What is your most common grammatical mistake?

Page 1 of 2 [ 29 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

CRACK
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Nov 2005
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 765

13 Sep 2008, 7:50 am

My most common grammatical mistake is using "would be" instead of "was" when I would be referring to an actual past event.

I would be doing this alot when I would be writing a particular essay. And I would see those little proofread marks made everywhere. And I would think to myself, 'how would I have developed this habit?'



ImTheGuyThatDidThat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 May 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,170

13 Sep 2008, 7:52 am

Oh i wish i knew...someone please tell me :)
make mistakes but not sure where on some
of them



klox
Butterfly
Butterfly

User avatar

Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 13

13 Sep 2008, 8:15 am

Quote:
Oh i wish i knew...someone please tell me


Beat me to it. :P

Sometimes I write sentences that are too short to technically be a "correct" sentence e.g. two word sentences. Although I do this deliberately on forums because it's similar to how I speak IRL.



digger1
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Sep 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,485

13 Sep 2008, 8:18 am

Mine are common misspellings like "apropriate" or "nescessary", not remembering which consonant goes where or how many repeated letters there are.

(I didn't use the chell speck there)



ImTheGuyThatDidThat
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 May 2008
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Posts: 5,170

13 Sep 2008, 8:20 am

I mess up even more i have noticed lately, norwegian
is my primary language, english secondary. But they
mix when i write alot - went over some papers i had
written to check for errors, found a bunch of almost-
words, strange mixes of the two languages :lol: half
english, half norwegian and i dont notice it when i do
it, i just see it after its done. And sometimes i find a
word that just isn`t a word :) it just came out of
nothing - yes, i trippelcheck everything i do because
of this



rekoil
Raven
Raven

User avatar

Joined: 29 May 2008
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 120
Location: playing in the sandbox

13 Sep 2008, 9:05 am

I haven't quite figured the proper use of a semi-colon, and I use way too many compound sentences. Even when the second half isn't a complete logical continuation of the first. Oh, and sentence fragments. hehe


_________________
um... Yeah.


anna-banana
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Aug 2008
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 5,682
Location: Europe

13 Sep 2008, 9:31 am

CRACK wrote:
My most common grammatical mistake is using "would be" instead of "was" when I would be referring to an actual past event.

I would be doing this alot when I would be writing a particular essay. And I would see those little proofread marks made everywhere. And I would think to myself, 'how would I have developed this habit?'


LOL I do that too, big time. I didn't realise that would be a grammatical mistake!


_________________
not a bug - a feature.


crackedpleasures
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 13 Oct 2007
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,367
Location: currently Belgium, longing for the Middle East

13 Sep 2008, 9:44 am

In what language?

I am quatrolingual (Dutch - English - French - German) and I do think without bragging I make very few mistakes in Dutch and English. I somehow get irritated when people make silly mistakes such as the classic "-dt" errors with verbs in Dutch. I can get quite irritated when people make very silly mistakes simply because of not trying to use the correct grammar or spelling.

I however still make a bit too many mistakes in German. While my German vocabulary is very good, I still mix up grammatical forms such as Dativ and Akkusativ too often. For example "bitte geben Sie mich" or "bitte geben Sie mir" ... That sort of stuff, I still make mistakes with that a bit too often. In French I tend to sometimes make errors with verbs when using past tense.

I do take pride that I still write Dutch almost errorless despite having left my native country 4 years ago. However, it all comes down to efford. Reading Dutch online papers and writing an email to my family in Belgium frequently is enough to keep my skills up to date. If only I had done that after learning Spanish: seeking a Spanish penfriend or so to keep practising it. I unfortunately didnt and as a result forgot about 90% of the Spanish I learnt :(


_________________
Do what Thou wilt shal be the whole of the Law.
Love is the Law, Love under Will. And...
every man and every woman is a star
(excerpt from The Book of the Law - Aleister Crowley)

"Od lo avda tikvateinu" (excerpt from the Israeli hymn)


iamnotaparakeet
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 25,091
Location: 0.5 Galactic radius

13 Sep 2008, 9:54 am

Not double-checking my writing.



TallyMan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Mar 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 40,061

13 Sep 2008, 10:00 am

I don't know what my grammatical mistakes are. If I knew, I wouldn't make them!

I did / do fall foul of using it's when I should use its for the possessive case.


_________________
I've left WP indefinitely.


iamnotaparakeet
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Jul 2007
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 25,091
Location: 0.5 Galactic radius

13 Sep 2008, 10:04 am

It's always means "it is" whereas its is genitive.



Social_Fantom
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Feb 2008
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 10,895
Location: Trapped outside of the space time continuum

13 Sep 2008, 11:03 am

I, tend, to, overuse, commas,.


_________________
So simple, it's complicated


TallyMan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 30 Mar 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 40,061

13 Sep 2008, 11:47 am

Why does Microsoft Word suggest changes to my grammar that would convert a legitimate sentence into nonsense?


_________________
I've left WP indefinitely.


ShadyNails
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 9 Sep 2008
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 32
Location: Elyria,Ohio

13 Sep 2008, 1:08 pm

Sometimes I use of instead of have.

:(



kxmode
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,613
Location: In your neighborhood, knocking on your door. :)

13 Sep 2008, 8:00 pm

"you guys's"


_________________
A Proud Witness of Jehovah God (JW.org)
Revelation 21:4 "And [God] will wipe out every tear from their eyes,
and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.
The former things have passed away."


Fnord
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2008
Age: 67
Gender: Male
Posts: 59,890
Location: Stendec

13 Sep 2008, 8:04 pm

mising lettrs


_________________
 
No love for Hamas, Hezbollah, Iranian Leadership, Islamic Jihad, other Islamic terrorist groups, OR their supporters and sympathizers.