February 24, 2009
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Grammarish: Five Problems I Solve in Entries
I edit beaucoup d’entries every day…here are five issues that come up all the time.
1. since vs. because: since is temporal/refers to a starting point.
Since starting my job, I’ve deleted 30,403 accounts.
If it’s cause and effect, use “because” instead.
Since Because I’m too lazy to go myself, I’ll bribe someone to buy coffee.
It should be noted that I interchanged “since” and “because” for many moons, but my editor in college headbutted me until I understood. Kidding. Vaguely.
2. “should/could/would of”
Should have. End of story. I had a friend who write “I should of done xyz” and “I was sapost to”. Facepalm.
3. Mixed modifiers
Mike is a guy with a pet turtle who works at Barnes and Noble.
Mike, is a guy with a pet turtle, who works at Barnes and Noble.
4. “I proceeded to do xyz”
You sound like you are testifying on Judge Judy when you say you proceeded to do anything. You went on to do this. Better yet, you did this.
I think sometimes people stick “proceeded to” in sentences to denote steps in a process or to make it sound more arduous than whatever the situation actually required.
“Proceeded to” can actually work if it doesn’t precede a verb. Example:
With my climbing prowess and sheer determination, I proceeded to the next stage of Ninja Warrior.
not
I proceeded to punch Marjorie in the throat.5. “me and my boyfriend went xyz”
PROTIP: take out the rest of the phrase and see if it still makes sense.
wrong: She invited my boyfriend and I to the circus.
right: She invited me and my boyfriend to the circus.okay, I think that’s it. ty4yt
Grammatically speaking, what messes you up when you’re writing? I still get lay and lie confused.
Comments (53)
I am not the best at writing, my grammar is sometimes terrible, sometimes it does come down to my disability
but I do try my hardest to make sure my entries make sense.
How to pluralize “mongoose”.
Is it “mongeese”?
This haunts me.
Its it’s and its’ confuse me to no end. And also effect and affect. Actually, apostrophes in general confuse me.
@lotta_valdez - http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_plural_for_mongoose
@StewieIsMyHero - why thank you
A pointer that helped me with apostrophes: it only goes away when you’re talking about ownership.
“The cat showed its teeth.”
In all other cases, the apostrophe stays.
It is really hard sometimes for those of us who grew up with another language. Pennsylvania Dutch and German are so much easier then English.
@StewieIsMyHero - That is one of my biggest issues with grammar. It is usually punctuation that truly screws me up, though.
Sometimes I feel like correcting grammar on the internet is like bailing out a ship with a sieve – but I applaud your effort nonetheless.
@StewieIsMyHero - Somewhat relevant to your query: http://www.bay-of-fundie.com/img/2007/bob-its.500.gif
I reflexively post that whenever the question comes up
Lay, lie, laid, lain, laying, lying… Sadly, the only time I’m 100% positive I’m using any form of that word correctly is in talking about sex. Which I generally don’t do, which is why I’m so paranoid about proper usage.
I appreciate this post and punctuation of any kind is something I’ve always struggled with. Thank you.
Oh, I so love you for this.
I can’t stand when I see people confusing its and it’s. That just makes me positively homocidal.
Don’t even get me started on breathe v.s. breath.
“to BREATHE is to take a BREATH”, god damnit, one does not take a “breathe!” (You’d laugh, but I see this disturbingly often…)
Alright, lol…. grammar nazi done, and kudos for this post!
EVERYTHING confuses me… I bought, Eat’s, Shoot’s and Leaves… I probably punctuated that wrong…
You could give Lynn Truss a run for her money!
Oh, I use the ellipsis TOO MUCH!
The point of me buying it was that I still haven’t read it. You could probably tell that.
Parenthesis (did I spell that right?). Haha. Where does the puctuation go when you use them?
I never know when to add or not add a comma before “since” and “because”.
@nimbusthedragon - i see that all the time too!
there’s still one or two that get me hung up but often it’s just a failure to re-read. i love gramma’
oh yeah its vs. it’s bothers me to death!!!
Alot – it is not one word. It is two words.
Lay and lie really confuse me too. I use it wrong all of the time.
I love grammar Nazis.Bless you.
I get lay and lie confused, too. And…that’s all.
I’ll have to keep my eyes on “because and since.” I’ve never thought on that before.
My pet peeve is when people omit commas and that no-one uses semi-colons.
It annoys me with lists too.
