Edify

Redundancy

Redundancy statement number 1:

“With loads of additional extras”

This one comes courtesy of an advert on Spotify Free, about a dvd release - I cannot remember which dvd. Edit: It was for ‘Angry Boys’.

Good god, seriously? It should go without saying that ‘extras’ already implies that it is ‘additional’ information, so why has the latter word been included? If anybody can come up with a good answer for this, please let me know.

So here are some examples of what could have been said, instead of the redundant statement above. :)

“With loads of additional footage.”

“With loads of extras.”

“With loads of extra features.”

“With loads of additional features/featurettes.”

We often come across these redundant statements in life, so I’ll be posting more soon!

Sore/Saw

I don’t know how you can mix these up, but people do. Now, I hadn’t even thought of this as a post idea, until I logged into Facebook this evening. The offending posts are from people who do not know each other, and they each use the word the other should have.

You have a saw hand? That sounds dangerous. ;)

‘Saw’ has several definitions:
- As a noun ‘saw’ is an object used for cutting, with a serrated edge.
- As a verb ‘saw’ is the act of using the noun ‘saw’, thus it is a motion.

Revised status: Has one sore hand.

The second example I found had me confused for a few moments as to what they were intending to say. I couldn’t decide if it was some strange typing error, or they were really that stupid (and that was even with ignoring the ‘ent’ and ‘were’ halfway through).

This confuses me so much I can’t even think of something witty to say. :|

‘Sore’ too has several definitions:
- As an adjective it means something that causes distress, or is painfully sensitive. An additional meaning is ‘angry’ or ‘annoyed’ (i.e a ‘sore’ loser)
- As a noun ‘sore’ refers to either a source of pain, or a localised spot on the body, such as an ulcer, which usually has broken skin or infection.

[Completely] Revised status: Saw my next car today, it was only £18,000. It’s a shame I haven’t got that sort of money hiding away somewhere; I’ll keep looking I guess. :/

Now I don’t know about you, but I was surprised at how someone could get the two confused. I hope this has been informative. :)

P.S Sorry it’s been ages since I posted, if you noticed. :(

‘Their, They’re’

Now we’ll all know somebody who gets these wrong almost all of the time. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line somebody was taught badly, and now they have passed on their stupidity to others (that’s what I suspect anyway). These are the slightly less confusing cousin of ‘your’ and ‘you’re’. Oh no wait, they’re probably twin brothers or something. Okay, the bad imagery is over with, I’ll get on with it.

So here we go:

‘Their’ is a possessive (also known as a determiner).

‘Their’ is used to refer to someone without defining gender.

Source: Google search for evidence ;)

What about ‘they’re’?

‘They’re’ is a contraction. _{(I’m pretty sure that I’ve covered contractions in another post. Oh yeah, check out the link at the start. It’s somewhere amongst a bad metaphor.)}

‘They’re’ is ‘they’ and ‘are’ merged together.

Now that was lovely, simple, and clear. I hope you understood. ;)

‘To, Too,’ (Maybe a bit of ‘two’ too. Heh)

I honestly cannot see how you can get this one wrong. Yeah, the two words are almost entirely the same, but that’s not a very good excuse. First I’m going to get ‘two’ out of the way.

‘Two’ is a number.

‘Two’ is ‘2’.

‘Two’ is not ‘too’ or ‘to’, not matter how much they sound alike.

‘Two’ is the number after ‘One’, and before ‘Three’.

Get it? Good, because I am never going to explain that one again. :|

Now onto the differences between ‘to’ and ‘too’.

‘To’ has two uses; both as a prepostition and to indicate an infinitive.

‘To’ as a preposition always precedes a noun: He went to London.

‘To’ indicates an infinitive, when preceding a verb: She’s going to sleep.

That’s nice and simple, yes? Okay, onto ‘too’.

‘Too’ also has two uses; to indicate excess, or as a synonym for ‘also’.

‘Too’ indicates excess when followed by an adjective or verb: He’s too tired. She’s breathing too quickly.

‘Too’ is used as a synonym for ‘also’, which is fairly clear: Can I come too?

