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Passion

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These things are driving me crazy and I think a few of you just need a little reminder.​

You're v.s. Your

You're = you are
  • "Wow Sora," Goofy began, "you're the bee's knees!"

Your = belonging to you
  • "Wow Sora, your hair is so hard to draw," Namine said.

* You're =/= Your *

DON'T DO: "Wow Kairi, your so annoying."
DON'T DO: "Wow Cloud, you're attitude is so bleak."

They're v.s. Their v.s. There

They're = they are
  • "I can't believe it," Rei thought as he watched the boys swim. "They're so beautiful when they swim like that!"

Their = belonging to them
  • The Iwatobi Swim Club looked so snazzy in their new team jackets.

There = referring to placement
  • "There he is," Nagisa shouted as he ran over to Rin-chan.

* They're =/= Their =/= There *

DON'T DO: "Wow, Makoto and Haru look so good! Their so muscular."



figure it out.
♥ kisses
 

Jesus

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There's nothing that gets a grammar lesson across like your favorite fictional characters
You've been a great help
 

Turn

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Clicked for grammar lesson. Stayed for Free! Iwatobi Swimming Club mini-fic.

A+
 

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The one that gets me is It’s vs Its

It’s = it is

  • “Kingdom Hearts isn’t darkness,” Sora called. “It’s light!”
  • It’s impossible!” Ansem howled as he disappeared into the light.
Its = possessive of it

  • The Nobody pondered its existence.

But I still have to catch myself, because I associate ‘s with the possessive (Ansem’s, Sora’s, the girl’s), so it seems natural that it’s would be possessive as well. But it’s (it is) not :(
 

Passion

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you ruined my thread. just kidding and you took my format. tsk, tsk.

Then v.s. Than

Then = refers to time, reactionary (if-then format/statement)

  • "Ok," Armin started. "First, we distract the titans to follow group B. Then, we patch the wall!"
  • "If you successfully complete training, then you may become a cadet!"

Than = comparative, qualitative.

  • "Due to our last scouting mission, our numbers are less than ideal," Captain Levi stated coolly.
* Then =/= Than *

DON'T DO: "This potato is better then that bread I had earlier," Sasha proclaimed.
DON'T DO: "If I leave now, than it would be for nothing!" Eren roared.

To v.s. Too v.s. Two

To = indicates direction of speech, thought, movement, etc
  • "We have to stop Amon before Republic City falls!"
  • "We have to go to the arena before they start the pro-bending match!" Bolin exclaimed, his brow wrinkled with worry.
  • "Hey, I'm talking to you," Korra yelled at the thug.

Too = inclusive, adding something onto an idea/thing
  • "I guess Pabu can come too," Mako said reluctantly.

Two = a number, quantitative.
  • "You can't have a probending team with only TWO people!"
* To =/= Too =/= Two *

DON'T DO: "Come too me, my child," Katarra cooed.
DON'T DO: "You are being way to serious right now, Asami," Korra jested.
DON'T DO: Do I really have to put an example for the number two, two?
 

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you ruined my thread. just kidding and you took my format. tsk, tsk.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Passion said:
To = indicates direction of speech, thought, movement, etc

  • "We have to stop Amon before Republic City falls!"
  • "We have to go to the arena before they start the pro-bending match!" Bolin exclaimed, his brow wrinkled with worry.
  • "Hey, I'm talking to you," Korra yelled at the thug.
Also, to+verb is the infinitive - to stop, to go, to die, to sleep, perchance to dream.

[video=youtube;hRMRCeQBAKI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRMRCeQBAKI[/video]

:)
Now that's just lazy.
 
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Nyangoro

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Why say myself what others have said so eloquently :3

(If you bring up Socrates, I will smack you over the internet :p)
 

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Title of Thread said:
Let's talk grammar
Yes, LET'S.

Let's v.s. Lets

Let's = Let us, which you almost never see except in this contraction.


  • "Let's do this! Leeeeeeeeeeeeroy!" WoW
  • "Let's investigate that ghost!" Velma said. "Let's not," Shaggy offered.

Lets = allows (3rd person)


  • "The smile on your face lets me know that you need me!" ~Alison Krauss or Ronan Keating, whomever you prefer

Another one that's difficult to remember.
 
