grammar question

I'd like to add to feetlebaum's and Conn17's posts that 'it's' can also mean 'it has' as well as 'it is', as in 'it's been a lovely day'.

What about "How are you?" Reply "I'm good".

Have just seen that Redrach feels the same as I do.

When I was at school, I had to write out ten times "It's means it is" and I have never forgotten it. Another irritation is "John and I" when it's the object of the sentence. If you took out the John, it would be "She gave it to me" not "She gave it to I". Easy.

My mother lives in sheltered housing and they had a scheme manager who consistently produced notices with a range of mistakes in- 'there' etc being a favourite. Another one was 'are' for 'our'. We thought about correcting them in red pen but chickened out,

Our Pilates teacher tells us to lay down, and also to stretch one vertebrae at a time. Oh, I'm just being an old fusspot!

I also can't stand "lay on the bed" instead of "lie on the bed" and "he gave it to John and I" instead of John and me.

I totally agree about the past tense of text. It is a regular verb and takes "ed" in the past. Even my DS said, "I text her and she didn't reply". Another thing....has anyone else noticed the extra "is" after a phrase that ends in "is", e.g. "The thing is, is...." This drives me up the wall! It probably started when someone was hesitating, giving him/herself time to think, but now it is used all the time. Sadly, I now find myself waiting for the second "is" when someone is being interviewed on television.

Is it just me? Am I the only one who has a problem with people imagining that there is a h in some words i.e. strong which is often pronounced shtrong. I have found that many words starting st or str are now spoken with the imagined h in them and I do get really cross about it! I would send these people back to school.

There they're and their
Your and you're
It's and its
Off and of (people constantly get them the wrong way round)
Loose and lose
Should/could/would of instead of have
Apostrophes

Is it because grammar is no longer taught properly at school, or did people not pay attention/care when they were at school?

Or are we all just a dying breed of pedants?

The I/me error is frequently heard from the Masterchef presenters, Messrs Torode and Wallace. My teeth grind when I hear them.

I agree with you about the use of "of" instead of "have". It annoys me intensely. Grammar seems to be going to pot.
Another problem is when people start a sentence with "myself" as in
"Myself and Susan went to the cinema"
Or, " Me and Susan went to the cinema."
I was always taught that if you could take the other person out of the sentence and it still made sense then the grammar should be correct.
"Me went to the cinema" doesn't but "I went to the cinema does."
Therefore "Susan and I went to the cinema" would be the correct version.
Has anyone else cringed when hearing this sort of thing?

I thought about this thread earlier today when walking past a driveway with a Kia Cee'd parked in it. I thought the apostrophe was just a bit of metal embellishment until I went onto the Kia website and there is clearly an apostrophe in the name. Can't imagine what purpose it serves.

I think this is a dialect thing but some Londoners say "I see him yesterday" as well as " I seen him yesterday", for " saw".
Also, I say heart rending but it's quite common to see heart rendering. I don't think the latter is right but I could be wrong .....

There is a current habit of talking about something that happened in the past in the present tense eg "well I'm walking down the road and I'm seeing Jim. Hello he says" etc instead of "I walked down the road and saw Jim". If you know what I mean.

I've been away so don't know if anyone has mentioned past tense of to text, I.e. texted. I did start a thread about this several weeks ago and most agreed it is, of course, texted, although I still hear " I text him" far more frequently. That drives me pottier than many of the pet hates mentioned here.
I think gpo telephonists were taught to say haitch to distinguish h from a and that does make sense. Not right in normal conversation though. Many posts back someone mentioned " I do" as a common reply to " have you got?". I hate that. I think most of my personal pet hates have already been covered.

what is actually what is

aye, right

The one I dislike most intensely is the widespread use of the plural fungi when the singular, fungus, is what is actually what is required.

And as for people pronouncing it funji (j as in jog).... Shudder.

And how many times do we see 'loose' used instead of 'lose'?

Drives me mad...

It's "there", "their" and "they're" that I find annoying. So often it's the wrong one that is used.
I was taught an easy way to remember-
It's not here- it's over there

You have all made my day. I have always thought I was the only grammar pedant after losing my dear father! I don't think anyone has mentioned "half a per cent". Grrrr!

I had an ordinary Grammar School education, and I have to say that the apostrophe seemed perfectly logical to me - BUT nobody said a dickie-bird about the 'its' v. 'it's' question. I was in my twenties before that was brought home to me.

"Look at my dog. It's got its paws in its bowl and it's walking in its dinner."
(i.e., it's = 'it is' and 'its' is possessive.) Duh...

Mr iPad doesn't help. He adds apostrophes all over the place unasked. We have quite a tussle sometimes when I try to remove them. I just typed Saturday's (as in "Enjoy your Saturdays Everyone") on Mick's Good Morning thread and see? Apostrophes. Should they both be there? Have I got it wrong? I do struggle with them - probably they're used wrongly so often.

When I was teaching the apostrophe on a Business Admin Course for adults some of the questions in the test paper were tricky. I can't remember them exactly but this is an example from memory.

Pluralize and place apostrophes in the following sentence:

The secretarys desk was close to the directors office.

Sign painted van I saw, "Farmer's Market's Organiser's". When I taught year 3 apostrophe use, every piece of writing for weeks was then adorned liberally with apostrophes. We used to call them 'Tadpole picnics'