The difference between is and are, and why motherfuckers need to learn about it.

[fatal2704]

The word there's is a contraction for there is. There is is used for singular cases, like there is a watermelon. There are is used for multiple objects/things, like there are watermelons. So why the fuck does everybody get this wrong, and I am the only one to notice? I hear people use the contraction there's daily when they should have used there are, but it didn't really bother me too much until about 1:24 in the new heart of the swarm trailer. "There's too many Zerg!", shouts a space marine. And at this point, I refuse to take it any longer. I heard it in a Yahtzee video a while back, and wasn't too dissapointed, but professional writers who give their voice actors enough time to make a full sentence? That is ridiculous. So tell me, does anyone feel the same? Am I wrong with my grammar rules? (I'm certain I'm not) Do you care? Did you really read this post? Are you human?

 

[Sassafrass]

Nope, don't feel the same.
Don't care about grammar rules, as long as I can understand it, it's fine so teah, can't help you there.
Nope.
Yup.
I've been told I'm 70% Ribena. So probably not, no.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I certainly couldn't give a fuck.

I think you should chill out.

The Space Marines in Starcraft are hardly the type to care about their grammar.

Did I mention I couldn't give a fuck?

 

[Giest4life]

I hate it when news anchors get their grammar wrong. News anchors, their writers, and their producers should all get shot for some of the sillier stuff they do, just like they do in France.

 

[the_dancy_vagrant]

People should use English correctly at all times. I mean, it aren't that hard.

 

[AD-Stu]

I hear people use the contraction there's daily when they should have used there are, but it didn't really bother me too much until about 1:24 in the new heart of the swarm trailer. "There's too many Zerg!", shouts a space marine. And at this point, I refuse to take it any longer. I heard it in a Yahtzee video a while back, and wasn't too dissapointed, but professional writers who give their voice actors enough time to make a full sentence? That is ridiculous.

That particular example doesn't bother me at all because, correct or not, it's how people really speak and a marine being rushed by Zerg is hardly going to stop to consider their grammar, are they now? For all we know it was a conscious choice by the writer to script the line with the deliberate mistake in it, thus lending authenticity.

 

[Tharwen]

That's not one that bothers me much. Choosing the right word in that case often takes conscious thought, so working it out in the middle of a sentence is quite hard.

 

[Thaius]

I get that there's a difference, and being an English major, I get why that could be annoying, but the situation in which you took issue with it is a bit weird. The entire point of dialogue is to capture the way people actually talk; so you're saying it's fine if people say it, but the last straw is when it's said in an attempt to realistically portray the way people talk?

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I understand that it's not a world-ending issue, but to all the people above me who said they couldn't give a fuck... Then why write a post here?

Using proper grammar doesn't make a snooty asshat out of you. It shows you care enough to be understood, and that you're willing to go the extra mile to ensure your statement or question doesn't end up being painful to read or, in the worst case, comparable to Engrish.

There's a world of differences between being careful, like I am now, and what follows, which is what happens when a guy actually tries to sound smarter and more astute than he actually is:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.318467-I-use-too-big-of-words-Eloquency?page=1

The OP for that thread is pissing all over us by claiming his linguistic skills are superior. Precious-puss English and Decent English are not the same thing. The same can be said of anyone who doesn't give a fuck and then ends up needing to spell a specific word or write something official - who finds that not giving a fuck isn't all that useful, suddenly.

Honestly, folks. Read books. Follow up on the plots of your favorite games or just find some worthless rag to glance at while you take a shit. In any case, you'll write better, spell better, conjugate better and generally come to be easier to understand. Proper grammar is not a useless burden.

 

[theheroofaction]

Wow, that are a pretty bad problem.

I mean, like, there is at least 6 people I know who talk like that.

Seriously though, some guys grammar mistakes are about the worst reason to get upset.

There are real problems in the world y'know.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Yeh! Wen I red teh titel I thot "this are teh thred 2 teech those people!"

Nt rly, I cood care less.

