16-09-2004, 15:31
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#1
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[NTHW] pc clan
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Common errors in English
A useful site, enjoy 
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16-09-2004, 15:35
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#2
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Cable Forum Team
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Re: Common errors in English
Hmm, wonder if we can add it to the T&Cs that you have to read that site before posting? 
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16-09-2004, 15:57
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#3
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That damn leprechaun!!
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Re: Common errors in English
What do you expect from a language where the plural of sheep is sheep?
And as for the fact that the last book I read was in German, so I couldn't read the language
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16-09-2004, 16:43
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#4
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looked and can't be arsed
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Re: Common errors in English
And what exactly is English when it has been added to and chopped about so much by all the invaders over the year's , never mind how much we've butchered and are still butchering it 
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17-09-2004, 00:13
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#5
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Common errors in English
Comes to something when we need the yanks to tell us how to speak English. Although I notice that the most common mistake I see is missing... which is people putting it's when it should be its.
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17-09-2004, 00:23
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#6
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Re: Common errors in English
Quote:
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Originally Posted by andygrif
Comes to something when we need the yanks to tell us how to speak English. Although I notice that the most common mistake I see is missing... which is people putting it's when it should be its.
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CD's instead of CDs (plurals eg CDs £3.99)
"could of" instead of "could have"
a few more that **** me off.
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17-09-2004, 00:24
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#7
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International Megastar
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Re: Common errors in English
Quote:
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Originally Posted by bopdude
And what exactly is English when it has been added to and chopped about so much by all the invaders over the year's , never mind how much we've butchered and are still butchering it |
The year's what? Which year's? Which year's what?
I assume your intended reference was the plural of year - years as opposed to the possessive of a year or unspecified years?
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17-09-2004, 00:25
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#8
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Cable Forum Team
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Re: Common errors in English
Quote:
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Originally Posted by nffc
"could of" instead of "could have"
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That happens on this site SO often 
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17-09-2004, 00:29
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#9
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vista home premium user
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Re: Common errors in English
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Russ D
That happens on this site SO often |
Yeah I know- apart from laziness, and without wishing to blow my top, I don't really tend to make bad grammatical errors really (when I'm trying!).
If I was going to pick up bad spelling / grammar every time I saw it, I'd have about 1000 posts by now 
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17-09-2004, 08:24
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#10
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Common errors in English
People complaining about 'bad grammer' always amuse me.
Nug - learning German helps with the old grocer's apostrophe problem - my late grandfather, who was a great lover of Germany and spoke the language well once invited a German friend to come along to his school (he was a primary school teacher in rural East Anglia). The friend came in, looked at a few books with Teutonic thoroughness, found an unfortunate child with an apostrophe in the wrong place and announced 'Don't you know the difference between a genitive and a plural?'.
Needless to say the result was blank incomprehension. In German, of course, the grammar is vital, and the s at the end of the word means its in the genitive case, indicating possession. All German children have to know this, but in the UK we haven't really gone for grammar teaching in a big way for ages.
The s/'s problem comes from us using the French ending s to signify plural and the German genitive ending, which is, er, also s, to indicate possession. The apostrophe was added to distinguish between the two. It sums up very neatly why English is a jumbled up mess.
(German plurals are a mess though, which is possibly why we didn't use them, except for rare cases like child/children and ox/oxen).
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17-09-2004, 09:09
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#11
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Common errors in English
Quote:
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Originally Posted by BBKing
(German plurals are a mess though, which is possibly why we didn't use them, except for rare cases like child/children and ox/oxen).
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b0x0r and b0xen?
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17-09-2004, 09:20
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#12
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Common errors in English
Quite. It's an Americanism, presumably derived from ox. Another example of how inventive English speakers can be.
Quiz:
How many plural forms are there in English?
How many ways can you pronounce the letter 'c'?
What's the only adjective in English that agrees with the noun?
Trivial fact - the German for 'login' is 'einloggen'.
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17-09-2004, 09:26
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#13
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Guest
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Re: Common errors in English
ohhh dont get me started
"Bought" and "Brought"
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17-09-2004, 10:18
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#14
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cf.mega poster
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Re: Common errors in English
Quote:
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Originally Posted by nffc
CD's instead of CDs (plurals eg CDs £3.99)
"could of" instead of "could have"
a few more that **** me off.
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This might be a controversial opinion, but I think that CD's is correct. The apostrophe signifies removal of letters, and as you have removed isc from discs then I would suggest that CD's is correct. Discus
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17-09-2004, 10:44
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#15
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Cable Forum Team
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Re: Common errors in English
The CD's plastic case would be right.
Anything else does my head in
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I worry about my nan. She lives alone. If she fell over, would she make a noise?
The king and cage
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