to his small Southern hometown where folks seemed to invent new ways to avoid pronouncing those pesky syllables others find so necessary. Now, I say "y'all" as much as possible (my new favorite word ) and he choses to ignore my grammar lapses.

I homeschool my children, and we're currently covering this exact topic in grammar. Poor grammar is a pet peeve, but I try to ignore it online because I'm aware that many people who post on sites like this or on blogs may not be fluent in English. Also, they might be posting from a phone etc, and spell check will make the best of us look foolish sometimes. For instance, my iPhone constantly tries to turn "things" into "thongs" in my texts. I mean really...would I be more likely to type THONGS???

It's like hearing people say they're going to "close" the light, they "should have went" somewhere and are going to the "libary" to get a book! Makes me laugh every time! I hate reading the news online because whoever is doing the proof-reading is leaving in all of the typos and errors mentioned in this thread. With shorthand texting as the only way some kids communicate it's no surprise that this is the case!!

These are too funny! I wish I could say I'm exempt from grammatical and spelling errors, but some get overlooked in the proofreading. I have had the worst time with the word 'definitely'. If it weren't for the little squiggly red line that I see whenever a word is misspelled I would spell it 'definately', definitley, or definatley . Thank goodness for the red squiggle!

And as for that teacher who said correct grammar wasn't important as long as they get the 'idea' across, I say I hope she never has a doctor who really didn't learn proper technique, but the fact that he got the 'idea' of surgery is what really counts!!

I've also wondered about "boarders" on cakes. <sigh> I've been seeing that one more and more lately.

My kind of thread... I love it!

Besides "me and you" and "plain", it's "grammar".

You give "advice" or ask to be advised. (As previously mentioned) it's "grammar".

Again... "grammar".

"It's" is also a contraction for "it has" as well as "it is". If you say, "The cake is on its own board.", remember the apostrophe isn't needed because it isn't a contraction for "it has" nor "it is".

BTW, the most frequently misused words are: Affect/effect, Among/between, Continual/continuous, Disinterested/uninterested, Eager/anxious, Farther/further, Imply/infer, Lay/lie, Less/fewer, and Stationary/stationery.

A few of the most commonly misspelled words are: a lot, accommodate, all right, argument, calendar, chief, definitely, excellent, fulfill, government, governor, guarantee, humorous, immediately, inconvenience, interruption, irresistible, jewelry, judgment, laboratory, license, maintenance, nickel, ninety, noticeable, nuclear, occasion, occurrence, parallel, pastime, probably, questionnaire, received, restaurant, rhythm, satellite, seize, separate, skiing, souvenir, surprise, therefore, thorough, through, transferred, truly, until, used to, vacuum, and weird.

It's extremely disappointing to view school newsletters (not written by the students) that are full of spelling errors.

I cannot imagine how our future generations are going to remember how to spell frequently used words when they view them misspelled more often than not these days... like "sneak peek", commonly misspelled as "sneak peak" in ads by so-called professionals.

I might be considered the enemy after this post - but what the heck!
This is my thing. Many factors come to play when you look at the English language. That's what makes it the hardest of all to learn. A lot of us can speak, but, many of us don't know English. And, that is what contributes to the malapropism, bad usage of punctuations and bad sentence structure.

I studied under the British system, and, a lot of stuff I had to adapt to when I moved to the USA, like in my country it is 'Programme' in the USA it is 'Program'- and a lot of other words.

Also some people when they translate from 'their' language to english they write it as it is - Je t'aime - I you like! But, it is actually I like you.

Now on the another note. Being such the diverse and multi-cultural 'grown-up' crowd that we are, I think there are better ways to address that that a post. People get judged in life based on their financial status, educational achievements, racial profile, and now for the way they spell/ talk? What the hell is this Great Land of Ours becoming.

So many other serious things to worry about, like the level of unemployment, the warssssss, kids being abused, hunger, the AIDS epidemic and theft on the rise. Taxes, the list goes on and on. It is a disgrace that we can find time in the 24 hours that a day allow us to allow such minor insignificant things to be an issue.

Anyway, I wish all the best! Be good, Be strong, Be greatful and be wise.
If your left hand offend your right hand -CUT IT OFF! If the way people type offend you, do not read the boards.

Kk

My two biggest pet peeves are people who "could care less" and people who pronounce "etc." eck-set-er-a. Oh, and that marshmallow thing in my signature.

