Learn the difference

[Wessan]

I dont know if it is people in RS who speak english as a second language or if people just really dont know the difference between "then" and "than".

 

I dont think a day goes by where i do not see someone use them incorrectly either in RS or even on these forums.

 

So to clear the air:

 

Than - a conjunction used to introduce the second part of a comparrison. Example: the corporeal beast has a higher combat level "than" a greater demon

 

Then - a word used to indicate at what time an action occured in an event or series of events. Example: earlier today i went to the store, "then" i went home to play some Runescape.

 

Learn the difference, use them correctly, and stop being a bunch of cabbages.

 

This rant was typed on my phone, so i cannot guarantee grammatical and spelling accuracy.

[RoswellCrash]

Than you're going to have a very long wait.

 

 

Edit:

 

Another one that get's me is Where, were. There, they're & their.

 

This is RuneScape what where you expecting other then poor grandma and spells.

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm just thankful most of the morons who used buy and sell wrong have vanished.

 

I loathed the days of trading where people shouting "sell x" meant they wanted YOU to sell it and thus were BUYING x and conversly shouted "buy x" when they wanted YOU to buy it and were thus SELLING

 

Oh and the "Barrowing x" kids; its BORROW.

[RoswellCrash]

people shouting "sell x" meant they wanted YOU to sell it and thus were BUYING x and converse shouted "buy x" when they wanted YOU to buy it and were thus SELLING

 

Oh please don't, how confusing that used to be when I was trying to sell something & they'd be putting the same item up.. Or trying to buy something to be greeted by an empty trade window & them asking where the item was... #-o

[The_Gabe]

They'll learn the difference as soon as people won't misspell their thread titles.

[Wessan]

Corrected and accounted for in the last sentence of my original post. So i'll learn to spell and correct it all on my phone when you learn to read.

[Sir_Squab]

people shouting "sell x" meant they wanted YOU to sell it and thus were BUYING x and converse shouted "buy x" when they wanted YOU to buy it and were thus SELLING

 

Oh please don't, how confusing that used to be when I was trying to sell something & they'd be putting the same item up.. Or trying to buy something to be greeted by an empty trade window & them asking where the item was... #-o

 

Oh god. I had totally forgotten about that. That was annoying.

 

The "I'd like to barrow X" something always annoys me too, mainly because barrows in a mini-game in RS. The worse part is I'm pretty sure it's only misspelled on account of said mini-game.

 

This rant was typed on my phone, so i cannot guarantee grammatical and spelling accuracy.

 

Pro-tip: if your gonna make a rant about grammar, you should have your grammar and spelling done perfectly in you're post. I just see it as you being too lazy to get you're grammar and spelling right in a post that is essentially complaining about other people's spelling and grammar.

 

I also should point out that 1) there are far worse spelling/grammar mistakes to be used than "then" and "than" and 2) again, hypocrisy. "i" is not a word, "I" is a word.

 

PS: My misuse of homophones was intentional.

 

PPS: I don't usually care about slight grammatical errors or the misuse of the word "I," but the hypocrisy is noticeable :P

[Sy_Accursed]

I think the grammar Nazi thing that bugs me most is dumb Americans (and some UK folks, though they seem to do it less) who get all OMG spell things right and correct you on words that are different between American and English

 

Eg When they try and tell you to spell colour correctly as its color. It's like GTFO I'm British; colour is correct.

[Wessan]

To Sir_Squab: I do not think it lazy if I account for my own mistakes and the only access to the medium in which I choose to express my discontent is ill equiped for the task when I take it on.

 

As you may see, my "I"'s are uppercase now because I'm on a computer.

 

I try not to be a grammar nazi, but the fact that these two words (than and then) are misused constantly, made me want to vent. Flame me for it or for other reasons not related to my rant, I really do not care about your thoughts on my rant.

 

If it was a proper debate possibly, but someone once told me that winning on the internet is like winning in the special olympics: You may have won, but your still [developmentally delayed]ed.

 

So with that I say congratulations.

[Cheefoo]

Wearever you go youll see people mispelling things and useing grammer mistakes, but your just going to have to get used to it. Its not there fault they are'nt as good at words then you are.

[Sir_Squab]

To Sir_Squab: I do not think it lazy if I account for my own mistakes and the only access to the medium in which I choose to express my discontent is ill equiped for the task when I take it on.

