Word usage

[Doug G.]

I don't consider myself to be the "grammar police," and I do occasionally make mistakes in writing. I believe that those who earn their living writing and those who own businesses should write well since they are placing themselves before the public.

 

There are two things in particular I see with a certain fequency on this and other forums:

Your = it belongs to you

You're = a contraction for you are

Loose = the opposite of tight

Lose = it cannot be found

 

(These are not dictionary definitions, but are easier to remember - I hope.)

 

I am open to correction if you see me consistently writing incorrectly.

 

I hope one takes offense.

Thanks

[FastEddieB]

Your not the only one to notice this.

 

I gave up a long time ago.

 

Now, I no longer loose sleep over any of it!

 

In any case, you either see these things right away or you don't. It's really rote memory, not any rules.

 

To be consistent, you and I know how to pronounce loose and moose - its perfectly obvious. But then why is choose allowed to violate the rules?

 

Anyway, its so bad that even when someone uses "loose" properly, I still stumble over it a little bit, so used am I to seeing it used wrongly!

 

BTW, it's also:

 

"hangar", not hanger...

 

"yoke", not yolk...

 

and "brake", not break.

 

Unless, of course, you decide to break the yolk with a hanger!

[josjonkers]

While we are at it, more often than any I see their when there is meant.

But please do remember that sometimes an automatic spell checked does this kind of damage.

 

personally, I ignore all of it since these posts are not a work of art but rather a quick way to communicate.

 

I am fine with that.

[Roger Lee]

I'm sure I'm an offender of the word game. :blush:

[Doug G.]

I'm hoping that first line is meant to be a joke Eddie.

Yeah, I have been caught by autocorrect many times, but that is not consistent, and, if you read what you write you can "uncorrect" it. (Which I find somewhat humorous.)

It is not a big deal here, but if you are ever going put things in print it can make you look less intelligent than I know any of you really are. Get someone to proofread it. You don't want your business's, club,'s or whatever's advertising to cause people to comment more on spelling or grammar than the message you are seeking to disseminate.

As I said, I am not the grammar police so I will end there... and I won't lose any sleep over it.

[Doug Hereford]

I agree Doug. In high school, I never understood why we were required to have four years of English class, and only three years of math. I now understand one of the reasons why. I goof up grammar more than I would care to admit (actually I don't mind admitting it). The devil is in the details isn't it? Interesting how the FARs are guilty of this as well. Part 65 makes reference to privileges and limitations for mechanics and repairmen. A common mis-statement there is that the individual is authorized to approve and return to service, the aircraft........ We as maintenance providers do not return anything to service. We as pilots do that. A while back, Jim Meade pointed out to me during a discussion, that I was mis-quoting the term "preventative" with regard to certain FAR part 43/65 rules. Of course he was exactly correct when he noted that the term is "preventive" not preventative. I must have read part 43 one hundred times, and never noticed this. Now I look very closely at it and other words in documents. Ironically, the one place I have found it to be shown as "preventative" is in block 6 of the FAA form 8100-2........................................................................Standard Airworthiness Certificate. Funny stuff.

[FastEddieB]

I do take note of that.

 

Preventative is a word, but is a noun. Aspirin may be a preventative regarding heart disease.

 

Preventive is an adjective. So aspirin may be taken as a preventive measure. In the way that preventive maintenance may be addressed in the FAR's.

 

My mom and all her sisters, and their mom were self-professed "comma hounds" jumping on every little grammar or spelling mistake.

 

It's why I'm the way I am, for better or worse.

 

Oh, and one time I saw a promo for an upcoming episode of Malcolm in the Middle - "Hal looses a tooth"!

 

Sigh.

[FredG]

Lest we not forget, the misuse of the words affect and effect. Affect is a verb, effect is a noun.

[FlyingMonkey]

To : toward

 

Two: a number

 

Too: also

 

And for the love of God, do not use "irregardless". It is not a word, and in its common use simply means "regardless", which is the word you are looking for. Irregardless is a bastardization of "regardless" and "irrespective".

[Ian]

And please don't get me started on Aluminium and colour !!

 

As Winston Churchill said about the UK & the US - Two nations divided by a common language.

