rotten bananas

Time for a mini-rant on the English language. I’m somewhat of a grammar nazi. It doesn’t mean that I always get it right, but I pride myself in being pretty close most of the time. I was browsing my blog list and hit Daily Blog Tips. My intention here is not to single them out, as this is a mistake that lots of people make. (This is actually a two for one, which I’ve only realized after copy/pasting the entire sentence.)

How much do you care?

On this post, under number 1, the first sentence is:

“People could care less about your cat, your aunt or your school adventures; and serious bloggers do know it. “

A very common phrase in the English language is “(i/he/she/they/we/your neighbor’s retarded antelope) could care less.” Read that and think for a second. Saying that you could care less means that you care. It means your caring level may be here:

Don’t care (anniversary) |—*———————–| Care a lot (Superbowl)

You may care very little (though the actual amount of caring is not implied), but you still care. The proper phrase that is bastardized on a regular basis is “I couldn’t care less.” This implies that you care so little that you are physically unable to care any less, which is how the phrase is used.

Semicolon <> Comma

I just happened to notice this mistake was in the same sentence. A semicolon is used to combine two very related sentences, but the statements on either side are still complete sentences. “And serious bloggers do know it” is not a complete sentence, so it shouldn’t be used on either side of a semicolon.

Straight from Wikipedia:

1. It binds two sentences more closely than they would be if separated by a full stop/period. It often replaces a conjunction such as and or but. Writers might consider this appropriate where they are trying to indicate a close relationship between two sentences, or a ‘run-on’ in meaning from one to the next; they do not want the connection to be broken by the abrupt use of a full stop.

The semicolon should replace ‘and’, not precede it, that’s what commas are for.

Briefly, proper usage of a semicolon: Bad grammar lights a fire in my soul; it burns with rage.

Improper usage of a semicolon: This sentence makes my heart hurt; and I think I might cry.

I feel much better now. To further your knowledge of basic need-to-know grammar rules, check out CopyBlogger’s list of Five Grammatical Errors That Make You Look Dumb.

Update: The errors were corrected thanks to my belligerence. Someone noticed my quaint little blog; my heart’s aflutter.