 

As you may see, my "I"'s are uppercase now because I'm on a computer.

 

I try not to be a grammar nazi, but the fact that these two words (than and then) are misused constantly, made me want to vent. Flame me for it or for other reasons not related to my rant, I really do not care about your thoughts on my rant.

 

If it was a proper debate possibly, but someone once told me that winning on the internet is like winning in the special olympics: You may have won, but your still [developmentally delayed]ed.

 

So with that I say congratulations.

 

Your medium of choice does not prevent you from using correct grammar, spelling or capitalization - it simply makes it more difficult on some occasions. Unless your phone doesn't have a shift key for typing or something, but I find it virtually impossible that a phone that one could surf the internet and type with does not have a simple shift key for typing. Thus, I consider it laziness. Spelling is the one I'll give the most leniency, because I doubt your phone has a built in spell-checker. Or your internet browser for that matter.

 

There comes a point on the internet that you realize you will have to accept certain errors. Personally, as long as someone uses uses punctuation* and doesn't try to abbreviate words I'm happy.

 

*as in first letter of a sentence capitalized and a period at the end. And the uses of paragraphs if they're typing enough text.

[Sy_Accursed]

To Sir_Squab: I do not think it lazy if I account for my own mistakes and the only access to the medium in which I choose to express my discontent is ill equiped for the task when I take it on.

 

As you may see, my "I"'s are uppercase now because I'm on a computer.

 

I try not to be a grammar nazi, but the fact that these two words (than and then) are misused constantly, made me want to vent. Flame me for it or for other reasons not related to my rant, I really do not care about your thoughts on my rant.

 

If it was a proper debate possibly, but someone once told me that winning on the internet is like winning in the special olympics: You may have won, but your still [developmentally delayed]ed.

 

So with that I say congratulations.

 

Your medium of choice does not prevent you from using correct grammar, spelling or capitalization - it simply makes it more difficult on some occasions. Unless your phone doesn't have a shift key for typing or something, but I find it virtually impossible that a phone that one could surf the internet and type with does not have a simple shift key for typing. Thus, I consider it laziness. Spelling is the one I'll give the most leniency, because I doubt your phone has a built in spell-checker. Or your internet browser for that matter.

 

There comes a point on the internet that you realize you will have to accept certain errors. Personally, as long as someone uses uses punctuation* and doesn't try to abbreviate words I'm happy.

 

*as in first letter of a sentence capitalized and a period at the end. And the uses of paragraphs if they're typing enough text.

 

In addition all 5 major smart phone operating systems, and most standard phone systems, modern dictionary systems actually auto-correct i on its own to I; so it's actually harder/more effort to capitalise I's correctly on a computer than on a phone.

[Beaumonde]

An easy way to remember then/than is this phrase an English teacher once taught me: I found a panda and then we bought malt liquor. I hold my malt liquor better than a panda.

 

The pure ridiculousness keeps you from forgetting, and if you remember it it's pretty easy to see that "then" is for progression of time and "than" is for comparison.

[Hedgehog]

O jk I'm not supposed to post inappropriate stuff anymore.

 

Ye then is progression of time, than is comparison...

[FooK-A-Ji]

I'm just thankful most of the morons who used buy and sell wrong have vanished.

 

I loathed the days of trading where people shouting "sell x" meant they wanted YOU to sell it and thus were BUYING x and conversly shouted "buy x" when they wanted YOU to buy it and were thus SELLING

 

Oh and the "Barrowing x" kids; its BORROW.

 

Actually, they are grammatically correct, with regards to the people writing "sell/buy x".

 

They would however, be wrong if they wrote "selling/buying x" but still meant it in the aforementioned context, i.e writing "buying iron longsword", but wanting you to buy it.

Writing "buy iron longsword" is a petition for you, the potential customer, to buy the longsword, therefore it makes perfect sense. Although I agree that it isn't a handy way to barter in a game where all communication is text-based.

[Sy_Accursed]

I'm just thankful most of the morons who used buy and sell wrong have vanished.

 

I loathed the days of trading where people shouting "sell x" meant they wanted YOU to sell it and thus were BUYING x and conversly shouted "buy x" when they wanted YOU to buy it and were thus SELLING

 

Oh and the "Barrowing x" kids; its BORROW.

