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There Their They're

rugbyskier

Ted Thorn (20)
This is a good topic, one where we can vent our frustrations. Mine is "should of, could of, would of, must of". Nothing demonstrates the failure of modern education to teach basic English grammar more than those examples. They're supposed to be "should have, could have, etc" or the contraction "should've, could've, etc".

I was studying French at the local TAFE and the teacher also taught French at a high school in Canberra. She told me that she had to teach her students English grammar in her French class because they had no knowledge of subjects, objects, pronouns, etc and she felt that they needed to know English grammar before they could understand French grammar. As anyone who has learned French would know, it has very strict rules of grammar.
 

Elfster

Dave Cowper (27)
I was studying French at the local TAFE and the teacher also taught French at a high school in Canberra. She told me that she had to teach her students English grammar in her French class because they had no knowledge of subjects, objects, pronouns, etc and she felt that they needed to know English grammar before they could understand French grammar. As anyone who has learned French would know, it has very strict rules of grammar.

I agree with this. It was only with my study of a foreign language, in this case German, did I really get a decent understanding of grammar.

And as an aside, how many people incorrectly spell "grammar"....
 

rugbyskier

Ted Thorn (20)
I agree with this. It was only with my study of a foreign language, in this case German, did I really get a decent understanding of grammar.

Ich spreche Deutsch auch. Ich habe mein Schilehrer Anwaerter Pruefung im Oesterreich gemacht.

Yes German is very grammatical too. In addition to the three genders of 'the', there's the variations in the nominative, accusative and dative cases. Vocabulary is not too bad as many English words are derived from German (and French).
 

Jethro Tah

Bob Loudon (25)
Interesting thread guys. Yes, I agree that the youth, the media, the politicians of today are getting lazy with grammar, that is in the traditional sense of the language as brought over by Captain Cook and his merry band of convicts. But is it not just the creation of a new dialect downunder?
 

Moses

Simon Poidevin (60)
Staff member
And what of the scandalous regularity of the misuse of 'it's' and 'its'. Many writers seem utterly clueless - and, worse, uncaring - as to the difference. (That is why I am glad to see a teachers' union departing the ACTU, perhaps they are going in for some voluntary retraining in the tuition of elementary grammer and speelling.) Truly dreadful this 'it's' and 'its' crisis, and far more regular than any other of the unfortunate delinquencies identified hereto in this noble thread.
Is that a pisstake, or did you really mis-spell both grammar and spelling ?
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
Yeah apparently the classics were still taught in South Australian high schools in the 20th century! We've always said that SA was 20 (or was it 200) years behind the rest of the country ;)
 

Nusadan

Chilla Wilson (44)
Did Ancient Greek for 3 years after a year of Latin, it appealed to my latent calligraphy skills rather than my grammatical bent...
 

Cat_A

Arch Winning (36)
My pet peeves:
1. If you can't spell definitely, either check it or use a different word. Definately definitly both wrong. Even better when spell corrects it to defiantly and you read that someone is defiantly feeling good about the match
2. You're, your & their they're as already stated
3. Should of vs should have as already stated
 
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