September 25, 2003

Grammar Lesson

homophone. noun. One of two or more words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling.

I am an editor. One of the things that really pisses me off in everyday life is the misuse of homophones. Here are the ones that really get me steamed:

you're: contraction of "you are." "I hear that you're an editor."
your: possessive, means belonging to you. "Take your bad grammar and leave me alone!"

they're: contraction of "they are." "Mom said they're going to repossess the trailer."
their: possessive, meaning belonging to them. "They can take their stupid trailer if they want it."
there: adverb, meaning at a certain location. "They left the trailer over there by the gas station."

site: a location, like a Web site. "Did you visit The Rock's new fan site?"
cite: to quote or mention a source. "The Rock cites John Keats as a major influence."
sight: the ability to see. "His sight was a lot worse after the incident with the broom."

Posted by mike, September 25, 2003 12:46 PM
Comments

Wine, wine, wine! All you due is wine. Who cares if won uses bad grammar ore whatever? Its knot like you can't figure out what their trying too say. :P

I jest. Nevermind.

Posted by: Shane at September 25, 2003 2:24 PM

Hey, Mister Editor:

Isn't the sentence "They can take their trailer if they want." a bit incomplete? Shouldn't it be "...if they want to." or "...if they want it."? Sounds like poor syntax to me. Greg

Posted by: greg w at September 26, 2003 10:45 AM

Even the greatest slip up once in a while. But with my complete, Godlike control of this site, I can make my error disappear. Which I just did.

Posted by: mike at September 26, 2003 3:46 PM

I really hate it when people use "track" instead of "tract." As in, "Someone left a gosh-darn religious tract on my car windshield."

Not misused as frequently as "site" and "your," but oh, so annoying anyway.

Posted by: Amy at September 29, 2003 2:08 PM

I'm with you, Mike ;) There is a very funny scene in Friends where Ross rants about that (after reading a _very_ long letter written by Rachel):
"Oh-oh-oh, and by the way, Y-O-U-apostrophe-R-E means 'you are.' Y-O-U-R means 'your!'"
Rachel's reply:
"Oh, oh, and hey-hey-hey, those little spelling tips will come in handy when you're at home on Saturday nights playing Scrabble with Monica!"
See the full dialog at http://www.friends-tv.org/zz401.html

Posted by: Martin at October 2, 2003 11:42 AM