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We should have just one spelling for there/their and your/you're
- Thread starter Sheentak
- Start date
- Status
There's so much legacy shit in the english (or any old) language that should be done away with if we all just agreed to it.
Irregular verbs? Complete inconsistency in how certain things are pronounced? Lack of words for common usages that other languages have (e.g. people had to come up with "y'all" because English has no group pronoun)?
But instead of fixing all this, we have to add last year's meme words to the dictionary or something.
What the fuck did you just say about my mother?
Lol, I'm a native english speaker, and I've never really even thought about that distinction.
Makes me think of "I bought something" vs "I have bought something".
English is certainly bizarre at times.
thesoapster
Member
I am Groot. I am Groot!
stump sock
Member
not the way OP is talking about.
Elfotografoalocado
Banned
I'm Spanish and learned English as a second language. I have never made such mistake nor it ever passed through my mind until I started roaming around message boards. I think those mistakes suggest illiteracy, and let's be honest it's not that hard to correct them.
I hear nobody suggesting "halla" and "haya" should be spelled the same, because one is a verb and the other is a fucking tree. Well, same here.
Edit:
All those simplifications of language do nothing but take away the nuance, and impede people from understanding the classics.
People have trouble following Shakespeare as it is.
I hear nobody suggesting "halla" and "haya" should be spelled the same, because one is a verb and the other is a fucking tree. Well, same here.
Edit:
If you consider any language as a door to a rich cultural legacy that spans centuries, apeasing illiteracy by the means of Newspeak means effectively closing that door.
All those simplifications of language do nothing but take away the nuance, and impede people from understanding the classics.
People have trouble following Shakespeare as it is.
HandsomeCharles
Member
Erm... There isn't a difference really, it's just two ways of saying the same thing. I'm sure there probably is some very deep and subtle difference that a scholar would be able to tell you, but in conversational English I can't think of any difference at all.
"I have done what you asked" vs "I did what you asked", exactly the same meaning.
I suppose the only difference would really be the context of where you say it. For example, if you were writing a journal it would be more natural to write "Today I did my homework" rather than "Today I have done my homework". Both are correct but I think "have done" would be used more commonly when speaking to people in direct conversation rather than written. To write "have done" in that context fells quite formal or posh.
But don't worry about it, nobody is going to misunderstand you regardless of which one you use.
Red Liquorice
Member
You first.
Or shud that b u furst?
Or shud that b u furst?
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Smurf Smurf!!
HandsomeCharles
Member
Wait until you consider adjective order.
If you want to discuss it, meet me in my red new big house!
PayOffWizard
Member
I guarantee that using "possesive pronoun" in a sentence will confuse a far larger number of people than mistakenly using 'their' and not 'there' in a sentence.
My point is that if worlds are pronounced exactly the same its not always necessary that they need to be spelt differently.
eg.
type: He can type over 100 words per minute./That dress is really not her type.
point: The pencil has a sharp point./It is not polite to point at people.
There is a subtle difference, if google is to be believed, and I can see it - "did" is a past tense verb. You did something. The end. "have" is a present tense verb. TO use "have done" is called a present perfect tense, and it apparently suggests that what you have done has an effect carries on to now.
The more you know....
QuicheFontaine
Member
My brain...what's happening??
Already Torn
Banned
You're is two words
Yup, it's not too hard, really. At least English doesn't have different words for adjectives or articles depending on the number and gender, like Spanish does. For example, the adjective "nice" is written "lindo" for men and "linda" for women, and if it's plural you have to add an S at the end ("lindo" / "lindas"). Same with the article "the" (spelled "el" or "la").
We should first make Spanish easier before anybody starts thinking of butchering English.
NekoFever
Member
I agree. Certainly not reading enough, resulting in a kind of functional illiteracy - they know what the words sound like, but not what they are.
But it does happen more with native speakers because they pick up the language verbally, from their parents and people around them, whereas EFL speakers are actually taught grammar from a textbook and teachers. I imagine there are similar mistakes that are particular to native speakers in other languages.
