WAY

I'm WAY tired!

That'll be WAY fun, let's do that!

I really can't stand the local colloquialism of Utah in the form of the word "way". I remember how much it annoyed me in high school. There was less of a problem with it in college because so many of my fellow BYU students were from outside of Utah, and I stopped hearing it. After being gone from Utah since 2000, coming back in 2009, that was one of the first things I noticed. Utahns still use the word "way" all the time.

My kids have started saying it.

I have started saying it. Nothing bothers me more than when that slips out of my mouth. I almost have to slap myself.

I heard the news anchor say it on the news this morning.

My seventh grade grammar teacher would be rolling in her grave (though I'm not sure if she's even passed on yet).

It's WAY annoying!

Grammar Tip #1: Plural nouns, possessive nouns, contractions

I have written about this before, but I decided that every once in a while, I will write a grammar tip. Grammar and mechanics skills are starting to really go downhill and I get really tired of seeing the same mistakes over and over again. Not that I'm perfect, but I try to always look over my writing before I post to make sure the grammar and mechanics are correct. My 7th grade grammar teacher ground those grammar rules into our heads and always emphasized the importance of grammar and mechanics in literacy.

So, here is the tip of the day.

When making a word plural, the usual way is to add the letter "s" at the end. You do not ever add an apostrophe before the "s" to make it plural. This is a very common mistake I see in blogs and all over Facebook and it drives me positively bonkers.

Example:

"I can't wait for my kid's to go back to school."

should be

"I can't wait for my kids to go back to school."

The time that you actually use the apostrophe is when it's a possessive noun or a contraction:

Possessive:
My kid's bike (one kid, one bike)
My kids' bikes (more than one kid, more than one bike)

Contractions:
Cannot=can't
does not=doesn't
will not=won't
you all=y'all (This one is commonly wrong--you all is contracted y'all, not ya'll. If it was ya'll then it would be a contraction for ya all, not you all.)

And there you have it. Plural nouns, possessive nouns and contractions all rolled into one short lesson.

Grammar and Mechanics Gripe

I get so tired of how often these days people don't follow grammar rules or they don't understand certain rules of mechanics. It makes me wonder where the schools are failing because my 7th grade grammar teacher did not give us room to fail that subject! She pounded that grammar and those mechanics rules into our heads so hard I can still recite some of it in my sleep 18 years later!

Here are some common mistakes that I often see:

1. People adding an apostrophe before an "s" to make a word plural. This one really irritates me. Every time I see it, I want to write to that person and ask them if they ever learned this rule.

Here is an example:
We were looking for house's yesterday.

It should read:
We were looking for houses yesterday.

When you need to make something plural, the general rule is that you add an "s". You don't add an apostrophe. Apostrophes are used to show possession, not pluralization! (or I guess some people would write that as...Apostrophe's are used to show possession, not pluralization)

2. Another one:
People using "there" or "their" instead of "they're"; "your" instead of "you're" or vice versa.

Example:
There our good friends.

Should read:
They're our good friends.

"They're" and "you're" are contractions for "they are" and "you are". If you're trying to say something belongs to someone, you can use "their" or "your". "There" refers to a place, such as "I put the book over there."

Those are the two that have been popping up a lot lately. I realize that the mistake a lot of people make is that they're (as in "they are") in a hurry, so they just type. I've even made similar mistakes (although, not usually with the plural rule, that seems so elementary to me), but I usually go back and double check my work before posting a question on a message board or an entry on a blog. Sometimes I still get it wrong, but at least I try to get it right. And at least I know all the rules--Mrs. Gorman taught me well!