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Spelling and grammar pet peeves around here

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First post, by Stiletto

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I know a good number of you are not native English speakers, but thankfully you try your best, or else otherwise we would not be able to read and moderate your awesome posts (and therefore posting in other languages is pretty much forbidden).

Even so, I don't want to call anyone out but there's some glaring mistakes that often slightly annoy me.

Current mild annoyance of the month: which.

"wich" is incorrect, full stop, in modern English: search.php?keywords=wich
unless you're writing about a tasty sandwich, it's never a standalone word 🤣
Unless you date from the Old English time period and used a time machine to get here? http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/wich

"witch" is also normally incorrect, unless you are writing about a woman who casts spells and flies around on a broomstick:
search.php?keywords=witch

The word you want is W-H-I-C-H. "Which"

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Stiletto

Reply 2 of 76, by badmojo

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Haha, good post! (stiletto)

The one that always bugs me is people using "your" in the place of "you're"!

But I must say that I'm in awe of the non-native English speaker's ability to communicate in another language.

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Reply 4 of 76, by brostenen

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badmojo wrote:

But I must say that I'm in awe of the non-native English speaker's ability to communicate in another language.

English, Danish or German, I am equally good at speaking, reading or writing each language. 🤣

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Reply 5 of 76, by brostenen

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Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

England has so many colonies, I guess they really kicked some butts back in the days.

They did. Oh my... They did.
And yet, they are the reason for Americans to drink coffee and not tea. Long story (read: "extra long").
Naa... I don't think that there are that many English colonies left. Australia and India is no longer, just to mention a few that were.
Denmark had colonies too. The last ones were sold off to USA, about 100 years ago.

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Reply 6 of 76, by gdjacobs

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Denmark still has Greenland. the UK and France still have some island territories scattered throughout the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. The Netherlands still has territory in the Caribbean (along with France and the UK).

Not really colonies, more like vestigial traces.

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Reply 7 of 76, by Dominus

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Aren't those grammar pet peeves in all languages? I have a two in German (seid/seit and the made up word "Standart")...

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Reply 8 of 76, by brostenen

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Yeah. Greenland is part of our state, yet they decide for them self.
They own their own land. Greenland has the same status as Commonwealth nations.

Real colonies are few, and not really any left on the global scene.

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Those cakes make you sick....

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Reply 9 of 76, by alexanrs

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I do not mind native English speakers having pet peeves about spelling and grammar - it hurts my eyes when I see some people murdering portuguese in Facebook. People confusing past and future tenses is horrible, and mistaking "mais" por "mas" (mais - plus, in addition to; mas - but) or putting works in the feminine form even though they DO NOT HAVE one is like a stab to the chest.

IMHO the most annoying thing for a non-native english speaker and forum like these is the autocorrect feature of the spell checker that most moder browsers/OSes have. I got so tired of that thing changing what I wrote to a simillar portuguese word that I disabled it completly in my PCs. In my smartphone it is easier to change the language of the spell checker (there is a button on the on screen keyboard to go back and forth pt-BR and en-US), so I just change it to en-US whenever I post here.

Reply 10 of 76, by DosFreak

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Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

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Reply 11 of 76, by PCBONEZ

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brostenen wrote:

English colonies left. Australia and India is no longer, just to mention a few that were.

...... "are" no longer.

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Reply 12 of 76, by PCBONEZ

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badmojo wrote:

The one that always bugs me is people using "your" in the place of "you're"!

I catch myself doing that all the time.
I suppose using "ur" universally would take care of both cases.

badmojo wrote:

But I must say that I'm in awe of the non-native English speaker's ability to communicate in another language.

Me too.

Wow, There is another one. To and Too.
Also Their and There.

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Reply 13 of 76, by ripsaw8080

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"Could of" instead of the contraction could've, same for would. That one is closest to a peeve for me, but not to the point where I can't restrain myself from calling people out on it. 😜

Reply 14 of 76, by collector

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How about the phrase 'no one' merged into one word 'noone' or the word 'yeah' spelled 'yea' as in the way one would vocally vote.

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Reply 15 of 76, by PCBONEZ

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I'm not giving up "I dunno" or "wasisname" (as in "Ole Wasisname").
I just like them.

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Reply 16 of 76, by Tetrium

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Im pretty shure theres nothing to worry a bout 😁

But I really try my best 😀

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Reply 17 of 76, by leileilol

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Don't use loose instead of lose!!! Don't capitalize it "VooDoo"! You're and your are different. Same for it's and its.

one word I truly don't understand how it spelled there is whit for with.

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Reply 18 of 76, by JayCeeBee64

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Looks like the Grammar Police is coming out of the woodwork 🤣

Personally, I tend to make silly mistakes every so often; at least I try to catch and correct them when I can, but sometimes that's just not possible. At times the error goes beyond grammar and/or spelling (here's an example of a cluttered post from yours truly 😵 ). And at times I make posts that are, well, quite weird (don't ask, just don't ask! 😅 ).

As for my Spanish grammar, it's non-existent, that's all (I used to drive my school teachers in Ecuador really crazy because of that ^^").

Ooohh, the pain......

Reply 19 of 76, by ODwilly

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I am guilty of a few of these and apologize for any past/future mistakes here and now.

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