It’s not OP’s fault English is a stupid language with words that sound identical but carry different meanings. I’m of the mindset that so long as it’s legible it is correct. look at Old English. It was much more phonetic than modern English is. Scribes wrote words as they sounded. Languages like English have so many dumb and unnecessary rules as well. Why the fuck do we need capitalization rules anyway? Latin doesn’t have it.
Getting corrected is how you learn. I often spell words wrong, because English isn’t my first language, but I don’t mind being corrected.
But when to use “your” and “you’re” is actually fairly easy to remember. “You’re” is short for “you are” and is used when YOU are doing something. “Your” is used when someone else is doing something.
I don’t disagree but I think you’re missing my point. Minor variations of spelling shouldn’t matter, so long as it’s legible. If someone says dey instead of they, dat instead of that, wader instead of water, why should that be any less correct? I know it’s not exactly an apple to apples comparison but I believe language should be more flexible. So long as it’s understandable, why should it matter? Especially because English has and will continue to evolve in our lifetime. Why do people think in terms of absolutes?
It’s really fucking not hard to learn the correct usage. You’re: you are, your: something belonging to or being part of you. You’re isn’t a word, it’s a contraction of two words. It’s so fucking simple to understand when to use any contraction or similar sounding word that there is never an excuse to get it wrong.
It’s also mostly native English speakers who get it wrong and part of that is the American educational system being one kf the worst in the world.
Shit like that used to bug me but eventually I realized it was a waste of time getting set off by incorrect word use or spelling. As long as the message isn’t ambiguous, who cares? And even when it’s on the border, it’s often clear enough from the context what they really mean (though can be fun to deliberately misinterpret it).
It could also be that language evolves with time. If more people use “your”, regardless of what the dictionary says than it’s correct. I believe there will come a day when you’re and your cease to be different.
Capitalization between sentences is needed because the period is so small. Or, the period can be small because we use capitalization between sentences. If we changed the symbol for the end of a sentence we could stop capitalizing the first letter of a sentence.
Maybe that will happen someday, but not soon.
If the point of written language is for the writer to communicate effectively, it’s important to follow the current rules, as you have.
Agreed. Back then, dictionaries were basically suggestions and fiction. People only really started caring about modern consistent spelling relatively recently (19th century), but it’s assumed that’s always been the case. People used to just make up words as it made sense, like colour. Someone just made up that word and now we all use it, but God forbid anyone get creative nowadays! There’s been dozens of both successful and failed “spelling reforms”. Some people just decided on this one spelling and we all now pretend it was gospel.
Then the grammar Nazis come out of the woodwork, as if they cannot possibly understand anything you wrote, because of this one small error. It’s not helpful or interesting behaviour, it’s like pointing out a smudge on an artwork.
Most other languages on Earth have an intuitive way of spelling and sounding out letters, with actual rules, to the point where you can understand how to say something just by reading it. English has no such feature, despite some efforts. Every word is it’s own unique creature with it’s own unique spelling and pronunciation and history.
All the helpful features of English to help you know how to pronounce something have been stripped out to make it “simplified”. Ever wonder why they’re called “simplified English dictionaries”? Because there used to be other kinds of English and dictionaries. Because it spells it “naive” instead of “naïve”. The extra dot on the vowel used to mean that you say the vowels separately instead of smooshed together; na-i-ve.
Fucking dogshit language. It’s my first language, but I found my second and third languages easier to learn and more logical and intuitive. Now that’s saying something.
Also since you asked, capital letters were actually invented by the Romans, as a helpful optional feature to make things easier to read. They thought it looked cool to have Important Things be different.
You’re*
It’s not OP’s fault English is a stupid language with words that sound identical but carry different meanings. I’m of the mindset that so long as it’s legible it is correct. look at Old English. It was much more phonetic than modern English is. Scribes wrote words as they sounded. Languages like English have so many dumb and unnecessary rules as well. Why the fuck do we need capitalization rules anyway? Latin doesn’t have it.
Getting corrected is how you learn. I often spell words wrong, because English isn’t my first language, but I don’t mind being corrected.
But when to use “your” and “you’re” is actually fairly easy to remember. “You’re” is short for “you are” and is used when YOU are doing something. “Your” is used when someone else is doing something.
You’re sleeping vs. your cat is sleeping.
I don’t disagree but I think you’re missing my point. Minor variations of spelling shouldn’t matter, so long as it’s legible. If someone says dey instead of they, dat instead of that, wader instead of water, why should that be any less correct? I know it’s not exactly an apple to apples comparison but I believe language should be more flexible. So long as it’s understandable, why should it matter? Especially because English has and will continue to evolve in our lifetime. Why do people think in terms of absolutes?
I’m not blaming OP for the shortcomings of the language they use. Just pointing out a typo.
It’s really fucking not hard to learn the correct usage. You’re: you are, your: something belonging to or being part of you. You’re isn’t a word, it’s a contraction of two words. It’s so fucking simple to understand when to use any contraction or similar sounding word that there is never an excuse to get it wrong. It’s also mostly native English speakers who get it wrong and part of that is the American educational system being one kf the worst in the world.
Shit like that used to bug me but eventually I realized it was a waste of time getting set off by incorrect word use or spelling. As long as the message isn’t ambiguous, who cares? And even when it’s on the border, it’s often clear enough from the context what they really mean (though can be fun to deliberately misinterpret it).
It could also be that language evolves with time. If more people use “your”, regardless of what the dictionary says than it’s correct. I believe there will come a day when you’re and your cease to be different.
Capitalization between sentences is needed because the period is so small. Or, the period can be small because we use capitalization between sentences. If we changed the symbol for the end of a sentence we could stop capitalizing the first letter of a sentence.
Maybe that will happen someday, but not soon.
If the point of written language is for the writer to communicate effectively, it’s important to follow the current rules, as you have.
Agreed. Back then, dictionaries were basically suggestions and fiction. People only really started caring about modern consistent spelling relatively recently (19th century), but it’s assumed that’s always been the case. People used to just make up words as it made sense, like colour. Someone just made up that word and now we all use it, but God forbid anyone get creative nowadays! There’s been dozens of both successful and failed “spelling reforms”. Some people just decided on this one spelling and we all now pretend it was gospel.
Then the grammar Nazis come out of the woodwork, as if they cannot possibly understand anything you wrote, because of this one small error. It’s not helpful or interesting behaviour, it’s like pointing out a smudge on an artwork.
Most other languages on Earth have an intuitive way of spelling and sounding out letters, with actual rules, to the point where you can understand how to say something just by reading it. English has no such feature, despite some efforts. Every word is it’s own unique creature with it’s own unique spelling and pronunciation and history.
All the helpful features of English to help you know how to pronounce something have been stripped out to make it “simplified”. Ever wonder why they’re called “simplified English dictionaries”? Because there used to be other kinds of English and dictionaries. Because it spells it “naive” instead of “naïve”. The extra dot on the vowel used to mean that you say the vowels separately instead of smooshed together; na-i-ve.
Fucking dogshit language. It’s my first language, but I found my second and third languages easier to learn and more logical and intuitive. Now that’s saying something.
Also since you asked, capital letters were actually invented by the Romans, as a helpful optional feature to make things easier to read. They thought it looked cool to have Important Things be different.