Suffragette1 Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 It's not just school children who don't the difference, most adults don't either. I also frequently see the misuse of 'here, here' instead of 'hear, hear' as well as 'you're' and 'your' and the infamous erroneous apostrophe misused to denote the plural. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barleycorn Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 It's not just school children who don't the difference, most adults don't either. I also frequently see the misuse of 'here, here' instead of 'hear, hear' as well as 'you're' and 'your' and the infamous erroneous apostrophe misused to denote the plural. Bob the angry flower has something to say about the misuse of the apostrophe... http://www.angryflower.com/bobsqu.gif http://www.angryflower.com/itsits.gif It's the use of 'should of' in place of 'should have' (if I'm feeling magnanimous I will allow the contraction to should'av) that really makes my blood boil. jb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
metalman Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 You're wrong. I do. (1st singular) You do. (2nd singular) He does. (3rd singular) We do. (1st plural) You do. (2nd plural) They do. (3rd plural) 'kids' is a plural noun so it is: School kids do not know grammar. Oh no I'm not, you see? You were misled by the fact that the plural noun kids was next to the verb, but the actual subject of that bit of the sentence is singular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Six Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I blame the internet and cheap printers. When I were a nipper, chances are anything you read had been proof-read because it cost money to print things, so you didn't want to waste money on something that was incorrect. About the only things you saw that included errors were the signs at the greengrocer's. (If you're under the age of 20 you may have to consult google to find out what a 'greengrocer' was.) They generally wrote signs on bit of old cardboard boxes, to be thrown away when they were sold out - cheap signs means less care is taken. Now we have a generation who have grown up seeing badly written signs, and reading things on the internet where, as we know, the standard of grammar is appalling and plummeting. I have to admit that much to my irritation I've noticed a few times recently that I've used the wrong one of to/too/two when I've been typing; we're dragging each other down to the bottom I'm afraid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Oh no I'm not, you see? You were misled by the fact that the plural noun kids was next to the verb, but the actual subject of that bit of the sentence is singular. You're not making one child the subject of the sentence, because "1 in 5 school kids" is actually about four million children. So substitute "four million" for "one in five". A report in one of today's papers states that 1 in 5 school kids don't know the difference between the words: there, their, & they're. A report in one of today's papers states that four million school kids don't know the difference between the words: there, their, & they're. A report in one of today's papers states that 1 in 5 school kids doesn't know the difference between the words: there, their, & they're. A report in one of today's papers states that four million school kids doesn't know the difference between the words: there, their, & they're. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Six Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Try this, I got 100% so they're!! http://www.better-english.com/easier/theyre.htm I don't trust an english test that's been written on a computer and still has spelling mistakes in it: 11 The employees say that ______ not very happy about working over the Millenium. from http://www.better-english.com/easier/theyre.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitisbad Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I BLAME the internetz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number Six Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I BLAME the internetz LOLZ (that passes for an acceptable comment on many forums.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFKvsNixon Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Yep. 1 in 5 means that school children (of an unspecified age I note) are well ahead of the population in general, where the figure is more like 2 in 5. That would suggest that this generation of school children are actually improving their literacy. Who do we thank for this: - teachers enforcing grammar, unlike the past - the Curriculum, for insisting on the above - parents teaching their kids language skills - many UK citizens not having English as their first language - limited text / twitter-speak becoming the norm - people of yesterday generally regarding it as not important Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonfall Posted January 25, 2012 Author Share Posted January 25, 2012 Which newspaper was it, by the way? (Do you have a link?) QUOTE] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090618/A-quarter-children-aged-10-12-t-basic-addition-don-t-know-difference--re.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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