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”Their” you have it: So please, ‘four’ the love of grammar! ‘Its’ not ‘two’ late ‘too’ help each other……
x.x
Seriously. It’s becoming pathetic.
I know people in college that still can’t/won’t/don’t acknowledge the difference between ‘you’re’ and ‘your’, or ‘their’, ‘there’, and ‘they’re’, or ‘its’ and ‘it’s', (although, that one doesn’t bother me as much as others.) or ‘to’, ‘two’, and ‘too’.
Just last night, my little sister said, “Spelling doesn’t count on Facebook.”
Please. Stop.
You look so stupid.
“A representation of my intelligence and/or integrity on a public forum doesn’t count!”
Ugh.
I’ve removed people from my news feed (just news feed, not as friends) on Facebook for constantly using chat-speak, completely omitting commas, overusing commas, capitalizing every single word, never using capital letters, abusing caps lock, and other extremely annoying spelling or grammatical errors. Using the wrong “your” or “there” doesn’t bother me too much. It’s when I have to re-read something multiple times to figure out what a person has said that gets on my nerves. If you can’t (or can’t be bothered to) communicate properly, how is anyone supposed to take you seriously?
I don’t know how old your sister is, but I hope she has her Facebook set to private. Potential employers like to check applicants’ Facebook accounts, and many don’t want to hire someone who can’t be bothered to spell out words or type in full sentences.
Derp, Sherlockian… You two are my heroes for making valid justifications for propper grammar/spelling. Here, take 200 internets each.
*proper
Grammar is important, but if you are blocking people b/c of improper use…you really don’t get what’s truly important in life!!!!!!!
meaning that if you are blocking people (or not blocking them) but still sitting in your chair, with nothing but your computer screen …… then YOU really don’t get what’s truly important in life!!!!!!!
That’s what I was thinking.
I think we should be more concerned about how people writes on Icanhascheesburger.
* Icanhascheezburger
First panel is a fail. ‘You and me’ is the correct form, common form. The ‘you and I’ form is a prescriptive form that isn’t commonly used. It was only introduce in the 1750 by grammarians into English education who wished to perfect English by making it like Latin, the perfect language; this was before modern linguistic theory, or the research into the development of language. It was, and still is, took up by Universities graduates desperate to show their education and lack of original thought. I like not speaking Latin, and having friends rather than sounding pretentious and anal.
No, there is reason for it and it’s not actually because Latin was the ‘perfect language’. Take the ‘and Steve’ out of the speech bubble in the first panel (and, obviously, singularise the verb (yep, that’s definitely a word)) and you get:
“me wasn’t anywhere near the school at the time’.
Surely that’s enough said?
As for who goes first, it’s courtesy to refer to yourself second after the other people present, hence we don’t say ‘I and Steve’, which is why it’s commonly taken to be wrong (it is, but I think that’s a matter of personal preference to be honest. As you say, some rules are simply a little outdated).
If we take a subject in which Steve and I are the object then of course it’s ‘Steve and me’ (as in ‘would you mind passing the salt to Steve and me; there’s none at our end of the table’).
So no, I can’t see any point in getting silly and pretentious about grammar but it functions the way it does, by and large, for good reasons to do with making sense, being intelligible, and understanding thought as much as language. I wouldn’t have commented, but high-horsing about anything and then being wrong is just embarrassing (no, I can’t spell that word).
“For the love of God stop!”
Suicide, obviously!
Haha, glad I’m not the only one who caught that
.
Who’s God stop?
Um, so here’s a thing; “Me and Steve” and “Steve and I” are both equally correct, the incorrect version would be “Steve and me” or, less likely, “I and Steve”. So, good job on basing a grammar Nazi comic on a completely incorrect grammatical complaint.
And suddenly I’ve lost all confidence in my point actually being true :s Anyone want to back me up? If not, ignore this whole comment.
I’m too cruel to ignore this: “I” is subject (old English nominative case), “me” is object (old English accusative). But it’s OK, everybody makes mistakes while speaking foreign languages, n’est-ce pas?
