I love you all, but Ohana is NOT an Irish Pub!

[kcrew]

Yea means you are excited. Yeah means you agree. That one bothers me because I used them wrong for so long before my DH corrected me .

:

Actually, they both mean "yes", according to the dictionary, so stop blushing and point it out to your DH. I have officially decided that there HAS GOT to be something more productive I should be doin g......

 

[erikthewise]

ICavalry--the guys on horses. Calvary-- The hill where Jesus died. Calgery--A provence in Canada. I never get those right. I just had to call my DH to spell them for me!

Before the Canadians start pounding us with their aluminium hammers, I have to point out that Calgary is a city in the province of Alberta.

The Calvary thing is funny though, because I remember once when somebody used calvary in place of cavalry, and did the spell-checker correct it? No, it capitalized it! You can't trust spell-checkers, which I guess is one of the lessons of this thread.

 

[Tam1067]

Here are a few that really drive me crazy:

"should of" as in, "I should of finished my work before going to the disboards."

And the wrong your/you're: "Your going to be late!"

I think the reason they bug me so much is because both errors show the writers are writing by how they hear the words, not by what the words actually mean.

Just to be clear: "I should HAVE finished" is correct, as is "would have" or "could have" or "must have". You could also say "would've" or "could've" or "should've" if you want to be less formal.

This thread has shown me that I'm not the only grammar nut out there!

 

[trulygoofy]

Actually, they both mean "yes", according to the dictionary, so stop blushing and point it out to your DH. I have officially decided that there HAS GOT to be something more productive I should be doin g......

I was using "yeah" to mean "yea". I would type "Yeah, we are going to Disney" which takes some of the enthusiasm out of the sentence!

I should be cleaning the house, but this is funner...more fun...whatever.

 

[cinjam]

The word definitely is my pet peeve, that one is slaughtered quite a bit! You all have made me laugh with this thread.

I have a question for the grammar experts out there. When you get welcome sign for your house (the kind you stake into the ground, or hang on your front door), and your last name is SMITH, which should be printed on the sign, should it read:

“THE SMITHS”

Or

“THE SMITH’S”

Now, I think it is the first option, plural. The sign does not say “THE SMITH’S HOUSE” – then I would agree it should be a possessive “S”. I am correct?

A more specific example is this, last Christmas I bought engraved wooden signs for all of DH’s siblings. It was a fireplace with stockings hanging off the mantle, the last name was on the mantle and the family’s first names were on the stockings. On the mantle we engraved “THE SMITHS”. MIL told DH I did it all wrong, but it was still a nice gesture. I still think I was right.

Last example, when we sign our Christmas cards, we do it like this:

MERRY CHRISTMAS
LOVE,
THE SMITHS
CINDY, JAMIE, AIDAN & KADE

Have I been doing this wrong for years, and years, and years (how embarrassing LOL)?

 

[maggiew]

The word definitely is my pet peeve, that one is slaughtered quite a bit! You all have made me laugh with this thread.

I have a question for the grammar experts out there. When you get welcome sign for your house (the kind you stake into the ground, or hang on your front door), and your last name is SMITH, which should be printed on the sign, should it read:

“THE SMITHS”

Or

“THE SMITH’S”

Now, I think it is the first option, plural. The sign does not say “THE SMITH’S HOUSE” – then I would agree it should be a possessive “S”. I am correct?

A more specific example is this, last Christmas I bought engraved wooden signs for all of DH’s siblings. It was a fireplace with stockings hanging off the mantle, the last name was on the mantle and the family’s first names were on the stockings. On the mantle we engraved “THE SMITHS”. MIL told DH I did it all wrong, but it was still a nice gesture. I still think I was right.

Last example, when we sign our Christmas cards, we do it like this:

MERRY CHRISTMAS
LOVE,
THE SMITHS
CINDY, JAMIE, AIDAN & KADE

Have I been doing this wrong for years, and years, and years (how embarrassing LOL)?

I would like to know too. Because, I sent a wedding invitation to my high school ENGLISH TEACHER and wrote "The Smith's". After I sent it, I worried so much about whether it was correct or not. I still worry about it 15 years later!! (By the way, my English teacher was also my debate coach and so we were close. That's why I invited him to the wedding. I didn't invite ALL my teachers. And, the wedding was after I graduated from college, so 4 years later. )

Maggie

 

[MareQ]

The Calvary thing is funny though, because I remember once when somebody used calvary in place of cavalry, and did the spell-checker correct it? No, it capitalized it! You can't trust spell-checkers, which I guess is one of the lessons of this thread.

Yes - spell checkers are nasty things. I have a poor co-worker that sent out an email to a few people, including a customer, after she made a small error- unfortunately she spelled incompetence incorrectly and spell check corrected it so that she actually ended up apologizing for her........ incontinence......

