I heard a presentation about the grammar "rights" and "wrongs." The speaker started with, "We take writing seriously," of course insinuating that we poor listeners don't. For example, it is just "plain confusing" to use serial commas. NEVER hyphenate an ly word, though the speaker didn't know why. And on and on...

But I almost choked on my pen when the self described (and that does need a hyphen, according to her) Grammar Nerd actually said to a room full of people: "Us grammar nerds rejoiced when the AP changed from 'Web site' to 'website'."

One must be careful when he describes himself as a "grammar nerd!"

quote:

One must be careful when he describes himself...

Was that deliberate? Out of curiosity, what sex was the speaker?

I am 100% sure it was not deliberate. The person's gender was female.

NERD: Acronym for Numerous Errors Regularly Displayed. We're now sending women into combat. Volunteer her.

BTW, we also had a "test" in using its and it's and there, their and they're.

They said, "That may sound too elementary, but we do get those errors when we edit papers." Well, what is it, 4th grade material? I can understand someone hurriedly writing something and inadvertently using the wrong "their" maybe. However, we do know the rule. It was likely a typo, not a "grammar mistake."

The its and it's confusion shows up quite often in the reports I edit at work before publication. And these are written by school inspectors - sometimes former English teachers.

The other one with their, etc. is usually a momentary mistake, I agree, rather than people not knowing the "rule".

But, arnie, I think these "mistakes" are often careless typos. People know what is right, but they are working fast and it slips by.

I've noticed that when I type (especially on a site like this), I don't think the words out one letter at a time. When I think the word "there", my fingers type it. When I think the word "their", my fingers sometimes type "there". My fingers even sometimes type words that sound similar to the one I mean. I remember mistyping "aliquot" for "adequate" one time and drew a big laugh (a big LOL I guess) from the people on the site I frequented at the time.

I think I often get it write right because I correctly type the particular spelling I used the most.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
People know what is right

You must know people I don't know. The its/it's confusion is no longer confusion. People do not know that the former is a possessive and the latter is a contraction.

Well, I didn't mean all people of course. But I do think many of the people I know understand the difference. The grammar nerds just like to think they are the only right ones.