Well, that was nice and clear. I hope you thought so to too! ;)

‘Is, Are’

If like me you get frustrated by terrible grammar (or just generally misused words), then these two will definitely have cropped up sometime, and caught your attention. We all know those people who constantly get this wrong:

There is dogs in the yard
There’s dogs in the yard

Chances are, you’ve probably only come across people stupid enough to use ‘is’ instead of ‘are’. I can’t think of a time I’ve heard or seen someone say ‘There are a cat in the garden’. I just don’t think anyone is quite that idiotic. I hope not, anyway. So basically, ‘is’ is the only problem here.

Well, I just checked my Facebook, and surprise of all surprises, I found an example of this:

Does it hurt you as much as it hurts me? :( Here is how they should have typed that (we’ll ignore the other problems, and focus only on the is/are situation):

Everyone’s profile pics are of them and Ed Sheeran FU.

Now, ‘Is’ and ‘Are’ are known as linking verbs; they connect the subject of the verb to additional information. But y’all already know that, right? ;)

So here’s the bit people get wrong:

‘Is’ should be used for singular nouns. (There is a cat over there.)

‘Are’ should be used for plural nouns. (There are bottles everywhere!)
‘Is’ should also be used for items that cannot be counted. These are group nouns. (There is water on the floor. There is sugar on the counter.)

Does that make sense? :) I hope so!

Up next: Probably not what I claim to be. Maybe it will be ‘then, than’, because that one drives me insane. :|

“Your, you’re”

This is one that you’ll see goddamn everywhere. There are far too many people across the globe that simply can’t seem to grasp the difference between these two. So let’s get this straight; it’s astoundingly simple.

‘Your’ is a possessive adjective.

‘Your’ indicates ownership of an object.

Some examples:
- Your house is beautifully decorated!
- What is your mother doing in Amsterdam?

Do you understand? ‘Your’ should only be used to indicate possession. (: OK? Good. Now onto the second.

‘You’re’ is a contraction. (This means two words merged together - e.g ‘don’t’, ‘do’ ‘not’)

‘You’re’ is a combination of ‘you’ and ‘are’.

Some examples:
- You’re looking really pretty today.
- Just so you know, you’re staying on the sofa tonight.

Do you see how simple that is? The two are not interchangeable. Using one for the other will simply serve to make you look like a moron. (:

Next time: Actually will be ‘is/are’. XP

‘Wherefore’

This one was probably coined by Shakespeare, like thousands of other words in the English language, and is most famously used in Romeo and Juliet, in the balcony scene:

Juliet:
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.

This is commonly mistaken to mean ‘Where are you, Romeo?’, which is understandable. It’s pretty self-evident why people use ‘wherefore’ as a synonym for ‘why’. In actuality, this quotation translates roughly to ‘Why are you a Montague?// Cast away your patriarchal name;//’.

The mistake people often make with this one is that they will say it in everyday discourse (For example, “Wherefore?” instead of ‘where’). I’ve got no real animosity towards anyone on this one - it’s an old word, that is easily confused. Just, learn that it doesn’t mean ‘where’. (:

Up next: ‘Is, Are’.

‘Literally’

Now ‘literally’ is probably one of the most overused and abused words in the world today. It’s thrown into random sentences just to emphasise a point; it’s added in to merely flesh out the length (e.g. “I literally fell over five times.” Yes, they fell over five times, but is the ‘literally’ necessary?). Now let’s have a look at the standard definition:

Source: Quick Google search.

As you can see, it’s not technically wrong to use ‘literally’ in this context, but let’s be honest, you sound a little moronic when you do. Using ‘literally’ in this manner is hyperbolic, and is a bit of a rape on the English language. Take this for example:

Not sure I can imagine Kristen Stewart killing someone, just because she ‘loves’ Lautner. My apologies for the Twilight reference by the way (: It was the best I could find.
Hyperbole will be the death of us…. ;)

‘Irregardless’

So here’s the thing… We all remember this from Mean Girls:

Gretchen: Irregardless, ex-boyfriends are just off-limits to friends. That’s just like the rules of feminism.

BUT…. Now hear me out….

Regardless:

re·gard·less

adverb /riˈgärdləs/ 

Without paying attention to the present situation; despite the prevailing circumstances

• - they were determined to carry on regardless

Irregardless:

That’s not to say that ‘irregardless’ hasn’t made it into some dictionaries:

Source: Merriem-Webster’s online dictionary

But still, try not to use it… It’s just a reiteration of a word, within that word. :|