I don't judge people for making any of these mistakes because usually, they just don't know they're making a mistake. And sometimes a misspelling just gets stuck the wrong way in my head. So that, even though I know it's a spelling issue for me, I just can't seem to keep straight which version I should choose. I would always spell separate, seperate until I learned the trick that "there's a rat in separate because you want to be separate from a rat." Another one I had trouble with was dessert and desert. Then I learned that dessert has two "s"s because you want two desserts. You never want two deserts.

*ironically edited to correct spelling error

I don't mind reading through this thread at all because if I am making mistakes, I certainly would like to learn from them! From a business aspect, grammar is something that should be respected.

My pet peeves have been covered and here are a few more:

Unthaw. Really? You are going to freeze it?

Of coarse. You mean something is rough?

Aweful. Full of awe?



I'm guilty of local vernacular sometimes. I might say "put it there" instead of "place it there." Others say "mash the key" instead of "press the key." Turn off the lights becomes "cut off the lights." "I'm fixing to" means I am going to do that. I think these examples are different from all the annoying misspellings and incorrect usage of apostrophes and homonyms.

I agree that texting is definitely doing people a disservice in the English department! Reading is how I learned to be a great speller.

All of these bother me too! Another that had me speechless was my daughter's high school English teacher. That's right, her ENGLISH teacher would pronounce "ask" as "axe" because, according to her, she felt like she was spitting on people if she pronounced it correctly. UGH!

Oh that is bad! An English teacher knowingly mispronouncing a word?

Artscallion, your siggy line worked for me!! Before I joined cake forums, I bet I would have typed marshmellow for sure.

Love the rat in separate trick. That works! I always say in my head "sep PAR rate" when typing it.

Thanks for the lessons!

There are many times that I have used poor sentence structure and misspelled words on this site (and probably will in this post). That doesn't mean I'm at all offended by this thread. I think it's hilarious. Some of us need to lighten up a little.

My pet peeves:

1. Those that type a post or message in text language- if you cannot take the time to write out real words (even if misspelled), then WHY do you think I should take the time to respond to you?
and

2. Those that use an exclamation point after every sentence. I want to respond, 'stop SHOUTING at me!'

I *try* to give people the benefit of the doubt when I'm reading text language. I am assuming they are reading/responding to this forum on their phone. I know that isn't true all of the time.

As for exclamation points, I see that as excited! See that? If you are typing in all caps I feel like you are shouting at me. I shall try to keep my enthusiasm in check when I am being too liberal with exclamation points.

Boy I wish there were a little more grace when it came to this. This is a very judgmental forum.

I love this thread!
I used to pride myself on my spelling and grammar, but I swear, the longer I've been out of school, the more I slide.
Threads like this help remind me to stay on my toes!

I haven't seen one post that appears judgmental, aside from the people judging the topic and accusing the posters of being judgmental and nit-picky. This was obviously meant to be a fun, silly way to vent and like one poster said, don't read it if you don't like it.

While some are being accused of judging, it could be said that the others are perhaps a bit sensitive and are misinterpreting the intent of the topic. It's true, there are other things, more important things, to worry about, but I, for one, prefer to be a little more lighthearted on the forums.

Along with the decline of proper grammar and spelling, it's also obvious that there is a growing shortage of people with senses of humor.

1. I'm from Michigan. Some of us have excellent grammar.

2. Far too often, people are lazy with their grammar. I've actually been told online - by MULTIPLE PEOPLE - that "spelling and grammar doesn't count because it's online." Um...I'd like to know who lied to these people. These people just don't give a rat's hind end about using the brain God gave them.

3. Being judgemental would be "you're stupid." Saying, "It drives me crazy when improper grammar is used" isn't judgemental. It's just an opinion about what bothers you.

4. This is a funny thread, because it's so true.

5. This thread has nothing to do with those whose native tongue is not English. Er, rather "American." Let's face it, "English" isn't exactly what we speak in the USA.

The one that sets my teeth on edge the most is "Where is it at?" That "at" at the end of a sentence just kills me...and I know some very educated people who do it all the time.

I consistently correct my students' grammar but would never correct an adult's.

Has anyone heard the new Jennifer Hudson song? The chorus...

Where you at?
Where you at?
Where you at?
Where you at?