With the changes in grammar over many years, it is currently correct to say “Steve and I”, “Steve and me”, and “Me and Steve”. In most university level English classes, these three options are accepted as correct grammatically.
What? No they’re not.
Steve and I (and I and Steve) and Steve and me (and me and Steve) are two (four) different phrases used at different times. The thing is, if you drop Steve, the sentence still has to agree. This is a basic substitution test learned in analysing verb phrases found in the first year of any English or linguistics course.
“I and Steve will go to the park” > “I will go to the park” – right.
“Me and Steve will go to the park” > “Me will go to the park” – wrong.
“Can I get one for Steve and I?” > “Can I get one for I?” – wrong. A lot of people get this one wrong.
“Can I get one for Steve and me?” > “Can I get one for me?” – right.
The average English teacher hasn’t got a clue. Even the elites of the grammar gestapo can’t get this right and tend to overcompensate by using the nominative case every time.
I find that statement completely unbelievable.
“Steve and I” as the subject is correct: Steve and I shouted at the coach.
“Steve and me” as the object is correct: The coach shouted at Steve and me.
It is NOT correct to say “Steve and me shouted.” If you cut out Steve in the first case, it would read “Me shouted.”
In the second case, it would read: The coach shouted at I.
“I”, as Nicolas pointed out, is always the subject; “me” is the object.
wrong, unless your “university” is free to attend or you have to print out your own diploma. An easy way to know which to use, is by removing Steve. “Steve and I like coffee” / “I like coffee”, not “Me likes coffee”. “Mom loves Steve and me” / “Mom loves me”, not “mom loves I”. And Me and Steve is always wrong.
Thank you — This is how I learned to make the right choice in using the correct statement.
Bzzzt, wrong. You can see why by removing the “and Steve” part:
“And me wasn’t near the school…”
“And I wasn’t near the school…”
^^^^^^^^ Maybe if “teachers” actually “taught” instead of telling people being “gay” is “normal” etc, people could actually speak the language.
Then again, people who are taught to think are smart enough to know that THEIR “teachers” are nothing but a propaganda spewing tool of the communist teachers unions in the first place.
BAHAHA! OK, I am going to chose to believe that this comment was tongue-in-cheek, because if it isn’t then, well, that’s just sad.
Either troll or mentally unstable. Either way, cool story bro
fail! it’s valid – the “I and Steve/ Steve and I” are the fail. You’re using an arbitrary grammar rule, in every other Germanic language (of which English is one) the “and me” is natural ; Jan und mich gehen.. – Jan and me go..
Even Romance languages use this; Mes amis et moi – my friends and me
“Jan und mich gehen” is totally incorrect! Sorry…
They also forgot a comma in “For the love of god, Stop!”
Just kids trying to be funny again.
You’ve also forgotten to capitalize the name of a deity, and instead capitalized “stop.”
Yet, if you meant for the love of “a god in general” and not a “pacific” god, then it does not need to be capitalized.
If he was referring to the deity “God” as seen on television or perhaps your local Bible or Koran! If he was trying to plead to a non-specific god he would have used the indefinite article “a”, as in “For the love of a god, stop!”.
Nicely done.
If he was referring to the deity “G0d” as seen on television or perhaps your local Bible or Koran, he would have used the article “the”, as in “For the love of the G0d, stop!”
*unnecesary use of !
*lacking properly placed ,
G0d?
“Steve and me” is correct when used as the direct object.
“Steve and I” is correct when used as the subject
Example:
Lucy helped Steve and me.
One could say “Lucy helped me and Steve.”
Lucy helped Steve.
Lucy helped me.
Steve and I helped Lucy.
Steve helped Lucy.
I helped Lucy.
All are correct.
One, however, does not say “I and Steve helped Lucy,” though removing “and Steve” would be correct. This form is simply not the proper format for using a first person pronoun and a third person pronoun together as a subject.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is all for your internet proper-grammar lesson.
Nice to see failblog didn’t stick their watermark on this too. You guys really do need to stop doing that, especially since the source is not listed unless somebody actually clicks into the page.
I struggle with there and their. Also with to and too. I always have, and I am embarrassed. I guess I should not have any friends, since I am obviously and idiot (who does have a college degree). I will go kill myself now, because I make simple mistakes.
