Ask The Writer: Common English Errors

in #english6 years ago (edited)

Hey, Steem fam! I thought I would put this out there, in case anyone was wanting to make their English-language posts more polished, a few tips about common errors I see in people's writing. And this is NOT just for English as a second language folks; I see a lot of native speakers make some of these mistakes, too. ;) I'm not going to use proper grammar words, like "noun" and "adjective," for the sake of second-language speakers who might have to whip out a dictionary if I did. Plus, most people don't remember what a participle is, anyway!

Side note: I'm an American, so I am giving you American English rules; I don't know if in England or Australia you say "open and close the lights," and that's proper, or not. So let me know if any of these are different where you live!

Breath vs. Breathe

"Breath" is a thing word. You take a deep breath, you are out of breath, you can see your breath fog the window.
(pronounced, "breth")

"Breathe" is an action word. You breathe deeply, you are breathing hard, you need to stop and breathe.
(pronounced, "brēēthe" [one syllable])

I see people use "breath" where they should use "breathe," a lot, and I wonder if maybe that started as a borrowed-French habit, where it's supposed to be "blond" for the masculine and "blonde" for the feminine? But that's just a guess. In this case, "breath" and "breathe" are not interchangeable.

Cloth vs. Clothes

"Cloth" is the fabric that clothes are made out of, or a rag that you clean with. Clothes are the things that you wear. So your clothes are made of cloth. Saying "cloths" indicates a plural of rags, like a pile of washcloths. But if you're talking about what you put on your body, you need that "e" in there.
("cloth" pronounced "kloth," and "clothes" pronounced "klōthes" [again, one syllable])


Clothes - image from themocracy

You're vs. Your

Probably the most commonly corrected internet grammar nazi pet peeve. "You're" means "you are," while "your" is a possessive. That is your computer, your cat is cute, your post was great. But you're funny, you're smart, you're late. They're both pronounced exactly the same, which is probably why people interchange them.
(both pronounced, "yor.")

What you do with a light switch

In French, and possibly other languages, the literal English translation is that you "open" or "close" the lights when you flip the switch, which is I imagine where this one comes from, but again, that's just a guess. But in English, you should say that you "turn on" or "turn off" the lights. The French makes sense as you are opening or closing a circuit, but so does the English as the light comes on or off, so they're both logical, English just has to be different. ;)

Gender in English

English doesn't have gendered words in the same way that Spanish or French does, but I wonder if there are some languages with even less gender in them, because I see a lot of people on Steemit from certain places using gendered words interchangeably. I'm guessing that's a Google Translate issue, but if they typed in "he" or "she," why would GT flip it around? So I'm curious if I'm right that some languages don't use such words and just use a gender neutral "they" or some such equivalent instead. Can anyone who speaks Indonesian enlighten me? So, this note is just because I often see "he" and "she" or "sir" and "ma'am" used to refer to the same person, in the same paragraph.

When you're referring to a man:
he, him, sir, man, boy, his, Mr., brother, male, gentlemen, gentleman, guys, men

When you're referring to a woman:
she, her, ma'am, woman, girl, hers, Ms., Miss, Mrs., sister, female, ladies, lady, gals, womyn, women

When you want to be gender neutral:
they, them, theirs, ze, hir, Mx., gentlethem, nonbinary pals ;D (that last one totally stolen from Thomas Sanders on YouTube who says "guys, gals, and nonbinary pals")

(and if you're wondering, please use male or gender neutral for me, thanks!)

The Ms., Miss, and Mrs. for women is considered to be kinda sexist and outdated by some, but still generally used: Miss indicates a young, unmarried girl (generally don't use this once they are past teenage years). Ms. is the safe neutral bet as it can indicate a woman who is married or unmarried, and Mrs. indicates a married woman. Generally, ask what a woman prefers.

Generally, ask what pronouns (he/him, she/her, they/them, ze/hir) anyone prefers. It's just nice. :)

Also, sometimes used but sometimes frowned upon, it's kind of regional to the east coast though, some people say "guys" when referring to a crowd of both men and women (as in, "hey, you guys"). Some people don't like this, though, so you might want to be mindful of that. A gender neutral term is "y'all," which is a contraction for "you all." I grew up in New Jersey saying "guys," but then moved to Colorado where people say "y'all," and so I tend to use both, but I'm using "y'all" more nowadays.

