User:Lunarbunny/Grammar

=Grammar Tips for the Internet Age= With the onset of the common use of instant messaging and web forums, grammar and spelling have pretty much turned into the last things the average netizen cares about.

Amusingly, this section has grown much larger than my original intent (so far that it now has its own section). I don't mean to sound like a grammar elitist here; improper grammar is just a pet peeve of mine. Information has been gleaned from Wikipedia and Wiktionary, along with a couple of other sources, linked in their respective section. A reminder of to, too, and two, which I failed to originally list, was given to me by Rainith. The correction from "acronym" to "initialism" was from Stelard Actek.

I forgive any of you whose native language is not English, but for those who are native speakers, come on!

Leave comments, criticisms, and corrections on this article's discussion page.

Plural and Possessive
A common mistake, sometimes due to typing too fast, is misuse of the possessive apostrophe ('). Even more annoying to people, and listed below, are "its" and "it's."
 * When pluralizing a word, you do not use an apostrophe, but only append the "s."
 * Remember, there are some exceptions to this, i.e. "man" turns to "men."
 * Another thing to watch out for is "f." The proper term is not "staffs," but "staves."
 * For linking plural words, link the word, then add an "s" after the double end brackets, i.e. Warriors turns into Warriors.
 * When making a word possessive, you use the apostrophe before the "s" ('s).
 * "Its" and "it's" cause real trouble because they mix up the possessive apostrophe. In this case, "its" is possessive, and "it's" is a contraction of "it is."
 * It's a nice day.
 * The cobra was flaring its hood
 * The fun part is plural possessive. It's quite simple, really: you take the plural version of the word, and add an apostrophe to the end.
 * That's the boys' bathroom.
 * "Boys'" means it belongs to multiple boys, unlike "boy's," which implies it belongs to one boy.
 * When making contractions, a good way to prevent adding to the confusion is to not contract "is," possibly excluding pronouns (it's, he's, she's, etc.) Generally professional works avoid contractions altogether.

Subject-verb Agreement
Subject-verb agreement is where the subject's (noun's) plurality is matched with the proper verb conjugation. Improper agreement makes text sound akward and confusing. English conjugation is quite annoying, but this should have been learned by second grade. In the examples below, s is the subject and v is the verb. Treat a group of people (i.e. the word "class") as singular. Annoyingly, English conjugation is a lot more irregular than many other languages. Native English speakers with an elementary school education should know these rules, though.
 * Singular
 * The boys isv sad.
 * The mans runsv to work every day.
 * The same sentences, pluralized
 * The boyss arev sad.
 * The mens runv to work every day.
 * Group, singular
 * The classs goesv to the science fair every year.
 * Alternative, plural, just for example
 * The studentss gov to the science fair every year.

Misused Words
Most of these are homophones. Take a good look through this list.

There, their, and they're
Its and it's. (explained in the previous sub-section)
 * There is used for location.
 * The building is over there.
 * Their is possessive. It states a group owns something.
 * Their building is big.
 * They're is a contraction of they are.
 * They're not sure if its foundation is stable.

Affect and effect

 * Affect is the verb of the two. It means something has caused change to something else.
 * The loss of the battle negatively affected their morale.
 * Effect is the noun. It is the result of a cause.
 * The effect of the loss of morale was a mass desertion of troops.
 * Speaking of desert (deh-zurt noun; extremely arid lands), desert (deh-zurt verb; to abandon), and dessert (deh-zurt noun; A sweet confection served as the last course of a meal)...

To, too, and two

 * To is somewhat complex. It can be the direction something goes towards, after certain adjectives to state a relationship, or used as an Infinitive marker (the last is less pertaining to our use in the wiki.)
 * She went to the store. (Direction)
 * The Gladius is similar to the Short Sword. (Relationship)
 * Too is a synonym of "also," generally used at the end of a sentence. I personally am not sure, but I believe the use of the comma is up to personal preference. Somebody notify me in the talk page if I'm wrong.
 * You can't have your cake and eat it, too!
 * Two is the number 2. That's it. Generally highly formal works will avoid the use of numerals and use the words instead.
 * There are two dots on this piece of paper.

Accept and except

 * Accept means to take or to come to terms with.
 * She accepted her diploma.
 * The warrior accepted his defeat as the sword came down upon him.
 * To except is to leave out or to exclude.
 * I'll take all of those toppings except the mushrooms and anchovies.

Sentence Syntax
Sentence syntax basics can be found here. It's scary how many people don't get these right. Generally what I see are sentence fragments (often beginning with a conjunction such as "and") and run-on sentences.
 * Fragment: "Because the rain had ruined her hairdo."
 * This could be a seperate sentence as "The rain had ruined her hairdo" or could be turned into a compound sentence such as "She was angry because the rain had ruined her hairdo."
 * Run-on: "The flames leaped through the roof the fire fighters battled the blaze."
 * Using the exact same words: "The flames leaped through the roof. The fire fighters battled the blaze." A smoother sentence would be "The flames leaped through the roof as the fire fighters battled the blaze."

"A" and "An"
Another difficulty of the language, both mean the same thing, but change depending on the word directly following them. I'm not quite sure of the rules, but for initialisms I prefer to follow the above rules, except that instead of a first word, I use the pronunciation of the first letter. This may end up with things such as "a UAV" while the expanded form is "an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle." Opposite this would be something like "an FPS," compared to "a First Person Shooter."
 * A is used before words that start with a consonant or a long "u" ("yu").
 * a trampoline
 * a unicorn
 * An is used before words that start with a vowel except for the above mentioned long "u."
 * an apple