People who speak English,First of all, I hope the poster above makes you cringe when you read it. Will people ever stop using "your" and "you're" incorrectly? Today I saw "your hot" written on a car with car chalk and it just pushed my tolerance for this ubiquitous mistake over the edge.
If you went through 5th grade then you should be able to use these homonyms correctly. In fact, I think I might fight the school system in favor of a "No graduation until you can demonstrate the difference between these homonyms and promise that you will never use them incorrectly" standard. It is not hard. You use "your" when you talk about possession (ex: I love your new car). You use "you're" as a contraction for when you want to say "you are" (ex: You're hot). The End!
If a person makes this mistake, I automatically have less respect for their intelligence. It would probably be kindest if I assume that they are ignorant of the rule, BUT I am not perfect. Please be vigilant and try to correct or inform people that do not follow this grammar rule. PLEASE!
Side note: I sound like Lynne Truss, the author of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." The lady does fight for a good cause.
I do agree with you Ashley. It also bothers me when people write "then" instead of "than" when making a comparison. I guess the sign promotes people to learn how to speak English and not to learn how to write it :P
ReplyDeleteYeah. I really appreciated learning all of that stuff in school. You're right about the sign. Still, it's pretty hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteAmen, girl! Are you sure you're (not YOUR) not an English major : ). I doubt a non-native English speaker would make the "your/you're" mistake because they've actually learned the language, unlike the person who wrote that sign. The mistake that bugs me is when people use "I" as the direct object of the sentence. For example, "My dad took my cousins and I to the park." This is so WRONG! You would never say, "My dad took I to the park." Adding "my cousins" changes nothing, NOTHING I say! I've also noticed, when I use the correct grammatical structure ("My dad took my cousins and me to the park."), people judge me because they think I'm the uneducated one. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI totally know what you are saying. The world is full of idiots who manage to graduate high school and still make these mistakes. I have a TESOL minor and I teach a French, which means I have taken a couple of linguistics classes and teach how language grammar works. I have always been aware of stuff like that. Andrew is a grammar nerd too.
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