Thursday, March 26, 2009

The Grammar Police (085/365)

2009 03 26 IMG_2789 
“I never made a mistake in grammar but one in my life and as soon as I done it I seen it.”

Carl Sandburg (American Historian, Poet and Novelist, 1878-1967)

TIME: 11:14 AM
PLACE:  North Illinois Street
SUBJECT: Need an Excessive Lease sign

OK, I admit that I have a pet peeve with grammar sometimes.  As a matter of fact, I can be very anal about it.  When I saw this sign while waiting at a stop light, I immediately whipped out my camera and took a picture.  Ahem, a little grammar lesson will now be in session.  The words "two" (the number 2), "to" (a preposition when it precedes a noun, or an infinitive when it precedes a verb) and "too" (meaning also or in excess) are homophones.  That means they sound alike but have different meanings.  These three words are mixed up many times, especially "to" and "too".  If you can replace the word with "also" or "excessive(ly) and it still makes sense, then you use "too".  If the word is a number, use "two".  Otherwise, use "to".   Obviously, the maker of the above sign was not aware of this little grammar rule.  

9 comments:

mal said...

I'm sure I am often guilty of swapping to and too, but I don't think even I have done it this badly!

Christina said...

I probably would have noticed the error also!

There, they're, their ~ that's another one that seems to give people problems.

:)

Mari said...

I would have noticed it too - it's one of my pet peeves as well, especially on things like signs!

Evil Twin's Wife said...

Grrr. This sort of thing drives me batty. I see it often in blogs, too. My biggest peeve is there/they're and their. Especially people who use the incorrect spelling and THEN misspell their as "thier". It makes me feel all stabbity.

bentonflocke said...

thanks for that grammar lession LOL fantastic shot and idea! Sure many people need that.

To and Too.. I think I know mostly.

But I´ll be thankful for more of those grammar lessions!!

Have a great weekend!

Sujomi said...

mjw - We all have, but I hope I haven't done it quite so publicly! LOL

Christina - Those pesky homophones cause all kinds of problems.

Mari - My other peeve is "Cars will be towed at owners expense" I'm tempted to carry a permanent marker with me to add the apostrophe to "owner's". I need help. ;)

Sujomi said...

ETW - I'm joining you in that stabbity feeling. LOL

bentonflocke - English is a goofy language at times. I admire people who speak it as a second language. I doubt I would be able to master it if I didn't grow up speaking it!

Girl Tornado said...

I'm with you on the grammar and spelling issues that many people seem to have... you're and your, I would say those two are my pet peeves, and people constantly get them mixed up!

I hate blatant misspellings on blogs, such as one I saw the other day in the title of the blog post, then repeated throughout the post, THEN even repeated by some of the commenters... what was it, you may ask? How about "rouge cats"... instead of ROGUE cats. I almost felt like guoging out my eyes... oh, I'm sorry, I meant GOUGING. lol

Sujomi said...

Oz Girl - Rouge cats? What color blush looks good on a cat? LOL. I'm a spell check girl myself, and I look up many words in the dictionary as well.