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Pyogenes said:
Adding apostrophes to acronyms to make them plural e.g. CD's should
be CDs (though I'm guilty of that once in a while out of a bad
habit). Apostrophes should only be used when the acronym is
pronouced as in "NATO's forces"
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Where did this rule come from? I never heard of this rule. Rationale?

Then there is the New York Times rule for punctuating acronyms: I.B.M., etc. Has this rule escaped beyond the NYT?

While we're at it, any comments on the new habit of using apostrophes for simple plurals? i.e., "We will see many new camera's announced at Phtokina."
Pyogenes said:
a/an - Decision to use a or an is based on the pronunication, not
the spelling, of the word it modifies. "A european" and "an mp3
player" are grammatically correct.
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This rule I know about but have forgotten all the nuances. If I remember correctly, it is based on a ground rule of "Use "an" if the word that it precedes starts with a vowel, except in these cases...." It is the "except in these cases...." part that I'd like more detail, please.
Pyogenes said:
critique/criticize - critique by definition requires an in-depth
analysis. Simply saying "i like it" or "it's horrible" is not a
critique.
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Also, '"i like it" or "it's horrible"' segues into the area of logical fallacies, which are (arguably) more pernicious than grammatical errors. I'll bet we could fill another few threads if we dip into common examples that are prevalent on DPreview.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_fallacy
Pyogenes said:
Whet/wet - You whet your appetite, not wet it. Whet refers to the
process of sharpening a blade.
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Not to mention "walla/voila" ".... Then all you have to do is flatten the image. Voila! Instant Ansel Adams."

No one/noone "Probably, no one born recently would know that Peter Noone was the lead singer for 'Hermit's Hermits.'"

loose/lose "A loose tripod mount screw can make you lose your temper."

I'm sure there are others.

Wayne
 
Dear Murray, please accept my respectful suggestion that in your sentence,

"These errors will continue to frustrate we anal types until the proverbial cows come home."

the word "we" is being used in the objective case. As such, it should take the form "us."

"Errors" is the subject of the sentence.
"Continue to frustrate" is the verb, or verb phrase.
"We is the object of the verb phrase."

However, elementary grammar dictates that we say,
"Errors frustrate us," rather than "errors frustrate we."

But, my friend, you are in the best of company. This error is endemic within American contemporary culture.

Aardvark7 and 2cats: Your views are most appropriate. If photography forums (fora) were judged by the quality of their adherence to standard English (American or British,) all would be found abysmal.
 
Virtually everyone says:

"I could care less."

while the proper expression should be:

"I couldn't care less."

This one really agravates me. And I'm not even a native english speaker.
 
Lacol said:
Virtually everyone says:

"I could care less."

while the proper expression should be:

"I couldn't care less."

This one really agravates me. And I'm not even a native english
speaker.
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The wild card here are idiomatic expressions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiom

"I could care less" is often classified as being an idiomatic expression

' The idiom "couldn't care less", meaning "doesn't care at all"
(the meaning in full is "cares so little that he couldn't possibly
care less"), originated in Britain around 1940. "Could care less",
which is used with the same meaning, developed in the U.S. around
1960. We get disputes about whether the latter was originally a
mis-hearing of the former; whether it was originally ironic; or
whether it arose from uses where the negative element was separated
from "could" ("None of these writers could care less..."). Henry
Churchyard believes that this sentence by Jane Austen may be
pertinent: "You know nothing and you care less, as people say."
( Mansfield Park (1815), Chapter 29) Meaning-saving elaborations
have also been suggested: "As if I could care less!"; "I could care
less, but I'd have to try"; "If I cared even one iota -- which I
don't --, then I could care less."'
http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifcouldcareless.shtml

Google for more examples mapping "I could care less" == idiomatic expression.

So this is the out: whenever anybody accuses you of using bad grammar, then just sniff and say that it is a common idiomatic expression. And that you aren't comfortable with judgmentalism. :-)

Wayne
 
Lacol said:
This one really agravates me. And I'm not even a native english
speaker.
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I will forgive you for this error, as English is not your native tongue, and hopefully my little lesson will help not only you but those who should know better!
You should have typed,'This one really annoys me'.
The word aggravate means to make worse, never to annoy!

As in, by scratching the sore on my arm I aggravated the injury. Or, the financial position was aggravated by poor investments.

I have no idea why so many people use completely the wrong word when there are perfectly good ones already in existence.
 
Thank you for your approval. It is refreshing to see the clarity of an educated and thoughtful contributor!

To add a little note of my own, although I may be wrong, I understand that it is correct to use forums rather than fora, as it is a modern construct.
 
aardvark7 said:
Lacol said:
This one really agravates me. And I'm not even a native english
speaker.
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I will forgive you for this error, as English is not your native
tongue, and hopefully my little lesson will help not only you but
those who should know better!
You should have typed,'This one really annoys me'.
The word aggravate means to make worse, never to annoy!
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In English, perhaps more so than many other languages, the meaning of words and their correct usage evolves. Dictionaries, rather than being the repository of "correctness", are amended to cover modern meanings and usage.

My dictionary certainly includes Lacol's use of aggravate among its definitions!
 
Dear Murray and Aardvark7,

Remarks on such subjects as grammar, diction, syntax, spelling, etc., being peripheral to our focus on cameras and photography, should always be taken as light-hearted banter rather than serious criticism. Even beyond that, no subject whatsoever justifies incivility or arrogance toward others in this forum. Both of you keep your civility while some others strive to be authoritative by speaking in absolutes, absolutes stripped clean of the spirit of civilized discussion.

To both of you, I would trade my years of studying English, Latin, and Greek, for the knowledge of photography you both have.

As for the form "fora" as the plural for the singular form "forum," you are quite correct in using "forums." I used the historic, Latin-based plural "fora" because I thought some of the more pugnacious members might be looking for faults in my posts.

Nice to exchange ideas with you both.
 
Quite the reverse. I am often humbled, sometimes to the point of shame, at the ability of others to converse in a second language.

I confess to speaking only a very little French and certainly could not conduct the discussions, as witnessed here, in anything other than English.

I have the greatest admiration for you and all of your similarly gifted contemporaries.
 
NW Charlie said:
My pet peeve is placing a period or comma outside the final
quotation marks. Two examples:
Click to expand...
The punctuation mark should be outside the quotation unless it is part of the quotation.

So:

The man said "You should put the full stop here".

But

The man said "Where should I put the full stop?"

I think the convention is not to use a punctuation mark both before and after the quotation mark at the same time. In the contect you quoted before the grammar was correct.
 
Dear lovingtheview,
lovingtheview said:
To both of you, I would trade my years of studying English, Latin,
and Greek, for the knowledge of photography you both have.
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If it were (or is it "was"?) possible, I think I would seriously consider that trade! Despite years of on-and-off effort, and although I have learned a lot, I suspect I'll never achieve anything special as a photographer. I might do well to give it all up in return for the joy of such a (presumed) wealth of linguistic knowledge. Oh how I've longed to be able to translate all those Latin mottos!

--
http://www.pbase.com/mmcculloch
 
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