[Jim Meade]

Preventative vs. preventive

 

Preventive is the original adjective corresponding to prevent, but preventative has gained ground and is now a common variant. The two share all their definitions.

 

As of early 2013, preventive is about three times as common as preventative in general web searches. And as the ngram below suggests, preventive has been far more common in published books for the last two centuries at least:

 

 

 

The prevalence of the shorter form is seen throughout the English-speaking world, but the longer form is especially common outside North America. In British news stories from 2012, for instance, the ratio of preventive to preventative was very nearly 1:1, while it was almost 10:1 in U.S. news stories from the same period.

 

Since publishing this post, we’ve received comments saying that preventive is an adjective and preventative is a noun. This would be a useful distinction, but it is not consistently borne out in practice (the NYT example below notwithstanding). Moreover, we find no English reference sources that make the distinction, and those that mention the issue at all simply recommend preventive over preventative without differentiating them.

 

Preventive and preventative belong to the troublingly inconsistent class of -tive/tative word pairs that also includes interpretive/interpretative, exploitive/exploitative, authoritive/authoritative, and many others. What makes these pairs so troubling is that they have consistently flouted any rules English authorities have attempted to impose, and there is no consistency in how they are formed. What form becomes preferred is decided by usage, and usage is rarely guided by concerns of logic or consistency.

 

Preventative gripes my soul. I heard a lot of this in the Army when you had little people trying to use big words - they invariably goofed them up. So does channelize when channel is right.

 

Impact should be banned except with wrenches. Things don't impact me (I duck). They affect me.

 

Centre (or any other .....re words) when we're trying to be cute - center is quite right enough in the U.S.

 

But - I could care less, and that drives some people to the brink of sanity. I could care less that they couldn't care less, and they care a lot that I care less.

 

Fred - the use of double negatives (your comment above) is another fertile field for grammar police.

 

Is it ok to say for the love of god if one is an atheist, or is god always capitalized?

 

 

 

[FastEddieB]

Or orientated vs. oriented.

 

[Roger Lee]

You guys are sure going to make us self conscious now.

[Tom Baker]

.

 

Oh, and one time I saw a promo for an upcoming episode of Malcolm in the Middle - "Hal looses a tooth"!

 

 

My son has been known to do that, well kind of. He will loosen it, so he can lose it.

[Ian]

..........Is it ok to say for the love of god if one is an atheist, or is god always capitalized?

 

Not sure on the answer, but did you hear about the dyslexic atheist insomniac who stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog?

[Roger Lee]

See we are just a bunch of old funny guys with nothing to do, but hang out on a computer. :lol:

you got'a love it. Post like this help make the day better.

 

Does "got'a" work?

[WmInce]

And please don't get me started on Aluminium and colour !!

 

As Winston Churchill said about the UK & the US - Two nations divided by a common language.

 

Churchill was brilliant and left us with some priceless maxims.

[Ian]

Churchill was brilliant and left us with some priceless maxims.

 

I suspect he might find it a bit ironic that we are all flying German aircraft built in the old Soviet Union

[WmInce]

I suspect he might find it a bit ironic that we are all flying German aircraft built in the old Soviet Union

 

That, my friend, would have been the furthest from his thoughts.

[FastEddieB]

 

 

Churchill was brilliant and left us with some priceless maxims.

 

A bit off topic but...

 

...I just started "The Gathering Storm", Churchill's first hand account about the windup to WWII.

 

Well written and holding my interest so far.

[CT4ME]

Does "got'a" work?

 

Misspelled - it's "gotta" -_-

[Roger Lee]

See I'm word challenged.

[Doug G.]

Churchill is reputed to have said, "Ending a sentence with a proposition is something I will not up with put!"

 

I should have known better, but I did not expect my relatively simple comment on two words would start this large a thread. Not sure if this is a sign of active minds, or to much free time..

[Ian]

Doug, I think that should be ".... up with which I will not put."

 

Another famous one was when he wanted to accuse a govermnent minister of lying, but you are not allowed to say in parliament that a member of parliament is a liar - so he said "l believe the minister is guilty of a terminological inexactitude'

 

[Doug G.]

I did not take the time to like up the quote. I may be guilty of quotational inexactitude.