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5 Embarrassing Grammatical Mistakes

encarta.msn.com — As hard as it was to watch him smile and answer my questions, the salad to-go didn't cost him the job. The grammatical errors on his Web site--a spelling error and a missing comma--were another story, though. As gross as the spinach was, I could look away from it. Typos, on the other hand, I could not ignore, and as nice as he was, I had to turn

Who dugg this? Made popular Jan 20, 2008

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244 Comments

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  • bstew22, on 01/20/2008, -7/+102you're story was great.
  • prototypeangel, on 01/20/2008, -1/+79I've heard capitalization is the difference between "I helped my uncle Jack off a donkey" and "I helped my uncle jack off a donkey"

    Imagine how much of difference grammar would make?
  • vroom101, on 01/20/2008, -10/+70DIGG have there own very compeatent grammer editor's, so why do we need advise from an outsider? Thanx you!
  • m00kie, on 01/20/2008, -6/+52Let's guess who took their English book to the prom.
  • whatthefu, on 01/20/2008, -11/+53I can't stand grammar lessons. I know 90% of the grammatical rules intuitively, but I don't know any of the names for anything.
  • inactive, on 01/20/2008, -1/+33What you are talking about?
  • Mast3rDigg3r, on 01/20/2008, -12/+42people are embarrassed when they make a grammatical mistake?
  • adventflux, on 01/20/2008, -1/+29Does anyone else cringe when someone writes "could of?"
  • andregriffin, on 01/20/2008, -0/+25I spelled "definitely" wrong once on Digg. After much harassment, I haven't spelled it wrong since

    "Hooked on Digg worked for me!"
  • magixx2, on 01/20/2008, -2/+26Grammar Nazi
  • Thorpe, on 01/20/2008, -3/+27I see what you did their.
  • sarnia, on 01/20/2008, -2/+25My uncle totally jacked off a monkey.
  • GeneralFailure0, on 01/20/2008, -4/+27That sounds like you and your uncle Jack killed a donkey.
  • GrammarNazi3000, on 01/20/2008, -3/+26I hate you.
  • GrammarNazi3000, on 01/20/2008, -0/+19Yes?
  • thebellmaster1x, on 01/20/2008, -1/+19Of course, if you screw up agreement for a collective noun (e.g. "The team are going to the game"), you could just claim you had an English parent or something.
  • snuffulupagus, on 01/20/2008, -1/+18This kind of stuff makes me sick. I'm a linguist and it's awful to be associated with the evil "prescriptive grammarians"...that's the kind of idea people get in their head when I say I study syntax. Guess what, when people make mistakes, most of the time it's for an interesting grammatical reason. Some of the stuff she mentioned was just stupid - using "they" as a non-gendered singular pronoun is standard.
  • inactive, on 01/20/2008, -1/+17"Yes?", is a sentence fragment, please consider revising.
  • bigtunashrute, on 01/20/2008, -1/+17"The final tricky situation here is whether possessive nouns that end in s get an apostrophe only, or the apostrophe-s. Unless they're Moses or Jesus, or some other Biblical entity, they get an apostrophe-s."

    Untrue, my friend - according to the MLA as long as one is uniform in their use of apostrophe-s or simple apostrophe to show possession in nouns that end in "s" then it is acceptable either way. SUCK ON IT Brockenbrough. Time to go back to grammar school. All my grammar geeks digg me up!!

