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')

[MoonNymph]

A pet peeve of mine - which you don't see in decent writing - but it attacks you from all corners when someone unexperienced shoves a fanfic under your nose - is not punctuating the end of dialogue correctly! ARGH!

How many times must I correct
"Hello." said Ron
to
"Hello," said Ron? GRRR! You'd think anyone over 10 would be able to get that right! *clamps forehead in frustration* It's a comma! COMMA! Not a full stop! Do you normally put full stops in the middle of sentences? Hmm? Well don't put it between the dialogue and the tag then!

Another thing that you see in that sort of writing is no carriage returns between different people speaking! That really annoys me!

*shakes head sadly and walks away*
They will never learn .....