What is Digg?428 Comments
- PatrickFisher, on 10/12/2007, -20/+287Its true, that test was pretty easy. The questions, their pretty simple.
I got 10/10. - ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -8/+135ditto, Results: 10 Correct -- 0 Wrong -- 0 Skipped.
wish more Digg readers could pull that off, I'm going blind from bad grammar and punctuation around here! - nonfamous, on 10/12/2007, -7/+120That's pretty impressive ... except that NEITHER answer to number 4 is correct. At least the way I was taught (in Australia), only "His fear of IT being a very long season seemed contagious" is correct. Maybe it's an American thing -- don't they use the subjunctive in the USA?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+87Should be a requirement to get 10/10 on this test before you can create a digg account.
- Niveken, on 10/12/2007, -25/+103@PatrickFisher
Ironic - oriondr, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4910/10, but #4 has some pretty piss-poor grammar.
"4. His fear of [[its]] being a very long season seemed contagious." - tidu, on 10/12/2007, -7/+50"and i am an immigrant
gotta be a retard or underage to make mistakes on that one"
You obviously haven't been in America long enough... - rolosworld, on 10/12/2007, -3/+432/10 seem they're quiz its brocken
- ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -3/+42@BasouKazuma: who. not whom.
- retral, on 10/12/2007, -2/+41I agree about #4, I sorta "whiskey tango foxtrotted" on that one.
- retral, on 10/12/2007, -2/+31You fail this, you fail at life.
- dpcamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28well, there are a lot of dumbasses on the internet.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26"wish more Digg readers could pull that off, I'm going blind from bad grammar and punctuation around here!"
The Kingdom Of Loathing requires their users actually pass a test with several questions like this before allowing them into the chat channels. They call it "The Quest of the Altar of Literacy" or something like that. - Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24I'm still seething over the daily juxtipositions I read between "lose" and "loose".
- justnisdead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22@nonfamous
/agree about #4 - picaman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20It's called kindergarten. With a t.
Spell it. - Zzyw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19@Blah Blah Blah
-They're bickering over the importance of proper grammar, wasting their time.
-Their bickering over the importance of proper grammar is a waste of time.
-There, bickering over the importance of proper grammar, they're wasting their time.
If I started any of these three sentences with the wrong word, one's reading would be slowed down, as the structure of the sentence depends on it. This is just off the top of my head, there are probably better examples.
Also, the point is to get the message across? Well, failing at elementary school level grammar does get a message across, being that you're either very sloppy or not very smart. - florin, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2810 out of 10 and I learned English around the age of 15.
Very easy test. - antgoo, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2210/10, first shot. Then again, I've been speaking English natively for over 20 years... so there's no excuse for less.
- cameron074, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2110 for 10.
- Kilroy2004, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22@oriondr (and others)
I agree, #4, the proper grammar should be:
His fear of *it* being a very long season seemed contagious.
Not (as they say):
His fear of its being a very long season seemed contagious.
There is no possession going on there, as far as I can tell.
Edit: Bah! nonfamous made my point just a little further down. - flernk, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2210/10. Where's my cookie?
- Zzyw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16They should make one for the oh so difficult of/have distinction, as in "I could of seen it coming".
I see that a lot around here and it pains my eyes. They're two completely different words damnit!
(coming from a non-native speaker) - thatsmyaibo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I found out that the key to this quiz is to think hard, have a good breakfast, and to not be a ***** moron.
- Klowner, on 10/12/2007, -1/+179/10, borked on #4, seeing as it made no grammatical sense to me :op
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+24#4 is a douchebag
- commiecat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15@nonfamous
"except that NEITHER answer to number 4 is correct"
That's not true because "its" *is* the correct answer. You might prefer to say "it" instead but you cannot say that using "its" is wrong.
In that sentence "being" is a gerund and needs an adjective before it. "Its" is a possessive adjective making the sentence proper. - Otto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11As the great Strong Bad said...
