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There, their, they're.

#41
HaphAsSard said:
The Saxon genitive, while usually analysed as a clitic today, started out as an inflectional suffix for some noun classes, which was later extended, potentially, to all nouns/names, in the form <-es>, which was shortened to <'s> after the vowel was deleted in speech (everywhere but in front of sibilants). The pseudo-extended form "John, his dog" was actually a folk etymology, a (mistaken) reinterpretation of the apostrophe as standing for the shortening of a possessive instead of the clipping of a vowel.
Also, the possessive "its" is exactly what it seems: the (Saxon) genitive of "it". Well, "his" also is etymologically a genitive, but its derivation goes a lot further back in time (the ancestor of "her" was originally a dative, according to Wiktionary); the neuter possessive was the very same "his" in Old English while the newer "it(')s" completely replaced it for neuter duties only in the Seven-Hundreds. The problem with "its" is the fact that, although arguably it should, it doesn't align with the pattern of all other <'s> genitives by not having the apostrophe, which was reserved to the contraction of "it is": many spellers extend the pattern by analogy, in so committing one of the most frequent, and probably most venial, misspellings in English. (A misspelling I've found myself making a couple times recently - having learnt English through writing I'm usually subject to different mistakes than those native speakers make.)
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Well, then, I stand corrected. Thank you.
 
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#43
I saw a post from some young fellow the other day. He was stoked to get a reply back from Billy Sheehan, but the kid's original post to Sheehan was chock full of grammatical errors. "Your" in place of "You're" appeared a few times.

I was only just reading about half a dozen different people all referring to the Fender budget line as Squires.
 
#47
Killed_by_Death said:
I saw a post from some young fellow the other day. He was stoked to get a reply back from Billy Sheehan, but the kid's original post to Sheehan was chock full of grammatical errors. "Your" in place of "You're" appeared a few times.

I was only just reading about half a dozen different people all referring to the Fender budget line as Squires.
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Shouldn't that be William Sheehan?
(Just joking :) )
 
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#49
One that gets me is actually regarding incorrect pronunciation of the word "etcetera". SO many people pronounce it "ekcetera".

Someone mentioned earlier the unwarranted use of commas. I'm definitely guilty of that. I've been trying to keep tabs on it, but realize that I don't remember the particular rule(s) regarding comma usage. I mainly go by "feel".
 
#51
HaphAsSard said:
The Saxon genitive, while usually analysed as a clitic today, started out as an inflectional suffix for some noun classes, which was later extended, potentially, to all nouns/names, in the form <-es>, which was shortened to <'s> after the vowel was deleted in speech (everywhere but in front of sibilants).[…]
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Love this. Whenever you see it's, there can only ever be one correct interpretation. It's always signifies it is. With the apostrophe, once you get a handle on the reason for its absence, It's Easy!

You wouldn't write his' or her's, so it follows that you needn't write it (apostrophe) s either. Even without the apostrophe, there's no ambiguity. Whatever it is, it relates to him (his), or her (hers), or it (its). There's a uniformity there. A tidy logic, once you get the hang of it.
 
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#54
GKon said:
One that gets me is actually regarding incorrect pronunciation of the word "etcetera". SO many people pronounce it "ekcetera".

Someone mentioned earlier the unwarranted use of commas. I'm definitely guilty of that. I've been trying to keep tabs on it, but realize that I don't remember the particular rule(s) regarding comma usage. I mainly go by "feel".
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That reminds me of the people who say or write exscape for escape.
 
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#56
Here is an idiomatic and incorrect phrase that is commonly used. "Get it over with" should be "Get it over"

A mispronounced and incorrectly written word is "prolly" instead of the correct "probably".

I always chuckle when somebody says "I'm going to jump in the shower" or I "I jumped in the car". The correct phrases would be "I'm going to jump into the shower" or "I jumped into the car". I usually say that it works better if you stand still in the shower.
 
#60
Jason Brown said:
My guess as to why people use "noone" is because of the single words someone, somebody, and nobody. Just like almost everyone I know uses the imaginary word "heighth". All measurements must end with "th", right?
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I hear that a lot around here too.

Another one I've mentioned in grammars threads past is "texes" for "texts." Sounds like "Texas."

As in, "Mom's trying to get aholt of me, she sent me like, 5 texes in the last 10 minutes."
 

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