this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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[–] yetAnotherUser@feddit.de 94 points 9 months ago
[–] JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Their messing up theyre theres, theirs and they'res again?

[–] FQQD@lemmy.ohaa.xyz 46 points 9 months ago (1 children)

What a terrible day to be able to read.

[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

I'm going to learn it this way now, their sharing missinformation online. context: I'm not native.

[–] Kase@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] tomjs@lemdro.id 2 points 9 months ago

I hate the fact that you're right

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 26 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Idk why it's hard for anyone. But on the other hand my apostrophies are all little catostrophies.

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Non-native English speakers usually don't make such mistakes. Natives write "by ear" (which is how you initially learn your first language), so they can mix up homophonic words, whereas non-natives usually learned to write at the same time as they learned to speak the language, and they also had the rules and words explained 100% explicitly from the start.

[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 6 points 9 months ago

An interesting explanation.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Native speaker here, never had any issues with this or any other common homophone in English. I mean, yes, spelling mistakes did occur, and we now have autocorrect to further screw things up. But I never “learned the rules” and still got everything consistently correct from a rather early age.

“Learning by ear” is just another excuse for laziness and/or ignorance. Pick up books, read extensively, and like anyone else not marinating in cultivated ignorance, you too can utilize the language effectively and correctly.

[–] antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Native speaker here, never had any issues with this or any other common homophone in English.

Ok? I didn't say all natives make such mistakes, it's just that they're substantially more prone to make them, "by design". Non-natives will make various spelling mistakes too, just of different sorts, rarely those based on homophones.

“Learning by ear” is just another excuse for laziness and/or ignorance

But that's how every native language is learned, it's not "laziness". You listen to your parents and learn to speak years before you develop usable reading abilities. Writing is learned afterwards, and largely bases itself on your knowledge of the oral form of the language. This applies to any language written in an alphabet (i.e. disregarding Chinese and similar).

Pick up books, read extensively, and like anyone else not marinating in cultivated ignorance, you too can utilize the language effectively and correctly.

If this humble advice is directed at me - thanks a lot, but we've been talking about native English speakers, which I am not.

[–] LordAmplifier@pawb.social 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I once had a teacher who was very meticulous about conditional sentences. She would get upset (not actually but this kind of fake upset) when you said "If I would've ... then it would've ...", and that's why conditional sentences are the only rule I know by heart and I improvise everything else :3

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Your making alot of assumptions their

[–] BluJay320@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 9 months ago

Woah, they’re. Don’t be so combative

[–] 7heo@lemmy.ml 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
[–] andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] 7heo@lemmy.ml 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

That's a joke, because that's the way people make mistakes with apostrophes all the time.

The correct spelling is indeed "catastrophes", but a lot of people would spell it "catastrophe's" (which technically means "the [...] of catastrophe").

[–] 4thDimensionDuck@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago

Why did catasthropie hoard all our apostrophies?

[–] eldain@feddit.nl 23 points 9 months ago

Their you go!

[–] andthenthreemore@startrek.website 19 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Hupf@feddit.de 18 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] prole@sh.itjust.works 13 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I like double contractions like "they'd've"

[–] name_NULL111653@pawb.social 6 points 9 months ago

They'd've'f'I'd've

[–] don@lemm.ee 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] original_reader@lemm.ee 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] Rachelhazideas@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)
[–] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] jaybone@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago
[–] Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Never seen this before and its great!
My education greatly lacked graphic design, the use of symbols and tricks pretty much entirely.

[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I've understood the difference since I was 6 years old, I have vivid lucid memories of learning about this stuff in the first grade, but my "smart" phone's voice-to-text still can't figure it out.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 9 months ago

here (direction) vs heir (people)

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

There for locations

Their for when they are decapitated.

Simple

[–] megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 9 months ago

Reject Linguistic prescription embrace linguistic description.

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 1 points 9 months ago

Where's the fancy doodle for "they're?"