Irregardless, Grammar is our Friend

[hobocamp]

What's the rule on further vs. farther? That one always messes me up. Farther always sounds so redneck.

[pepper67]

What's the rule on further vs. farther? That one always messes me up. Farther always sounds so redneck.

I don't like 'farther' either, Hobocamp, it always sounds wrong to me. But, so far as I know (and I might be wrong), 'farther' always relates to distance, while 'further' means 'more'.

[sasharae]

My former boss always claimed to be "discomboberated" when she was really busy. It made me want to scream.

I once broke up with a guy because the love letter he wrote me was full of spelling mistakes. I was appalled and couldn't look at him the same way again.

[Mugsy]

There was once a Stationary Store in a nearby town. We knew it didn't go anywhere, but what did it sell?

Once, in MacLean's Magazine (Canada's answer to TIME), there was an article about a crime, which described a grizzly murder. I wrote a letter to the editor and asked, "If it was a grizzly murder, why didn't you mention the bears?"

Orientated bothers me, too, and I had no idea it was a UK thing. Do they also say disorientated?

I hate the misuse of incidences, as in, "The police reported several incidences of violence last night."

I work as a proofreader for a newspaper (so the pressure here is enormous!). Would you believe that jewellers - who send in copy for ads - cannot spell jewelry? It's always jewellery.

And don't get me started on spellcheck, which I believe is the devil's work. People rely on it way too much, believing it will catch all errors. The worst one I can recall appeared in my church's newletter: "Thank you to Susan for teaching Sunday School this year. Bob will now take over the rapes."

Rapes, ropes; tomayto, tomahto.

[pepper67]

Orientated bothers me, too, and I had no idea it was a UK thing. Do they also say disorientated?

Yep, we do. 'Oriented/disoriented' used to bug me until I found out it was a US thing.

Would you believe that jewellers - who send in copy for ads - cannot spell jewelry? It's always jewellery.

So far as I know, both spellings are acceptable - but that could be in the UK. 'Jewelry' seems more old-fashioned to me, but I actually prefer it.

And while I use spellcheck to run through my stuff, it can't take the place of checking it yourself (although far too many people think it can). Spellcheck can't tell the difference between your/you're, there/their/they're etc.

[goggle]

We got a flyer in the mail recently from a contractor who specialized in roofing that included "its" when they meant "it's", "your are", and a period where there should have been a comma. Is it any wonder that this guy isn't a very good contractor (according to my dad, who knows him)?

[whistletops]

Hobocamp said:

What's the rule on further vs. farther? That one always messes me up. Farther always sounds so redneck.

Ooh! ooh! I think I might know this one.

Farther is related to actual distance, further is related to abstract-type of distance.

Example:

Bobby's house is farther down the road.

Seeing as how Bobby is a complete wanker, visiting his house is the furthest thing from my mind.

I think farther might be related to a farthing, which is an old measure of distance, is it not?

[colette]

What's the rule on further vs. farther? That one always messes me up. Farther always sounds so redneck.

Farther is best used as a distance word and further as a time or quantity word. My car goes farther than yours on a tank of gas, but you pursued your research further than I did.

A farthing was a coin that was used in Great Britain that was worth 1/4 of a penny. Hence, it's not worth a farthing.

[hobocamp]

Ah-ha! Thanks everyone for the further/farther help.

[tinyshoes]

I love how we almost got into a flamewar over "iterate/reiterate." It proves that grammar is a passionate subject.

I tend to bust out the red pen whenever we get our company newsletter, and make a big to-do over crossing out arbitrary quotation marks and apostrophes (when used to plural-- yuk). Sometimes they try to make the letter fun by posting recipes and movie reviews. The girl who does the reviews is in love with multiple punctuation, as if more than one exclamation point or question mark makes her sentence all the louder (one is all you need people).