"Ohhhhhh, if you want it to be possessive, it's just I-T-S, but if it's supposed to be a contraction, then it's I-T-apostrophe-S. Scallywag." - NeMeSiS187, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Yes! Please, everyone take this quiz. I'm tired of seeing people confusing these things that I learned in 4th grade so often on the internet.
- ABadInAlbany, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9@parapoop: no, it's not. no possessive there my friend.
- Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Congratulations, you're/your an idiot!! (Pick the right one, dumbarse)
- pabloD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9It's a German word. It's spelled with a 't'. Look for 'kindergarden' in a dictionary-- you won't find it. You will, however, find 'kindergarten'.
Spelling it with a 'd' is a common mistake, but it's still a mistake.
EDIT: Actually, screw the dictionary. Try googling 'kindergarden'.... LOL - 404notfound, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9commiecat said the magic word: gerund. "Being a very long season" is essentially being used as a noun in itself. If you took that part out and said "power," then the sentence, "His fear of its power seemed contagious," makes perfect sense. Does it look awkward to the average, modern-day English speaker? Somewhat. But it is correct English.
- Nougat, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10You learned these things in fourth grade so often on the internet? How many times did you learn them, and what school did you go to that teaches grammar to fourth graders via the internet?
- Splitt3rxx, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1010/10 not really that hard.
- donsmith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Us English as a first language speakers shouldn't be so proud of ourselves...
- ImOscar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7"Hmm, well to me, whether a word is correctly spelled or not is a function of how many spell it that way. In what other way could we possibly judge it? When more than a minority spells something a certain way, I think it's time for us to start accepting the evolution of that word, because that's how our current language was built in the first place."
Ur rite! I think that jsut cuz it used 2 b spelt that way is no rzn 2 correct it! - pabloD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7No offense, but that's lame, dude. If you know better, why propagate the error? Someone who doesn't know better might think it's correct and start using it, and the rest of us will just think you're a fool.
- Sutanreyu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7lolz. You probably may have aced the quiz, but you wouldn't pass in computer sciences...
In other words, you cannot link to the results; it's a form. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8there is no Santa Claus!!!
- rendersan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Sorry, it's "its."
"His fear of its being a very long season seemed contagious."
The word "being" is functioning as a gerund in this sentence, which is a noun, which can only be modified by an adjective. That's why you use the possessive pronoun "its" to modify it instead of the pronoun "it." Pretty basic grammar, really. Apparently, nobody is picking this up in school anymore.
A quick Google for "gerund possessive" yeilded plenty of pages explaining the rule such as this one: http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/022205.htm - feelingkettle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yeah, they need to make another quiz for their/there/they're and your/you're too. It's annoying when I see things like "your going to the movies" and "there car was stolen."
- sibhod, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6needs more your/you're
that seems to be most people's problems - Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Ever been on AIM?
You'll learn the true meaning of dumbarse there. - Valarauka, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5These were easy, but yeah, there are far too many people who don't know the difference.
What really truly drives me insane, however, is people using "of" instead of "have" - could of, should of? What are you, a second-grader? - BESTenemy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This test should be mandatory for anyone willing to comment on digg.
- kingfoot, on 10/12/2007, -4/+910/10, too basic, plus it gives you the answers basically in the boxes above the sections.
- tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Maybe they could do a quiz on 'could care less'. If you can care less, then go ahead! I think the phrase you're looking for is 'couldn't care less', implying that even if you tried hard, it would be impossible to have less care about whatever you're talking about.
- retral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I agree, if they don't get better than 9/10 they should be IP banned :)
(before you say that IP bans are easy to get around - I know.. I'm simply saying that an IP ban is more difficult to get around than simply being rejected) - pabloD, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Sure some people spell it with a 'd'. But it's still incorrect, that's my point. For example, lots of people write 'it's' when they mean 'its'. Going by your logic, they should both be correct, then? Sorry to be the grammar police on this, but I think given the context of this thread, it's appropriate.
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