I HAD to do it!

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
OK, I have two questions:

Is it 1980's music or 1980s music ?

Is it Honda Accord's or Honda Accords ?


It depends upon the context. One is plural, the other possessive. You failed to provide any context for your question, so there is no correct answer to your question.

This is another good reason why proper grammar, word use and spelling are so important. If your use of language is so poor that you can't even provide context for a question, then your reader has no way to answer your question and you lose even more credibility.

 

[JHZR2]

^ Thank you.

I'll be the first to admit a lack of attention to detail and an autocorrect (not just on smartphones but on web browsers too) that gets me sometimes. But the outright poor and sloppy writing style some take on in a web forum or similar media is sad.

Of course, like anything, this can be taken way too far to the extreme as well. I'm sure some English major can five errors just in this post I've made.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
It depends upon the context. One is plural, the other possessive. You failed to provide any context for your question, so there is no correct answer to your question.

This is another good reason why proper grammar, word use and spelling are so important. If your use of language is so poor that you can't even provide context for a question, then your reader has no way to answer your question and you lose even more credibility.


I meant in the plural context; not possessive.

 

[SeaJay]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: Nate1979
I hope no one cares about these minor details when posting on internet boards. Typing on a smart phone is not easy (fat thumbs) along with autocorrect. As long as the message gets across there is no need for exact spelling and punctuation.

Yeah, but after a while you get used to it and just stop caring altogether, and when it's finally time to write something important/official correctly, you have no idea how.
Personally, I find that it's a lot easier to get the message across if the content of said message is not riddled with errors. Plus, you are taken more seriously.


x2. It is difficult to break those habits for the newbies on my job where we do have to write important and official stuff that will be saved for a long time.

 

[Vikas]

Quote:
I'm sure some English major can five errors just in this post I've made.
Not being English major, I am only able to count up to four.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
It depends upon the context. One is plural, the other possessive. You failed to provide any context for your question, so there is no correct answer to your question.

This is another good reason why proper grammar, word use and spelling are so important. If your use of language is so poor that you can't even provide context for a question, then your reader has no way to answer your question and you lose even more credibility.


I meant in the plural context; not possessive.

Plural is created by adding an "s" or "es", not by adding an apostrophe.

Apostrophe is added to indicate possesive.

 

[Merkava_4]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Plural is created by adding an "s" or "es", not by adding an apostrophe.

Apostrophe is added to indicate possessive.


So if I took one Honda and times it by 10, I would have 10 Hondas ?

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Plural is created by adding an "s" or "es", not by adding an apostrophe.

Apostrophe is added to indicate possessive.


So if I took one Honda and times it by 10, I would have 10 Hondas ?


Correct. If you were to use an apostrophe it would be used thusly:

That Honda's oil needs to be changed.

 

[shiny]

Thank you, OP! I'm wary and weary of people who spell wary as weary, and defiant is definitely not the way to spell definate.

Just because spellcheck says a word is spelled correctly doesn't mean it's being used correctly.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: exranger06
Oh, I just thought of another. When people say "would of" instead of "would have." If they looked up the word "of" in the dictionary, maybe they would realize that saying "would of" or "should of" doesn't make any sense!

I agree. In fiction, though, you can often make a subtle point about a character's education, or lack of it, by having him say "I would of gone to the store" instead of "would have" or "would've." "Would've" and "would of" sound very much alike, and I suppose uneducated people would think the former is spelled like the latter.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
OK, I have two questions:

Is it 1980's music or 1980s music ?

Is it Honda Accord's or Honda Accords ?


It depends upon the context. One is plural, the other possessive. You failed to provide any context for your question, so there is no correct answer to your question.

I'd think "1980s" music. The spelled-out form, Eighties, as used in this context, isn't a possessive: "Eighties music," not "Eightie's music."

"The Honda Accord's handling is decent for its price point": possessive, since we're focusing on the handling that is a quality belonging to the Accord. "The Honda Accords we've owned have all been great cars": Plural, since you're talking about more than one Honda Accord.

I was told once in school that the apostrophe marks one or more letters that have been intentionally left out -- that "William's sword," for example, goes back to a time when the early Anglo-Saxons wrote, "William, his sword." What we have now is "William',his sword." Dunno if that's true, but it makes a kind of sense, a way to remember when to use possessive [apostrophe] + "s" and when not to.

