A lesson in English: Your, you're, there, their, they're and their differences.

[Trihan]

Venetia: This one is locked because the other topic has been edited to include both lessons.

Yep, it's yet another probably annoying post by me on pet peeves I have about common misunderstandings in the English language. I would have put this in the other topic, but it's really an issue all of its own and as such deserves a separate topic.

(Note: I am not trying to make out that I'm superior to anyone or implying that improper use of English is an inherently bad thing, I'm merely trying to educate people who might not know these things.)

First of all, your and you're. I see people use these all the time, in exactly the wrong places. Let's take a look at each.

Your denotes possession. You use it when you're talking about something the person you're addressing owns. "I like your hat."

You're is a contraction (see the apostrophe topic) of "you are". You should only use this when you could logically use "you are" in place of it. "I think you're really funny." "You're a complete idiot."

So next time somebody says to you "your an idiot", just point out that you don't own an object called "an idiot". Or maybe you do.

Next up is something that makes some grown men cry. The difference between there, their, and they're. It's another one that seems to confuse a lot of people, so here I am coming to your rescue! Or just pissing you off. One of the two.

There denotes location. "If you need me I'll be over there." "There's my cat!" There is a slightly confusing almost-exception to this whereby you can use it in ways like "There is no way I'm doing that." There in this context doesn't -exactly- denote location in a physical sense, but it's still the proper usage.

Their is a plural possessive. It's like your, but for more than one person. "Their hats are the same colour."

And they're is yet another contraction, this one being "they are". It's used the same way as you're, but for more than one person. "They're starting to get on my nerves."

A much-contested point is that their and they're can also be used as gender-neutral singulars. I personally have no problem with this, but some people don't think it's proper English to do so.

 

[Luminier]

The only problem is that nobody will actually read this topic, because most people don't care. Boy, I sure wish they did.  :sad:

Nice topic, though, Trihan.

 

[Ellie]

The trouble is, there are generally three types of cruddy posters:

1. Typos
These are done by mistake, like... typing too fast.

2. English = Second Language
This is where English is not their first language - here this post would help.

3. The no-carers
This is the people who go by the thought that this is the Internet, it's not teh_serious, and grammar isn't important.

So out of the three, the typoers wont read this as they know the grammar but just missed something; the no-carers... won't care; and the foreigners might learn from this but they are only a small few.

Good post though.

 

[Anonymous]

your kidding right

look ASSHOLE id ont need some noname punk telling me how to write.im in eleventh grade im pretty sure iknow english by now!!!!!!!!!!your a joke

EDIT holy dick i totally thought this was in nfg for some reason. this is a good thread but i am pretty sure no one will read it because people are dumb

it's the thought that counts though :3