Irish people and possessive pronouns...

brianthebard

Yazacoo wrote: »

My grammer is awful, along with my spelling... I suppose thats why I'm not a writer. It also means I have to pay more attention to my lettering in my drawings and buisness documents. I have a basic grasp of grammer but where can I learn it all? I have the oxford book of grammer but even when I read it, I'm terrified that I'll get something wrong. That's why I get people who know more to check it out for me before it's used.

But that does not mean I'm "an underclass" of society.
I'm just not good with grammer all the time.

would you consider getting a junior cert english book or even a sixth class one?You just need to take the fear away by practising imo.

5starpool

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

You should try being mod of poker and gambling and see how often it is used there!!! Really annoys me too. Being and been is another one that gets to me.

ixoy wrote: »

I think they'd say:

IBM have increased profits by 20%.

and leave out the possessive pronoun.

I would use the thanks button, but this being afterhours it is absent, so thanks.

javaboy

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Businesses who use a combination of '€' and 'c' in one price, (e.g. €1.99c).

How retarded can you get?

Another example is the price list in my work dining area:

"Soup 0.50c"

I joked with the catering manager that the soup was great value but he hadn't a clue what was wrong with it. :rolleyes:

I am not alone.

vektarman

ziggy wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

That annoys me aswell
and people who spell a lot as alot

earlyevening

"Heighth" and "lengt" are my favourite common mispronounciations. This is followed closely by "thongue".

Ste.phen

Let's not forget
your = yizzer
your (pl) = yizzizer

as in 'get yizzizer asses back hee-ur or oil bait ya'

rowlandbrowner

I find a horrendous amount of Irish people struggle with both written and spoken Irish, interestingly there seems to be a direct correlation between a person’s command of linguistics and the views they hold in regard to foreign nationals. I have seen a perfect example of this recently spray painted on the side of the Mill Shopping Centre in Clondalkin, written in big red letters was “Foreners go home”, I laughed, as did my Foren girlfriend (who pulls me up on my grammar and spelling all the time).

Blisterman

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

Businesses who use a combination of '€' and 'c' in one price, (e.g. €1.99c).

How retarded can you get?

Another example is the price list in my work dining area:

"Soup 0.50c"

I joked with the catering manager that the soup was great value but he hadn't a clue what was wrong with it. :rolleyes:

Just be glad you don't like in France.

Prices are spelled 30€ everywhere. A holdover from Francs. It looks so wrong to my eyes.


It's/Its is a weird one.

Surely, in the example, "He broke its wheel" it should be spelled "It's" as in belonging to it, but it's not.

Can anyone explain this to me?

Honey-ec

Actually I think the American version of question 17 in that quiz would be:

"IBM has increased its profits..." or whatever the rest of the sentence was.

Phlann

Blisterman wrote: »

J
It's/Its is a weird one.

Surely, in the example, "He broke its wheel" it should be spelled "It's" as in belonging to it, but it's not.

Can anyone explain this to me?

Yeah, it's counter-intuitive but it's is always a contraction of 'it is' or 'it has' while its always indicates the possessive.

I don't know why it's like that but I'd like to think that the rule is there to avoid confusion. Because that would be pretty damn funny :pac:

Whyner

Don't use an apostrophe with possessive pronouns, i.e. hers, yours, its.

The ONLY personal possessive pronoun with an apostrophe is "one's".

knoxor

Would the problem with the ellipsis not be a punctuation error rather than a grammatical error ?

Not that I'm a grammar nazi or anything. You may complain about the misuse of language in text messages or emails but is this a matter of language evolution ?

Phlann wrote: »

No he's not!

The first part of his statement is clumsy and uneconomical and - wait for this - the ellipsis at the end of his post contains just two full stops!

I think he's a disgrace and should be ashamed of himself, quite frankly.

Shall we make this the official grammar nazi thread?

Phlann

All hail the new Fuhrer

knoxor

Ah, you're too kind, why if I hadn't had the support of my family and friends...

Rozabeez

Got a delivery in work last week, on of the PJ tops has the caption, "Cat's meow".

Lol.

Sherifu

Phlann wrote: »

It's really not that complicated... is there a problem with our primary schools or something?

