Loose vs Lose and other grammer mistakes that bug me.

So we all know I've been visited by the Grammar Nazi on my quickness to type it's when I mean its. And although said grammar nazi made me second guess my knowledge, turns out I knew what I was doing, just made some typos. But, I'm also a grammar nazi in some respects. The difference is I won't correct a total stranger. I will, however, tell a friend so she won't keep embarrassing herself, but a stranger? Nah.

Anywho - the one grammar thing that is driving me bonkers lately is "loose" and "lose". I have seen dozens of people using this wrong lately.

"I need to loose weight." You do? Is your weight too tight, then my all means loosen it up!

"This dress is just too lose on me." Wow, you better not wear it so it nothing gets lost!

Okay, the latter rarely happens, but it sounded funny. The big one is using "loose" (meaning something is too baggy, the opposite of tight, or even a slutty person.) for the word "lose" (to come to be without, to suffer the deprivation of, etc). I have included the links to each of the definitions because as I was shocked to see 37 different definitions of "loose", none of which, by the way, meaning "lose". My favorite was the 8th definition of loose: "lax. as the bowels."

And while we're at it, if everyone could remember there are no such words as "irregardless", "supposebly" or "dialation" (it's dilation), that'd be great. Okay, okay, irregardless is a word, it's just a redundant word that is often mistakenly *believe to be the correct usage. Take off the "ir" and it's still regardless. There's just no need to add on "ir". In fact, by adding on the "ir", it makes it a double negative with "less", creating the opposite: regard. You can read all about it here if interested in learning more.

Another funny mistake is when I see someone trying to use the phrase "for all intents and purposes". I can't tell you how many times I've heard "for all intensive purposes" instead. This one makes me laugh each time.

So those are my lessons for today. But by all means, I'm am NOT the grammar queen! I am conscious about many grammar mistakes I make everyday (hello? How many parenthetical comments can I make?) and I know I put way too many word in "quotes". I'm also probably unconscious of copious other mistakes. I'm not sure how okay it is to start sentences with "and" and "but". I remember an English lesson where we spoke to it and we were allowed, but I do it all the time. I also start and end sentences with adverbs and I couldn't even begin to tell you which one (or both) was incorrect.

The point is, I've got my annoyance points and these are them. We all have them, what are yours???

* I learned something new today. I had thought the phrase "believe to be" was "believed to be", but in reading the blurb about the mistaken use of "irregardless", I saw I was wrong.

Hey - Grammar police ...

Thanks for ~jacking me up~ on the use of it's and its. You made me stop and think about it and second guess myself! And since no one can read my typing tone - that was said in a sarcastic, playful tone. I don't want anyone thinking I'm all upset and then starting a grammar war!

When you brought it up to me, I thought to myself "Well, of ~course~ I know the difference. I know how to write!". I (mistakenly) assumed an apostrophe s means possessive. Made logical sense so I started being aware of how many times I was (mistakenly) using it wrong.

Over the past week, I've been thinking about it each time I typed it. And although logical, it seemed wrong. I didn't like to use it this "new" way (for me) and ended up looking it up tonight.

Damn it. I WAS using it right all along!!!


Taken from It's "its", by Craig S. Kaplan.

IT'S
"It's" is a contraction. It is short for "it is" (or occasionally for "it has"). It's not a way to describe a property to some "it".

Examples:
It's a small world, after all. It's a small world, after all.
You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that's what it's all about.
Well, it's been a long, been a long, been a long, been a long day., that's what it's all about.

ITS
"Its" is a possessive pronoun. Its interpretation is something like "that which belongs to it", where "it" stands for some previously defined object.

Examples:
He left it dead, and with its head he went galumphing back
Love rears its ugly head.


I do take into consideration that maybe I was using the possessive pronoun of "its" wrong and maybe that is what the anonymous grammar police was pointing out. But I DO use "it's" a lot and have always used it as a contraction of "it is". I don't have the energy (nor the time now since I just spent so much on it already) to go back through my posts previous to anon letting me know just how much my lack of "it's and its" knowledge offended her reading senses. (Which is okay by me. Maybe not something I would have pointed out to someone anonymously, but there's a lot of things I do that others wouldn't too). None of the previous posts had been corrected or updated or touched in any manner. Maybe one of those previous posts shows some grievous uses of "its" as a possessive pronoun. Maybe I used "it's" instead of "its", but I know that I have been using "it's", as a contraction, correctly.

Man, that's been bugging me.

Update - approx 10 seconds after first publish... I ~did~ have the energy to look back at the previous entry before the anonymous grammar police gave me a ticket. I did use "it's" wrong. Twice in the same *sentance. I used "it's" incorrectly as a possessive pronoun. So yeah, ignore everything up above that makes it seem that I thought Anon was incorrect in scolding me. I did use it wrong in the way I thought I could have and that is probably what she was pointing out. But I still stand by everything else especially the part about it ~jacking~ me up!

* You know what's really funny? Since the grammar girl chimed in, I have been trying to at least spell check each post so I don't look like a complete idiot. And when I put in the update above, I hit publish before spell checking and thought to myself "nah, no chance I spelled something wrong in just a quick paragraph".