The funny thing is that someone who learnt English as a foreign language can’t normally make those mistakes. Well I do once in a blue moon when I try to type like a machine gun without proof reading, but that hardly counts.
learnt??????? LEARNT???????
How’s your French, U.R.?
Mais bien sur, c’est inférieur à la mienne.
From Mirriam-Webster:
“Definition of LEARNT
chiefly British past and past participle of learn”
*Merrium
(lest I be piled upon)
DAMN
*Merriam
Autocorrect? :p
learnt: past participle, past tense of learn (Verb)
Gain or acquire knowledge of or skill in (something) by study, experience, or being taught.
Commit to memory.
I believe learnt is an acceptable British English spelling.
Learnt, dreamt, leapt, etc. etc. In Europe, we’re taught (British) English in school, not American English.
Yes, “learnt”. What’s wrong? Do you want me to point you to a site about irregular verbs containing alternative spellings? Or can you google that on your own? If English is too difficult for you, you can write in French, German, Italian, Russian…
it’s UK English, go out and travel more
You should be and so should any “college” that gave you a degree. A degree in what, burger flipping? I hope so.
At least you got the part about it being simple right. Now go kill yourself, please.
That’s not TOO much to ask, is it?
^ this. There’s not really anything to “struggle with” when trying to understand the difference between their and there or to and too. You can either remember the simple rule for each or you can’t. Or you’re too lazy to look it up. Either way, fail.
Have you guys ever heard of learning disabilities? Obviously not. Since it’s something that comes easily and naturally to you, it makes sense that it must be the same for EVERYONE in the world, right? Your experience is clearly what everyone else’s experience is, so it must just be laziness.
I thought people were supposed to outgrow the whole “egocentric” idea sometime in elementary school?
Ha, you have burger flipping degrees too? In France they’re called “sociology degrees”, no idea why.
you have a college degree and struggle with there and their and also to and too? I think you are who this comic is for. I don’t want you to kill yourself but yes you are an idiot
Capitalization fail. Sentences begin with capital letters. I just thought since you were calling someone else out for grammar issues, you should be able to at least construct a basic sentence.
Colleges don’t hand out degrees unless they’re affiliated with a university. They do, however, hand out diplomas. Universities hand out degrees. Learn the difference. Two completely different kinds of schools, yet yanks get them confused…
“there” is a location
“their” is ownership
They drove their car to the store over there by the school.
you should try using pills, it’s less messy. How do you keep making the same mistake without every learning your mistake? Do you have down syndrome?
It’s my belief that grammar cops that spent decades harping on the use of “me” as a subject pronoun (in phrases such as “…me and Steve weren’t anywhere near the school…”) are the ones responsible for the far more aggravating and now-ubiquitous misuse of subject pronouns as objects (as in “they were very mean to she and I”). They’ve made people scared to use the word “me” at all that they started using “I” in the wrong places, and now it’s overwhelmed American speech so much that most people seem to think it’s correct usage. You can’t watch a single “reality” tv show without hearing at least one of this kind of error.
It really isn’t difficult. Using compound nouns shouldn’t be so tough for people Just write the sentence twice using one noun and then the other. You will easily be able to see which is the correct word. “they were very mean to she.” doesn’t make any sense. Neither does “they were very mean to I.” If people payed any attention during their grade school English classes they would have learned it quite well. I have not yet went to college and I know the difference and can form a sentence well enough.
…Seriously? “I have not yet went to college”? People REALLY shouldn’t judge when they make such basic grammatical errors as well. I believe the word you’re looking for there is “gone”, not “went”.
*facepalm*
Burn!
“went” is used in many English dialects as the past participle, not usually in writing though.
Lol.
I see no grammar mistakes here….indeed a fail of the artist
obvious troll is obvious.
Why troll? There is not one grammatical mistake in that strip
For the love of God >COMMA< stop. Yes there is.
No, there isn’t. What exactly do you think is a grammatical mistake there?
