As a writer I probably make more grammatical errors than my contemporaries. I’m actually useless at most things “grammar”. Without those ugly green lines under my work and my editor who knows where I’d be now. But I guess some of Maggie’s corrections and advice has sunk in over the years. Without actually realising it, my understanding of at least some grammatical principles has stuck.

This morning I’m mucking around a bit as I’m doing the weekly clean of my computer. As the defragmentation continued I checked out a couple of unrelated sites. Now, I’ve just admitted to being far less than perfect when it comes to grammar, but seriously? I clicked on a site and within the first four sentences three grammatical errors leapt out and hit me right between the eyes.

Coming from an English speaking country, rather than an American-English speaking one, I’m aware of differences in acceptable forms of English. I’ve already hit upon one anomaly in the previous paragraph. WordPress has added a red line under my use of the word “leapt”. I should be using the more acceptable in USA “leaped”. Nah, don’t think so. But our language differences can be the subject of a later post. Not now.

Is basic English so hard? Do people posting on-line not realise their (or they’re or there) words are out there (or their or they’re) in the ether forever? This morning I found what should have been a very informative site. However, their inability to determine as well as the above error, which your/you’re to use and which who’s/whose belonged gave me less faith in their message. “Over time” I hope the writer might also learn “overtime” has a completely different meaning.