There their and they're

[Deathgrowl]

Grammer Nazi detected... JK

... Sorry, I can't help it!

[Asmodea]

My contribution to grammar class:

Some NSFW language:

Hidden: show

[Young Werther]

But have you caught the meanig?

Hidden: show

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
---Those who find beautiful meanigs in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
Oscar Wilde

[Vermilion]

I don't know about this one, guys.

I'm a native English speaker and I think (hope) my spelling and grammar are typically okay (though I do use the archaic small island form of English, obviously )

However, there are loads of international players here whose English is much better than my Spanish/French/Brazilian Portuguese/Cantonese/Xhosa/Danish/Russian/whatever could ever hope to be.

With that in mind, I don't like to judge other people's use of English.

[Nyeleni]

As for mentioning this error: I just read it so many times. In rp where autocorrect isn't involved and on the forum where it might.
I thought it might help some people. If you are personally offended, however, I apologize.

But have you caught the meanig?

Hidden: show

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
---Those who find beautiful meanigs in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.
Oscar Wilde

Oh, too bad you didn't get the meanig. But I can transcribe it for ya: Haters will hate.

[Deathgrowl]

Offended? Honestly, it's a fairly innocent thing to point out. It also brought some fun conversation!

[Young Werther]

Being a native English speaker and having barely squeaked through grammar class all the same it is appreciated. I've looked this stuff up an embarrassing amount of times.

[Maecius]

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style is probably one of the best books I know on writing style and grammar rules:

https://archive.org/details/pdfy-2_qp8jQ61OI6NHwa

Since it's a style guide, not all of its suggestions are mandatory. But chapter 4 is devoted exclusively to words and expressions commonly misused. For example:

Disinterested. Means "impartial." Do not confuse it with uninterested, which means "not interested in."

Let a disinterested person judge our dispute, (an impartial person)
This man is obviously uninterested in our dispute, (couldn't care less)

And yes, "couldn't care less" is in there:

Care less. The dismissive "I couldn't care less" is often used with the shortened "not" mistakenly (and mysteriously) omitted: "I could care less." The error destroys the meaning of the sentence and is careless indeed.

[Tsidkenu]

Languages change over time anyway (usually in the direction of complex -> simple), evidenced in English today by the increasing abandonment of irregular comparatives/superlatives (eg. good -> better -> best) to the regular forms (good -> more good -> most good). Some folks even combine the two (more better). Listen out for it, even on CNN or other reputable news channels. Irregular comparatives/superlatives are rare indeed now, and yes that should be an encouragement to English students that you can now just be lazy like the rest of us, learn your adjectives and then shove more/most in front and you're good to go.

Dictionary definitions are the same thing. A dictionary does not record concrete, once-for-all-time meanings of words but rather meanings of word usage over time. As words expand or change in meaning over time and their usage adapts to new contextual situations, dictionaries require updating to keep track of those changes. Historical usage of a word does not invalidate usage in alternate contexts in the modern world to many a grammar Nazi's chagrin.

[Zanniej]

So, since we're going to talk about language, we can't go without the Oxford Comma! (then again, a lot of people can )





(sorry, again couldn't pick)

[K'yon Oblodra]

Language is a funny beast. Thanks for the guide Maecius will look into it later. Might actually help me with my stories

[Blackhorizon]

It's funny what your fingers type while you aren't looking. Has happened so many times that the sentence you imagined in your head didn't quite make it on the screen in the exact same form. Those three are pretty easy typos but sometimes you get a whole different word! Now try to cypher that

[Flasmix]

lol y u so mad? Ur just not 1337

[Mork]

[Tsidkenu]

Saw a job ad today. They said it was a fast paste environment. That had me stuck.