Mispellings and misused grammar

[goldenrod]

I don't know what it is, but some mispellings and misusage of grammar really bug me. Folks, it's not "I seen" it's "I saw that" seen is only used when posing a question to another person or group, ie "Have you guys seen this movie?" Seen is not used in first person. Also, then is not a substitute for than. Than is used for comparison, then is used

Comments

[wertle]

seen is only used when posing a question to another person or group/ Seen is not used in first person.

This isn't correct! Seen is the past participle of see, so it is used in conjunction with "have" or "be" or the like for the present (or...present perfect? I dunno, too many tenses!)

For example:
"I have not seen that movie" is correct, and uses first person. Similarly, "They have seen that movie," is correct, and not in question form.

Or

"I do not want to be seen with them!" does the same thing. I forget what those helper words are called (like have/has/had), but they work to adjust the tense...

"He has seen the movie," "He had seen the movie before," "Have you seen the movie?"

Anyway, sorry to be grammar queen, but I do get the gist of what you're saying. It's really annoying when people say "I seen it," but it grows incredibly complex to explain why that is incorrect! Stupid English language!

[wertle]

Oh, and the then vs. than thing does drive me up the wall, along with their/there/they're.

[araquan]

I was thinking this very same thing. n.n

[nanook123]

Let us not forget the ever popular two/to/too debacle.

[brown_wolf]

Nor should we ignore the your/you're debacle.

[aldi]

That's the worst one!!! :(

[goldenrod]

Yes, I was in haste of trying to get my point across. Seen can be used in first person in conjunction with not and be. I don't recall what those helper words are called either, but they do have more of an affect on the meaning of the word. Not negates seen. Be changes it to a future tense.

One thing I know is that there are too damn many words in the English language. I believe I recall a statistic that we have five times more words in English today than existed in the language in Shakespeare's time. New words are also added each day and cultural and technological shift also change vernacular. I think the Internet contributes a lot to the dumbing down of the English language.

[araquan]

Does it dumb it down, or just put more examples of average folks' already-bad writing out where you can see it?

[aldi]

There's another one that bugs me: "more of an affect"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but shouldn't it be "effect"? You need a noun here , and "affect" is a verb.

[aldi]

One thing I know is that there are too damn many words in the English language.

I totally disagree. French had even more words than English. People have stopped spelling properly when discipline went out of style.