More likely a problem with memory or laziness.

pickarooney

Honey-ec wrote: »

Actually I think the American version of question 17 in that quiz would be:

"IBM has increased its profits..." or whatever the rest of the sentence was.

The US version would have: IBM has increased its profits by 120%.

pickarooney

Rozabeez wrote: »

Got a delivery in work last week, on of the PJ tops has the caption, "Cat's meow".

Lol.

Yeah, as in "that's the cat's meow", i.e. something deadly, like "the bee's knees".

Honey-ec

Phlann wrote: »

All hail the new Fuhrer

Surely you mean Fuehrer??? :-)

Or Führer

Dear God, I'm actually correcting German grammar & punctuation now. I need help...

Phlann

I mean the latter, but I wasn't sure how to get the umlaut over the u.

How did you do it?

SuperGrover

Some of the spelling and grammar is so bad.

It leaps out at me and I have wondered why it doesn't do the same to the writers.

I am pretty sure that it comes from not reading enough books. If you see something written correctly often enough, then when it is incorrect it is really obvious.

Honey-ec

Phlann wrote: »

I mean the latter, but I wasn't sure how to get the umlaut over the u.

How did you do it?

I did it in word and copied & pasted it!

RefulgentGnomon

rowlandbrowner wrote:

I find a horrendous amount of Irish people struggle with both written and spoken Irish, interestingly there seems to be a direct correlation between a person’s command of linguistics and the views they hold in regard to foreign nationals. I have seen a perfect example of this recently spray painted on the side of the Mill Shopping Centre in Clondalkin, written in big red letters was “Foreners go home”, I laughed, as did my Foren girlfriend (who pulls me up on my grammar and spelling all the time).

There was a story about graffiti saying "Foreigner's out" where somebody had written under it "But he'll be back later"

pickarooney wrote:

The US version would have: IBM has increased its profits by 120%

I seriously doubt that as that would be just plain wrong mathematically.

Funnliy enough,Eddie Hobbs caused a furore after telling us on Rip-off Republic that wine shops had marked-up/increased the price they paid by 340% from c. €7.00 to c. €24.00 (Can't remember the exact figures). The wine merchants were in the papers the weekend after saying there is no way that they have a mark-up of 340%.
Nobody (No journalists, viewers, wine merchants etc.) seemed to realise if you looked at the figures he showed on the programme, it was 240%!

The FAI have also made this mistake in reporting increases in prize money before...

You'd think one person would notice before reporting it...

Nuggles

SuperGrover wrote: »

I am pretty sure that it comes from not reading enough books. If you see something written correctly often enough, then when it is incorrect it is really obvious.

Now that I think of it, all grammar fiends are big readers and all those who repetitively destroy it are tv watchers.

smemon

I never read books and rarely would i read papers, yet my english is superlative :pac:

Quite often i'd make mistakes when typing... that's just down to my hands not being able to keep up with my brain

A combination of web 2.0, txt msgs and dumb celebrities have contributed to our current grammar crisis imo.

It drives me nuts when Irish people say 'i'll learn ye' - they know it's wrong yet they say it anyway?

m@cc@

ejmaztec wrote: »

Fair enough, people can slip into bad habits and forget what they were taught. Some others never got it in the first place.

You'd expect sign-writers not to slip up and have these permanent displays of their ignorance bolted to the front of a shop or attached to a post.

A guy in the local town opened a shop. He sold antiques, so to avoid any confusion, he named the shop "Antiques". A local sign-writer attached a large fancy-looking wooden board above the window. The board said "Antique's". I tried to explain to the shop-owner that the sign-writer had screwed up by sticking the apostrophe on it, but he didn't know what the fucking hell I was talking about.

The sign was never changed, but remained there until the shop eventually closed down and was demolished (probably by the grammar nazis).

Any individual who calls a shop "Antiques" is not going to be concerned about apostrophes.

m@cc@

smemon wrote: »

I never read books and rarely would i read papers, yet my english is superlative :pac:

Quite often i'd make mistakes when typing... that's just down to my hands not being able to keep up with my brain

A combination of web 2.0, txt msgs and dumb celebrities have contributed to our current grammar crisis imo.

It drives me nuts when Irish people say 'i'll learn ye' - they know it's wrong yet they say it anyway?

For humour purposes I would have though.