 

[finmile]

Here’s some more ( occuring
definetly
dident/wasent

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: turtlevette


Spelling doesn't bother me as much as someone who doesn't understand 6th grade science.



Poor spelling and bad grammar make me think that a writer is an idiot. Getting the science wrong just proves it.

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum


Poor spelling and bad grammar make me think that a writer is an idiot. Getting the science wrong just proves it.

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: finmile
Here’s some more (


Only if the sentence "Here is some more" is correct. Is it? ;-)
IMO it is, but aren't you really tempted to write "here are some more" instead?"

Its been a while, but I think it goes like this:
Here are some. Here is more. Here is some(used as a modifier) more.
English is hilarious when you think too much about it, and it changes over time. A good example is the whole 'less' vs 'fewer' thing, which used to be set in stone but now both have become acceptable in most writing style guides.

The basket has less fruit in it than the barrel does.
The basket has fewer apples in it than the barrel does.

Even though I still cringe when I hear it, "the basket has less apples in it than the barrel does" has become accepted. Stupid 80s beer commercial ruined that rule...

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I'm sure some English major can five errors just in this post I've made.


I think one of the Cardinal Rules of the old usenet newsgroups was 'he who would correct a grammatical error is doomed to commit one in the correction post.'

 

[finmile]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: finmile
Here’s some more (


Only if the sentence "Here is some more" is correct. Is it? ;-)
IMO it is, but aren't you really tempted to write "here are some more" instead?"


You are spot on! That was the problem I was struggling with

I gave many words, but still I said Here is some more.

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: Benzadmiral
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
OK, I have two questions:

Is it 1980's music or 1980s music ?

Is it Honda Accord's or Honda Accords ?


It depends upon the context. One is plural, the other possessive. You failed to provide any context for your question, so there is no correct answer to your question.

I'd think "1980s" music. The spelled-out form, Eighties, as used in this context, isn't a possessive: "Eighties music," not "Eightie's music."



Again, it depends upon the context. "What was the 1980's biggest event?" can be possessive-the "1980's" possess the event in the question. If you were to say "I love the 1980s" then you may be referring to more than one year, therefore plural. A name ending in "s" only takes an apostrophe if the possessive form is not pronounced with an extra "s". Hence, the example of the spelled-out "eighties" is handled differently than the numeric year (or possessive reference of the decade). We don't pronounce words like that with two "esses", therefore we don't write two "esses".

There are exceptions; for example, if you say "The dog was wagging its tail", the "its" is possessive, but we don't use an apostrophe because with an apostrophe it becomes a contraction for "it is". Totally illogical, but it's nonetheless conventional.

This is why the context must always be considered when deciding upon grammar, spelling and punctuation.

 

[Benzadmiral]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


Again, it depends upon the context. "What was the 1980's biggest event?" can be possessive-the "1980's" possess the event in the question. If you were to say "I love the 1980s" then you may be referring to more than one year, therefore plural. A name ending in "s" only takes an apostrophe if the possessive form is not pronounced with an extra "s". Hence, the example of the spelled-out "eighties" is handled differently than the numeric year (or possessive reference of the decade). We don't pronounce words like that with two "esses", therefore we don't write two "esses".

There are exceptions; for example, if you say "The dog was wagging its tail", the "its" is possessive, but we don't use an apostrophe because with an apostrophe it becomes a contraction for "it is". Totally illogical, but it's nonetheless conventional.

This is why the context must always be considered when deciding upon grammar, spelling and punctuation.

With English, too, it's almost always possible -- and sometimes preferable -- just to rewrite the sentence. Hence, "What was the biggest event of the Eighties?" or ". . . of the 1980s?" skips the sticky question entirely, and is just as clear.

 

[finmile]

I would like to take this opportunity to get my English reviewed.

I hope that someone is willing to check (roughly) how many errors I have in the text below, and the severity of the errors. Please note, that I tried my very best, and used about 3 hours to write this text (and check it, and recheck it, etc). I haven't got this kind of exam for over ten years, so it will be exciting to hear the results!


