lol @ Sunsnail

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Originally posted by Floorfiller i'm just saying if someone spells a word wrong in a casual conversation its not the end of the world. i mean i don't feel the need to use CAPS when i type online...is that the worst thing in the world?

Oh, in that case, I do agree with you.

In case you're wondering why it happens though, there are a few explanations (which is the reason why I care about those who care more often than the thing being cared in itself... you know what I mean? ).

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Originally posted by Aquarian And still, people who learn it as a second language rarely make those mistakes. I've noticed that confusion between words like their/there/they're is almost exclusive to native speakers. amirite?

Indeed, it's more common amongst natives to see such errors among natives, although foreigners do tend to make some quite "exotic" mistakes.

The reason behind it, though, is quite simple: English is not our first language, and we learn to express our thoughts in a whole different way before we learn it.

Mainly because it's almost impossible to confuse the words "deles" (their), "lá/aí" (there) and "(eles) são/estão" (they're) because they don't sound alike (as you can imagine). Therefore, when I learned the translation, it would be very difficult (but possible) to confuse them.

Also, we often don't pronounce these words correctly (I used to say "they-ur" instead of "their" until I learnt phonetics), so it makes the confusion even more difficult.

Ironically, the more I internalise the English language, the more often I find myself making these same mistakes

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Originally posted by Lira Ironically, the more I internalise the English language, the more often I find myself making these same mistakes

Funny thing that is. I always hated my english courses, because I used to write flawlessly, and then the more I studied the rules, the more I thought about them, the more mistakes I made. Haven't taken english for about 5 months now and my writing is already getting better again

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Originally posted by Aquarian Funny thing that is. I always hated my english courses, because I used to write flawlessly, and then the more I studied the rules, the more I thought about them, the more mistakes I made. Haven't taken english for about 5 months now and my writing is already getting better again

Hehe, that's interesting - are you a native speaker or...?

(I assume you are)

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Native french speaker. English is my second language.

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Originally posted by Aquarian Native french speaker. English is my second language.

Canadian French? Everyone tells me about it, but I've never heard it. Is it much different from European French?

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Originally posted by Lira Canadian French? Everyone tells me about it, but I've never heard it. Is it much different from European French?

Very very different. French french is like Brit english. Because the two countries are so close, the languages blend into eachother. The french use a ton of words and expressions that we call "anglicismes" because they're taken from english. While on the other hand, Quebec french has 'francicized' versions of a bunch of contemporary terms. For instance; e-mail = courriel, chatting (on the internet) = clavarder, etc. France also has a bunch of different accents (depending on the region), all of which significantly differ from Quebec french.

When the colonies were being populated, the french decided to make sure that only the so called "pure french" from the king's high court would be thought in New France, so that they could avoid having a bunch of different dialects forming like in France. Because of Quebec's particular history (resisting assimilation from the British and such), the language has remained somewhat untouched for over 300 years. So basicly, the french that's spoken casually in Quebec today is the closest to old french in pronounciation and everything else.