Pages

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Grammar Police





We've established that I'm sort of a nerd sometimes, and there are certain grammatical errors that just drive me crazy.  I will refrain from turning this into a blog where I only rant about grammar, but sometimes I just have to say something.  Please bear with me while I preach for a minute (or just skip to the end where I tell you where I bought my clothes).

"I's" is never correct.    

I've seen this all over the place, so if you are a recent offender, do not take it personally.  For example, if I was talking about the house that my husband and I own, it would NOT be correct to say "John and I's house."  Ever.  Like EVER!  (See, I can channel Taylor Swift when I'm grammar ranting).  

I think this is a problem because little kids tend to say "Me" all the time when they should say I.  Like "Me and Susie are going to play outside!" and our parents all drilled into us "Susie and I!"  This does not mean that every time you say "someone and" it should be "I".  

I remember my dad teaching me to take the "Susie and" part out of the sentence, and then I would know the appropriate option to use.  "Me is going to play outside" or "I am going to play outside"?  It's pretty obvious there.  

I pretty frequently hear people say things like "Do you want to have dinner with Susie and I?" and I cringe every time.  Again, would you say "Do you want to have dinner with I?"  Of course not.  

Compound possessives get even more confusing for people, especially when "I" is one of the subjects.  If the 2 subjects each have their own item, they each get their own apostrophe (John's and Andi's birthdays).  If the 2 subjects are sharing one item, they can share the apostrophe (John and Andi's house).  I like this example - think of the apostrophe as a hair dryer.  

Once you change one of the subjects into a personal pronoun, the other subject needs to have the apostrophe, or the sentence can get confusing.  If I say "John and my house is painted brown" it kind of sounds like John is painted brown and my house is painted brown.  I have to say "John's and my house" and then everything is right in the world.  

I think this is one reason coupled up people just say "we" and "our" all the time.  It might be annoying, but can we all agree it is less annoying than "I's"?  

Now please don't point out all of my grammatical errors.  I've probably got quotations on the wrong side of punctuation all over this post.

Since this was pretty random, I'm linking up with Shanna!

Scarf, Black Sweater, Jeans: Gap    
Cardigan: Urban Outfitters
Boots: Wanted via Piperlime

5 comments:

  1. Love the colored skinnies! Def a fun look :) your rant is funny. I's actually like it. Kidding on the I's part. I get a total kick out of finding typo's in books and blogs! It makes my day to catch one!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought this was going to be a post attacking people who say "I's is going to the store" or something like that. You should do that next time, haha. But seriously. Grammar is not a joke. I'm glad to see I'm not alone :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. YES! I tell people that line (This does not mean that every time you say "someone and" it should be "I".) ALL THE TIME. I always tell them to remove the other person's name to make sure it still sounds correct, like you said. UGH. It's the worst. Hopefully someone learns from their mistakes from this post :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your outfit! Your boots are so lovely!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kristine loves "finding typo's". Love those extra apostrophes (apostrophe's)!

      Delete