I know, I know: It pisses grammar-obsessed people off when those who are unenlightened misuse their poor, defenseless language... but it may piss off these unenlightened even more when they are corrected- especially before their "morning joe".
Well, to that I say- too bad! It is time for everyone to at the very least, learn (or re-learn) the few that really get our blood boiling.... I have even done you the service of highlighting them below:
1. You're and Your
An old one, to be sure, but a good one to start with nonetheless. It personally offends me when people cannot seem to grasp the difference between the first and the second. The first- a conjunction- is to be used for "you are", as in, 'You're stupid if you don't know the different between these words in your native language'. The second is possessive. If this word throws you off because you don't know words with that many syllables, then here's a little help: Possessive means it represents ownership. 'Your car is blue.' 'Your cat is ugly.' Get it? It's almost like when your parents hate your boyfriend because he's being too possessive; he won't let you do anything without him and acts like you're his property. 'Your boyfriend is going to get punched in the face by your brother.' See? Good.
2. 'Alot' Hint: it's really 'a lot'
Why do people try to combine these words? Better yet, why do they err on the side of combining any and every word??? It's ludicrous- and I don't meant the rapper/actor! Another that bothers me is "eachother". Who on EARTH thought THIS was a good idea???? (Now, I hate the use of excessive punctuation, but I really feel as if in the case of the dreaded 'eachother', it is completely necessary.) Chances are, if it looks dumb, it's wrong. And if it's underlined in a red squiggle, then it's really wrong, because people have become so stupid and reliant on technology to correct all of their errors that we have Spell Check on everything now. It's a little sick.
3. 'You and I', 'You and me', 'She and I'... etc.
Why can't people seem to get this one? It was just a few days ago that I used the correct terms together, and someone actually questioned me on it. I know this one can be a little tough because certain teachers always poisoned kids growing up by teaching them to always say 'she and I' or 'you and I', etc., but that is just WRONG!
The trick to this one is really very simple: just take out the other person, and see if it sounds wrong. If I said. "She and I are going to the movies", that's correct, because without 'she', it'd be- with the correct tense of the verb are/am- 'I am going to the movies'. Hence, you would use 'I'.
However, if someone asked you who went to the movies, you wouldn't reply, 'Sarah and I', because without Sarah, you'd sound like a pretentious jerk saying 'I' by itself. You'd say 'Me', wouldn't you? So, with Sarah, it's still 'Sarah and me'.
4. They're, Their, and There
Really? Come on.
