Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Edumacashun.

If you say "I could care less", then you're saying exactly that. Does that make sense? I think what you're trying to say is "I couldn't care less". So you're basically saying you don't give a shit about something, right? OK, then say it correctly.

Their, They're, There. How many times can this be abused? Answer: many. Let me try to simplify this for you. Their is possessive. This means it signifies ownership of something. Example: "That is their house". There is a destination. "Go over there." They're is a conjunction. It is a shortened form of "They are". Don't misuse these, please. It may sound harmless but it makes you look like a dumbshit and it only adds to the bastardization and destruction of the English language. Maybe if everyone clamoring for "Americans to speak English" actually learned how to read and write it correctly, their position would have a little more credence.

One of the ones that I see misused more and more often is "It's". "It's" is a contraction. It literally means "it is". It is not possessive. This is actually an understandable mistake because many possessive forms DO have the apostrophe-s after them. Examples: That is Sally's dog. That is the company's building (not companies, which is plural for company). If you say "It's over there", you're fine. If you say "That's it's tail", you're wrong (and probably shouldn't use two contractions together anyway)and are basically saying "That is it is tail". Funny, right?

Also, did you know that if you are using a possessive form of a word which ends in "S" it is your choice whether to use another S or not? "Chas' blog" is correct, but so is "Chas's". I usually try to leave off the other s because it makes me feel like I'm saying Chasesesesesssssssssss.

Right. So I'm not perfect, but just wanted to mention this as 73% of the people on that thare internets seem to really fuck up our language.

P.S.
When you combine languages you really get something fun. I just read this one. How about The LA Angels baseball team. It literally translates to "The The Angels Angels". Stutter much?

1 comment:

Chas said...

So, I know posting about grammar is risky because if you don't know your shit you'll soon know you're shit.