Thursday, February 4, 2010

Some Aberrations In English

Some time ago, I posted an entry in Spanish about some common errors in spelling that some people may experience.
I know that in this age of "smart" phones, "texting", "chatting" and more, people try to shorten words by abbreviating them, but this also has a negative impact in the future: These people will not be able to differentiate between the correct and incorrect way of writing those words.
Some of the aberrations I have noticed in English:

Your instead of You're (or the other way around): Your denotes ownership, you're is the contraction for you are (i. e.: I like your laptop, in this case, the laptop is yours; I know that you're a very smart person, in this case, you're is substituting you are).
This same problem applies to their, there and they're. There denotes location, not here, but there, far from where you are.
It also applies to its and it's, the first one denoting ownership, the second being a contraction.

Person - verb correlation: He, she, it is, not are or am. You are, not is. You have, not has. He, she, it has, not have. Again, if you are using contractions, you use the apostrophe and the appropriate part of the verb.

Proper tense of the verb: In English, verbs have three tenses: Present, past and past participle. There is also the infinitive. The proper use of the tense is important. Sentences with the verb to have followed by another verb denote a present or past participle, in which cases, the verb has to be in past participle and not in present or past (i. e.: I have bought a new program is the proper way and not I have buy a new program).

There are some more, a lot more aberrations in English too, but I wanted to mention only the most common ones.

Regards,

F. Bobbio C.

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