Author: ApostropheQueen

English Grammar & Punctuation : How to Use Apostrophes

Apostrophes are used to indicate ownership with plural nouns, contractions and dates. Discover how the use of apostrophe changes when dealing with plural words with help from a certified tutor in this free video on punctuation in the English language. Expert: Paige Carrera Bio: Paige Carrera is a certified tutor for both Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Filmmaker: Christopher Rokosz

The Misuse of Apostrophe’s (Steve’s Grammatical Observations #2)

See the Steve’s Grammar DEMO REEL with links to other episodes: www.youtube.com Steve’s Grammatical Observations is now on Facebook: www.facebook.com The apostrophe is being grossly misused, not only to pluralize nouns, but most recently in the 3rd person conjugation of verbs. for example: he want’s – wtf???

Spelling question – Is it ware and tare or wear and tear?

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I saw this text on a website today, and had to rub my eyes to make sure I was awake:

Is it ware and tare or wear and tear? Spelling is so important

What was written:

ware and tare – both words are incorrect for the meaning of this phrase above.

If we write, “Items have a small amount of ware and tare.” using the spelling above, the sentence will mean, “Items have a small amount of goods and weight.” — whereas the author actually/probably meant, “Items have a small amount of damage and have not been worn down much.”

What should have been written? These words sound the SAME but have different spelling than the first example:

wear and tear – this spelling is correct!

In this instance, “Wear” refers to how much an item has been used or worn.

In this instance, “Tear” refers to how much an item has been used and may have damage due to its use.

TIP — there are two meanings for the word “tear” and two different ways to pronounce the same word:

  1. in this example above, “tear” means to tear a piece of paper or other item, meaning “rip” — in this case, the word is pronounced the same as “hair”.
  2. the second way to use “tear” is when we want to cry and a tear may roll down our cheek because we are sad — in this case, the word is pronounced the same as “ear”.

Does this help? Please do let me know.

Have you seen anything similar to this? I’d love to hear from you if you have :-)

Do people make up words these days?

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Jan, thanks for dropping by my site. Excellent question, by the way.

Yes, people do make up words and because most of us use the internet, we get to see all kinds of weird and wonderful word creations.

Some make me laugh.

Some make me cringe.

Some make me gasp in horror :-)

.Dilbert.com.

The best way to find out if a word you want to write is ‘real’ or not, is to check a dictionary.

Please also note that dictionaries differ in English-speaking countries, so a word which is acceptable in the US might not be acceptable in Australia or the UK.

If you have any examples, let me know and I’ll share them here.

Question: Do people make up words these days?

Is spelling important in your resume?

Is spelling important in your resume?
Is spelling important in your resume?

If you’ve wondered, “Is spelling important in your resume?”, the answer is a resounding YES!

This cartoon made me laugh, but in real life I’ve seen way too many resumés / curriculum vitae with poor spelling.

Some examples of words being used incorrectly are:

It’s never too late to learn how to spell certain words and when to use words you often use incorrectly.

There are fabulous online dictionaries now where you can find spelling solutions, and you can always ask me a question :-)

 

Dilbert.com

Do you have any tips to share? I’d love to hear them.

Teena