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Common misteaks

Tue, 09/02/2003 - 3:28pm — eddycurrents

People constantly get confused with it's and its. I see the wrong useage in professional memos and signs all the time, and once on CNN (smack that editor!).

So here it's:

it's = contraction of "it is", e.g. "it's confusing, true, but still"
its = possessive of it, e.g. "CNN should be ashamed of its mistake"

So only use an apostrophe for the contraction, *never* for the possessive. This goes against the way all other possessives work, but it's the only way to avoid confusion with the contraction.

‹ Tip from Stephen King The Rule of 3 ›

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Tue, 09/02/2003 - 3:45pm — eddycurrents

Re:Common misteaks

Here is another one. In the pursuit of sounding snooty, people often confuse "I" and "me". They use the object form, "me", in place of the subject form, "I".

E.g.

-- "Thomas needs you to send that report to Dave and I."

WRONG!

"I" is a subject pronoun. It is only used for the doer of the action. It should be:

-- "Thomas needs you to send that report to Dave and me."

"me" is an object pronoun. It is only used for the receiver of the action.

The problem is, many people (especially simpletons in suits) try to sound more important by puffing up their language. Lost in their ignorance, they will even (in)correct you if you use the correct form, e.g.:

-- "Hey Bob, can you send that report to Dave and me?"

-- "You mean, 'Dave and I'."

-- "No, I meant 'Dave and me'", mentally adding "you idiot".

The easiest way to tell if you are using the wrong form is to try the sentence without any other objects, e.g.:

-- "Thomas needs you to send that report to I."

Without the extra object(Drunk, it's obvious this is wrong.

Conversely, people sometimes use "me" as a subject, e.g.:

-- "Me and Dave will send you that report."

This is easy to spot, but again, strip out the extra subject, and it's even more obvious:

-- "Me will send you that report."

Fix it with:

-- "I and Dave will send you that report."

Or, by convention to make it sound smoother, put "I" last in the list of subjects:

-- "Dave and I will send you that report."

—

I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.

Wed, 09/03/2003 - 8:35am — eddycurrents

Re:Common misteaks

And here is another example to add to the previous post. This seems to be the latest way for simpletons in suits to sound snooty:

"That was confirmed by Eric and myself."

"myself" is a reflexive pronoun mainly used when you are speaking and pointing back at yourself, e.g. "I got myself a fig newton", or in certain idioms like "I ate it by myself." In these cases, "myself" is used when the speaker also becomes the object of discussion, not just a participant in it.

This is simpler and more direct, therefore better:

"That was confirmed by Eric and me."

People are now overusing "myself" in place of "me". While not as wrong as using "I" in place of "me", it's not correct either.

Why do people find "me" so repulsive? Ok, don't answer that.

—

I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.

Thu, 09/25/2003 - 1:44pm — eddycurrents

Re:Common misteaks

Here's another pair of words people mix up all the time: affect and effect.

It's actually very simple:

[b]Affect is a verb, effect is a noun.[/b]

Thus you affect something, and something has an effect.

Simple.

—

I'm not a complete idiot -- some parts are missing.

Wed, 10/01/2003 - 11:31pm — DaveK
DaveK's picture

Re: Common misteaks

[quote="eddycurrents"]...

This goes against the way all other possessives work, but it's the only way to avoid confusion with the contraction.[/quote]

Not quite the way of all posessives. I remember its is like his, no apostrophe.

Dave (I almost never make an absolute statement) K