Dear Grammar Idiots

[superbadgirl]

Yes, I'm talking to you.

"Your" and "you're" are actually very simple to differentiate. Rather than explaining possessives and contractions, as that seems to make people's heads spin, I'll simply state that if you can break the word you're using in any given sentence into "you" and "are", then you should use "you're." If that's not what you mean, then go with "your."

SIMPLE.

Also please note that the past tense of drag is not drug. Drug is either a pharmaceutical or, as a verb, means to give someone a pharmaceutical. Dragged is the word you want. Really.

Past and passed are not interchangeable. Costumer when you mean customer is just plain embarrassing. Bemused is not the same thing as amused.

Do not get me started on the then/than issue so many of you seem to have. That one is also simple to understand if you just think about it for half a second or so.

My advice: get a beta who has a clue, and instead of just using her/him as a tool, learn from her/him.

Sincerely,

Girl Who Shouldn't Read at Fanfiction.net

Comments

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

RE: lie/lay: My advice is that if you don't know the difference, reword the sentence to use a different construction or a different word.

The other day, I read a fanfic that started with:

"He lied on the couch..." LOL

Some writers now use italics for speech - yes, darlings it may be trendy and cool, but I can't bloody READ it and isn't that the point?

I would say the same thing about people who post on LJ without any capital letters or punctuation. *g* If nobody can read it, what's the point of posting at all?

I'd probably screw up bring/take, though. lol

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

The lay/lie thing is getting more and more muddled. I think it's because so many people are reading it in fan fiction and getting confused by not knowing it's wrong and copying it. I've got that reply on lots of posts where I have corrected the drug/dragged thing. The writer says they didn't know as they have only seen the drug word used.

Which is another reason I wish for better in fan fiction - if you read something too often that is wrong and let's face it a lot of computer youngsters only read on the computer, the confusion just becomes compounded.

The bring/take thing - I don't think you would screw that up - it's all to do with movement. Bring suggests movement towards the speaker or writer and take suggests motion away from. You bring things with you or to you and take them away. :))

I can forgive typos, we all do them and you can easily see from the rest of the piece where one has happened, three times on one single word though and I presume the writer has lost the plot....but maybe I'm a bit harsh.