Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, etc.

[Sister Golden Hair]

Gee, I am starting to feel like I am in an episode of Sasame Street. Is that spelled right?

[Treebeard's apprentice]

Actaully, its Sesame Street.

[Rían]

Yes, I still disagree, and was aware of the definition. I think the context is the "writing and printing" part, i.e. the visual part, and therefore "intelligible" would have been a better choice of words. But I understood what you meant, anyway We'll just have to agree to disagree on the use of the word, I suppose, but that's ok (at least with me )

Grey_wolf - LOL! "punctuation communist"

TBA - actually, it's "actually", not "Actaully ", and it's "it's", not "its". (no offense meant, I do enjoy well-written posts, and yours are well-written.) And BTW, another thing that catches my eye is the usual lack of hyphens in phrases such as "well-written". Is anyone else a hyphen nazi, like me?

azalea - yes, I too really enjoy the use, whenever appropriate, of well-placed, and therefore helpful, commas, especially when I get in silly, as opposed to serious, moods.

Now where are all the Apostrophes of Mass Destruction people from the Venting thread??

[Rían]

and re SGH's post - "Is that spelled right?" - is it supposed to be "Was that spelt correctly?" I really don't know, does anyone else? (and does it really matter? no, but it's rather fun to examine this stuff when I should be doing laundry instead)

[Rían]

And does anyone else really love when an out-of-the-ordinary word (note use of hyphens) pops up in conversation? Someone used "impugn" a few days ago on Entmoot - I wanted to hug them!!

[crickhollow]

I would venture to suppose that the vast majority of my grammatical errors (as well as spelling, capitalization and punctuation errors) are a result of my inflated ego, which insists that I would make no such mistakes. This negates any reason for proof-reading (note appropriate hyphen) before hitting 'submit'.

[Treebeard's apprentice]

I don't have much time, so I'll keep this laconic.
Rian, you must enjoy being so captious. I do, too. I tend to correct people often, and if possible I do it without specifically telling them they made a mistake. I find it especially amusing when they don't even realize they have been made the subject of my derision. For example:

Jon Doe: Can you borrow me a dollar?
Me: No, I can't lend (emphasis on 'lend') you a dollar.

Of course, other times I can be downright malicious.

[Rían]

Originally posted by Treebeard's apprentice
I don't have much time, so I'll keep this laconic.
Rian, you must enjoy being so captious. I do, too. I tend to correct people often, and if possible I do it without specifically telling them they made a mistake. I find it especially amusing when they don't even realize they have been made the subject of my derision. For example:

Jon Doe: Can you borrow me a dollar?
Me: No, I can't lend (emphasis on 'lend') you a dollar.

Of course, other times I can be downright malicious.

*runs to dictionary to look up "captious"* Boy, that's a totally new word for me! I've never heard of it before!

*sigh* no, I don't enjoy being captious - in fact, I was afraid that you would take it that way, and I really hesitated over the post. I think it's more of a fun thing, between people that enjoy English, like how crick and I talked about the apostrophe thing. "hey, friend, look at your goof!" I'm very sorry if I have offended you, I really did not mean to offend you in any way.

Now see, though, you mentioned "derision". I don't look down on people that make mistakes like that, I just have a little inward chuckle, because I find it funny. I was in a pretty silly mood, and I thought it was funny that you made some errors in a post where you corrected someone else's error (come now, it is pretty funny, isn't it?) I'll laugh at my grammatical, etc. errors with anyone who points them out to me, and I'll continue to try to improve, and I'll continue to enjoy well-written posts. But I must tell you that you are wrong to impute a malicious intent to me, and my main intent here was to make sure that people that aren't very proficient in spelling, grammar etc. don't feel afraid to post, for I, for one, very much value their input, no matter how it is spelled, if it has good content.

Can we call it pax? Again, I am sorry for offending you.

[Rían]

and BTW, is it "no matter how it is spelled" or "no matter how it is spelt?" I really have no idea. I think the past tense of "sneek" is "sneeked", too, not "snuck", like many people use. Does anyone know for sure?

[Starr Polish]

It is spelled, I believe, not spelt. Though, I think dreamed and dreamt are both correct. Lept...anyway. (Oh, how I love ellipses!)

I love using 'word of the day' type words in my vocabulary. I'm particularly fond of 'loquacious' and 'quiscient'. Opposites, they are! (Well, in a way...hey, look, I like parentheses too!)

[Aeryn]

I am a punc., grammar, spelling, and capitalization Nazi.
People who don't capitalize their sentences...*grimace*...and yet, I understand why those mistakes are made. The only reason I am so picky about it is because it has been POUNDED in my head for the last several years.


P.s.
Rian, I believe your first post needs to be editted so that the cap.'s are where they are supposed to be! (I.E. at the beginning of sentences)


Their: possessive
They're: Abbreviated version of They are .
There: Direction or place.

Its: possessive. (Ex. The dog scratched its ears the dog OWNS those ears.)
It's: Abbreviated It is .


