to and too are the hardest.
I was taught that if 'also' will work in the sentence then use the double o too.

 

View attachment 80974

And spell checkers don't catch that crap.

 

GopherT... that is partly the reason "artificial intelligence " will never exist... Unless some genius can teach a computer to apply discernment or reason in its programming { the chess computer doesn't count }

 

2B OR NOT 2B is always TRUE.
That is not a question.

 

to and too are the hardest.
I was taught that if 'also' will work in the sentence then use the double o too.

Or if 'very' could be used. I don't know that saying it is "also cold" or that it is "also far" work, but "very cold" and "very far" do.

 

ill try that one very.
ill try that one also
ill try that one too.

 

Or if 'very' could be used. I don't know that saying it is "also cold" or that it is "also far" work, but "very cold" and "very far" do.

Which raises another chance for error...

vary cold, Vary far

 

GopherT... that is partly the reason "artificial intelligence " will never exist... Unless some genius can teach a computer to apply discernment or reason in its programming { the chess computer doesn't count }

I just need a computer understands me like my wife does...
...it has to understand what I mean, not what I say.

 

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And don't forget "its" and "it's".

 

And don't forget "its" and "it's".

The "proper" usage of "its" and "it's" is backward according to my warped Internal Compass of Rightness (why isn't possessive with an apostrophe?). When I see it used incorrectly, I feel like the person agrees with my view of what should be proper usage.

 

The "proper" usage of "its" and "it's" is backward according to my warped Internal Compass of Rightness (why isn't possessive with an apostrophe?). When I see it used incorrectly, I feel like the person agrees with my view of what should be proper usage.

You mean like hi's for his?

BTW, I disagree that "very" and "too" as in "very cold" versus "too cold" or "very far" versus "too far" mean the same thing. I have also heard teachers say that "very" is over used and meaningless. That is, "very far" without further definition doesn't add much to just "far," but "too far" does.

John

 

I'm not saying they are synonymous, just that if the word 'very' makes sense that the word 'too' generally will, also. But, no, they are not truly synonymous. For instance, VLSI makes sense with "very large scale integration" but no one would have suggested calling it "too large scale integration" -- though Wakerley did suggest that the next level of integration should be called RLSI -- ridiculously large scale integration.

Even most terms that are generally regarded as synonyms will have situations where one works well and the other just seems awkward.

 

can't recall which phd esq picked this one up (sumner-miller?) one of his students said - 'sugar' is only word that is pronounced with a 'h' but does not have one

the professor said - are you sure?

 

You mean like hi's for his?

Hey, I called it MY Internal Compass of Rightness. It doesn't have to make sense to you .

 

I rarely check in on (into? on to? onto?) Facebook and most of the "non professional writing" that I read is here on AAC, where most people are either well spoken or obviously not native English speakers. The point is, I'm not often graced with the writings of "average Americans." For the past 2 days I have been looking for a truck on Craigslist and I feel like I'm reading the journal of a 3rd grade first year ESL student. I estimate that no more than 50% of people selling a diesel pickup actually know how to spell diesel, even after proudly uploading pictures of the "Powerstroke Diesel" emblem.

I think Craigslist is a fairly unbiased cross-sectional view of the overall literacy of the country. People of all walks of life go there when they need to buy or sell something. Other indicators are skewed one way or another; ex: test scores only reflect the results of those who take the test. That being said, it's pretty depressing. From what I see on Craigslist, it looks like maybe we should just give up on English and start teaching a language that's all lower case (or all upper case) with no more that 15 letters, has no punctuation, has the subject before the verb, has only one word per meaning and only one meaning per word, has no word that sounds anything like any other word, and has only one tense per word.

Maybe we could take baby steps; first merge the obvious low hanging fruits like (accept, except), (affect, effect), (yes, no)... etc.

Then we could all look smart. (Just sayin' ... (as if that phrase ever had any meaning at all)).

 

I understand where you are coming from, although I don't think that Craigslist is as unbiased and representative as you do. I suspect you would find that the fraction of people without a high-school education that post stuff on Craigslist (and the volume of stuff they post) is considerably higher than for people with advanced degrees. Similarly (and related) I suspect that the fraction of people with annual incomes under $30,000 that post on Craigslist is much higher than the fraction of people with annual incomes over $300,000.

But even if that's true, I definitely agree that the writing ability in this country has gone down the tubes -- and that point is driven home anytime I have to decipher the writings of "average" American engineering students.

 

GopherT... that is partly the reason "artificial intelligence " will never exist... Unless some genius can teach a computer to apply discernment or reason in its programming { the chess computer doesn't count }

See Strantor's strategy (prediction of the future of language). It will greatly reduce the effort put into developing AI. We all know, however, that 100 years from now, it will be the computers that refer to human brains as Artificial Intelligence.

...it looks like maybe we should just give up on English and start teaching a language that's all lower case (or all upper case) with no more that 15 letters, has no punctuation, has the subject before the verb, has only one word per meaning and only one meaning per word, has no word that sounds anything like any other word, and has only one tense per word.

15 letters is a bit of a stretch. I think it will be 10.

I live next door to a high school teacher. He said he gives out a writing assignment at the beginning of the semester and has another teacher count the number of times each student correctly uses words of 10 letters or more in the two-page document. Final grades are then predicted with the rules: 3 or more 10 letter words is an A, 1 or 2 is a B, C is a document with very basic English but readable content and D/Fs goes to those who cannot form proper sentences. They compare predictions and final grades at the end of the semester with 95% accuracy.

In addition to the 10 letter per word limit, we may eliminate some letters from the alphabet to simplify the keyboard and make each letter larger on the screen keyboard.
Y (could be a J, e or I as needed).
C (could be K or S as needed)
Q (could be K - Kw instead of the Qu)
X (could be KS)
F (not exact but V is close and understandable)
H (the French don't pronounce it, why should we?)
W (could also be replaced by V, could cause confusion with F now, but we'll get over it)

There, keys on the phone can now be 37% bigger for the same footprint.

 

10 letters? Does that mean sesquipedalian words are not allowed?

A scant fifteen decades age, the sentenances could be a hundred or more words in length; easily readable through proper punctuation.

Yesterday I asked a young man, "what is your occupation?" He didn't understand the question. His girlfriend was shocked.

 

10 letters? Does that mean sesquipedalian words are not allowed?

A scant fifteen decades age, the sentenances could be a hundred or more words in length; easily readable through proper punctuation.

Yesterday I asked a young man, "what is your occupation?" He didn't understand the question. His girlfriend was shocked.

He was too distracted to hear you correctly. He had a pre-occupation with his girlfriend