Ect., ect., ect.

I'm afraid that I would tell your niece, Mapleleaf.

Isn't this how misunderstandings get embedded in the language and can't be eradicated because 'language changes' and 'everyone knows what you mean'... ?

Thanks Oldnproud and MaizieD! I know the apostrophe is for missing letters but my O-Grade Latin tells me that the possessive case is a contraction of -is. Then I just give up!

I'll just soldier on, getting it wrong...

I think autocorrect is responsible for a lot of apparent mistakes.

Even proof reading doesn't always pick them up, as autocorrect replaces one word with another, so there are no spelling mistakes for the eye to spot. I noticed one of mine earlier - I was droning in a meeting instead of doing something 'during' a meeting ?.

For some reason I always spot my typos/mistakes as soon as they are posted, but not necessarily when I preview them. An edit button would be such a help, even if it only stayed live for five minutes after posting.

I've used it in the last few days. Do you mean me, Espee? ?
By the way, I am a fully paid up pedant and see nothing wrong with using it. ?

I try to let these things go over my head and I can’t say I’ve noticed ect/etc. I’ll probably see it everywhere now!

The one that makes my teeth itch is towing/toeing the line. I suppose you can feasibly both toe and tow a line but it always jumps out at me.

I’ve only ever corrected anyone once, and that was on a totally different, largely male forum, when someone had corrected someone else - and made a basic mistake in his own post! (I enjoyed that! ?)

The most cringe-making example I ever saw, though, was on a writers’ forum, when someone used a Latin phrase wrongly, and someone with a high opinion of herself, undertook to correct her on the open forum. It wasn’t a public forum - many of us knew each other - and she could easily have sent a PM, but chose to humiliate her instead.

Marydoll

I've used it in the last few days. Do you mean me, Espee? ?
By the way, I am a fully paid up pedant and see nothing wrong with using it. ?

Look again at the OP, Marydoll. It is the spelling that is in question: ect., instead of etc.

I missed that myself to begin with, and thought the same as you until I realized. [ grin]

Re it’s/its, when I was teaching English to (mostly) speakers of Arabic, one or two of whom weren’t even literate in their own language, it took just one two-hour session to sort this out. So I’ve never really understood why it’s seen as such an unfathomable mystery to so many native speakers.

I agree with all of these!

I got into trouble over ten years ago, when I worked as a teaching assistant in a secondary school. All the teachers and TAs were asked to proof read pupils' reports before they went home to parents. The one I read said that the student was 'flaunting' the school uniform rules. I did as we had been told to do and showed it to the head teacher. She couldn't see what was wrong, and said that maybe they WERE flaunting the rules! I'm afraid I illustrated my point by telling her if they were actually doing that, they could be running around with a sandwich board with the rules written on it, and that the correct word was flouting.

^ but my O-Grade Latin tells me that the possessive case is a contraction of -is^

But that's just for nouns, not pronouns.

Does Latin even have pronouns? (O Level Latin failure here...)

My head hurts....

My first post, so please be kind.

What really irritates me is when someone says 'draw' instead of 'drawer' i.e. chest of draws - really makes my teeth grate!

How about 'Chester draws'?
Have seen a few for sale.

SueDonim

I try to let these things go over my head and I can’t say I’ve noticed ect/etc. I’ll probably see it everywhere now!

The one that makes my teeth itch is towing/toeing the line. I suppose you can feasibly both toe and tow a line but it always jumps out at me.

'Towing the line' get's me, too. There is no logic to it. 'Toeing the line' means conforming to the rules, level playing field and all that, doesn't it? How can pulling a rope along have anything at all to do with that?

OMG!!! Just seen the rogue apostrophe ???

I'm on the pedant naughty step now...

My son has been with his girlfriend for ten years, and I still shudder when she writes 'thankyou', but I'd never correct her. I started life as a secretary and still have a 'proof reading' eye.

I was listening to Metro Radio earlier and they were asking people to text in for a competition - and they spelled out the word BONUS very clearly. It made me laugh, what are they receiving? BONERS? BONASS?

Just remembered, 'tender hooks'!

I once had an interesting “conversation” with a call/chat centre employee who wrote “please bare with me” as he looked up my account.
I could feel the heat from his red face over the 2,000 mile separation when he finally understood what he had been instructing customers to do.

Oldnproud

Marydoll

I've used it in the last few days. Do you mean me, Espee? ?
By the way, I am a fully paid up pedant and see nothing wrong with using it. ?

Look again at the OP, Marydoll. It is the spelling that is in question: ect., instead of etc.

I missed that myself to begin with, and thought the same as you until I realized. [ grin]

Thank goodness for that. I have a reputation to uphold!

Suvvering suffering from brain fog at the moment and I really should read the OP, at least twice! .

MaizieD

^But then I never know where to put the apostrophe in "its^

I could tell you, if you like, Alegrias?

In fact, I will, but you're welcome to ignore it.

'Its', no apostrophe is a possessive pronoun, like his, hers and theirs. 'It's', with apostrophe, is a contraction of 'it is'. Apostrophe indicates the missing 'i'

It's a nightmare to teach and bl88dy autocorrect doesn't help...

You spelt bloody wrong MaizieD!!

Always apprehensive about correcting others (other’s??!!) but really gets to me when my DIL tells me she is loosing weight. Eww!!! Bare with me - hilarious.

This is all a load of old banana's.

(Greengrocer's wandering apostrophe- or should that be Greengrocers' as more than one is guilty?)

You rebel MissA.

Should that be "more than one are guilty"?

I'm now

MaizieD

OMG!!! Just seen the rogue apostrophe ???

I'm on the pedant naughty step now...