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Apologies for sounding like one of your high school grammar teachers, but this one is now popping up in newspapers and magazines and it drives me absolutely NUTS!! And it will probably be nixed from the LA Forum very quickly because it's English-wide. But, I have to grammar-vent:
When comparing one thing with another you may find that one is more appealing “than” another. “Than” is the word you want when doing comparisons. But if you are talking about time, choose “then“: “First you separate the eggs; then you beat the whites.” Alexis is smarter than I, not “then I."
I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming . . .
you'll find some great threads about this sort of thing in the education forum. perhaps you should vent there, as butchering the english language is not unique to los angeles.
Other than the now-ubiquitous misuses of "you're/your", "their/there/they're", "its/it's", etc., one of the things that annoys me is the use of "I could care less". The proper phrase is "I couldn't care less". Think about the meaning for a moment.
When people try to sound smarter than they really are by using (incorrectly) what they believe is a fancy word. Myriad comes to mind - it is not a noun but more often than not, I hear or read the words "a" immediately before, and "of" immediately after it. A myriad of - FAIL!
My ex does the "then / than" thing. It would be expected if he were the kind to make mistakes like that in general, but he's not, and that's why it is soooooo annoying.
Then/than is my great weakness. Something so basic, but I STILL struggle with it all of the time. Also, to let you know how bad it is for me, I am working on my SECOND Bachelor of Science degree and starting to look for different schools for my masters (MBA and also CS).
Heck, the one BS I'm working on now is a technical degree from a well known engineering school and I'm carrying a 3.0. I've made the Dean's List several times. However, with all of that I still struggle with some of the basics of the English language.
But, let's be honest. Everyone has a strength and everyone has a weakness. I believe we really should accept this fact of life. I know that it is aggravating to a lot of people, especially to those with English degrees. However, it seems like this subject is the only one where people demean others based on perceived education levels.
Yes, you can say that English is so basic everyone should be perfect with it, but that can be said about most things.
Take computers for example.
From my view, changing out a hard drive or adding a second one is something a 4th grader can do with their eyes closed. However, look at the number of people who are afraid to even connect a printer to a box. These same people would be besides themselves thinking about opening the tower. However, does this make them stupid? No. It just makes them ignorant in computers. No more - no less.
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