<p>I've seen this so many times. This is not just a simple typo, it's much too common for that. Plus, many people make this mistake when they are physically writing as well. Are people really this dumb? (yes) This is something you should have learned in elementary school.</p>
<p>No, they aren't dumb. They just don't pay attention while writing.</p>
<p>This is the same as the whole 'their,' 'there' and 'they're' thing. People aren't stupid. They just don't pay attention, like mj said.</p>
<p>Like i said earlier, it's not just some random typo. People don't know the difference.</p>
<p>Yes, they do. They just use the first form that comes to mind. Are you going to tell me you've never made that mistake?</p>
<p>well, i don't care about it online
but in actual writing it bothers me a hell of a lot</p>
<p>You can't call someone dumb because they made a mistake like that. If someone makes a mistake like '-2 x 8 = 16' instead of '-16' because they weren't paying attention to what they were doing, would you call them dumb? If someone misused a semi-colon, would you call them dumb? If someone mistook a sulfate ion for a sulfite ion on a chemistry test, would you call them dumb?</p>
<p>people honestly do not know the difference between "your" and "you're". This is in real life, not online. Using your example, rockermcr, these people do not understand the fundamental difference between 16 and -16. It's not only kids; I have seen several adults make it in company e-mails. Aren't these e-mails supposed to be professional? This is something they should have learned in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL.</p>
<p>See IK's thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=398137%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=398137</a></p>
<p>Some people just aren't paying attention while writing / are spending attention worrying about getting a good grade while taking a math test. It's not a sign of stupidity, but a sign of poor attentional allocation.</p>
<p>people don't pay attn while they type.....simple as that...</p>
<p>I understand the typing to an extent. But why do people make that mistake when physically writing? And why is this "typo" so consistent?</p>
<p>never seen attention abbreviated like that ^</p>
<p>btw, i agree with you coolphreak. there are a lot of people who really don't know the difference, but there are also a lot of people who do and just don't care. you can't really make a judgment on them because of that. i do sometimes though, i tend to be a grammar nazi. when people use incorrect grammar, it makes them seem illiterate, but i don't really care that much</p>
<p>To be honest, I judge people when they use poor grammar. I just can't help it. However, I try not to base my opinion of someone's intelligence solely on their grammar skills.</p>
<p>UnleashedFury - I don't think it's the actual abbreviation. I've just been using for so long that I got used to it. Most people I know abbreviate it the same way...</p>
<p>I don't think it's so much they make the mistake because they don't know the difference, but because they are typing quickly in informal places (like this forum!). I'm sure i've made the mistake (though i'm usually pretty good at catching it).</p>
<p>But who really cares? Again this is an informal forum, i think it's ridiculous when people start having a fit because of some grammar mistake (I'm not talking about the OP, but in general), just let it go.</p>
<p>I personally hate it when people are lazy about "your" and "you're" and others like it. But I predict that these distinctions will soon become obsolete. What is accepted online will very soon be accepted other places. When I was younger "normalcy" was not a word and I was taught that it was ignorant to say normalcy, that "normality" was the correct word. Well, so few people got that memo that it now has become accepted to say normalcy, in fact I'm pretty sure it's an official dictionary word. Somehow, I do find the whole thing annoying, but it's how language and grammatical rules evolve.</p>
<p>Yup, I agree HSN. Etymology. Nothing wrong with it.</p>
<p>It's just a simple case of switching homophones. People do it all the time. Doesn't make it good or right, but it's a very common and basically innocent mistake.</p>
<p>There, their, they're
Your, you're
To, too, two
hour, our
its, it's
Whose, who's and so on.</p>
<p>The thing to remember is that, with our phonetic writing system, the words on the page do not represent ideas or concepts as do say Chinese characters; they represent <em>sounds</em>. So when cruising along and typing a line of text, especially at high speed, it's very easy for the brain to seize on the wrong word and type it because it sounds correct. Your brain has inserted the correct sound in the sentence but just not the correct spelling of that sound. When written that sentence will be a problem, but when spoken aloud the sentence will be perfectly correct.</p>
<p>See I don't understand how someone typing quickly could confuse there with their. It's just so hard to even mix those up! And whenever I read something like that, I cringe. I don't mind your for you're as much b/c I understand (not really) that people can be lazy and don't want to type the extra ' and 'e'. But seriously for words like there and their, how do you mix those up? It just plain doesn't sound right!</p>
<p>^^I don't see how anyone could confuse the <em>concepts</em> of their and there. I fully understand the differences myself, but there have been (fortunately rare) times when I looked back at something I typed and saw the wrong one staring back at me. When typing fast or not paying close attention, it basically "felt" okay when I typed it because it sounded okay. That "error" alarm bell in the back of the brain just failed go off, because the sentence sounded fine.</p>