I have been watching this for so long on so many forums, that I can no longer sit by quietly without commenting on it.

With increasing frequency, people are mixing up similar words. Since the word itself is spelled correctly it is missed by the spellchecker. It's the context that is incorrect.


Examples:

1. your and you're

your: second person possesive
you're: contraction of 'you are'

incorrect: I think your nice.
correct: I think you're nice.


2. breathe and breath

breathe: (verb) to circulate air, as in the lungs
breath: (noun) a volume of air taken into the lungs

incorrect: It is hard to breath through my nose when I have allergies.
correct: It is hard to breathe through my nose when I have allergies.


3. its and it's

its: third person neutral possesive
it's: contraction of "it is"

incorrect: Its really hot today.
correct: It's really hot today.



If I had a dime for everytime someone mixed up just those three alone, I'd be a freakin' millionaire. Sadly, there are plenty more where they came from.

__________________
Cheers,
Meresa

There will be no second-class citizens in this society.
-- Chuck Panozzo

For more info check out Strong Bad's Rhythm N' Grammar at the end of the Flash presentation. (Click on the bicep)

__________________
Cheers,
Meresa

There will be no second-class citizens in this society.
-- Chuck Panozzo

Meresa:
To what do you attribute this "mixing" as you refer to it, of distinctly different words?

I will take a step here and attribute it to laziness: laziness brought on by reading the Internet vs. sitting down and reading a dictionary or an encycolopedia.

The laziness of SOME teachers to teach proper grammar, contributes as well. The cowardice of teachers afraid to fail and keep illiterates back, plays a large part.

When I went back to the university, at close to 40 years of age, I was appalled by what passes for composition these days.

I was shown Regents' Essay Examinations (required to exit college in Georgia), and what I saw written on some of them was laughable. I thought they were written by special-education students, not college graduates.

__________________
"May those who love us, love us. As for those who don't love us, may God turn their ankles, so we may know them by their limping." -- Ancient Irish proverb

oh yeah almost forgot this one. Number four:

4. there and their

there: adverb
their: third person plural possesive

incorrect: Is everyone happy with there results?
correct: Is everyone happy with their results?

Just saw an example of this one on another post. I won't name names, but you know who you are.

__________________
Cheers,
Meresa

There will be no second-class citizens in this society.
-- Chuck Panozzo

Thank you Billie Q for posting this, and thanks to Meresa for starting the thread that led to you posting this.

A lot of what you posted is exactly what I was thinking of when I posted about the lowering of educational standards in this country (United States).

You mentioned laziness. Yes, it is so much easier, and so much faster, to just watch the video of something as opposed to reading the book. (Personally, I like to read books, but that's just me) And you're also right about teachers being afraid to fail a student regardless of how poorly the student performs. The teacher is afraid of being sued out of a career, and so, the teacher lets the student go on to become someone else's problem. And we are all made to pay in the long run.

Andi

Andi:
Thanks for the support to my reply. Yes, the lowering of educational standards is but one symptom of a culture-wide "dumbing down" of the West.

If you'll notice, in my IQ poll thread, I did not list IQ's below 100. It was not so very long ago that many folks below 100 were considered retarded. But who is really retarded in the classic sense of the word, and who simply possesses a low IQ based on inherited traits?

This acceptance of cultural laziness/degradation gets into a whole political/sociological arena that I won't go into here. If you're interested, I saw a great article today entitled "The Politics of Retardation." Remember: "retarded" persons can now be let off the death penalty...

__________________
"May those who love us, love us. As for those who don't love us, may God turn their ankles, so we may know them by their limping." -- Ancient Irish proverb

Meresa, our own resident spell checker! Who needs to fiddle with cumbersome cutting & pasting -- we have you! But seriously, is it just me, or when you read grammatical/typographical/spelling errors, do you feel like someone just broke wind and neglected to excuse themselves?

Here's another:
5. woman and women
woman: singular noun
women: noun plural

Incorrect: I'd like to meet a beautiful women.

Correct: I'd like to meet a beautiful woman.

I've seen this one ad nauseum on a dating site...

__________________
"May those who love us, love us. As for those who don't love us, may God turn their ankles, so we may know them by their limping." -- Ancient Irish proverb

In every society on earth, since the beginning of recorded history, it's been considered perfectly correct to value beauty in all its various forms.

Anyone can play up their natural features to be aesthetically pleasing; beauty in the sense of perfectly-proportioned body measurements is extremely rare (watch the Desmond Morris series on public TV regarding sex & attraction for more on this subject).

A well-groomed, well cared-for body, spirit and mind speaks health to me, and that is VERY attractive.

The only thing I appreciate more than beauty is truth. Truth is beautiful.

__________________
"May those who love us, love us. As for those who don't love us, may God turn their ankles, so we may know them by their limping." -- Ancient Irish proverb