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you are a beautiful person, hidden
Grammar is beautiful.

That said, grammar can also be confusing and counter-intuitive. Consider the following:

Pronouns + "to be"

This one is hard to explain, so I'll just illustrate it with two examples:


  • "Who is it?" Riku asked. "It's me!" Sora answered.

  • "Who is it?" Riku asked. "It is I, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness!"

If you want to be a total fiend and grammar nazi, Ansem is technically correct. According to 'rules,' pronouns after the verb "to be" should be in the nominative case (I, he, she). This is why my mother answers the phone with "This is she" when somebody asks "May I speak with the head of the household?" HOWEVER, regular English usage ignores this rule in most contexts, e.g. most of us answer the question "Who is it?" with "It's me."

My suggestion is that, unless you have an awesome epithet after your name (e.g. "Seeker of Darkness") or you're continuing a sentence ("It was I who stole the cookies from the cookie jar!"), stick with the colloquial "It's me" or "That's him/her."

INTERESTINGLY (at least to me), the same rule applies to comparisons! Consider the sentence "Goofy is taller than Sora." Would you say:


  • Goofy is taller than him.
or

  • Goofy is taller than he.

Technically, the latter is correct, but most of us would say "taller than him." To many native English speakers, "Goofy is taller than he" just sounds too strange. (The justification used, that extended the sentence would be "Goofy is taller than he is," also sounds off to my ears.) Again, the 'rules' conflict with actual usage. This all ties into prescriptive vs descriptive grammar, but I won't go into that because I've had enough fun for one post.

tl;dr I'm a grammar dork, and when in doubt, follow Orwell's sixth rule of writing in Politics and the English Language: "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous."
 
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Passion

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I DON'T KNOW WHY I AM EVEN DISCUSSING THIS ONE BUT HERE WE GO!

When to Start a New Paragraph

- When a new idea or thought is introduced
- WHEN A NEW CHARACTER OR PERSON IS SPEAKING!

I am not even going to bother with little examples right now because this makes me so angry. I'll put some in eventually but for goodness' sake!
 

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So, I hope I'm allowed to post a question here.

I'm not a native speaker of English, but I've been exposed to the language ever since I was a toddler. Thank you, video games. I always strive for the best quality when it comes to grammar and writing. That said, there's one thing that I need confirmation about, and it's possessive apostrophe.

Consider a situation in which Sora has to explain to Ventus that the biscuits on the table belong to Roxas. I've seen these sentences:

"These are Roxas's biscuits," Sora said to Ventus.

and

"These are Roxas' biscuits," Sora said to Ventus.

Is there any hard, clearly defined rule that states which one is the more proper way of using apostrophe to indicate possession? If not, does it ultimately depend on the writer's preference?
 

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So, I hope I'm allowed to post a question here.
Absolutely! Otherwise it's just me and Passion talking to ourselves and literally nobody else.

Flanix said:
That said, there's one thing that I need confirmation about, and it's possessive apostrophe.

Consider a situation in which Sora has to explain to Ventus that the biscuits on the table belong to Roxas. I've seen these sentences:

"These are Roxas's biscuits," Sora said to Ventus.

and

"These are Roxas' biscuits," Sora said to Ventus.

Is there any hard, clearly defined rule that states which one is the more proper way of using apostrophe to indicate possession? If not, does it ultimately depend on the writer's preference?
I've seen some "hard, clearly defined" rules that say which is more 'proper' or 'correct', and frankly I think most of them are BS. However, on any question of usage and rules, I'll often go to the Purdue OWL, which is a very useful source for all things writing. It states, in the case of proper nouns (e.g. Roxas), both forms are acceptable. If you're writing professionally, your editor will make the call; otherwise, I would leave it to the writer's preference.

Flanix said:
I'm not a native speaker of English, but I've been exposed to the language ever since I was a toddler. Thank you, video games. I always strive for the best quality when it comes to grammar and writing.
I'd wondered about this, given the Location on your profile. But since your posts are all amazingly fluent, I'd assumed you must have been brought up in an English-speaking environment.
 

