Grammatical Errors which are common nowadays (irony)
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Can not instead of cannot
According to Grammarly
Don’t use can not when you mean cannot. The only time you’re likely to see can not written as separate words is when the word “can” happens to precede some other phrase that happens to start with “not”:
- We can not only break even, but also turn a profit.
- The company’s new product can not only reduce emissions, but also trap some of the existing greenhouse gasses.
Which instead of that
According to Grammar Girl
A restrictive clause is just part of a sentence that you can't get rid of because it specifically restricts some other part of the sentence. Here's an example:
- Gems that sparkle often elicit forgiveness.
A nonrestrictive clause is something that can be left off without changing the meaning of the sentence. You can think of a nonrestrictive clause as simply additional information. Here's an example:
- Diamonds, which are expensive, often elicit forgiveness.
What pushes your buttons?
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@Pesala Surely the worst (and most common) is confusing YOUR and YOU'RE ?
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@TbGbe I would not class them as grammatical errors; they are typos that anyone can make even if they know the correct form because they sound alike:
- they're, there, their
- your, you're
- it's for its may be considered as grammatical errors as with many other misuse of the apostrophe.
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@TbGbe I have a bookful of difficult word usages. If you like I'll post a few of them periodically... but misused words do not usually fit in with the heading Gramatical Errors.
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@Pesala said in Grammatical Errors which are common nowadays (irony):
they are typos that anyone can make
Without the apostrophe in YOU'RE, I might agree with you. But as you said for "it's", the apostrophe makes all the difference (I have seen errors with BOTH)!
@greybeard I agree that spelling mistakes (e.g. lose <-> loose) are not grammatical, but "misused" again depends on context and (of course) I am NOT referring to non-native English speakers (as 1st language).
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Not sure if they're grammatical errors per se, but what triggers me are the people who treat web forums like a chat room like IRC, and wilfully break the rules we all have learned to make text easily readable. Maybe to appear "cool" or "edgy"...
Stuff like:
- No capitalisation at start of sentences.
- No capital "I".
- No space after punctuation.
- Little or no punctuation, aka "stream of consciousness" writing.
- No paragraphs or formatting, aka the "wall of text".
The worst is when one can read from various context clues that this person an native/fluent English speaker but they still choose to wilfully make their text harder to read.
Maybe they were home-schooled, I dunno
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@Pathduck said:
- Little or no punctuation, aka "stream of consciousness" writing.
This may have also other reasons — e. g. all English teachers always told me that the less commas I use, the less errors I make (and I must tell that the system is pretty different from the Czech one). (Btw., why do you think I use so many dashes? )
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@potmeklecbohdan That's true. There are people coming from different cultures who might not have the sames rules for punctuation as in the "western" world. Not talking about Czech here, which I assume is still pretty similar - more like Asian countries.
I know I overuse dashes as well - I like to refer to them as a thinking pause.
Here's an example from another forum a while back, this is a clear red flag for me:
"everyone who does tech support has reminders set on posts in there sections, but even then, depends on how many section your looking after, so add in, this isn't in the the tech support area, just one of the reasons it's not been seen or answered, and second point, as 99% of games here are for pc's only, there has never been any official support for anything none windows, unless someone wishes to answer, official policy is, if it's for windows, then you need windows to run it, not emulation, as it's not supported even if it works, as no one this side of the fences knows very little about it, so how can they help on a subject they don't know?"
Wow, that's quite a paragraph :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes:
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@Pathduck From such people should be required a TL;DR sentence (yes, a single sentence).
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Let me slip my twisted spoon.
English learner's memories during my teenage studies:1-"adjectives always come before nouns"
2-Adjectives have no plural
3-Verbs to have and to be do not admit the use of the auxiliary "do" to form negative and interrogative forms. In interrogative forms, the verb precedes the personal pronoun.
3-Not sure if the same about the verb "can", which does not allow the indicator particle "to". Same with "may"?
4 - For future verbal times, the first person singular and plural, "shall" is used instead of "will", as well as "should" and "would" for future of the past. (I always got the impression it was exclusive to British English)
5-The pronoun "I" is always written in capital I, even if it does not start the sentence.
I think that at OZ, at least someone does not obey anyway -
@Pathduck I counted a minimum of eighteen errors in that sentence. The author violated punctuation, spelling, usage, grammar, idiomatic and capitalization rules, and omitted necessary words. It is, in short, a dog's breakfast.
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I'm guilty of being confused about the usage of either which or that. But one of my pet peeves is seeing people say "IT MIGHT OF BEEN" like, what is wrong with these people??!
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@lisawick95 Yes, almost as bad as shouting.
It is something I often hear, but not so common in writing.
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If you don’t know the difference between “there,” “their,” and “they’re,” your a idiot.
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@TbGbe That is what makes it so funny.
Vivaldi needs a Grammar Checker Proof-Reader
I use the Language Tool Extension, which picks up the error, and the incorrect article for "a idiot."
If something like that was built-in, it would highlight most grammatical errors and suggest better phrasing.
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@TbGbe I prefer to listen to the professionals like Grammarly and Grammar Girl.
I went to a Grammar school where we were taught properly, though I admit that English was not my best subject. Standards have slipped a lot over my life-time. English in the US has changed almost beyond recognition in some cases.
P.S. If you are referring to my comment about typos not being grammatical mistakes, what I mean is that such errors in sound-alike words are very common due to the conversational nature of forums. Even though people know grammar, they mistype one word when they meant to use another. I make a lot of such errors, which is why we need a Grammar checker, and not just a spell-checker.