Grammar 101: YAY!!!

[Guest053013-01]

My Greek professor thought ya'll was the best contraction in the American lexicon.

While some of this is just funny and interesting, the proper use of some words is like an intelligence test for me. Two that particularly bug me:

Me and I

You're and your

[London Rayne]

Grammar:

The difference in knowing if "You're Nuts" or knowing "Your Nuts."

[proudoftexas]

Originally Posted by Yxes

My Greek professor thought ya'll was the best contraction in the American lexicon.

That's how I feel about it. "Youse guys" is not a good substitute.

Intelligence tests are more about how someone thinks --- how they put their thoughts together, and how they express themselves. I don't want to judge others based on their education level. I've known brilliant people who didn't have a college degree.

But if you claim to have a higher education level, and then throw improper spelling, word usage, and grammar at me, I'm going to be dismissive.

[London Rayne]

My ex is a CEO with a Masters Degree, and can't spell for shit. He also does not know the difference between "to" and "too." How he made it through college, I will never know, but he did go to Penn State bwhahhaah.

[proudoftexas]

But I guarantee the materials his company produces --- whether in print or online --- aren't rife with spelling errors.

There are way more important attributes to success than being able to spell correctly.

That said, the financially successful people in my world can all communicate effectively. And part of that is getting basic elements of English language correct.

[David426]

My teacher axed a question to the class... Use the word "Hotel" in a sentence.. Leroy raised his hand and volunteered to use Hotel in a sentence... Here was his sentence... "I went out on a date with Sally,Friday night.. On Monday I found out that the Hotel everyone in the school about what we did..

[London Rayne]

Um, he is a CEO so he pays someone else to write FOR him. Come to think of it, that's probably how he made it through grad school bwahhahaa. I always blew for Math class, but English was a no brainer.

Originally Posted by proudoftexas

But I guarantee the materials his company produces --- whether in print or online --- aren't rife with spelling errors.

There are way more important attributes to success than being able to spell correctly.

That said, the financially successful people in my world can all communicate effectively. And part of that is getting basic elements of English language correct.

[proudoftexas]

You have an interesting posting history, David426.

In any case, not sure I found your contribution as amusing as many of the others on this thread, but that's just me.

[awl4knot]

Originally Posted by London Rayne

It depends where you live. I use "Yea" as well, because people who use "Yay" are usually Canadian. "Y'all" is not exactly a word either, but us southerners love using it. People from Europe spell "favorite" as "favourite." As long as a person knows the difference between "you're" vs. "your" and "then" vs. "than," makes no difference to me.

Isn't it "we southerners" since "we" is the nominative form and "us" is the objective form. Test it by eliminating "southerners". You wouldn't write "but us love using it." You would write "but we love using it" since "we" is the subject of the sentence.

Many people talk slang or ghetto if you will, in public forums, but they are usually well versed on a website. It's not like most people would use those terms whilst writing an English paper, but I've always used "yea" and "y'all." Most people know the context is not correct, and simply don't care.

And what's up with "whilst"? It's not standard American English but the Brits do seem to favour it. To many American ears, "whilst" seems a bit affected.

[JDNorthface]

Originally Posted by JessicaKnightly

What's broken?

Laughing, laughing. Now THIS is funny. Thanks!

[London Rayne]

I was making a point about how some people in the south talk, but I guess you missed that lol. If you lived in or around New Orleans, you would notice most everyone uses "us southerners," and not "we." No shit, it's not correct, but neither is "y'all." That was my point. I always use "whilst" and it's correct depending on context, but yes...my gal pal Valerie got me into using that word. She also adds a "u" to "Favor" just like you did.

Originally Posted by awl4knot

And what's up with "whilst"? It's not standard American English but the Brits do seem to favour it. To many American ears, "whilst" seems a bit affected.

[awl4knot]

Originally Posted by London Rayne

I was making a point about how some people in the south talk, but I guess you missed that lol. If you lived in or around New Orleans, you would notice most everyone uses "us southerners," and not "we." No shit, it's not correct, but neither is "y'all." That was my point. I always use "whilst" and it's correct depending on context, but yes...my gal pal Valerie got me into using that word. She also adds a "u" to "Favor" just like you did.

I don't have a problem with regional dialects, expressions and colloquialisms, but I have lived in the South, and those nuns in the third and fourth grade wouldn't let us use "us" when "we" was the proper pronoun. We would have our knuckles rapped good. And gee, if you use "us" as an nominative pronoun, then you are not that far from using hill billy pronouns like "you'ens", "we'ens", and "us'ens". That stuff just ain't right.

But we have our fair share of grammatical abominations in the North. "You'se guys" is particularly grating, but it may be more in use in the movies than if real life.

BTW, I'm not saying "whilst" is incorrect. It is not. It just seems fussy to American ears.

[NinaBrooke]

Originally Posted by JessicaKnightly

Okay, first I'm not a grammar Nazi. I really don't care if anyone around me butchers the English language. However, being the "cheerleader" that I am, I use the word "Yay!" a lot. Even here my spell check is red lining that word.

For years I used "Yea!" instead of "Yay!" which is incorrect. I found a helpful site to help in the rare case that I'm confused on which word to use.

http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

As for Yea/Yeah/Yay:
“Yea” is a very old-fashioned formal way of saying “yes,” used mainly in voting. It’s the opposite of—and rhymes with—“nay.” When you want to write the common casual version of “yes,” the correct spelling is “yeah” (sounds like “yeh” ). When the third grade teacher announced a class trip to the zoo, we all yelled “yay!” (the opposite of “boo”!). That was back when I was only yay big."

So, what other words do find are often misused?

Thanks for posting this! It is especially awesome for me as a non-native speaker! Good reminder and many new things! Is there a way to use the word "catched" instead of "caught" ? I never heard "catched" anywhere. I just saw it here ... Or is "catched" the spelling error for "caught" ? Sometimes I don`t understand if it`s the correct word or the spelling error and the correct word next to it. Sorry about that ....

[awl4knot]

Originally Posted by ninasastri

Thanks for posting this! It is especially awesome for me as a non-native speaker! Good reminder and many new things! Is there a way to use the word "catched" instead of "caught" ? I never heard "catched" anywhere. I just saw it here ... Or is "catched" the spelling error for "caught" ? Sometimes I don`t understand if it`s the correct word or the spelling error and the correct word next to it. Sorry about that ....

Now I'm worried. If the past tense of catch is "caught" instead of "catched", then why isn't the past tense of hatch "haught" instead of "hatched?"

By the way, I think I just made a new homophone for "hot", or is it "hawt", which applies to both Nina and Jessica.

On a sad note, it looks like London and I will not finish our discussion of the variant use of "us" in the southern states.

[CarolineDavenport]

Nina, are you sure that what you saw was not "cached?" "Catched" is not a word, but "cached" means stored or hidden away for safe keeping or later use. Recently, it is also used in conjunction with web content, with pretty much the same meaning, like your computer will store a copy of the websites you frequently visit so it doesn't have to fully load the page next time you visit.

Anyway, thought it might be the case, but it's also entirely possible that someone simply misspelled it, or actually meant "caught."