*I coodn't care less.
The phrase i could care less annoys me infinitely more than what the OP is moaning about.
I could care less doesnt make sense, by saying you COULD care less, you're implying that you already care at least enough that you're not caring as little as you could. However if you said you couldn't care less, that would mean you care so little that it wouldnt be physically possible to give less of a crap.

 

[Ruzinus]

Am I wrong with my grammar rules? (I'm certain I'm not)

Aaaactually, you are. Contractions are not the same as the words that originally formed the contraction. "There's" can be used as either plural or singular.

 

[darkceltic]

May I direct you to Stephen Fry?

http://youtu.be/J7E-aoXLZGY

 

[Phlakes]

I'm a bit of a grammar nazi, and I still don't care about this. Hell, I probably do it myself.

What I always say- grammar is like drawing a person. If you tell everyone to draw it completely proportional and realistic, you're being a tight-ass, because there's nothing wrong with a stylized drawing. But, there's a difference between drawing something stylized and drawing it wrong.

Even if saying "there's a lot of salamanders" is incorrect, it sounds better, so screw it.

 

[skerx]

The problem is that you are arguing linguistics vs prescriptive grammar using Standard American English(i presume) as the correct usage. It may also be a problem of hyper-correction but in any case you know what he meant and that is all that matters. Also as a side note, prescriptive grammar is full of stupid rules like not splitting infinitives and it refuses to evolve with our spoken language.

As a disclaimer i may be wrong and anyone may feel free to correct me.

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

The word there's is a contraction for there is. There is is used for singular cases, like there is a watermelon. There are is used for multiple objects/things, like there are watermelons. So why the fuck does everybody get this wrong, and I am the only one to notice? I hear people use the contraction there's daily when they should have used there are, but it didn't really bother me too much until about 1:24 in the new heart of the swarm trailer. "There's too many Zerg!", shouts a space marine. And at this point, I refuse to take it any longer. I heard it in a Yahtzee video a while back, and wasn't too dissapointed, but professional writers who give their voice actors enough time to make a full sentence? That is ridiculous. So tell me, does anyone feel the same? Am I wrong with my grammar rules? (I'm certain I'm not) Do you care? Did you really read this post? Are you human?

Speech (read: verbalized communication) predates writing and is not strictly constrained by all the rules of grammar. It adheres to most of the broad rules, but the specific rules - like the one you are discussing here - aren't consistent across all dialects. Put simply: people don't speak the way they should write (hell, a lot don't write like they should write either).

Also, examine your title. No, really. Is it the punctuation or the grammar that is wrong?

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

Seriously? The contraction allows it to work.

This is what people get pissed off about? There is so much more to life than getting angry over something as petty as this, and you're not even getting angry for actual reasons! You're getting angry over incorrect grammar, when it's not even incorrect. That's just sad man.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I'm human, and as a human I seek to communicate idea to other humans. My primary tool is language and writing. I feel that if my language and writing conveys an idea then it has successful fulfilled its purpose as a tool. Grammatical rules and spelling rules establish a standard by which people use to interpret and form language and writing. Everyone is on the same page so to say. Even then perfect adherence to such rules is not completely necessary, language is redundant and inefficient. Linguists think that this is because language is an unreliable medium and what you say could become garbled and thus humans need as many clues in the language to help them put together the meaning as possible. As a result perfect adherence to rules is often unnecessary. It helps but if some words are mistaken then the meaning can still be conveyed and language can still be successful. Thus I feel so long as the meaning of words can be understood some ley-way can be given to rules since the rules merely support the goal of language, the conveyance of ideas. As a result pedantic following of the rules and complaining about there not being followed would thus be counter-intuitive to language since it is putting the ideas that support the goal above the goal itself. As a result such person who do this would in fact only be hurting the reliance on the core goal of language. In brief: don't be a grammer Nazi, don't confuse the goal of language with its rules, and stop putting your personal beef on all kinds of threads as if everyone should bend a knee and listen because something makes you mad. kthxbye!