English in a Bottle

[Era]

I just feel like this would help a lot of people. I've noticed a lot of grammatical misconceptions, and I know the English language can be confusing, so hopefully I can help clarify the confusion a little bit. It has been color coded, for those out there who, like me, remember everything in color.

Edit:
And I'll be adding a background color to the words if I can find the ability to do so. As I won't be updating this to keep up with every new skin color, I figured I could at least give it a background wherein everything within the post would be readable.

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To begin, let's start with where apostrophes should be placed:

1: When someone owns something:
"That's Sora's shoe!"

2: When plural things own something:
Say there's more than one Cat:
"There were a ton of felines in the alleyway. No matter how much he wanted to ignore them, the Cats' eyes were all watching him."

3: When removing a letter from the word:
Let's = "Let us", joined into one word. Where the "u" was removed, an apostrophe was put in its place. "Let's hang out at the park."



Moving on to words:

1: Their, they're, and there:
a. Their = They own something. AKA: "That's their house!"
b. They're = They are. Like: "They're so in trouble!"
c. There = A place: "Let's go there."

2: Two, to, and too:
a. Two = The written number, aka 2.
b. To = Going somewhere. "To the Library!" --Sokka
c. Too = An amount. "That's too much."

3: Who's vs. Whose:
a. Who's = Who is. "Who's coming over tonight?"
b. Whose = Who (owns): "Whose turn is it to take out the garbage?"

4: Your vs. You're:
a. Your = The person you're referring to possesses the noun in question. "Your Dragon set the town ablaze again."
b. You're = "You're going to eat seventy-two bananas?"



Capitalization:

1. Capitalize if it's a:
a. Person (Sora)
b. Place (Hollow Bastion)
c. Thing (Kingdom Key)
d. Beginning of a new sentence = "Tino and I want to go to the movies. We are planning to see Shrek."

Ah, Commas!

a. Generally commas are used to break up clauses or small conjunctions. To make sense of what that means, they are used after such words as: and, but, nor, yet, for, or and so.
"She held an immense fear of losing, but that would not keep her from fighting for what she knew in her heart was right."
i. "Shadows were one of those things you could never be too sure about, for they were always laced with danger." * (For more on the word "for", please view the stars below.)

b. Commas can also be used to specify within a sentence:
i. Specifying = "The old oak tree, which is near the river, is a great climbing tree!"
or: "If there were ever a time to fear, it would be now."

c. Commas are useful just after an introductory ideas as well, namely accompanied by: after, although, as, because, if, since, when, while:
i. "After the sun sets, there's this really pretty gradient of blues in the sky."
ii. "Because my friend woke me up at five, I am already exhausted."

d. In general, a comma could be used to add a little more clarification, or character, to a sentence. For instance:
i: "Many people like Aunt Elma, the one who has bad fashion sense, because she is very personable."

e. A comma can also be used near the end of a sentence, to represent a pause or a shift:
"The Dragon's stare was cold, almost brooding."

f. Commas may be used to shift a character's action to a quotation, or vice versa:
Era stared at the Heartless, spitting courageously, "I'm not afraid to die!"
or: "I never really thought of you," Axel mused, "as much of the caring type."


Exceptions to the rules:

It's = It is. "It's really nice on this side of town."
Its = It owns something. "The kitten was cute. Its stunning blue eyes took up most of its face."
*If you're talking about "for" as in "doing something for someone else, no comma should follow the word "for".

*(For more on comma utilization, feel free to visit this site. Or ask questions here, and I'd be glad to answer as best I can!)

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I hope this clears up some of our confusing, but beautiful language, and I will keep adding things as I find them. I know there's more, I just can't remember it all right now.

As always, if there are any questions, please post 'em and I'll see if I can help you. Also, if I have missed anything, post. I would like to know so I can add it to this list. Thanks! =D

Thanks, cheers, and kudos to World Destiny!
~Era

[yanagi]

Commas. Please include rules on the use of commas, if you don't mind. ;D

(In this case I am using the comma to show a slight pause. No Idea if that is correct or not)
Perhaps I needed a comma before or, as well.

Punctuation is difficult.

[Deleted]

Your= It belongs to you
You're= YOU ARE!

Learn this and Seed will be a happy Heartless.

[Era]

@yanagi: I have added comma support.

@seed: Your and You're have been added to the list.

Let me know if I can further clarify, as I would be extremely happy to do so. Thanks!

[rayfrost]

Smooth transition between character talking and character's actions in a single sentence. ^^

[Era]

Smooth transition between character talking and character's actions in a single sentence. ^^

@ray Frost: I think I covered this now. If I did not, let me know. I want to make sure you're getting your question answered. =]

[oogie]

And for the advanced linguists and roleplayers, sie hyphen und sie semicolon!

[yanagi]

Sie? Now we're gettin into German grammar. Das semikolon und der bindestrich. But yeah, I've mostly been ignoring those two.
Thanks Era.
This could turn into a pretty decent resource. For the RPers that cared about their grammar to begin with. I don't know if the RPers with all the mistakes are those people.

[key2myheart]

This is just an idea, but what about the use of 'were' and 'where?' I've seen a lot of people who often mistake 'were' for 'where' and maybe vice-versa.
Ooo and now that I think about it, maybe the use of quotation marks! People sometimes may get " " and ' ' mixed up.
I'm having a geek moment. XD

[serif]

Or they forget to use them at all.

Paragraph breaks. Please, please, please. Paragraph breaks.