I regularly make spelling mistakes in post because either: 1) I am typing to fast, 2) I have become tolerant of the mistakes of others, and have decided if not beat them, join them, or 3) I honestly don't know HOW to spell the word.

Thus, I am empathetic (most of the time, except for GLARING errors) to the mistake maker.

OOC: Did this post already?

[crickhollow]

I am typing to fast

my other pet peeve. I so rusty on parts of speech! Is 'to' an article? Is 'too' an adverb?

*runs to www.m-w.com to check* ah, well, I was right about the second one, but 'to' is a preposition.

[BeardofPants]

I am typing to fast

Good spot, Crick. Another reason why I refuse to get flustered over grammar, spelling, and punctuation; at least I'm not setting myself up for a fall.

[crickhollow]

Originally posted by BeardofPants
at least I'm not setting myself up for a fall.

true, true which is why a good sense of self deprecating humour is essential.

[Laurelyn]

Please don't have a fit over my grammar; I'm still working on it!
I can spell, but I can't type, and I often miss my errors.

[Rían]

Originally posted by Aeryn
P.s.
Rian, I believe your first post needs to be editted so that the cap.'s are where they are supposed to be! (I.E. at the beginning of sentences)

Thanks, you're absolutely right I've become sloppy about that just recently - not sure why. I think it's the whole conversation vs. essay thing - I'm trying to make my posts less like essays and more like a conversation, and no caps at the beginning of a sentence looks less formal to me.

The keyboard is a problem for me, too - the keys on mine are really getting rather sticky or something and I have to hit them quite hard. I should really get another keyboard.

BTW, does anyone else enjoy the use of the (I believe it's called, but correct me if I'm wrong) subjunctive tense? Ex. - "If I were king...". Used to express a not-reallly-possible possibility, if that makes sense.

Also, someone used N.B. a few weeks ago - I like all of those little abbreviation thingys.

Looking back on my posts - I like to use lots of hypens, like in this sentence - again, because I'm trying to get more of a conversational feel, rather than write an essay.

Anyway, the main point for me is that people keep posting, no matter what their language skill level is. It's also nice when people try to learn and improve, but I don't know what's going on in people's lives - maybe they just can't put that option very high on their priority list.

Aren't JRRT's sentences incredible!

[azalea]

Okay, I thought of a situation where I dislike punctuation errors: when people don't use periods (or some kind of ending punctuation), so that the sentence is one big run-on.

About grammar: I posted in another forum a sentence that included the phrase "he would have to have seen..." or something like that. My question: is it "would have to have" or "would had to have" or am I better off just saying "he would have had to"? Or what? Should I go back and edit, or leave it alone ?

Do you look at the keyboard or the screen when typing? If you're typing something from a piece of paper, do you look at the paper? I always have to look at the keyboard, because when I took typing in school I always cheated and looked at the keyboard .

Should the period go before or after the smiley?

[Lizra]

I take time to review my posts and make sure things are in order. The whole point of this internet posting is to communicate. I figure the better my writing skills, the more easily people will understand what I'm trying to say. If others don't bother to check for spelling, punctuation, tense and other errors, that's their call. The poorer the quality of writing, the less likely I'll be able to get the point. ( but I can usually understand AE, though I smile sometimes!) If the errors are "gross", I probably won't even read it! I don't get hung up on perfection, but I do go back and edit most posts till the words flows the way I want them to. I have a dictionary and thesaurus near the computer. If I can't figure something out, I'll find another way to say it.

I wish Entmoot had more "smilies". I can really communicate with lots of smilie choices, and some posts can even begin to become "artistic"!

[Hasty Ent]

Originally posted by RÃ*an
and re SGH's post - "Is that spelled right?" - is it supposed to be "Was that spelt correctly?"

My pocket dictionary shows both 'spelt' and 'spelled' as correct. However, 'spelt' is also a noun: a hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed.

Writing clearly is difficult! Just trying to succinctly state what you mean is hard enough when you're online and rushing ('online' and 'rushing' always seem to go hand in hand for me). I agree with you, Lizra: the rules of grammar and punctuation are supposed to help with this... However, like Rian, I'm mostly interested in the content, and am willing to overlook mistakes. My biggest peeve is when people say "I could care less" when they mean "I COULD NOT care less." As for myself, I'm always looking up the difference between affect and effect.

[Rían]

Originally posted by azalea
Should the period go before or after the smiley?

Now THAT is a serious question ! I feel VERY STRONGLY that it should go BEFORE the smiley, except in the cases where I feel VERY STRONGLY that it should go AFTER the smiley. (Actually, I think I usually put the period after the smiley, but not always. But what a fun question!)

And I agree with Lizra - I think smilies are important here, because we can't see people's faces. I really dislike them in real life, because they were so overused when I was growing up, but here, I use them quite often.

Re the grammar question - *considers the options, starts to get massive headache* sorry, I think that one is beyond me. I would have tried to reword it so the problem was eliminated, but sometimes you just can't do that.

BTW - I really enjoy reading JRRT's letters in the Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien book. They go from fun little dash-offs to extremely serious. Have you people read them?