My native language is Finnish. I have studied English at school for nine years. Three years at elementary school, three years at middle school, and three years at high school. My English was first time in real use at university, where some of the teaching material was in English. Nowadays I need English in my daily work, as the company where I work at is multinational and English is the official company language. Fortunately, written English is all I usually need.

In addition the things mentioned above, I have been in English "language immersion" my whole life. On TV about 50% of the programs are in English, usually made in the USA. We have subtitles on every TV program which isn't in Finnish, except programs for children which are dubbed. So, one can hear foreign languages on a daily basis. I think that's great for two reasons:
1) It forces everybody to read Finnish every day (on the subtitles), which enhances people's ability to read
2) I think the movies and TV programs lose some of their originality when dubbed

One more point about English I'd like to add is, that all computer programs are usually in English. Especially all computer games. So, if this doesn't motivate young men to learn English, then what does!

Some words about why I joined to BITOG. I believe I started with the same question as everybody else: What's the best motor oil? It took some 100 hours of reading of the old posts in BITOG to eventually discover the final truth: It depends...

After that important oil related question was sorted out, I understood that BITOG is a fun and useful place where I could practice also my English. So, not only would I learn new things about oil, but also I would learn new words and idioms by reading. And most importantly, I could enhance my written English by contributing to the discussions in the forum. After about 100 posts to this forum in one year, I feel that I have succeeded in this. And today, I'm proud to say that my English is much better and more versatile now, than what it was a year ago.

I must emphasize that the misspelling in all my previous posts in this thread were done on purpose. The goal was to have some fun, and to create a fault in every sentence I wrote. But in this text I tried my very best to avoid all errors in spelling and grammar I possible could.

I have collected the whole process of writing this text below, so you can see what kind of effort it was for me to write this text. My guess is that most of the errors in my text will be with the prepositions: in, on, at, of, etc. It's sometimes hard to tell which one I should pick. I'm also prepared for the fact, that the word order might have been awkward in some places.

So, how many errors did you find? Were the errors bad? And was it obvious that it was written by someone that isn't a native English speaker?

At the end I would like to say that I agree with you all, that good language increases the credibility of the writer. And that's why I always target for the best possible English in my posts.

Gentlemen, keep up the good work!

Details about the writing process:

Hard parts, which I had to google:
- English language. With big or small first letter
- School system naming
- It depends => Checked if this is ok to be said
- Is BITOG a message board, an internet forum, a site, or what?
- A "post" in an internet forum => Is the "post" the correct term for a message
- Not only ... but also => Checked how this is used
- Credibility => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Native English speaker => Didn't know how to say this correctly
- Target for => Checked if this was the correct way to say that I pursue something, aim at something
- Keep up the good work => Checked if I had this correctly

Part of the text, where I suspect that the grammar is incorrect, but I can't figure out how I should write it:
- "enhances people's ability to read" => People's... Should I use some other word?

Words I did first write incorrectly, but MS Word's spell checker saved me:
- grammatics => grammar
- wery => very (oops...)

Words I did check from the dictionary:
- Dictionary => Didn't remember this word
- Severity => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Especially => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Recheck => I wrote with hyphen first, but according to the dictionary it's without one
- Hyphen => Didn't remember this word
- Exam => Didn't remember this word
- Multinational => I wrote this with hyphen first, but according to the dictionary it's without one
- Nowadays => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Except => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Children => Checked that this is for sure plural
- For sure => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Plural => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Teaching material => Didn't sound right, but the dictionary did confirm that I was right
- People => Is a problematic word, is it a plural already or not?
- Originality => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Eventually => I had forgotten this word
- Confirm => Didn't remember this word
- Related => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Sort out => Checked if "out" is the correct second word
- Idiom => Checked if I remembered this word correctly
- Contribute => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Versatile => Didn't know this word
- Emphasize => Checked if I remembered this word correctly
- Misspelling => Checked if I remembered this word correctly
- Sentence => Checked if I remembered this word correctly
- Suspect => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Word order => Didn't know how to say this
- Awkward => Checked the correct spelling
- Spelling => Checked if I remembered the meaning of this word correctly
- Closing words => Didn't know how to say this

Words where I almost went wrong:
- Loose vs. lose