HandsomeCharles
Member
Calm down and relax with a hot fresh nice cup of tea!
I think you're right, but those examples are probably not the best, as the variations you're using probably have similar etymological origins. maybe. I'm assuming.
I'm going to bring up what I mentioned earlier as examples where the spelling is the same, but the meaning and even pronunciation is different:
wound: verb, past tense of wind (like a wind-up toy)
wound: noun, an injury.
wind: noun, moving air.
QuicheFontaine
Member
Tony Redgrave
Member
You said it yourself, there are some words which can have the same spelling and there are words which can't. Native users have been filtering this stuff for generations, it all comes down to the meaning and functions of the words, your examples are both of verbs and nouns which have an easier time having the same spelling due to word order etc. Having wildly lexically different categories such as adverbs and pronouns having the same spelling would be confusing.
tl;dr: Users always strive for the easiest stuff, these words are similar phonetically because talking is all about fluidity, if their spelling hasn't become similar already there's good reason (semanticas, grammar) for it.
I Stalk Alone
Member
OP, how about we just use one word for everything, it works for Pikachu?
Elfotografoalocado
Banned
Yeah, you're right on that, people keep mixing "ll" and "y" and "b" and "v", which are actually supposed to sound slightly different. However, in European Spanish people tend to pronounce them equally, therefore they spell the words incorrectly.
In Latin America this doesn't happen when it comes to pronouncing, but they still fuck up the spelling. (Mexican GF: "It annoys the FUCK out of me! Like whenever my aunt messages me! Pinche analfabeta! Aprende a deletrear!")
This thread reminds me, once again, that I've never had proper instruction in grammar and usage. I started attending school in US in the 6th grade and all the way through a beginning course in College English classes have been next to useless. I don't feel it while speaking or writing, but ask me to explain precisely why something is clumsy or incorrect and a lack of formal knowledge is obvious and grating. Not in this case though.
See, my knee jerk reaction is to say I have implies an action completed or finalized whereas I did is more nebulous. But, I don't actually know.
See, my knee jerk reaction is to say I have implies an action completed or finalized whereas I did is more nebulous. But, I don't actually know.
IndoAssassin
Banned
Why do people want to keep making themselves dumber?
nature boy
Member
No one asked for this.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
What's the issue here? How is a "big red new house" any different from a "red new big house", or a "nice fresh hot cup of tea" from a "hot fresh nice cup of tea"? Each adjective just gives the noun an additional quality, no matter the order of them, no...? Some of those adjective orders sound more natural that others, though.
EDIT: Googled it, and I guess there actually is a "correct" order. But surely this is something you just do automatically because a certain order feel better than another, without really thinking about it.
You'll open a big can of worms if you want to adjust spelling to the way we speak
RoadHazard
Gold Member
yongeandcollege
Member
Problem: People are illiterate. Solution: Let's dilute the language. Bad idea.
Tony Redgrave
Member
ˈlɑːfɪŋ aʊt laʊd
John Kowalski
Banned
Why not just go all the way and throw English in the trash bin.
In America, at least, written communication has declined already. Going out of our way to give up so that people who can't communicate well can avoid mistakes would be a step in the wrong direction.
Many people get defiantly and definitely wrong. Should we merge those to accommodate them?
How about those who say "alot" when they mean "a lot". Should we give them a pass?
There are many lazy people that don't bother to capitalize "I" and think writing "you" is too long. Should resumes with lower case "I" and "u" not get put into a separate pile (such as the trash) for jobs in which writing is important?
Many people get defiantly and definitely wrong. Should we merge those to accommodate them?
How about those who say "alot" when they mean "a lot". Should we give them a pass?
There are many lazy people that don't bother to capitalize "I" and think writing "you" is too long. Should resumes with lower case "I" and "u" not get put into a separate pile (such as the trash) for jobs in which writing is important?
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