Poor writing, bad grammar and pet peeves in general

[chumley]

Should I even bother mentioning they're, their, and there?

It's vs its?

Your, you're?

How about "for all intensive purposes"?

Somebody on here has mentioned "lightening" before

Which ones get under your skin?

[azbackpackr]

Makes me slightly insane

Its supposingly one of those annoying habit's you wish your sig other's would loose for better or for worser.

[chumley]

Here here.

[cindyl]

I used to think it would be amusing to climb up there at 3 a.m. with a can of paint, and remove the "e."

There's actually a couple of guys who did that kind of thing across the country (not at 3 a.m. - they did it in broad daylight). And they wrote a book about it: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Typo-Hunt-C ... 535&sr=1-1

[azbackpackr]

I used to think it would be amusing to climb up there at 3 a.m. with a can of paint, and remove the "e."

There's actually a couple of guys who did that kind of thing across the country (not at 3 a.m. - they did it in broad daylight). And they wrote a book about it: http://www.amazon.com/Great-Typo-Hunt-C ... 535&sr=1-1

Oh, yes, now I remember that story! Thanks!

[Trishness]

OK...this is just about 10 degrees of hilarious! Thanks for making me laugh with all these posts about bad grammar and poor writing.

I can truly empathize with my fellow "New Englanders" here in the disparity of the accents and regional dialects. If you drove 50 miles from where I used to live in Connecticut, you'd be in an entirely different world where they had Mothas, Brothas and Sistas (not Mothers, Brothers and Sisters).......but added an -er onto everything else......as in I'm going to pick up a pizzer instead of a pizza. It was like stepping into another universe. LOL Of course I'm talking about the people born and bred in Rhode Island, Boston, Long Island and parts of Eastern CT. People laugh at me every day because of my accent (funny, I don't hear it)......and I'm still looking for that perfect grinder and haven't found it yet. Only people from Southern New England will really know what a grinder is.

[The_Eagle]

@Trishness
I do miss a good Strawberry frappe, or a dish of ice cream with Jimmies on it! (Baasten Born)

[azbackpackr]

Dude, like, I just miss sittin' on my board, waitin' for the big sets to come in...

[BobP]

I'm still looking for that perfect grinder

3 Corners pizza used to make a great meatball/sausage grinder....ahhh but that years ago when the older generation ran the place.

[Alston_Neal]

In Springerville they can't decide how to spell the name of one of the Native American tribes their streets are named for. At one end the sign correctly spells "Hualapai," while at the other end of the block it says "Haulapai." They even pronounce it "halla pie" at that end of the street.

Do they have a street named after Cochise's tribe the Cherry Cows?

[azbackpackr]

Well, they do. They actually have more than one. They have Chiricahua Trail and Chiricahua St. But no Cherry Cow. ;)

[Sredfield]

I just saw an article that included the sentence: "That is mind-boggling, “two-thirds the price of retail electricity and over 3 times cheaper than current solar technology."

I don't understand exactly what is meant by X times a negative as in "3 times cheaper" than current solar technology. Three times what? Say current solar technology is $.08/kwh. The equation would be " 3 x $.08 or $.24. If so, does this mean the new cost would be "$.08 minus $.24"? I doubt it.

When the comparison is a positive, as in "3 times the cost of current solar technology" is makes sense: "3 x $.08 = $.24"

Does it mean the new cost is one-third the current cost? If so, why not say it like that?

Enlighten me?

[big_load]

Does it mean the new cost is one-third the current cost? If so, why not say it like that?

Because even fewer people can write clearly than can think clearly.

[azbackpackr]

I can write clearly but not when it comes to math. I didn't understand the sentence that Shawn put up nor his problem with it!

[azbackpackr]

While this thread is up, let me remind the troops that it's never okay to put an apostrophe with a plural. I see it every day. I see it on Facebook, on here, even in the newspaper.

Another reminder: "its" is the possessive, and "it's" means "it is." It's not okay to say: "The mountain has lost it's snow" because that means "the mountain has lost it is snow" which makes no sense at all.

Call me grumpy, I don't care. It's easy to learn this stuff. The rules don't change.

[paulhubbard]

While this thread is up, let me remind the troops that it's never okay to put an apostrophe with a plural

I respectfully disagree. If I want to refer to things that all my friends own, I would use "My friends' items."

[azbackpackr]

Well, okay. But you know that is not what I was referring to. I was referring to people saying things like "I'm going to the Catalina's." "I own three sleeping bag's."

Speaking of sleeping bags, I would advise you gentlemen to never smoke in bed. The sleeping bag you burn might be your wife...

[beterarcher]

rule's wure ment to be busted.

[Jeffshadows]

One of my favorite pastimes has become reading the comments submitted to news articles. It's hilarious to watch people butcher the English language in an effort to sound intelligent, dignified, or worth listening to. The best part is that they all turn into debates about immigration or Obama. The news article could be about the fact that a meteor just missed Earth and the commentary will devolve into arguments about how illegal immigrants brought the meteor, or how it was god's punishment on the US for not enforcing our immigration laws. After several hours of rambling, misguided, fantastical, and generally poorly-constructed discourse laden with misspellings and grammatical atrocities...they finally conclude that it is because Obama is president that the meteor came and we should all take heed.

There was a great one the other day where the poster called "all" members of the opposite political persuasion "stuppid lowlife's." That's an exact cut and paste from the comment. Liz would love the other stuff he wrote, too!!

[paulhubbard]

I saw an editorial where the author cited the fact that the president must be a natural born citizen of the US, and how that was unfair because so many people were born via c-section so therefore they weren't qualified to run for office... You can't make this stuff up, and you just can't can't fix stupid!

[SAMBA]

@jeffmacewen
And what's (Note the correct use of the apostrophe to denote the contraction "what is") your point?