Posted May 25, 2017
Wishbone
Red herring
Registered: Oct 2008
From Denmark
dtgreene
vaccines work she/her
Registered: Jan 2010
From United States
Posted May 25, 2017
Another thing I have noticed about English (as a native speaker) that many people (even native speakers) get wrong on written English:
With nouns, possessive is formed by adding "'s" (with an apostrophe), so "Sarah" becomes "Sarah's" and "dragon" becomes "dragons". Sounds simple, right? (Well, there *is* the special case of plural nouns ending in 's', and I am not sure about singular nouns ending in 's'.)
With pronouns, however, possessives do *not* contain an apostrophe. Often, the form is irregular, so "she" becomes "her" (but note that pronouns often change when used as the object of a sentence). On the other hand, we have "it" becoming "its", which some people confuse for "it's" (which is wrong).
The think is, however, that "it's" is an actual English word; it is a contraction that expands to "it is". Therefore, a spellchecker will not notice the mistake.
I have been noticing this mistake a lot lately, and it is irritating. Remember, "it's" = "it is", and if you want to show ownership, the word you want is "its".
(Note that this mistake shows up only in written English, as both "its" and "it's" sound the same when spoken.)
With nouns, possessive is formed by adding "'s" (with an apostrophe), so "Sarah" becomes "Sarah's" and "dragon" becomes "dragons". Sounds simple, right? (Well, there *is* the special case of plural nouns ending in 's', and I am not sure about singular nouns ending in 's'.)
With pronouns, however, possessives do *not* contain an apostrophe. Often, the form is irregular, so "she" becomes "her" (but note that pronouns often change when used as the object of a sentence). On the other hand, we have "it" becoming "its", which some people confuse for "it's" (which is wrong).
The think is, however, that "it's" is an actual English word; it is a contraction that expands to "it is". Therefore, a spellchecker will not notice the mistake.
I have been noticing this mistake a lot lately, and it is irritating. Remember, "it's" = "it is", and if you want to show ownership, the word you want is "its".
(Note that this mistake shows up only in written English, as both "its" and "it's" sound the same when spoken.)
Themken
Old user
Registered: Nov 2011
From Other
Posted May 25, 2017
I have been noticing this mistake a lot lately, and it is irritating. Remember, "it's" = "it is", and if you want to show ownership, the word you want is "its".
(Note that this mistake shows up only in written English, as both "its" and "it's" sound the same when spoken.)
X-com
................
Registered: Oct 2012
From Australia
Posted May 25, 2017
Well I like one of the GOG wishlist entries: It will be great if it were possible to send a friend through the gog wallet money.
1st time I read it I understood it as the possibility of you literally sending your friend (physically) through the GOG wallet funds
1st time I read it I understood it as the possibility of you literally sending your friend (physically) through the GOG wallet funds
Post edited May 25, 2017 by X-com
Embrigand
Spearman
Registered: Mar 2017
From Australia
Posted May 27, 2017
GOG is an awesome place and a very international community. But I haven't seen a thread yet, where non-native speakers can ask stupid questions about the English language, if they're not sure how to build one specific phrase. And I know there are a lot of users with a mix of mediocre school knowledge and self-taught video game English (All your base are belong to us!). So maybe it's a good idea to have an "English thread", where native speakers help out their fellow GOGlodytes?
Let me start with a phrase which is bugging me:
"Just be part of our community, because that's for whom I'm doing this: the community."
Is this proper English? Google translator gives me an understandable German translation, so it can't be THAT wrong. But I have no clue how this "whom"-thing works ;) To give some more context: I'm writing the OP of a giveaway right now and want to say that everyone is allowed to enter, regardless of his rep or registration date, as long as he's active in the forums.
"I don't care if you have -150 rep or if your registration date says July 2014... [...] Just be part of our community, because that's for whom I'm doing this: the community."
Do you lick it? Or is it gibberish?