Wikiposts
Search
Military Aviation A forum for the professionals who fly military hardware. Also for the backroom boys and girls who support the flying and maintain the equipment, and without whom nothing would ever leave the ground. All armies, navies and air forces of the world equally welcome here.

Their or There?

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 9th Sep 2013, 00:02
  #1 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: South of England
Age: 74
Posts: 627
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes on 4 Posts
Their or There?

Quote from the OED [with my comments in square brackets]:

"Do not confuse their and there:

their is a possessive determiner, used for example in they all tried to hide their faces and said nothing, [Air Force Board?]

while there is an adverb of place or position, as in I took a trip up there last week, and is used in phrases such as there is/are: we are aware there are problems [but we won't do anything].

On the use of their in the singular to mean ‘his or her’, see they (usage)."

The grammar applies, whatever time of night it is, but is often affected by alcohol.

Rgds SOS
SOSL is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 00:10
  #2 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: 2 m South of Radstock VRP
Posts: 2,042
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I fully support your stance against the growing trend towards generally crap use of English but (at the risk of becoming a victim inattention) I can identify cases where the bloody MS Spellchecker has stabbed people in the back. Anyway, good luck on raising attention to this most irritating point.
GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 00:34
  #3 (permalink)  
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: South of England
Age: 74
Posts: 627
Likes: 0
Received 4 Likes on 4 Posts
G-B-Z

If you rite "cat" wen you meen "dog" the spell checker won't pick it up!

Rgds SOS

Last edited by SOSL; 9th Sep 2013 at 00:35.
SOSL is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 00:41
  #4 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Detroit MI
Age: 66
Posts: 1,460
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word
And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite
Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it
I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.


Nothing is better than the human brain... except most of the humans who seem to lack one...
Airborne Aircrew is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 00:59
  #5 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: 2 m South of Radstock VRP
Posts: 2,042
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Smart buggers.
GOLF_BRAVO_ZULU is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 04:39
  #6 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Australia - South of where I'd like to be !
Age: 59
Posts: 4,261
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
SOSL

You must frown when you read my posts, this is the one thing
in the English language I had problems with and although I
think I have got better, when I go back and read the odd post
I see mistakes.
500N is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 05:59
  #7 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Southern Europe
Posts: 5,335
Received 17 Likes on 6 Posts
A point well raised. There, their and (may I add) they're.

We could also add 'sat and sitting' or 'less and fewer'.
Courtney Mil is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 06:24
  #8 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: In transit
Age: 70
Posts: 3,052
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Whoever wrote this article doesn't know what there talking about. Is their any point to it? They're doesn't seem to be.
Capetonian is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 06:26
  #9 (permalink)  

Purveyor of Egg Liqueur to Lucifer
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Alles über die platz
Posts: 4,694
Received 38 Likes on 24 Posts
When do we get to, 'i before e, except after c'.

I've never understood the science behind that one
SilsoeSid is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 06:39
  #10 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: London
Posts: 314
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Don't even get me started. Pprune is probably one of the better forums (fora!) for decent spelling and grammar. Some of the aircraft sites are horrifying.

I think the most amusing faux pas of recent days was on Matthew Wright's TV show on Channel 5. They ran a story about keeping kids at school longer so they might learn how to read and write (imagine) and the caption they ran throughout the show read "... kids at school till sixteen" (or words to that effect. Brilliant stuff, you couldn't make it up
WH904 is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 06:54
  #11 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Somewhere flat
Age: 68
Posts: 5,558
Likes: 0
Received 45 Likes on 30 Posts
Spell checkers can be a pain..... the one connected to DII forever tried to change my signature block from "Flt Lt" to "Fat Lt", but probably with good reason.
Wensleydale is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 07:02
  #12 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: In transit
Age: 70
Posts: 3,052
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Predictive texting is a pain.

I got a text on my phone from a female friend : Please ball me as soon as you can I will be good.
I was disappointed to find out that it was meant to say : Please call me as soon as you can I will be home.
Capetonian is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 07:03
  #13 (permalink)  

Avoid imitations
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,573
Received 419 Likes on 221 Posts
I've red owl through this during a break from digging a deep drainage sough in Slough, which makes me cough, and I bough to those with a better knowledge of grandma than what I have got.
ShyTorque is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 07:21
  #14 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Banished (twice) to the pointless forest
Posts: 1,558
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I before E except after C, or something.....

Sid, here is the kind of stuff that makes it difficult.

beige, codeine, conscience, deify, deity, deign, eider, eight, either, feign, feint, feisty, foreign, forfeit, freight, heifer, heigh-ho, height, heinous, heir, heist, neigh, neighbour, neither, peignoir, prescient, rein, science, seine, seismic, seize, sheik, society, sovereign, surfeit, veil, vein, weight, weir, weird.
airpolice is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 07:26
  #15 (permalink)  
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 17,378
Received 1,579 Likes on 717 Posts
They're not the only variations.......
ORAC is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 07:56
  #16 (permalink)  
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 80
Posts: 16,777
Received 5 Likes on 5 Posts
And confusion is why we have Port and probably why the Titanic hit the iceberg.
Pontius Navigator is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 08:24
  #17 (permalink)  
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
 
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Peripatetic
Posts: 17,378
Received 1,579 Likes on 717 Posts
And confusion is why we have Port and probably why the Titanic hit the iceberg.
That Damned Ship's Wheel!
ORAC is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 08:45
  #18 (permalink)  

Purveyor of Egg Liqueur to Lucifer
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Alles über die platz
Posts: 4,694
Received 38 Likes on 24 Posts
airpolice, did you actually reid my post
SilsoeSid is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 08:58
  #19 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: South of Old Warden
Age: 87
Posts: 1,375
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Your and you're are often confused too. So is to and too!

I ignore the corrections made by SC which refer to American spelling,
ie favor ect.
goudie is offline  
Old 9th Sep 2013, 09:46
  #20 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SW England
Age: 77
Posts: 3,896
Received 16 Likes on 4 Posts
We could also add 'sat and sitting' or 'less and fewer'.
Sat and sitting is a lost cause, I'm afraid. I now find myself thinking "was that correct?" when I say "I was sitting/standing" as I hear "I was sat/stood" so often.

I think "fewer" is making a comeback, though, eg supermarkets having checkouts marked "five items or fewer".
Tankertrashnav is offline  


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.