  • TheTaoOfBill, on 01/20/2008, -1/+15Grammarical is not a word.
  • capiCrimm, on 01/20/2008, -0/+13you can has cheezburger now.
  • l1wulf, on 01/20/2008, -0/+12Yeah, me too. He misspelled grate.
  • brentinkc, on 01/20/2008, -0/+11I think that's true for many people :-)
  • gbarberi, on 01/20/2008, -0/+10Yeh, "misplaced modifiers" is debatable.
    Breaking rules is acceptable, something creative writers do to add flair to their work. I agree completely with it. But, when a rule concerns the clarity of a sentence, it is not debatable. Those rules are there so that we can all understand one another.
  • gbarberi, on 01/20/2008, -0/+9Actually, I think you meant conjunctions. And, as Kerriqore stated, there is no reason for that rule.
  • sTiVo, on 01/20/2008, -1/+10It also points out some interesting points of which to be careful.
  • DarthMalcontent, on 01/20/2008, -0/+9Best solution: let Jack get off the donkey by himself.
  • diggitydad, on 01/20/2008, -5/+14"The grammatical errors on his Web site--a spelling error and a missing comma--were another story, though. As gross as the spinach was, I could look away from it. Typos, on the other hand, I could not ignore, and as nice as he was, I had to turn..."
    And I could not work FOR someone who did not understand that a typo is a failure to perform the mechanics of typing. It does not mean the person does not know the correct grammar.

    Grammar Nazis vs definition Nazis, this week on pay per view!
  • Kerrigore, on 01/20/2008, -0/+9Probably because there's no reason for that rule, it was just carried over from Latin.
  • grakker, on 01/20/2008, -0/+9Your next employer. Unless you are delivering pizzas.
  • gbarberi, on 01/20/2008, -1/+9LOL, I would still like to know where the other 2,999 GrammarNazis are.
  • gbarberi, on 01/20/2008, -2/+10GrammarNazi3000? So, there's another 2,999 GrammarNazis on Digg?
  • zeiben, on 01/20/2008, -0/+8You're absolutely right. The dictionary is not how you are supposed to spell things... it's only how you're supposed to spell things if you don't want other people who use the dictionary to think you're a tool. If you don't mind being perceived as an ignoramus, go wild with your solecisms.

    It's sort of like Digg. You can post a wildly unpopular idea, so long as you don't mind getting dugg down.
  • xstarsprinklesx, on 01/20/2008, -2/+10No. Actually, she could add one: "and, as nice as he was.."
  • inactive, on 01/20/2008, -2/+9Uh... The commas are put in TO clarify which uncle was helped off the donkey.
  • stevealford, on 01/20/2008, -0/+7"But" isn't a preposition: it's a conjunction.
  • eeevildictator, on 01/20/2008, -1/+8No, it is not awkward and it is logical.
  • Kerrigore, on 01/20/2008, -1/+8So you're saying you make grammatical errors 10% of the time?
  • AvidPreatorian, on 01/20/2008, -0/+7A language has a set structure. For variations look up "dialogue", or "slang."
  • Sroek, on 01/20/2008, -0/+6It doesn't bother me, but I'd rather read something from somebody who can write clearly and concisely than somebody who can't, simply because it flows better, making it easier and faster to read.
  • PabloMac, on 01/20/2008, -1/+7The bottom line of the entire article: "Clarity is the whole point of grammar."
  • gbarberi, on 01/20/2008, -0/+6Thank you for not typing "could of."
  • miken32, on 01/20/2008, -0/+6It's a perfectly cromulent word.
  • completerobot, on 01/20/2008, -0/+6Word.
  • Uoila, on 01/20/2008, -0/+6encarta is still around?
  • GrammarNazi3000, on 01/20/2008, -2/+8Please read this. We don't need more people impersonating me. :'(
  • inactive, on 01/20/2008, -0/+6"I once had a job opening for an editor on my team. In the middle of an interview, I noticed the candidate--an otherwise very nice man--had a giant piece of spinach wedged into his teeth."

    Editor! He should have known better and should definitely have checked anything that was going to be used for interview purposes.
  • MadScientist440, on 01/20/2008, -1/+6The comma isn't needed if your name for the guy is "Uncle Jack", with the "U" capitalized.
  • gbarberi, on 01/20/2008, -0/+5You do realize that the job opening he was applying for was that of an Editor?
  • seanc6610, on 01/20/2008, -4/+9I could've done without her picture...
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