Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Separation

I received an email today from some acquaintances, people who appreciate me being "apart of their lives."

Thanks. Maybe that was just their gentle way of informing me of their glee that I am out out of their lives and hair down here in South America...or maybe they're just falling prey to lazy English.

"Apart" is not the same thing as "a part," people! In fact, it gives the exact opposite meaning.

This irritates me. It's a plague on the English language and I am exposed to it about twice a week: blogs, emails, letters, etc...

Let's practice: When you tell your girlfriend you want to be "apart" of her life, you are not giving her confidence you're here for the long haul. You want to be "a part." See, that wasn't so hard.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I notice that your always using capitol letters, commas, and periods in you're grammaticaly correct sentences. BJU taught you well! Sorry the rest of the world isn't walking in step with you, but I think most of them think its not to important. Did this drive you nuts? How many did you find?

Anonymous said...

I feel you're pain (HAH!). The internet has created a generation of people who no longer have any need for grammer or writing out entire words. Next time I see you we should get togather with red pens and grammer-check some publications for fun!

--jenna said...

Funny. I want to take a red pen to my computer screen...