Spelling mistakes

Anaidiana

@phaestus

Mishgul

Any sentence uttered by Proficy is a grammar nazi's nightmare.

Sherazad

Mishgul said:

Any sentence uttered by Proficy is a grammar nazi's nightmare.

I think Priyer was worse. 

Cardan

Iocun said:

I have issues with other such English homophones which also share the same, similar-sounding translation in German. Took me quite long to get price/prize right, which are both "Preis" in German.

It gets messy when people use the same word for completely different meanings like 'award' - as in a prize for winning (auszeichnung), as a level of pay for work (preis), or as a way of giving something like awarding a prize (verleihung)

Oceana

Cardan said:

Iocun said:

I have issues with other such English homophones which also share the same, similar-sounding translation in German. Took me quite long to get price/prize right, which are both "Preis" in German.

It gets messy when people use the same word for completely different meanings like 'award' - as in a prize for winning (auszeichnung), as a level of pay for work (preis), or as a way of giving something like awarding a prize (verleihung)

It is "prijs" in Dutch. One word for both. I -still- have to stop and think "am I using the right one?" every time I use price/prize.

Sybilla

Price: how much does it Cost?

Prize: I hope I won a Zebra from my mystery gift bag. 

Zebras are the most prized creatures, and their price reflects this accordingly...

Cahin

I feel like anyone who would actually read this thread probably isn't making these mistakes in the first place.

Kenway

I hate when people write Serapis when they mean Sarapis...

Three times...

Oops.

@Cooper

Also, the first homework assignment in my first year English class was to listen to this.

That was a really weird class....

Adet

Sybilla said:

Price: how much does it Cost?

Prize: I hope I won a Zebra from my mystery gift bag. 

Zebras are the most prized creatures, and their price reflects this accordingly...

You're giving away a zebra in the raffle?  How much did that cost?

Sybilla

@Adet Not too much, all the other prizes are overzealous zippers, so I saved quite a bit of coin.

Trevize

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but 'who' vs 'whom'.

'Whom' is not old English. 'Whom' is referring to the object. 'Who' is referring to the subject.

If you just can't get it, use who. Random 'whoms' incorrectly is painful to read!

Krypton

Trevize said:

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but 'who' vs 'whom'.

'Whom' is not old English. 'Whom' is referring to the object. 'Who' is referring to the subject.

If you just can't get it, use who. Random 'whoms' incorrectly is painful to read!

To know when to use "who" versus "whom," replace the word with "he/him." If "he" is correct, use "who." If "him" is correct, use "whom."

"Who likes cheese?" is correct because "He likes cheese?" is correct.

"You want to get your sexy on with WHOM?!" is correct because "You want to get your sexy on with HIM?!" is correct.

Jonathin

Bump. Because this is a good thread and I don't want to see it taken out back and shot.

Sybilla

Practice and practise, though I think it's a British English thing and Americans (or others?) don't make the distinction. I think one's the verb and one's the noun, but I can never work out which.

Cardan

Sybilla said:

Practice and practise, though I think it's a British English thing and Americans (or others?) don't make the distinction. I think one's the verb and one's the noun, but I can never work out which.

Practice is the noun and practise is the verb. The easiest way I found to remember the difference was to relate it back to advice/advise - "When you advise, you give advice".

Eld

Odd, I'd always assumed "practise" was just a British spelling of "practice". Are the two generally pronounced differently?

Sybilla

@Eld not as far as I've noticed. A doctor's practice, and practise medicine sound the same (at least to me, I'm not a mothertongue speaker though).

Edit to add: advice and advise are pronounced differently though. The first is a bit like add-vais, the second is add-vaaiz.

Eld

Sybilla said:

@Eld not as far as I've noticed. A doctor's practice, and practise medicine sound the same (at least to me, I'm not a mothertongue speaker though).

Edit to add: advice and advise are pronounced differently though. The first is a bit like add-vais, the second is add-vaaiz.

Yes, that I knew (we do have that distinction here in the New World). That's what prompted me to ask about the other.

Trevize

Krypton said:

Trevize said:

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but 'who' vs 'whom'.

'Whom' is not old English. 'Whom' is referring to the object. 'Who' is referring to the subject.

If you just can't get it, use who. Random 'whoms' incorrectly is painful to read!

To know when to use "who" versus "whom," replace the word with "he/him." If "he" is correct, use "who." If "him" is correct, use "whom."

"Who likes cheese?" is correct because "He likes cheese?" is correct.

"You want to get your sexy on with WHOM?!" is correct because "You want to get your sexy on with HIM?!" is correct.

Never thought of it like that, but yes, good rule!

Krypton

Speaking of "who/whom," I was positively livid when, during a joke about proper grammar (starts at 0:54), the writers at SNL misused "whomever"!

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/weekend-update-favorites-2913/n32597

Anaidiana

Achaea said:

Message #13         Sent by Achaea

3/30/22:18 Your bug report (detail: Vingar idly strokes the gleaming sword at his side as he checks out his surrounds. (should be surroundings?) (this is in the rodestrian settlement in the southern vashnars)) - has been removed because it is not a bug (usually meaning that this is the way things are intended to be). Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience or misunderstanding that may be involved. The following notes were included: .

....what am I missing here? 

Eld

Looks like a form of definition 2 here, for example.

Mannimar

Nim

Is it sad that, while I knew most of those things (I was a bit iffy on lie vs lay, but only to the degree that my understanding was less clear than the video's explanation!), my mind was blown on the "fewer" vs "less" thing, and I immediately wondered if "less-than" (in programming) is thus grammatically wrong given that all programming variables are, by nature, discrete and thus arguably countable?

oh god, I have to completely rethink my entire world view now.

Eld

Nim said:

Is it sad that, while I knew most of those things (I was a bit iffy on lie vs lay, but only to the degree that my understanding was less clear than the video's explanation!), my mind was blown on the "fewer" vs "less" thing, and I immediately wondered if "less-than" (in programming) is thus grammatically wrong given that all programming variables are, by nature, discrete and thus arguably countable?

oh god, I have to completely rethink my entire world view now.

The admonition not to use less for countable things (e.g. "I give less than two craps if you think this sentence is ungrammatical") is another of those innumerable "rules" that originated with some dude in the 18th century or so deciding he liked it better and other people deciding to follow him on it for some reason. Less has been used like that since at least the 9th century. It's fine.

Krypton

Nim said:

I immediately wondered if "less-than" (in programming) is thus grammatically wrong given that all programming variables are, by nature, discrete and thus arguably countable?

No. The problem is that there is an important addendum to the "fewer vs. less" grammatical rule that most people aren't aware of, and that hardly gets mentioned. This addendum is that numbers, amounts, and measurements are always referred to with "less." It is grammatically INCORRECT to use "fewer" in the following fashions:

• The boy is fewer than seven years of age.
• I weigh fewer than 160 pounds.
• Three is fewer than five.
• His house is fewer than four miles away.
• I have fewer than ten dollars on me.

"Less" should be used instead in all these cases, as it is the total amount that's important, and not the individual pounds, years, miles, etc.

Also, that mental_floss video sucks! It misspells "possess"/"possessive," and it states that "effect" absolutely cannot be used as a verb, when it in fact can be.

Keres

@Krypton is my new hero.

Eld

Krypton said:

Also, that mental_floss video sucks! It misspells "possess"/"possessive," and it states that "effect" absolutely cannot be used as a verb, when it in fact can be.

Just as affect can be a noun.