 

[MareQ]

Last example, when we sign our Christmas cards, we do it like this:

MERRY CHRISTMAS
LOVE,
THE SMITHS
CINDY, JAMIE, AIDAN & KADE

Have I been doing this wrong for years, and years, and years (how embarrassing LOL)?

You are correct. Smiths is plural Smith's is posessive.

Think of it this way

More than one boy is boys. One boy owns a ball it is - The boy's ball.

 

[sameyeyam]

It's truly amazing that we can understand one another with all of the regional sayings, misspeeeleedd words and gram-atical errors.

My mother never had the opportunity to finish high school (due to parents moving around a lot). But her entire life she always used the wrong "big words" in sentences. When I was an adult I asked her why she always tried to use those big words if she didn't understand them. She replied, "I guess I'm trying to make up for not having an education, I hear them on tv or someone using them and it makes me feel smarter in spite of my lack of education". It used to drive me absolute crazy and when I was a teen it embarassed me. My mother passed away last year, but what I wouldn't give to hear her use the wrong word in a sentence just one more time!

So whenever I see the wrong words used or not spelled correctly on this board, it makes me smile and remember my mother. She was a wonderful women who came from a broken home and humble beginnings. She cared enough about her children to give them the education she always wanted, but could never have.

 

[Tam1067]

You are correct. Smiths is plural Smith's is posessive.

Think of it this way

More than one boy is boys. One boy owns a ball it is - The boy's ball.

But Smith's is ONE Smith owning that house or stocking or whatever. If you want ALL of them to own it, it would technically be SMITHS'. And the one boy owning the ball is boy's while two or more boys owning the ball would be boys'.

Back to the original question, though, the plural of a last family name is just the letter "s" or sometimes "es" on the end (like Joneses--that would be the plural for that family name). Gosh, this gets confusing.

 

[cinjam]

But Smith's is ONE Smith owning that house or stocking or whatever. If you want ALL of them to own it, it would technically be SMITHS'. And the one boy owning the ball is boy's while two or more boys owning the ball would be boys'.

Interesting. So if I have a welcome sign on my front lawn, it should read:

"WELCOME TO THE SMITHS' HOUSE"

That makes sense, but my MIL would have an apoplectic fit (thinking she was right in correcting me yet again) I think I may do it just to see what she says

Thank you to those who have responded!

 

[wintergreen]

This thread really made me laugh!

Has anyone read Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss? I never thought a book devoted to punctuation and grammer could be so funny!

I love this book, too!

I am a grammar nerd.

Remember, it is graduation season. Might I suggest Strunk & White's classic--"The Elements of Style"--as a lovely gift for the high school graduate headed off to college, or the college graduate headed off to the working world?

For those of us who love this stuff, there is also a great website that parodies "The Elements of Style" at http://www.bitzenbytes.com/Content-Arcanum-18-1-60.html.

By the way, I know that since the title above is a title of a book, I SHOULD have underlined it, rather than using quotation marks, but I'm not sure how to do that!!!!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

This thread is a riot Gotta love people who make fun of other people for misspelling the name of a restaurant when in reality, they are both equally wrong

I love it too. And it happens more frequently on other boards than the Dis.

My all time favorite is:
The envelope please.
Drum roll
Drum roll.

Your stupid.

 

[Bob NC]

'Ohana????

O'Hana????

Who cares???

To me, it's a mute point.

 

[BluOrchid2]

To me, it's a mute point.

Oh you DIDN'T just say MUTE, did you???
Surely you meant MOOT. Please say you meant MOOT.

 

[Bob NC]

Oh you DIDN'T just say MUTE, did you???
Surely you meant MOOT. Please say you meant MOOT.

I knew that wouldn't take long.

 

[MagicAddict2178]

This thread is cracking me up! I have tendencies toward being a spelling & grammar nerd, though god knows it's nearly impossible to know it all!

Did everyone notice that some poor sole...

soul...

 

[carolinagirl]

This thread is entertaining! Since we are venting about our little grammatical pet peeves, here is mine: using the word anxious in the place of eager.

The word anxious means: Uneasy and apprehensive about an uncertain event or matter; worried. Attended with, showing, or causing anxiety: spent an anxious night waiting for the test results.

It does NOT mean that you are looking forward to something such as "I am anxiously waiting our Disney vacation". Instead you are "eagerly" waiting for your Disney vacation.

Well, their, I mean, they're, oops....there you have my $.02.

 

[WDW2000]

One of my pet-peeves is when people refer to mulitple LEGO bricks as LEGO's. LEGO is the plural for LEGO. ie .... "Johnny, please pick up all of those Lego before playing outside." I use to work at LEGOLAND and it was something I learned while working there.

 

[kcrew]

This thread is cracking me up! I have tendencies toward being a spelling & grammar nerd, though god knows it's nearly impossible to know it all!



soul...

Oh boy.... What comes around goes around I guess !!!!No argument here. I still love this thread and am glad I could contribute even if the jokes on me!