Grammar 101, ... or, pet peeves Options

[agrippa]

Here's a place for us to bore eachother to death about grammar. I'll go first.

I. POSSESSIVES AND PLURALS

Most nouns are made plural by the addition of 's' or 'es'.
computer -> computers
house -> houses

Some nouns have irregular plurals.
mouse -> mice
fish -> fish

A noun is never made plural with an apostrophe.

The apostrope and 's' are used to show possession.
Ron's (belonging to Ron)
Ginny's (belonging to Ginny)

However, pronouns have their own possessive forms:
his (belonging to him)
hers (belonging to her)
theirs (belonging to them)
its (belonging to it; it's means 'it is')

[zymurgy]

YAY! Grammer pet peaves...

For me, it's who/whom. I hate it when people mess that up. And not that it would come up here, but when people say things like "with Jupiter" when it ought to be "With Jove" I simply get annoyed. As for general writing, elipses in droves drive me crazy. In dialougue, point granted, they do have a point, but when someone writes, "She was coming up.... He saw her.... they met...." I fail to see the charm.

[agrippa]

YAY! Grammer pet peaves...

For me, it's who/whom. I hate it when people mess that up. And not that it would come up here, but when people say things like "with Jupiter" when it ought to be "With Jove" I simply get annoyed. As for general writing, elipses in droves drive me crazy. In dialougue, point granted, they do have a point, but when someone writes, "She was coming up.... He saw her.... they met...." I fail to see the charm.

The Jupiter/Jove thing is pretty sneaky - you have to really know the Latin to know the difference. As for who/whom:

II. Pronouns have case. The subject case is used when the pronoun is the subject. The possessive case is used to show ownership. The object case is used for direct objects, indirect objects, and objects of prepositions.

Subject - Possessive - Object
I - my, mine - me
you - yours - you
he - his - him
she - hers - her
it - its - it
they - theirs - them
who - whose - whom

Thus:
Whom do you seek?
Harry is the boy who lived.
Harry is the boy to whom Voldemort gave a scar.
Harry is a boy whose hair is messy.

who's mean "who is", just as it's means "it is"
Who's there? = Who is there?

Zym, I agree wholehartedly about elipses outside of dialogue. Also, I get annoyed when people use more that three dots. What's the point?

PS - Zym: another peeve of mine. Grammar, not grammer. (oops!)

[agrippa]

III. Compound sentences.

A sentence has both a subject (a noun or pronoun who does the action, and the adjectives and phrases that modify it) and a predicate (a verb indicating the action, plus its objects and thier modifiers).

A sentence that does not have both subject and predicate is a fragment.

Sentences can be compounded in these ways:
1. A conjunction (and, or, nor, but)
2. A semicolon.

Example:
Harry ran down the corridor. He opened the door.
With conjunction: Harry ran down the corridor and opened the door.
With semicolon: Harry ran down the corridor; he opened the door.

A comma splice is a grammatical error in which a comma is used to compound two sentences:

Comma splice (incorrect): Harry ran down the corridor, he opened the door.

[evlpez]

You know you've been out of school and not writing for too long when this looks really interesting and a wee bit foreign.

Thanks for putting this up, agrippa. May I be flogged publicly for forgetting/ignoring some of this important but simple stuff. I know I'm guilty. :ashamed:

[agrippa]

Well - Grammar is kinda my "thing" - I think kids really never learn grammar in the Americal schools anymore until they get to a foreign language. I certainly don't want to shame anyone - but I thought some reference might be handy.

[zymurgy]

Oops is right. *thwaps head* I do that all the time. I never was a great speller.

[pinkpanther]

You know what I hate? When people replace "he" or "she" with "they." Kinda like the confimation box that comes up after I send a PM. It says something like like, "Your message has been sent to pinkpanther. They will be informed . . ." If the subject is singular, the pronoun must also be singular (though I'll admit it sounds a bit stuffy sometimes).

[zymurgy]

Along those lines, it annoys me greatly when the message box pops up with "you have 1 new messages" (...) I know the Jove thing is a bit obscure, but the subtitle to this thing is "pet peaves" I get really anoyed whenever I see that and lecture at length about just why whoever did it was wrong. Invariably they hate me afterwords.

[agrippa]

Are you saying you're annoyed by the box itself, or by the use of "they" when we mean "he or she"?

[zymurgy]

The box isn't anoying, it's what the box says. I also have a problem with people saying "I did good." I think I've heard that sentance about twenty times today. Can't people say well? I had to prevent myself from jumping up in Drama class and giving a rambling lecture on what's what.

[agrippa]

Necessity is the mother of invention. I figured out how to change the wording on some of those "boxes." Tell me what you think.

[bakbam]

Thank you so much for some of the general rules of grammar. I am very aware that my grammical skill are lacking. Unfortunatly they no longer teach grammar in Kentucky schools. They focus on reading and writing, but never teach anyone how to properly form a sentence. In fact my last English teacher did not even speak English. It was more of a redneck slang. I will happily take any and all advice in my writing. I seem to have forgotten the punctuation rules more than anything.

About the whole who and whom. I never could get that one right. I also forget which to or too to use.

[zymurgy]

Thank you, Agrippa! I love the "wait till we transfer you, fellow ferret" that's sweet!

[pinkpanther]

Yes, thanks very much! I love the new box (I had to send a PM just so I could see it)!!!