However, one way to combat this sad fact is to be able to prove your intelligence as needed. Unfortunately this world that we live in does not pride itself on intelligence. Such things are apparent when items like THIS exist in the world.
If you can't immediately see what is wrong with this t-shirt then I am aiming the rest of this blog post directly at you.
This shirt says "If your single so am I," with the problem being the use of the word "your." I see people make this mistake daily, but I don't want to be The Grammar Bitch and piss people off so I usually don't say anything about it. But this is my blog. My place to vent, and rant, and share my opinions with the world. And when people make this mistake it pisses ME off. I once mentioned to one of my closest friends that it kind of (read: OMG! REALLY) bothered me when she wrote "your" in place of "you're" in her texts. She responded by saying "It's just texting. It's not like it matters."
But here's the thing: It really matters. It really fracking matters! When people get lazy in their texting and just use "your" and "there" for every application of their respective homonyms, then bad habits are formed. People start being unable to recognize the differences between the forms of the words and just write the first version that pops into their head.
Your: Belonging to the subject. Shows possession. "That is your cup of coffee."
You're: Conjunction of you and are. "You're holding the coffee."
There: A place. "My coffee is over there."
Their: Belonging to the subject. Shows possession. "That is their cup of coffee."
They're: Conjunction of they and are. "They're making fresh coffee."
I love it when the coffee's done. (If you understand this reference take 10 awesome points out of petty cash.)
Moving on now. Apostrophes are not all-purpose S-buddies. By that I mean, whenever there is an s at the end of a word, it does not automatically require an apostrophe to keep it company. They are meant to show possession and for conjunctions. All too often, however, people reverse these uses.
Incorrect: "Lets go over to Kellys house and watch some movie's."
Correct: "Let's (let us) go ever to Kelly's (the house belonging to Kelly) house and watch some movies (plural of movie)."
That brings me to my last point. Plural forms of a word do not need an apostrophe. The exception being a plural possessive. When you have a group of things -- let's say all of the Doctors from Doctor Who -- who all own something -- the Tardis (the Doctor's starship) -- then you write the word in it's plural form and add an apostrophe to the end.
Ex. "Because the Chameleon Circuit hasn't worked since 1963, the Doctors' Tardis always looks like a blue police call box."
I could write about this indefinitely, but I'm driving the rest of the way to Chicago tomorrow and moving into my dorm. So that's all for tonight because I need some sleep.
Happy trails.
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