midnightpoet

solo, I was definitely one of those who used "adverse" incorrectly...I never knew there was a difference between it and "averse"...I just thought it was pronouncing the same word differently. Now I know better, thanks!

solosater

That's that kind of thing that rolls around in my head making me nuts; I'm a high school drop out and never did a lick of homework, you couldn't make me. But words and comprehension of them and why they mean what they do... Making me crazy!

A girlfriend of mine took two years of Latin and Greek to better her understanding of our language; all I could think was “Dictionary?”

And mispronunciation, even though I'm guilty of it myself at times, will make me want to kill. I heard a man say his plans were coming to "fruit on" in a public debate. He's dressed in a very nice suit, he 's clean and his socks match his tie and he’s so ill prepared as to use a word he doesn’t know how to pronounce! I had to walk away; I actually want to scream at people for using words they don’t understand or know enough to know they don’t know.

Did anyone see Kill Point on Spike? The main character is like that and I totally got him.

This is a failing, I’m not proud, in fact I’ve tried meds for OCD, after 6 months they tell me I don’t have OCD I’ve got OCPD, Obsessive Compulsive “Personality” Disorder; can’t be treated with meds. Aren’t I lucky?

Most people don’t know or care about the difference in adverse or averse, but that is why I made my special rule in Think Write III.

Because I'm crazy not you.

solosater

I'm out!!! you may now talk amongst yourselves, I promise not to listen; in fact I'm turning it off!

gwinnyb

Oh my! I am a semi reformed punctuation, pronunciation and grammer stickler. my teen grandchildren communicate in letters on the phone and even verbally, LOL. so I have had to adjust my expectations over many years to include modernization. at this time, as you nmay have noticed, even at work my documentation rarely includes capitalization. in fact my boss says she recognizes my charting by this, and guesses I can't be reformed (she 's right ). i capitalize the word 'I' most of the time, simply because it looks funny as you can see. my typing skills are horrendous, so typing something that makes sense is problematic, though my thinking is not horrible. I do not correct people's pronunciation, spelling, or grammer as much as I used to. I have learned that not all people are as involved in this as I am. now my primary concern is communication and understanding. if I understand what someone means then I don't need to correct them. it just makes them feel bad. if they correct me I thank them for their help. I find as I get older the small things don't rankle as much. don't capitalize me anywhere. it's just an extra step, and I don't capitalize myself or much else either.

mostblessedone

I always get a thrill out of someone saying or asking something that I had thought, but never said.

Your "should we capitalize screen names?" question is a good example. Thanks for bringing it up. Marg, I shall now only capitalize you at the beginning of sentences. How's that? Saves time with the shift key, too

I had never even realized that there were two words, averse and adverse, until my spell check called me on my usage for Ron's (ron's?) list. So I learned something.

polenta

I'm a native Spanish speaker and English is a foreign language to me but I've been speaking it for decades. I would like to say something with all due respect to you, native speakers about a common spelling "mistake" that I have seen here and elsewhere.
I might be wrong, but this is what I have to say:

IT'S is the contraction of IT IS

ITS (without an apostrophe) is a possessive adjective like MY, YOUR, HIS
etc. Therefore you can't write: The book and it's pages
You should write: THE BOOK AND ITS PAGES.
Thanks and I apologize for interfering in your knowledge of Shakespeare's language. Correct me if I'm wrong please.

midnightpoet

You are absolutely correct in that, polenta...I have a big issue with that common error. Other words often used incorrectly are there, their, and they're; your and you're; and to, too, and two. It drives me crazy when people use the wrong ones...

Dragon

As for names, I generally use caps if that's how the person logged in (unless I forget). Some of the longer names I'll occasionally shorten to a nickname. I'm not really picky about how mine is capitalized, I'm just happy no one's shortened it to Drag, I don't think I'd like that.
polenta, you've hit on my pet peeve too, I see people using their contractions worng every where I see people writing or typing. (My co-worker is terrible about this.) I think the one that bothers me the most is when people type something like "Their going to the market" I always think No, no, it's short for "They are".
Though I always see these I geuss I just let them go because, like gwinnyb pointed out, not everyone likes being corrected. So long as I know what someone's trying to say I'll get by. (Plus, though I always try to get my spelling and punctuation right I'm by no means perfect myself:) )

solosater

I wanted to add that I rarely correct people, as some have said it can cause hurt feelings and make a person feel stupid. I can’t deal with it though, I just ignore it in the writing but there are people in my life I won't talk to if I’m having a bad day because I feel like I won’t be able to behave if they misuse or mispronounce a word or phrase.

Again, this is my failing, I’m totally aware of it and I’m far from perfect. I type the vast majority of my text in word or other programs that have a spell check because I know I’m a spelling idiot.

The whole it’s its thing drives me up the wall, on my own I don’t know or care about it in writing so I don’t notice it in other peoples text but I really hate messing up myself.

Anyway (oh that’s another it’s not ever anyways!) just FYI, I’m a stickler for me ya’all do as you like.

Dragon

I have to admit, I'm a terrible perpetrator of the "Anyways" thing. I'm afraid I use it all the time in both writing and especially in my speech.
Bad Dragon, BAD!