All errors made in this comic are of grammatical nature. Although one could say “alergys” is a bivious natured mistake as it is a mispelling of the word “allergies”. Though in this case one should take into consideration that the misspelling is due to the wrong usage of a suffix, something which is grammar bound. All other errors are correctly spelled words used in a grammatically incorrect way.
Please don’t feed the troll. Unless you enjoy wasting your time and effort.
Huzzah to troll feeding! It keeps them harmlessly occupied. Please feed all trolls to keep them from becoming something society will mistake as useful. You know, like a politician.
Folks who think errors in spelling/grammer is a laughable thing probably don’t find the same humor in math errors – like change at the store or IRS returns. What is the diff?
So when you people are shown your mistakes you call it trolling? “Allergys” is not bivious in any way, it is a spelling error and only a spelling error, nothing grammatical about it. It is not “wrong usage of a suffix”, it’s “wrong spelling of a word with a suffix”. The fact that you don’t know that spelling isn’t part of a language’s grammar doesn’t make you right in calling these grammatical mistakes.
so, you’re not a troll, just an idiot trying to sound smart. gotcha!
What’s wrong with laughing at both?
Mistaking THEIR for THERE has NOTHING to do with GRAMMAR, it’s called SPELLING since it’s THE SAME WORD when SPOKEN! DUH
For example, YOUR (spelling) SUPPOSE (grammar) to NO (spelling) the difference between YOUR and YOU’RE by the time you hit 8th grade.
When making jokes about “grammar” it would help to know the difference.
In this case, it is not a misspelling, it is a different word. If i typed “Thurr” Instead of “There”, that would be spelling. Since the writer knowingly typed “Their” when they meant “There”, it is a grammatical error, as it is a different word.
No it’s not a grammatical error, it’s either a spelling error when you think “there” is spelt “their”, it’s a typing error if you meant to type “there” but you typed “their” by mistake, or a lexical mistake if you think they are the same word or you mixed the meanings up or something. Nothing grammatical here.
Well, the incorrect usage of “affect” is most definitely a GRAMMATICAL error, as is the missing apostrophe in “its”…
In reality, though, does it really matter? It was a comic made for entertainment. Really, I think you should consider getting a life instead of nitpicking minute details to try to show off how “smart” you are.
…the writer knowingly typed…when he or she meant…
In your example SUPPOSE is not a grammatical error since it’s not that you use the wrong tense/mood/person, it’s that “suppose” and “supposed” are pronounced the same when followed by “to”, so it’s also a spelling/typing error
All Americans… How well do you know other languages? Have anyone of you tried to learn how to speak/write in completely different language? First try, than judge others.
Ico Dimchev- I’m American and it’s required in high school to take 2 years of Spanish or French. The problem is, there’s just not very many opportunities to practice it. I ended up marrying a Mexican, and that’s the only reason I ever learned Spanish. I think the reason that we’re so bad at other languages is because there’s no necessity for it here. I truly wish foreign language was required in schools at an earlier age here, then maybe we’d be good at it
I love reading to people speaking about english grammatical errors! I’m italian and this is very usefull for me to learn a better english..and also this makes me think that we’re not the only nation in the world that has citizens who aren’t able to write, and barely speak, a correct italian!
ps: please be patient with my grammar and let me notice any mistake I made
English and Italian…capitals, please.
You’re correcting me capital letters? Well, If this is the only mistake I made I’m pretty proud of myself.
I wish this actually happened to grammar nazis in real life.
Nobody has picked up on the missing punctuation after “I’m allergic to grammatical errors”,
http://www.explosm.net
^There. Now will you stop posting explosm stuff here?
OMFG! people why does it matter as long as it is understandable. Please dumb up a bit or just don’t care
Dumb up a bit? I bet your parents are so proud!
I am pretty smart but people who get mad about grammar and spelling just annoy me, and it is correct grammar and spelling.
But…it’s grammar and spelling. You know, the stuff that they teach it to grade school kids.
No one should have to “dumb down” to accommodate the stupid or the lazy! People need to challenge themselves to learn the language because it is *awesome* to be better and better. Spell check isn’t that tough to use. They should try some self-respect and personal pride. No one is asking anyone to move mountains. Just to get a little smarter. Does anyone want to look stupid by having appalling grammar? I hope not.
