What is something that was explained to you wrong such that you could never understand it, and you received a clarifying explanation that finally made sense? (lemmy.world)

submitted 7 months ago by Krudler@lemmy.world to c/casualconversation@lemmy.world

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[-] squid_slime@lemmy.world 33 points 7 months ago

Could of could have should of should have

This was explained to me here on Lemmy last month.

[-] aStonedSanta@lemm.ee 24 points 7 months ago

Could’ve. Should’ve. Embrace laziness.

[-] squid_slime@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

I often do but if I am writing formally it then shows 😥

[-] AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago

Could've should've would've

[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Too lazy to use an apostrophe.

[-] lath@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 9 points 7 months ago

He : Who
Him : Whom

He gave me the ball. Who gave me the ball?

I gave the ball to him. To whom did I give the ball?

[-] Krudler@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

"Jeff and me went shopping"

"Jeff and I went shopping"

If you can take Jeff out and it sounds right then it's grammatically correct. For example you wouldn't say "me went shopping".

"That looks fake to Jeff and me"

"That looks fake to Jeff and I"

In that case you wouldn't say "that looks fake to I".

I never understood this until a technical writer I worked with made it so plain one day.

Edit: formatting

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 3 points 7 months ago

Yeah but unless it's directly after a preposition you sound like a stuffy asshole. "Whom did I give the ball to?" Whom is falling out of usage in general and I won't be sad to see it go.

And in some cases it's difficult to line up the he/him, as in "Give this to whoever needs it." In that case the whoever is almost pulling double duty of being the object of the preposition while needing to function as the subject in the clause "[subject] needs it". But if you see the entire clause as the object of the preposition it works out with "whoever".

[-] mediOchre@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

I'm also noticing an increase in the misuse of wary vs weary. Wary = cautious, weary = tired

[-] DillyDaily@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

The frustrating thing is that I know this, but because the voice in my head is my voice and has my accent, "of" and "have" sound basically the same so when I'm speed typing I accidentally write "of" and when I'm proof reading it, either out loud or in my head, it sounds the exact same to read "could of" or "could have".

I've gotten around this in my professional writing by proof reading everything out loud while doing a silly accent. Or getting a screen reader to read it back in a robot voice.

But for random comments on the internet, I don't bother, so I'll occasionally get a helpful person explaining the mistake, and they're always polite and I appreciate it. I just wish I knew how to make it stick when I'm actually writing.