J. Greenlees wrote: > TheOldFellow wrote: >> The non-native-English writers amongst us, are probably wondering about >> the frequent misuse, by so-called native-English speakers in these >> threads... > > something about pot and kettle comes to mind. ;) > >> your = a possessive pronoun. It never, ever, means 'you are'. >> e.g. your book, your crap software, your stupid explanation etc,etc.. >> >> you're = 'you are' and never, ever, a possessive pronoun. >> e.g you're a fine chap, you're right about that, you're a imbecile, >> you're idea is rubbish. > > Since grammatically, "you're an imbecile" is the correct phrasing. :) > English requires the 'an' when the following word begins with a vowel.
I had to drop in some comments. couldn't resist... Except for Hotel... It should also be "an hotel". Not "a hotel". >> You all = Texan (not English) for something friendly.... >> >> This is a bit like me, in the easy days of learning Spanish, saying to >> a Spaniard: 'No habla Espaniol' ( = YOU don't speak Spanish - which of >> course he did, and I didn't (hablo)!) >> >> Please fix this before fixing the software! >> > > The issue about correct spelling and grammar in english, even with those > for whom it is their first language, is common everywhere. The internet > has become a melting pot for corruption of English, since so many > youngsters use text messaging spelling online. Things like u instead of > you, and the really common 'a.f.a.i.k.' etcetera don't help with the > spelling and grammar issues. Agreed. Although these are generally accepted "international" standards. > It is made worse by the number of English dialects, being Canadian, my > English is mostly British in spelling and grammar, but has been strongly > affected by French. [ centre instead of center or theatre instead of > theater for two examples. ] These "dialectic" spelling differences help > contribute to the confusion. This is the correct and true spelling of centre and theatre as far as I am concerned. > Since the end of World War II, the "official" language for international > business and communication has been US English, it might help if > everyone ran their documents through a spell checker using the US > English dictionary for the spelling errors. Unfortunately, the grammar > checkers available outside of MS Office, Star Office or Corel Office > suites really suck at catching even the your / you're errors, never mind > the English oddities with exceptions to every rule. Says who??? Since when have we adopted US English? That is not the case here in the UK. we certainly don't stoop to US centric spelling/adulteration of our beloved language. If we can help it that is. ;-) In fact I try my hardest to educate our North American colleagues into their linguistic failings and misdemeanours... Of course we *could* go on to discuss to the [mis]use of the apostrophe - now that would be fun :-) Al -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/alfs-discuss FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