Here (in the UK), they don’t use a comma before the and. (e.g. I bought a cat, a house and a bucket). I lived in the US when I was a kid and now it just annoys me.I still don’t know which one I should use….(:
My mom always told me only people can lie (down), and you lay down an object.
I hate the misuse of “then/than”.
Great post, Natalia. I’m with you all the way!
I love you. My grammar’s instinctual which means it sucks ass and then some. That aside, I do admit to using incorrect grammar when writing even when I know it is incorrect. Number 1 is a perfect example. I know it is wrong but I do it anyways. You can spank me now.
I see you didn’t bother explaining restrictive and non-restrictive appositives alongside mixed modifiers.
For more help: the important distinction is that lay requires a direct object and lie does
not. So you lie down on the sofa (no direct object), but you lay the
book down on the table (the book is the direct object).
&
The majority of the time you use affect with an a as a verb and effect with an e as a noun.
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My personal pet peeve is when people use “i.e.” and “e.g.” interchangeably.
@TheyPutAMindInThere - yeswellspaceconstraints
thanks for the lie/lay tutorial. i’ll get it one of these days.
thumbs-up on the e.g., too. i take about three “i.e.”s a day.
When I get too engrossed in bad grammar I start to write in that fashion. So I am going to pretend I never read this.
Priceless!
Interesting – I do love a good grammar entry! However, ‘since’ also has the conjunction meaning (synonymous with ‘because’ or ‘seeing that’) as well as its adverbial temporal meaning here in the UK. Maybe North Americans don’t have that meaning. Or maybe they had it once and then decided to ban it, as seems to happen sometimes.
And ‘proceeded to do something’ is acceptable here too. It means to go on to do do something. A bit different from just saying you did something. It denotes the next step in a process, as you suggest. It’s been used like that for centuries. Am fascinated as to why Americans have decided to rule out that one.
I wonder why so many people mess up with grammar? No offense, but it’s child’s play to me.
Omgosh I LOVE Judge Judy! She got my mom 5000 dollars
oh gosh i love this post. nothing makes my heart melt more than a grammar lesson. except sometimes saying “i proceeded to…” is ok with me, it puts a humorous tone on the sentence.
on a spelling note: it drives me NUTS how many people spell “since” wrong. i see so many blogs where people put “sense” meaning “since”
@nimbusthedragon - grammar nazis? no one is a nazi.
@SolemnDysphoria - omg, i need to hear this story. i watched the show religiously for a while in college
@owbert - …. it’s an expression, dude. It means someone who is totally strict (to the point of genocide, perhaps not, but you get the idea) with grammar.
I’m not certain if someone has already covered this, but “lay” is an active verb. If you place a book on a table, you are laying it on the table. Come to think of it, that’s not a bad way to remember it.
“Lie,” on the other hand, is passive. You just lie there in bed. It doesn’t help that “lay” is also the past tense of “lie.”
I love it when poeple mess up there grammer, it makes me feel humen.
I enjoyed reading your post today! I have always disliked sentences that the person “went” instead of “said” or “goes” instead of “says.”"
@nimbusthedragon - ah i got it, chick. i take my genocide seriously.
@owbert - Awesome. Grammatical genocide would be justified.
I mess up on a whole bunch of things, but I figure that it makes me me. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
I always want to start my sentences with because or and…
who vs whom. “Steinbeck was a great writer, whom was….” (sounds funny..?)
Thank you for featuring my question, Natalia.
also, to further complicate things, lay is the past participle of lie. i remember this from precision language.
“beaucoup d’entries” made me laugh SO hard…
but yes, i am so glad you wrote this!!
i was told that it is always, ALWAYS, “[person] and I,” never “me and [person];” that you always list yourself last as a form of courtesy. either my 2nd grade english teacher was too humble, or the english language is less humble than she made it seem.
also, “this is him/her” irks me when people answer the phone. i KNOW that “this is he/she” is correct, but it just sounds so dumb. therefore, i narc on everyone who uses it incorrectly for some grammar karma.
I’m horrible at grammar. Surprised, actually, that people still read what I post.
OH NO, NATALIA!! You just said:
“I had a friend who write …”
Someone call the Grammar Police!! lol.
I just had to tease you and point that out.
I’m sure I commit grammar crimes fairly often myself (such as using “since” in place of “because”). But I’m glad you’re aware of them all!
Thank you! Nothing irritates me more than people who write at a fifth grade level but try to come of as overly intelligent. Figure out which your/you’re goes where and use it correctly, people!
You are better at it than I am. I have given up on correct punctuation for myself and others.