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We should have just one spelling for there/their and your/you're

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At least is easier than spanish. Where porqué / porque / por qué / por que are four different things and are pronounced almost the same.

What infuriates me is when people confuse hay, ahí and ay.
 
What you propose wouldn't be language evolving rather than language planning/policy. There/their and your/you're may become homographic at some point in the future but I don't see the benefit of forcing that change, nor do I see it succeeding in the first place.
 
And the downfall of society has begun.

Who needs spelling anyway, right? Just let our phones autocorrect everything. In the future, cell phones are imbedded in our brains and we communicate via texting.
 
RoadHazard said:
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.
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Exactly, it's totally natural for native speakers but apparently can be very confusing for those learning English as a foreign language. It's so natural to us that we never really even consider it, but when you hear the words in the "wrong" order it sounds very, very strange.
 
Shyranui said:
As a non-native speaker I think they're one of the easiest things to write correctly. I don't get the confusion. With what I really struggle is the tenses. I'll never understand the diference between 'I did somethng' and 'I have done something'.
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They are 2 different tenses, there are 3 tenses past, present, and future (if you wanna get really technical, there are only 2 tenses with verbs). Everyone know that for the most part. They can however be broken down even further, simple, progressive/continuous, perfect simple, and perfect progressive/continuous. Using your example:

Past simple: I did
Past progressive/continuous: I was doing
Past perfect simple: I had done
Past perfect progressive/continuous: I had been doing

Present simple: I do
Present progressive/continuous: I am doing
Present perfect simple: I have done
Present perfect progressive/continuous: I have been doing

Future simple: I will do
Future progressive/continuous: I will be doing
Future perfect simple: I will have done
Future perfect progressive/continuous: I will have been doing

As for the differences:

Simple: actions conceived as whole/unitary; sense of completion & permanence
Progressive/continuous: actions seen as 'in progress'; sense of duration & temporariness
Perfect: actions viewed as finished or continuing in a time up to a later time; retrospective

You don't have to know this all so don't be afraid if you get them confused at times, what really annoys me when it comes to grammar nazis is that the point of language is to get meaning across. "Do I understand what this person is saying? Have they got their meaning across and do I understand what they're communicating?". Accuracy and fluency are different things. Are you a student who is learning English so they can do a masters in a certain subject and then going back home? Then yeah you should probably learn all the finer details. Grown adult who is learning English as their third language just for communication purposes to improve job prospects or whatever? Then no and tell anyone who is acting all smarmy trying to correct your grammar to fuck off.

Hope this helps!
 
StrategyFan said:
more ambiguity != evolution

identical words having multiple meanings is one of the worst parts of English
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Think that's bad? Go to France and enjoy how differently written words are the same phonetically (homophones
created by Space Moors
).

Take these for example: Au/aux/eau
Makes it a pain in the ass when trying to speak French as a secondary language with a native.
 
I'm thinking no. That's not evolution that's trying to resolve a failing in understanding. You need different words for the context. Just so happens they're similar. You can't collapse all the usage examples for both to one word.
 
That's an interesting idea that you've got there. I mean, if people don't want to learn the difference, that's their prerogative. However, I'm not so sure they're the people we should look to for tips on shaping the language.

You're entitled to your opinion though.
 
The number of people who misspell these words suggests that "we" sort of already have just one spelling for there/their and your/you're.

But, I'd think of recent English language learners with this. Understanding the difference between two words that are spelled the same but have a completely different meaning given the context makes the language that much more difficult. English is already a difficult language to learn because of the vast number of cultural and regional influences on the language and that there is no centralized English language authority.

Best to leave as is.
 
That's a terrible idea. Each of those words are distinctly different and should be differentiated.

It's just that people are too fucking lazy to care about that distinction most of the time, or they rely on their phone's autocorrect and don't bother fixing it or something.
 
Eye dont think it wood bee anywhere near as confusing ore troublesome as others in this thread are making it out two bee. Context typically fixes any confusion it wood cause.

Butt everything is already established, we all understand the differences; it all cums down too people being two lazy too spell it write.
 
I understand non-native speakers having issues with such things but for everyone else, it is really not that difficult. The distinctions are important.
 
No, the language has already been butchered lately with terrible additions. Just educate yourself. It's not that much of a big deal if you get it wrong, just learn from it.
 
Elfotografoalocado said:
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.
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Are you gonna let a long decomposed author hold the current lingua franca of the world hostage?

The narrow period of human history of "Centuries old English writing that is still mostly understood by modern people" is barely even tangential to the daily usage of the language.

There is zero benefit in keeping shit like irregular verbs unless you're saying languages should remain static until the end of time UNLESS they get more complicated.
 
Sheentak said:
Language evolves right? So why don't we as a society simplify these common mistakes and you have one spelling for both of these common mixed up words?
Any other suggestions to evolve the English language?
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You're incorrect. Your reasoning for creating unnecessary ambiguity in written communication is faulty. There's no reason to make it more difficult for people to convey ideas to their colleagues.
 
Why do we even have different words mean different things? Finding the write words would be so much easier if everything was the same.
 
I mean should people use it as an insult when someone mistypes it? No.

It's a simple mistake to make when typing as it's not a word that's consciously thought most of the time.. and most of typing is muscle-memory and as the words are similar in spelling it's easy to skip a ' or type there instead of their with thinking about it.

If it's the internet forum or tweet, who cares... if it's a edited published piece? Yes that's bad.
 
Let's not homogonise words... There's three different words. Their meanings are different. They're not interchangeable.
Two too many words to choose from.
 
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Phonetically there is no difference. When we hear spoken dialogue we can make out the difference through context. But grammar in writing can completely change the context.
 
Better idea: People who don't understand the difference between these common-ass words are forced to repeat 3rd grade indefinitely until they do.
 
Maybe just have one new word that means everything. That way people wouldn't have to fuss with actually learning the language. I vote for schlurp.

Schlurp schlurp schlurp?

Schlurp.
 
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