Comments on: Gaffes to Avoid When Blogging About Grammar Gaffes

By: Ashfa

Ashfa — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 02:54:54 +0000

My two personal faoruvites aren’t on this list.Firstly, the way that lazy typing in word processors often causes an opening apostrophe in print where instead a word-beginning leave out the letter type apostrophe is actually meant (which should of course look like a closing apostrophe). It’s annoying to see something like this in print. But that’s the minor one.My biggest grammatical bugbear has seemingly seeped into all forms of media and it just annoys the heck out of me. It’s the use of there’s when instead there’re should be used. Unlike some of the tradition rules’ that might be to-some jarring but are still technically sound, this one is actually pretty obviously very much grammatically incorrect! You’ll hear someone say there’s only ten of them and yet nobody would ever say there is only ten of them . No, because there ARE only ten of them . And yet, for some reason, the fact that there’re is apparently too unweildy makes the incorrect use of there’s alright? No, it doesn’t, I say! And it’s everywhere. Print, television, films gah! I can only hope to hope that it doesn’t get any official acceptance.If I had a third wish, it would be to have ain’t recognised as the proper short form of am not and limited to ONLY that use. But then, that’s probably a pipe dream not many would agree with! If somebody can get this there’s / there’re nonsense sorted out, I’ll be a happy bunny.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:00:31 +0000

And Business Insider just called out two grammar “mistakes” that might have come from Scandinavia: the split infinitive and the sentence-ending preposition. http://www.businessinsider.com/two-common-mistakes-in-english-grammar-may-have-come-from-scandinavia-2012-12

By: LSJ

LSJ — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:40:03 +0000

Name the rule: interpolated adjectives. Commas suffice nicely for this purpose, but one could also use dashes or paretheses, depending on the level of separation desired.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:31:22 +0000

I don’t think it’s wrong there; the independent phrase isn’t a clause, and it’s there for contrast or comparison. If it’s wrong, it’s not a comma splice. A comma splice is when you omit the conjunction. The comma-less version “Be inconsistent when you intend to be and only then” seems wrong to me, because I want that separation, the same as in “That’s my money, not yours.” It would be nice to name the rule though!

By: Gerry

Gerry — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 20:09:17 +0000

Okay, I’ll bite.

“Be inconsistent when you intend to be, and only then.”

Is this a comma splice? The phrase after the “and” is not a complete thought.

As an aside, I have noticed that when using a tablet, my care for grammar and spelling tends takes a nose dive. On the other hand, because of autocorrect, I tend to re-read sentences before I send them.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:07:22 +0000

Force-fixed with explicit smart quotation marks. Thanks!

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 04:05:30 +0000

Ah, that’s WordPress for you. I typed dumb quotation marks, and it ensmartened them. Or tried to.

By: LSJ

LSJ — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:44:54 +0000

The smart quotes around lifehacker’s title in the opening paragraph aren’t very smart: the title is closed with an opening quote mark.