My boyfriend just created a new blog where he responds to what he learns in class and gives his own thoughts about education and learning. He’s doing his Masters right now and I’m quite thrilled for him.
So this post will be pretty formal (as you can already tell from the capitalized letters), because I’m going to discuss some (one) grammatical errors that bother(s) me .
“For example, ‘yo i met ur frd ytd’ is more acceptable to me than ‘Yo, I met you’re friend yesterday.’”.
The above was taken from his post, which expertly discusses the rapid change in technological and academic language from the late 20th century to the 21st century, i.e. internet language. As I read this sentence, I couldn’t help but feel bothered by the “you’re” at the end. I asked him if it was a typo or if it was written on purpose to illustrate his point (which would probably be better for you to read directly from his blog; link will be provided upon request), to which he replied “on purpose”.
Ironically, I was wrong myself, to ask if it was a “typo”, because the mistake that is made between “you’re” and “your” isn’t the over-fluidity of the fingers. Rather, it is a grammatical error, which, unfortunately, is too common in teenagers and even adults these days.
In North America, the vast majority of children in grades 1 or 2 (or perhaps 3, I’m not too clear with the grades) begin to learn grammar and spelling for English. I’ve heard that English is a language that, although has rules that are structured and coherent, have too many exceptions to them, rendering them probably useless. Nonetheless, learning a language takes time, patience, and a whole lot of practice. That’s a good reason to start when you’re young, isn’t it? So why is it that I still find pre-teens, teens, young adults, and even professionals using the homonym “your” for “you’re”?
Oxford dictionary states that a “homonym” is first and foremost, a noun, “each of two or more words having the same spelling or pronunciation but different meanings and origins”. “Your” doesn’t have the same spelling as “you’re”, but it certainly sounds exactly the same. So now I’m baffled: do people really speak what they want to say out loud before they write it, every single time? What is it about those two words that have people confused?
Assuming that kids in grade one haven’t started to ponder the notion of dropping out of school already, they hopefully make it to grade 8 (free education anyone?) and successfully learn the function of an apostrophe and the function of a possessive noun. From my experience, grammar wasn’t fun. It was tedious and redundant and lessons were constantly met with the regular customer complaints of “we know this already”. Given years of boring lesson after lesson, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that North Americans can now make the distinction between a simple “your” and “you’re”, meaning “you are”. After all, what do you think the apostrophe’s there for? Certainly not to add graphic appeal to the word.
But time and time again I see it. I see it in tumblr posts. I see it in posters. Sometimes I see it in posts like the one you’re reading now. And the usual case is that the sentence is grammatically correct with zero spelling mistakes, but that one word is wrong. My response? I disregard the tumblr post. It’s something worth reblogging until I’m met with a huge sore thumb that reeks of grammatical ignorance. And, as usual, a post like this is a cute or clever saying, possibly with a pun, possibly with an allusion to the theme of love. It’s worthless to me now, and I say that without feeling the slightest bit of guilt that I’ve trashed an artist’s work.
I’m sure these are the aspects a post should include: font size, font colour, font style, the border line style, the background image, the background colour, the context, the tags, the sentence. The sentence. The grammar behind the sentence. Or rather, the grammar that makes up the sentence that is the basis for a wonderfully well thought-out and coherent idea. Literary flourishes can’t survive on a poorly executed idea. Like a cupcake, you have to start with the bread itself, not the icing and decorative sparkles, sprinkles, colours, etc.
So why does it bother me? Because in the grand scheme of anything, one tiny imperfection is completely destructive. A musician may perform his absolute best, but with a single wrong note could have the audience thinking “it would’ve been perfect”. A math problem, copied out with a negative sign in the wrong place, could leave a student with a totally opposite answer. When the teacher erases the board and leaves a line accidentally, at least one student has the urge to point it out. It’s a single note, a single horizontal line, a single mark. But among absolute perfection, it renders a highly probable 100% a 99.99%.
Why does it bother me? Because given that the 21st century drills their future rulers with the differences between homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, pronouns, nouns, possessive nouns, adjective, adverb, conjugations, verbs, clause, semicolon, colon, period - should I go on? - it’s common for people to make the mistake of replacing “your” with “you’re”. I’m willing to bet that although I’m drilling you with this, half of you will still live your lives not caring that it’s almost appalling to ignorantly use a homonym. I frankly find it’s horrible that proper grammar turns people on (here I’m referring to the popular Facebook group), not because the basic foundation of a sentence is sexually alluring, but because it’s just that basic that it should be normal, if not necessary for this clear distinction to be made.
Why does it bother me? Because I’ve been told before that I’m a grammar and spelling Nazi, and I shouldn’t have to be.
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