I always thought it was one of the most telling reflections on my high school’s english department that 95% of my senior year yearbook signings contained “Your a <fill in compliment here > guy…”
(or was it just that I knew so many english failures ?)
For kicks, you should dig up your senior year yearbook, and see how your classmates fared.
I totally agree that misusing ‘your’ makes someone look like a friggin idiot. It’s such a basic thing. Didn’t we all learn it in second grade? It drives me nuts. It is probably the one mistake I rarely, if ever, make. My lack of apostrophes comes from sheer laziness, though. I try to use them on here, however, for fear of ridicule.
In IMs my Mom uses “their” for they’re. “Their calling for snow tonight.” It does make me nuts, but I know I have my own set of little typos so I try to ignore it.
They’re - Contraction of ‘they are,’ used in similar fashion as it’s and you’re.
Their - Possesive, used like tis and your.
There - Indicaiing a location.
See how I use them in my fine axample:
“They’re making us dinner at their house over there.”
My best friend in high school used to send me notes full of improperly used "your"s and "to"s and “its” and "their"s. One day (when I was annoyed with her for being an idiot about a high-school breakup and needed a way to take it out) I corrected everything with a red pen and gave it back to her with a note on the bottom that said “This is why you’re failing English, and YOUR boyfriend is dumping you because YOU’RE insane.”
She wasn’t pleased, but it made me feel a lot better.
I try not to make those mistakes, because I actually do know the difference, but sometimes the heat of the message board moment gets to me. I cringe and hide my face every time I neglect to preview and discover a missing apostophe. I admit my occasional failure, and rest assured when you read something I’ve mangled, I’m hanging my head in shame in front of my own computer.
The one that drives me nuts is “looser” for “loser”. I had never seen that particular error until messages boards came into my life. I see it everywhere. Stop it!
I tend to type quickly so I mess up my apostrophes, like this: dont’. Sorry about that.
I think of all the common mistakes (‘you’re’ being close to the top of my list), the one that bugs me the most is ‘alot’. I don’t know how many times I’ve corrected people on ‘alot.’ I’ve done it, well, a lot.
I read the Salinger short story “Franny” a few weeks ago, and (as I remember it) in Franny’s letter to her boyfriend, in which she keeps commenting that her writing is full of mistakes, the only actual mistake she makes is your for you’re. And she is clearly supposed to be a whip-smart but very confused young woman. Interesting, eh?
As bad in my book is “alright” to the point that it is almost preferred in some writings.
Maybe my teachers would have been better off if they had said, “This is not incorrect, it is just unpopular.” That way I wouldn’t get so upset when things go differently from how I was taught. My teachers labored under the assumption that there were correct ways to do things.
Don’t get me going on “different than” and “to boldly go” or “all’s I know.”