The spelling / grammar thread

[RacerX]

OK, Henrik: batter up!

[jackson1]

Thanks! I'll pick them carefully. I'll be back.

And bare with me, as I don't know all the English grammar terms (past, present, etc.).
I have a feeling it'll be you and me only in this thread, Ron

[Twitch]

Wots a speling and grahmer thred?

[RacerX]

And bare with me,

Sure man!

BARE/BEAR

There are actually three words here. The simple one is the big growly creature (unless you prefer the Winnie-the-Pooh type). Hardly anyone past the age of ten gets that one wrong. The problem is the other two. Stevedores bear burdens on their backs and mothers bear children. Both mean “carry” (in the case of mothers, the meaning has been extended from carrying the child during pregnancy to actually giving birth). But strippers bare their bodies—sometimes bare-naked. The confusion between this latter verb and “bear” creates many unintentionally amusing sentences; so if you want to entertain your readers while convincing them that you are ...., by all means mix them up. “Bear with me,” the standard expression, is a request for forbearance or patience.
“Bare with me” would be an invitation to undress. “Bare” has an adjectival form: “The pioneers stripped the forest bare.”

from http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/bare.html

[jackson1]

Apostrophes. Which are correct? Give me some rules.

1. Jacksons are everywhere.
2. Ron's mom is Dutch.
3. Pete's guitars are cool.

In Danish, we don't use apostrophe in any of the above.

[jackson1]

Sure man!

BARE/BEAR

Nice catch. I put that intentionally for you. I usually look it up, but not this time. And failed. Bear with me.

[RacerX]

Excellent. All your examples are correct. Again I'll paste from Brian's page (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/):

ITS/IT’S


The exception to the general rule that one should use an apostrophe to indicate possession is in possessive pronouns. Some of them are not a problem. “Mine” has no misleading “s” at the end to invite an apostrophe. And few people are tempted to write “hi’s,” though the equally erroneous “her’s” is fairly common, as are “our’s” and “their’s”—all wrong, wrong, wrong. The problem with avoiding “it’s” as a possessive is that this spelling is perfectly correct as a contraction meaning “it is.” Just remember one point and you’ll never make this mistake again: “it’s” always means “it is” or “it has” and nothing else.



http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/its.html

[RacerX]

I was taught to always read out contractions to make sure they make sense. For example, the incorrect (but increasingly common) "we couldn't find it's owner" you would say "we could not find it is owner" - the could not is correct, the it is... is not

[toejam]

One that always irks me is when people say could of, should of or would of. OF does not make sense in this context! It's could have, should have or would have. It can also be used as a contraction; could've, should've or would've.

[jackson1]

Again I'll paste from Brian's page (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/):

ITS/IT’S
The exception to the general rule that one should use an apostrophe to indicate possession is in possessive pronouns.

So, you possess your mother? I find that a bit weird.

I got the "its" covered long ago.

[tcwil8]

the it is... is not

I love Ron's line here. On its own, it's like a Faith No More song or something. See how I used both 'its and it's' in that sentence. Please continue gentlemen.

[RacerX]

One that always irks me is when people say could of, should of or would of. OF does not make sense in this context! It's could have, should have or would have. It can also be used as a contraction; could've, should've or would've.

YES! I knew that was on your list, Joe! The problem arises because the word of is pronounced uv; and when you sound out the contacted 've it is exactly the same pronunciation. My theory is that the folks who spell it that way either

-don't read printed matter like books, magazines or newspapers, where editors check all this before publishing

-are of the younger generation and the "could of" bit is all over the internet

-just shorten it rather than hunt down that "/' key next to the Enter key

[jackson1]

Yeah Joe, I never understood how people can fail on that. In the same category: "Larger then life". "Your are faster then I am". It's than.

[jackson1]

..

[dg]

I usually don't care how anyone writes, as long as I can figure out what the hell they're trying to say, but apostrophes used before the s in plurals do grate on me. One of my pre-schooler's teachers does it in her emails, and if she was his kindergarten or first grade teacher I'd be down there making sure she cut it out. Lots of folks here do it with Jackson's and Charvel's.