I am a grammatical elitist, and I make no bones about it. Being an English major does that to you, but this affliction started many years before that. In second grade we had to pair up for spelling tests, and then our "teams" got to choose the spelling words we wanted to be tested on from a master list. My partner hated me because while she struggled to spell out pretty average words correctly, I was off choosing words like "Lamborghini" and "encyclopedia" for our team. So my problem is deep-seeded.
That background being known, it has come to my attention that approximately 80% of the population of the United States is unaware of the difference between "your" and "you're." If I say, "you're so beautiful", then it is a compliment; however, if I say "your so beautiful" then I have committed grammatical indiscretions beyond comprehension, the most notable being subject/verb tense agreement (or lack thereof). So, while I generally tolerate the sporadic grammatical mistake, I am at my wits end with logging onto Facebook and seeing every third person's attempt at talking like a human being go awry. Honestly, if you're going to attempt to speak the English language, at least put some effort into learning your contractions.
In case you're (see how I keep doing that? AMAZING) interested, below are a few other grammatical mistakes that make me want to grow a second head and come unglued:
"quite" and "quiet" - you're (there I go again) either silent, or excessively something, or you can even implement an adjective phrase: you can be quite quiet, but you cannot just be silent and then tell everyone you're quite. Inversion. Learn it.
"had went" - NO. Just NO. If you don't know why this is wrong, please stop reading because we will never be friends.
"idear" - oh really? you're a dear? (minus a linking verb). Could've fooled me, because I thought you actually had an original thought that you were going to put forth into action; you know, like an IDEA.
In short - I'll never proclaim to be the best at math, or to know the most about anything scientifically oriented, but I can tell you that if anyone around so much as utters an incorrect grammatical phrase I'll be sure to let them know. I feel it only fair to the English language that I not let this slander continue. Lucky for me, I live in the Incorrect Grammar capital of the world...
UPDATE: "to" and "too" - there's an extra O for a reason...
