Public Service Announcement #2
A humorous performative irony is contained in the written statement “your ignorant.” The ignorance is proven and displayed by the projecting writer.
“Your” is the possessive form, as in “your brain needs more exercise.”
When you mean to say that you believe someone else is ignorant, it would contribute to the weight of your accusative judgment if you used the correct form.
If you thought about it, you would realize that you are using the contraction of “you are.”
Therefore, you should write “you’re ignorant.”
If you can’t remember that, it would be best for you to write it out in the formal style:
You are ignorant.
Likewise, “their” is possessive, belonging to them. “They’re” is a contraction of “they are.” “There” is a place (not here, but there).
“There coming to take you away” is wrong.
“Their are a lot of people laughing at you” is wrong.
This has been a public service announcement.
The one that really bugs me is the “singular them” — when people mix singular and plural in the same sentence when referring to one person. An example from pop culture is the song “If you love someone, set them free” (from Sting, who really ought to know better). This grammatical error is becoming more and more prevalent in our society. It is even being consciously used in a new “translation” of the Bible, Today’s New International Version, in an attempt to translate the text into “today’s language.” I wonder if they’ll also use words like “ain’t” or “pimp my ride” . . .