Avoid these common mistakes to become a more respected communicator
"Try and" instead of "Try to"
"It's like" instead of "It's as if/though"
"People that" instead of "People who"
"If I was" instead of "If I were"
"More angry" instead of "Angrier"
"Less people" instead of "Fewer people"
"Pardon" instead of "Sorry", "Excuse me" or "What"
"John and myself/yourself" instead of "John and me/you"
"A situation where" instead of "A situation in which"
>op failed
Ambrose Bierce, who was a editor and a short story writer, wrote a book called Write it Right that collected these sorts of mistakes and corrections. He had another called the Devils Dictionary that has been updated for the modern era. It’s worth checking out this is something you want to learn more about.
Beg pardon?
I'm going to try and apply these from now on, so you won't get more angry than you already are. Please pardon me OP, some anons and myself are not native English speakers, but in a situation where I am the native speaker, I mean, for example if I was born an American, I would also teach these grammar rules to people that are from other countries. Lastly, I have to thank you for what you are doing, it's like each time there is less people with the will to teach for free. I send you my best regards.
These are not rules and most are wrong. 'If I was' and 'If I were' are different, former is subjunctive, latter is indicative and are not interchangeable; if I were refers to something you might possibly do, if I was refers to something you possibly are.
>If I were to correct OP
>If I was as stupid as OP
Perhaps someone else will correct the rest of OP, I don't really feel like it.
People make this mistake when they fail to use the subjunctive mood
>if I was to go there X
>is I were to go there - correct
'If I was' is only ever used to describe things that happened in the past.
>If I was good, my parents would buy me many gifts. But if I was bad, I’d get nothing.
OP was obviously describing people who incorrectly use 'was' instead of 'were' to refer to hypothetical scenarios.
>OP was obviously describing people who incorrectly use 'was' instead of 'were' to refer to hypothetical scenarios.
And only someone who understands that already would see that, everyone else would just use it wrong. OP is 90% incorrect information.
He should have said "If I was older/taller/wealthier" to clarify that he was talking about the subjunctive
Everything else he said is correct though
The majority of people make at least some of these errors
I blame the educational system for not teaching kids grammar anymore
"Pardon" should be "Pardon me" and is not the same as "Excuse me," the former is for something you have done, the latter for something you are about to do. When using "pardon" to signify you did not hear someone or did not understand as in place of "what" you really should say "pardon me, I missed that" or the like, just saying "pardon" is crass. Most of OPs examples assume use and people who need this advice will not know that use. OP is a moron.
OP is right you're wrong.
According to that you should say "what" if you want to larp. Also, lol for using that as proof.
Both "pardon" and "pardon me" are things low-class plebs and middles would say when asking someone to repeat themselves.
It's not ungrammatical, just a sign of lower social status.
Uppers would say 'what' or 'sorry'.
That depends where you are in the Anglophone world.
I don't use 'pardon' at all, was just explaining why OP is an idiot.
>"Pardon me, I missed that"
You're either a low-class British person, a yank or an ESL
>not mentioning 'it's vs its'
shit-tier list
missing apostrophe is too basic
If a native speaker says or writes it, it's Good English.
No.
How about I do none of that.
Suit yourself. You'll sound like an uneducated idiot, though.
Cheap bait.
I will try to say it it's like. Frick you and the people who push me down like this. If I were you I would kindly shut the frick up. I'm angrier. I'm mad. I do not follow your stupid rules. I create new rules. I am above language. My language is the future. You are speaking Proto-Indo-European; I am speaking future English. So frick off with your antics!
It's through people like you in which a high culture degrades
Look OP I'm not here to go hard on you cause you're obviously ESL, but you need to understand something about the People's Grammar. It changes like a conveyorized tide under the shifting influence of lunar opinion. None of those made up rules are real. They're fake. Fake rules. Now there's a need for prescriptive grammar; we've got to keep this language alive and cherry. But those fake rules are ad hoc and arbitrary. And out of order. They read like fiat from some fat schoolmarm. They burden the speaking man, the word-make man. I'm not sober, but I guarantee even a half-baked pump-crust like you can understand every word of it. Why? I follow the People's Grammar is why.
>like you
such as you*
without rules, language loses its clarity.
if you're too lazy to learn the rules of Grammar and instead would rather speak like a feral n*gger, well that's your problem
>without rules, language loses its clarity.
comma splice
>comma spice
No it isn't.
When a dependent clause such as "without rules" comes first in a sentence, it is followed by a comma.
First, that's not a clause because a clause requires a subject and a verb (a simple sentence being equivalent to an independent clause). In other words: it's a phrase. As you can see, you have a prepositional phrase there.
And finally, when a prepositional phrase of less than 4, possibly 5, words starts a sentence it is not followed by a comma.
who cares