 

Actually, they are grammatically correct, with regards to the people writing "sell/buy x".

 

They would however, be wrong if they wrote "selling/buying x" but still meant it in the aforementioned context, i.e writing "buying iron longsword", but wanting you to buy it.

Writing "buy iron longsword" is a petition for you, the potential customer, to buy the longsword, therefore it makes perfect sense. Although I agree that it isn't a handy way to barter in a game where all communication is text-based.

 

It's not grammatically correct.

Grammatically correct would be:

Buy my iron longsword

or

Would you buy my iron long sword

 

Or even grammatically flawed but still "correct" in terms of meaning.

You buy iron long sword

 

Without the extra words that turn "buy" into an instruction opposed to an action "buy iron longsword", while grammatically flawed, most logically derives to meaning buying as it is just in the wrong tense.

After all on its own buy means to purchase and sell means to make a sale; so "buy iron long sword" being yelled can be assumed to be voicing a persons intent. As such they are voicing an intent to purchase an iron long sword. Opposed to adding in command words, as shown above, that turn the statement into a command or instruction which makes "buy" apply to the other party and thus shows the speakers intent to sell. Unless there is a word to shift the focus of buy from the speaking party then its meaning won't invert, as it were, to mean the speaker is selling.

 

Orally spoken you could make "buy iron longsword" convey a meaning you wish to sell one, but in just a textual format the meaning is that you are buying by all measure of grammatical construct and general rules of English language.

[Sir_Squab]

Honestly, grammar is just the accepted convention of how sentences and stuff should be structured. Grammar changes over time, and given enough time, slang with bad grammar can become correct grammar. Example: read Shakespeare.

 

Anyways, to put it simply, if you want to sell something, and your message makes people think you want to buy something, you're doing it wrong. If you want to buy something, and people think you want to sell something, you are (again) doing it wrong.

[Pulu]

We are forgeiners and we dont care about your yankees grammar

 

/topic

[Lose No Hope]

We are forgeiners and we dont care about your yankees grammar

 

/topic

Cute.

 

 

I usually don't care about grammar outside of what I edit. As long as I can understand what you are saying, it doesn't matter too much to me.

[highlanders]

It's a problem on internet in general. It's as if as soon as people get on a computer they become morons. If anything people with English as a second language write better than natives because they actually make an effort and haven't become complacent yet.

[Ginger_Warrior]

I see people all the time in real life who misuse words. It's nothing to do with the Internet. It's because educational standards now are so piss poor that people leave school claiming they can read and write, but without the abililty to spell or use basic words properly. The number of times I've heard of someone failing a university essay because they don't know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're", or capitalising every noun as if they were all proper. I can guarentee that's not Facebook's fault. :wall:

[Kaida23]

It's because educational standards now are so piss poor that people leave school claiming they can read and write, but without the abililty to spell or use basic words properly.

This. I graduated high school with a lot of people (some honor roll students) who were functionally illiterate, and the rise of '1337' and text speak is actually making things worse. <_<

[Golvellius]

Your absolutely right about this.

[Star_Fox]

I see people all the time in real life who misuse words. It's nothing to do with the Internet. It's because educational standards now are so piss poor that people leave school claiming they can read and write, but without the abililty to spell or use basic words properly. The number of times I've heard of someone failing a university essay because they don't know the difference between "there", "their" and "they're", or capitalising every noun as if they were all proper. I can guarentee that's not Facebook's fault. :wall:

 

I'd say that's only part true. The main reason is that proper grammar isn't taken enough for people to fully understand these terms. Schools may just pour too much into other forms of education excluding grammar.

When working on homework or taking a test, we usually have multiple choice (Idk about you guys) and are given the material to fill it out and not give a hoot if the work was done without proper grammar. That may

be why people confuse the these words "you're" and "your" so often. Also, since we are so dependant on the internet as another form of communication, it gets even worse.

[Noxx]

We are forgeiners and we dont care about your yankees grammar

 

/topic

I'm foreign too, but i do my best to keep my sentences as grammatically correct and spelling error free as possible. It keeps me from looking like a fool. Besides, English is the international business language and the sooner you learn to properly use it the better.

As a side note, my 11 year old cousin (to whom English is also a second language) has no trouble remembering the differences between your and you're, "than and then", "where, were and we're", "they're, there and their." I see no reason why others can't.