Homophones

"Homophones" means two words that are different but are pronounced the same. Here are just a few I often see mixed up in writing:

"great" means something is fabulous; "grate" is what you do to shred a block of cheese

"picture" is a photograph or painting; "pitcher" is a thing you pour drinks out of

"hey" is what you say to greet someone or get their attention; "hay" is what horses eat


Pitcher - image from crateandbarrel

That's all I could think of for now! Do you have any English or grammar questions you'd like me to answer? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading! :)

Post Script

Before anyone says it, often people argue that singular they/them is not proper in English, but you already use singular they/them in English all the time:
"Oh, the mail carrier is late today. I hope they aren't stuck in the snow!"
"Hey, a customer left us a good review online. That was nice of them!"
...you're speaking about one person whose gender you don't know, so you use they or them.

Post Post Script (did you know that P.S. means "post script"?)

I thought of another English oddity: in other languages like Spanish, you ask someone "how many years do you have?" But in English, you ask "how old are you?"

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This is all really wonderful information and everything I learnt in English 101. However, what I have discovered is that you several different types of people writing posts here. Some have a language barrier so they do the best they can and often it's pretty good. Some people can not type and they don't edit. So they do not think what they type or how it looks matters. Then some use phones which makes it harder to see and therefore edit. Then we have the last group. They just don't care. No matter how many times you suggest their grammar or typing errors might be making a difference as to how their work is perceived, they do not care. So best to let it go. Teach English as a second language. They care. :)))

I don't correct people on their posts, because that would be rude no matter what the reason. If people ask me to edit, I've done that before (a friend used to take me to dinner for editing her papers in college). But I offered it as a post so that if people want to know - here's some info. If they don't care, then they don't have to read it. ;)

I think its valuable information and a dinner for editing is even more awesome. I think a lot of people are just poor typists and some do not care about having a polished post. Like your's or Lyndsay's or many others. Some are just so...awful I have trouble reading them. :)))

I don't go around correcting people's writing here, but I definitely notice some of the oddities you mention. (I worked as a proofreader for many years, I just can't help but notice.)

I would add the misuse of the apostrophe to make a plural instead of a possessive. In plain language, for example, if you are serving a variety of vegetables it isn't written "vegetable's." Another common apostrophe misuse is "its" and "it's" - "it's" = "it is" - "It's possible." (It is possible.) But "its" with no apostrophe shows ownership - "Look at that dog, its tail is curly!"

I once saw a cover of the Oprah magazine with THREE fucked up apostrophes. I almost bought a copy so I could tear off the cover, edit it in red pen, and send it in with my resume asking for a copyediting job. XD

LOL
There's a guy, I think in England (?) who goes out at night and corrects apostrophes on signs. Adds them or removes them with paint. I'm not that kind of vigilante but it's tempting sometimes!

Yes all of what you say with my small grasp of the UK English language is spot on. Different areas of the UK use different expressions but thats just dialect. We also Switch on and switch of the lights, by way of a switch, any thing with a switch can be switched on and off by interrupting the supply. This can also refer to a water tap. 😁

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Yup, we say turn on the water and turn off the water too!

Yes turn on and off is used as well 😎

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Thank you for the tips @phoenixwren!!
The problem is with that auto correct option on everyone's mobile phone. I observed this pattern. People are slowly forgetting simple spellings because of that auto correct option. I'm one of them.

Oh, that's for sure! Autocorrect messes up a LOT of people. Me, too. The autocorrect on my Kindle likes to change very common words to very uncommon words. It will change "you" to "thou," like I'm living in the 17th century. LOL

Good read for me :) As we don't have to make precise plural in Japanese grammar, plurals are often tricky for me. Also using "the" is difficult.

I have a question. How can I describe a case like I only have a spare T-shirt? Is "I only have one spare cloth" makes sense? Or should it be "clothes"?

Excuse me for asking something picky but I'm curious what is correct :)

In that case, you would just say what item it is, like "one spare t-shirt," instead of "one spare clothing" or "one spare clothes." Any time it's a singular item of clothing, you just say the name of the item specifically.

AWESOME post!

I have one for you. How do you do a plural possesive?

Example: The girl's puppy.

More than one girl. Is it going to be girls, girl's or girls'?

Girls'. It's also after the "s" if the person's name ends in an "s," like "Anders' puppy" (so like, it wouldn't be Anders's). :)