Yup. I sympathize with both of them. The Oxford comma can make American's cringe. In my own writing, if I am positive there will be no ambiguity, or don't have time to think about it, I leave it out.
Actually, I read it on my phone and cracked up at the joke. Then later when I got on my desktop and began replying to everyone's comments, I have to admit that I took it in at face value and did not assess it at all for grammar, punctuation or spelling before answering.
My wife misheard the lyrics in the Wizard of OZ. (English is her second language.) It probably struck me as funnier than it should have, but she was causally singing, "We have to see the Wizard!" instead of "We're off to see the Wizard!" Somehow cracked me up that some higher authority had dictated that they must see the Wizard but they were still so stoked about going.
Neither are wrong. The former is more common in America and is more casual. Funny, because the general rule is that for two phrases that mean the same thing, the more wordy statement usually the more polite.
I fully agree, but I have to admit, I have made every single mistake that I hate. When I am thinking about the idea and typing fast, I can break any of the rules that I hold dear and judge others on. The one that hit me the hardest was when I wrote 'then' when I meant 'than'. (I reserve particularly harsh judgement for people who make that mistake.) But I've also actually written 'could of', and every possible iteration of 'their', 'they're' and 'there' in the wrong context. I have edited for a living for decades. Editing and writing are two different things.
Like I said, I am typing fast and thinking about the ideas. When I do this, I am typing out the words partly based on how they sound. It's not time for grammar, it's time for getting my ideas into the computer. That's when it happens.
I didn't know that.
Well, technically, in formal writing 'less' is incorrect. Do not use it if you want to come across as educated. It can be considered correct in casual speech because once something is common, we really can't call it incorrect, but using it will have social implications when you are being judged on language.
I had not heard that one. Hehe.
Look in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and they'll usually have -ize as the preferred spelling. The tendency in the 19th century was for American English with the Webster's Dictionary to go with -ize and in Britain it was mixed. In the late 20th century, the BBC and the Guardian began to make the -ise spelling more mainstream in Britain. With the Internet, both spelling styles began to appear everywhere. However, its never been a clear cut rule. American English has words like "advise," "surprise," "compromise," and "despise".
I'm often using a variety of computers and apps throughout the day the have me going back and forth between dictionaries and spellings, so I find myself using a mishmash of both. I suspect that's happening with a lot of people. When I am doing a project, I just note with style I need to use and remain consistent. Other then that all bets are off.
Why don't you make post with that. Posts contribute to growing the community more than comments. And this topic is fun.
This may help.
The way you and I both learned leaves the last two open to ambiguity. Are they part of a list, or do they define the previous item in the list? The Oxford comma solves that.
OK. There was no need to capitalize the word 'grammar', I see no other problems with your post. Your offer sounds very cool. And it will take some time to make something worth showing around. The first post here was yesterday! But it looks like we've got some guidelines started, so I think we can make it work.