Passion

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Purdue OWL is a wonderful resource that everyone should look at if they're really serious about their writing.
 

Solo

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I've seen some "hard, clearly defined" rules that say which is more 'proper' or 'correct', and frankly I think most of them are BS. However, on any question of usage and rules, I'll often go to the Purdue OWL, which is a very useful source for all things writing. It states, in the case of proper nouns (e.g. Roxas), both forms are acceptable. If you're writing professionally, your editor will make the call; otherwise, I would leave it to the writer's preference.
Purdue OWL is a wonderful resource that everyone should look at if they're really serious about their writing.

Thanks for the reference. Looks like it really is a motherlode of information, huh?

I'd wondered about this, given the Location on your profile. But since your posts are all amazingly fluent, I'd assumed you must have been brought up in an English-speaking environment.

Are they? Thank you. Although we don't usually speak English at home, my parents insisted that I started reading English books ever since I was only five, and I kind of just picked up from there.
 
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KHRULER

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One of the most common grammar mistakes. Whovs Whom vs Whose

Who = subject pronoun

  • Who is responsible for this?" Zemnas asked.


Whose = possessive pronoun


  • "Whose keyblade did this belong to?" Sora asked.

Whom= object pronoun



  • "Whom are you going to blame for this mess(?)(this sentence can still exist with out the rest, or I can add more detail and be specific----->) of worlds with heartless and nobodies running around?" Riku asked Mickey.



Since nobody really goes around throwing whom in their sentences and instead use who,its not that big of a deal,on a college essay however,I'd use who,whose,and whom correctly if I were you.
:wink:
 
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Solo

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One of the most common grammar mistakes. Whovs Whom vs Whose

Who = subject pronoun

  • Who is responsible for this?" Zemnas asked.

Whose = possessive pronoun

  • "Whose keyblade did this belong to?" Sora asked.

Whom= object pronoun

  • "Whom are you going to blame for this mess?this sentence can still exist with out the rest. or I can add more detail and be specific----->) of worlds with Heartless and nobodies running around?" Riku asked Mickey.

Since nobody really goes around throwing whom in their sentences and instead use who,its not that big of a deal,on a college essay however,I'd use who,whose,and whom correctly if I were you.
:wink:

And finally, this one.

Who's = a contraction of "who is".

  • "Who's there?" Sora cried, having sensed a foreign presence trespassing the privacy of the Secret Place.

I added this because there seem to be many people confusing who's with whose and vice versa.

Also, whose can be used as a relative possessive indicator. It denotes that the noun following it is in association with the topic that it explains.

  • Riku is the boy whose hair is silver. (= Riku is the boy who has silver hair.)
  • Oblivion, whose colour scheme is black, can be considered the Oathkeeper's counterpart. (= Oblivion, which has a black colour scheme, ...)

As you can see, it can be used for both people and objects.

And while we're at it, here are some additional examples on the use of whom in a non-interrogative sentence.

  • Sora is the complete being from whom Roxas was splintered. (= Roxas was splintered from his complete being, Sora.)
  • Sora was also the recipient to whom Kairi's letter was addressed. (= Kairi's letter was addressed to its recipient, Sora.)

The sentences are equivalent to their in-parentheses counterparts. However, there's a subtle difference between them: the nuance. Those outside the parentheses have Sora as the topic of conversation, while those inside have Roxas or Kairi's letter as the topics.

In addition, they can alternatively be written with the proposition at the end (i.e. ... whom Roxas was splintered from, ... whom Kairi's letter was addressed to), but some people discourage it because it sounds unnatural (and I always counter them by asking, "What are you talking about? My previous sentence sounds natural, right?", putting heavy emphasis on the word "about").

Unlike whose, whom can only be used for people and generally should not be used for objects. In that case, you'll want to use which instead.
 
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Passion

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@ KHRULER: the white text is hard to read for those of us using a different skin :c

ALSO IF YOU CARE ABOUT YOUR GRAMMAR, WRITING, ETC. I WOULD RECOMMEND INVESTING IN The Elements of Style. ITS AN AMAZING GUIDE AND REALLY HELPED ME WITH MY ENDEAVORS :)
 
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