Also, the one I keep seeing, over and over, is “quite” instead of quiet. No one seems to notice.
One more thing; if someone is using LOL or OMG that is A-OK IMHO. Valid abbreviations are just fine. It’s feeling like you’re communicating with someone that actually kills your brain cells by doing so that’s irritating!! If I am going to kill some brain cells, I want to really *enjoy* it.
True,True. Still i find it better to not worry about spelling and grammar because I have to deal with it every day at school. It does not matter how bad someone’s grammar or spelling is, as long as the point is getting across. That is the very reason speaking is here. Grammar is just like accents. It is saying the same thing but in a different way.
You are right, it is definitely better to not correct people IRL, because it can be bad for your health, your sanity, your friendships, etc., but I nearly *wince* when I talk to certain people. OMG. See, the way someone speaks/types is a reflection of their intelligence. You don’t speak/type badly, so I can see that you aren’t stupid.
LOL
Also, it definitely doesn’t stop being in your face when you leave school. The working world is full of stoopies, too!
And I think it is worth mentioning, especially on a Cheeseburger site, that LOL-speak is intentionally spelled phonetically so that is fine, and also that word-invention is great fun to have with the language. The point is you learn something correctly first – then you can mess with it and no one cares. Because you know what you are doing! LOL
Exactly. Grammar on the internet is like your accent. Now, think about this: If you heard someone speaking in a thick redneck accent, or ebonics, what would that make you think of their intelligence? (assuming you haven’t spoken to them enough to get a genuine assessment of their intelligence)
Making dumb grammar mistakes on the internet does not mean you are stupid. But, it sure as hell makes you LOOK stupid.
Just like showing up to a job interview wearing torn jeans and a dirty T-shirt will make you look like a lazy idiot and will lose you the job no matter what your qualifications are.
someone speaking… must be followed by …his or her intelligence.
technically, yes, but really, English desperately needs a gender-neutral pronoun or it needs to accept that “they” can be either singular or plural to enable it to act as a gender-neutral pronoun, as is the common usage.
I
The one I am seeing all the time now is the use of an apostrophe for a plural word, such as “I have green eye’s”. It makes me cringe.
Actually, because it was a speech bubble, “me and Steve” is correct. It is only written as “Steve and I.”
Grammar Natzi FTW
I’m allergic to a lack of punctuation. D:
I love it when Americans argue about grammar and spelling.
*Allergies
*”For the love of God, stop”
*Long, drawn-out sigh* I’m 13 and clearly more intelligent than the creator of this. It’s rare that someone my age would care about grammar (I was raised by a grammar nazi), so this creator is most likely older than I am. The human race is doomed.
I hate to nitpick, but “allergys” was deliberately misspelled. Also, the fact that a Cyanide and Happiness strip is illogical does NOT mean the human race is doomed. Saying that is like saying the Mayan calendar will end the world; you’re placing the blame on something completely unrelated and insignificant.
<3
Could I just point out that ‘X person and I’ is also grammatically incorrect? After many years of urban myths, it has been found to be true that ‘me and X person’ is actually the correct wording? I’d say ‘X perosn and I’should be the supplement, not the other way around….
i said that earlier XD
hial fellow grammar natzi
Exactly, “X and me” and “me and X” are both the correct forms, and “X and I” is a made up form (based upon forms that have disappeared long ago)
I’m terrified of writing anything now. My every sentence is being scanned for mistakes… I’ve looked up the spelling of every word I’ve typed, just in case.
just enable your browser’s spell check function
I hereby knight you Sir KIng of the Internetz- jesus! Well played, sir
hahahahaha
WIN!
So. Let me get this straight.
You all think that a typographical error is such damning evidence of stupidity that you cannot give friends or acquaintances on the internet the benefit of the doubt and ignore little spelling, punctuation, and syntax errors?
Good riddance to you all, then. Your inability to see past trivial technical issues indicates that you aren’t really paying attention to your relationships.
There. Now I’ve made a huge overreaching assumption, too. Happy?