# Help! I'm Succumbing to Bad Grammar!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-im-succumbing-to-bad-grammar/146379>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [January 3, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-im-succumbing-to-bad-grammar/146379 "2003-01-03T06:37:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bullwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Bullwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullwinkle)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-im-succumbing-to-bad-grammar/146379/1 "2003-01-03T06:37:03Z")

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**Alas. Poor You’re.**

So I’m writing an email and I write something like this: “Let me know if you’re coming to Pig Night at the Sigma house.” And I found myself wondering, “Should that be ‘you’re’ or ‘your’.”

It was a scary moment.

The problem is, nowadays I see the word incorrectly written more often than correctly, (“Let me know if your coming to Pig Night…”) and my brain is now reprogramming itself to recognize the incorrect word as the correct one.

Now, I’ll be the first one to mangle the english language and like that, but your/you’re has always been one of my favorite pet peeves. (Along with ‘12 items or less’) Now I’m so used to it that I hardly notice it anymore. Not only that, but I almost used the wrong one!

Am I backing a three-legged horse here or what. Is You’re dead?

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**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-im-succumbing-to-bad-grammar/146379/2 "2003-01-03T06:50:45Z")

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Simple rule as I was tought is that the apostrophe, when not used to indicate a possessive sense, is to indicate a contraction: you are becomes you’re. You’re heading home to your house, unless you’re stopping at your favorite pub.

Agreement regarding the loss of proper usage, not to mention spelling.

Reminds me of a cartoon where one child tells another that a recent article quoted a survey of teachers indicating that they thought learning computer skills was much more important than studying great works of literature.

The other lad replies, “Great. So one day, we’ll write badly, but be able to email it.”

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**Author:** ![Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raymond_luxury_yacht/32/4099_2.png) [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-im-succumbing-to-bad-grammar/146379/3 "2003-01-03T07:01:02Z")

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Your absolutely write. Eye halve know patients four people that use wrong words.

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**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\
**Post date:** [January 3, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-im-succumbing-to-bad-grammar/146379/4 "2003-01-03T07:46:30Z")

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verbs. use wong verbs. 😃