Re: OFF TOPIC: Grammar Police

[Guest guest]

Here is a test we can perform to determine whether to use it's or its:

Replace it with his and see if the sentence still makes (grammatical) sense.

His a common mistake does not make sense. The boat has a hole in his hull

does make sense -- at least grammatically; of course boats are not boys, but

we can pretend that they are for the sake of improving our spelling. The

rule we shall apply, then, is: If the sentence makes sense withhis, which

does not have an apostrophe, it is safe to replace it with its, which also

does not have an apostrophe. Or in other words, remember to replace like

with like.

on 05/03/03 07:05a.m., Diane Loupe at dloupe@... wrote:

> Also, the misuse of " it's " drives me crazy--and almost everybody gets that

> one wrong.

> To recap--it's is ALWAYS a contraction for IT IS, NEVER put that apostrophe

> when you're denoting ownership.

[Guest guest]

Here is a good site:

http://dictionary.reference.com/

Under Language Resources, there are two links that are particularly helpful.

* Frequently Asked Questions

* Grammar, usage & style

As a technical writer of payroll accounting user guides, we have several

books, etc., to refer to help. I tend to gravitate towards online sites for

help because it seems like I can find the info much quicker.

My biggest hang up is when I hear someone say ³I walked acrosst the street.²

I¹m sure they spell it ³across² when writing, but they pronounce it

³acrosst.² EGAD! The next two words even confuse me sometimes and that is

the use of setup or set up and backup and back up. I actually have the

definitions for each posted on my cubicle wall. I always seem to write the

word ³numerical² as ³numberical² - thank goodness I know to look for it.

(Would you believe I even spelled it wrong the first time I wrote for the

last sentence??)

Even though I do have my own pet peeves about how people talk and/or write,

I will only comment on this when it pertains to my JOB. My last two direct

supervisors were terrible with their spelling and grammar. Every piece of

written communication had to go through me prior to being sent out to

customers and even within the company. Anything personal, such as mailing

lists, I don¹t really care how someone conveys what they mean. I have a

good friend who can¹t spell worth a darn, sticks commas, periods, etc.,

wherever she thinks they should be. I don¹t care. I just like to read what

she has to say. The same things goes for this list. I¹d hate to think that

people are hesitating writing in with their suggestions, problems, concerns

because of fear of misspelling a word or two ­ or not using the proper

grammar. Since our weight loss journey is PERSONAL, write away!

[Guest guest]

Yeah, tell me about it!! I suppose it would help if they said ³The

Minnesota Vikings football team IS on a winning streak.² I think this is

a good discussion (although not weight related) because it is fairly black

and white. I had to put the ³fairly² in there because sometimes there are

shades of grey.

on 05/03/03 10:25a.m., Beth at b_vanes@... wrote:

> Good heavens, it's a bad sign when a discussion like this gets me all

> excited! hahaha

>

> Beth

>

[Guest guest]

I had a guy friend who was always correcting me on the usage of ³who² and

³that²... Which is what I used for the first sentence. ³I had a guy friend

who...² I now hate seeing or hearing... ³I had a guy friend that...² ³A

group of students that...² WHO WHO WHO!!

_

on 05/03/03 10:28a.m., at bluzgrrl@... wrote:

> LOL.. oh no.. don't get me started on " bring and take " .. my dad is obsessed

> with letting people know they are using them in the wrong context. To this

> DAY Mom and I are still confused as to what the real usage is!!! GRRRR!

>

>

>

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> Date: 2003/03/05 Wed AM 07:36:58 CST

> To: Serious-Weight-Watchers

> Subject: Re: OFF TOPIC: Grammar Police

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