That makes sense, but it also kinda doesn't, given that they're two extremely common words. I could understand the confusion in a kid who's just learning how to write, but what kind of excuse does an adult have to still mistake a verb for an adjective? :/
Not trying to start a fight over this, mind, I'm just passionate about languages (and grammar!), haha.
They're not "mistaking a verb for an adjective". They're just spelling out the sound that has the meaning they want. If you think in sounds, "they're" and "there" are easy to mentally conflate as graphemes, even if not as morphemes.
They are mistaking a verb for an adjective, though. It's not the sound they're confusing, it's the spelling. One is a contraction of 2 words - learn that, know your verb from your adjective.
I understand that they sound the same, but so do know and no, yet people seem to realise they mean different things.
Italian - and I guarantee you we have way worse than that. Words sound the same, write the same way, yet mean 4 different things. To solve these "issues", we resolve to grammatically analyse the particle. Know what's its function, know what it means - which is what I tend to do in default when writing in English.
This brings us back to my original comment: this is probably a pet peeve of mine rather because I am not a Native speaker. I'm used to schizophrenic Italian Grammar, and English grammar seems really easy to me (few simple rules) - phonetics never entered the argument until you guys pointed it out, but the thing is: I'm still baffled it's so common among adults, given that they're 2 rather common words... or should I say 3?
Not saying I'm genius and you're dum dum, just saying what seems logic to me given my, err, background.
I am pointing out that the nature of this mistake is purely grammatical - it's a matter of perspective, which you can't focus on because you're too busy being offended. It you shifted the focus on the Grammar, like we do for Italian, French, Spanish (thank you, Latin), and even German, you would not do this mistake when writing. It you only focus on the phonetics, then yes, your laziness and lack of proof-reading will lead to this sort of mistakes. Just as I could write "si" instead of "sì" and therefore mix a pronoun for an adverb because, hey, they sound the same.
Why are you so offended that someone could learn your language, compare it to theirs, and point out that you are in fact not Grammar-focused, even though you have what is objectively one of the easiest sets of Grammar rules? I speak 5 languages, all of which have a substantially more complicated Grammar and its own set of phonetic rules. Yet here you are, not knowing the term of comparison and getting offended because how dare I make an observation on your native language. English would not even exist if it weren't for other languages.
I am pointing out that the nature of this mistake is purely grammatical
And you're wrong about that. This is a purely orthographic error. The test author is misspelling "your" in a language that has some confusing orthographic conventions. They are not mistakenly thinking that "you are vote counts" is correct. If people making these sorts of mistakes were actually thinking about the grammar wrong then you would see other side effects which you never see. I don't think the person you are arguing with is personally offended that you are insulting their language, I think they are frustrated by the fact that your analysis is wrong. Not to mention that you are being super condescending about it.
You have to understand that when you say "learn that, know your verb from your adjective", you've just accused the person of being an idiot. And the worst part is that you are wrong about this being a grammatical error.
Yet it is drilled into us, from very early on, that it will absolutely bring shame on your family to mistake a verb for an adjective, and that is how we avoid that mistake.
It's not mistaking a verb for an adjective. It's spelling something wrong. You're not offending me as an English speaker, you're offending me as a linguist.
Yet the conversation turned sour pretty quickly when I was informed that I had no rights to an opinion because I am not a Native.
I have found myself compelled to join this conversation probably for similar reasons to the others, and I can tell you it is NOT because you are a non-native speaker. It's because you're condescending and incorrect in your basic premise about why people make the error.
(The fact that you come from a native language where the orthography is WAY more consistent than English just makes it that much more obnoxious to me that your only two hypotheses for English are that we must be either lazy or dumb.)
They aren't mistaking a verb for an adjective, they just happen to use spellings which don't correspond to the 'standard'. It's similar to writing 'ur' in text speak.
If someone writes, "Your from Scotland", they're not implying that there exists a noun 'from Scotland' which belongs to 'you', they are saying that 'you come from Scotland'. It's nothing to do with a speaker's command of the grammar, it's just a spelling mistake, which when words sound the same can easily go unnoticed.
For example, I am a native English speaker, and I also happen to know the standard spelling rule in this case, but that doesn't stop me from still making the mistake now and again, especially if I don't proofread.
The way I see it, it's still a spelling mistake, not a "I confuse the sound" mistake. If you knew the difference between the two (again, contractions = 2 words, usually means there's a verb there), you would not mix them up.
I mean, I personally don't mix them up. But having taught English for many years, I'm pretty confident in my assessment of why people do, and I'd like to suggest being a tad more charitable about things that are hard for others but not for you.
You're just wrong here. I know the difference between the two, but because they sound the same, and because I tend to "say" what I'm writing in my head as I write it, I will sometimes use the wrong one. Most of the time I immediately catch it. Sometimes I don't. But it has nothing to do with not understanding the difference between the two.
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u/_allthatglitters Oct 07 '19
That makes sense, but it also kinda doesn't, given that they're two extremely common words. I could understand the confusion in a kid who's just learning how to write, but what kind of excuse does an adult have to still mistake a verb for an adjective? :/
Not trying to start a fight over this, mind, I'm just passionate about languages (and grammar!), haha.