English Grammar Debates
Discussions focus on common English grammar errors like 'then' vs 'than', 'it's' vs 'its', and 'less' vs 'fewer', debating pedantry, hypercorrection, and usage acceptability in informal contexts.
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Getting "then"/"than" mixed up is a HUGE red flag.
I just use it because it's grammatically correct—admittedly I should use it less, for example here.
If it's common enough it's no longer a mistake, it's just how the English language is. If everyone understands each other, then insisting on a "more correct" usage is just pedantry.Can you provide a concrete example of a case where this usage would be confusing?
Yes, I'm just being pedantic about how you say it. :)
It's misused for that. It's not correct grammatically and leads to confusion for non-native english speakers.
Compare:You are wrong about English usageYou are wrong of English usage
Because some people understand "is a" better than "has a".
no, it's just a stylistic pet peeve of mine. lacks specificity and always makes me have to think about which is the latter and which is the former, no matter how many times i look it up. scrambles my brain.
There's more than one way to use an apostrophe y'know
For what it's worth, that's how native English speakers deal with articles, too.