Strictly speaking, this is a usage issue, not a spelling issue. Each word has multiple uses and parts of speech, and they don't overlap. A dictionary is your best friend, and you will find examples of each word in its various contexts.
Thanks Cogito for pointing that out. I'll look it up. That one has been giving me problems. I got a lot of studying to do. Question, when you submit something to a publisher do they check for things like that to, too? I mean do you have to be a really good writer as far as getting things corect. My guess would be yes it would help you get a deal easier. ~Kirby
Absolutely. They would probably overlook an isolated instance, maybe two, as a typo. But if they suspect you don't know the difference or don't proofread, your manuscript will quickly find its way into the rejected pile. They don't have time to fix your mistakes for you.
And quite honestly, if you haven't mastered as simple an issue as to/too, then you really aren't ready to be submitting, or to be published.
Banzai is right. I'm not one to be hateful, but seriously do some more reading and pay attention in English class. Hell, go to Borders and buy a grammar book. You're just helping to make Texans look like illiterate hicks and, being a native Houstonian, I don't like that.
Ease up a bit, Mo. We have plenty of members who run into difficulty on "easy" usage issues. If it isn't to vs too, its lose vs loose or there/their/they're. I'd much rather see people ask than to keep stumbling around in the dark.
Better that they ask than just guessing at it, I suppose. Still, I feel like something has gone wrong when native English speakers older than 20 have problems with this stuff. Is there a part of the site that I've neglected that has these kinds of resources? EDIT: And I guess I will want a little compassion when I come here for something everyone else finds to be ridiculous.
Specific questions of this sort do belong in this part of the forum. However, as I said, in many case, they can better be answered by consulting a dictionary. Also, grammar guides like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style or The Little, Brown Handbook cover many of the common usage errors.
Sometimes it's the education system. If my father never gotten me a tutor in grade 6, I don't think I would have been able to write at the level I do now. Nowhere in elementary or highschool was I ever taught the parts of speech. I even recommended to my grade 12 English teacher that we should go back to the basics for our class, because I noticed all my peers couldn't tell a difference between a noun and an adjective. Of course, the teacher said no, because it wasn't part of the curriculum. That's what happens when you come from one of the poorest neighborhoods in my city and one of the worse ranking schools in my province.
Just how does the teacher expect to teach the curriculum, having discovered such a gap in the foundation competencies?
Perhaps I take my quality of education for granted despite wishing it had been a lot better. We had plenty of those stereotypical football meatheads in my school as well as the ditzy blondes etc. I do recall them at least functioning at an acceptable level, though. Oh wait! The football coach who taught our level English class couldn't pronounce chateau. My friend and I decided to get out of an advanced class the second semester of freshmen year in high school because we were way too lazy for all the work. I think teachers like that guy might be the reason for some people not knowing to vs too. OP, if you don't hate me for my earlier comment, care to say where in Texas you went to high school???
Thanks for the info Cogito. I had just found it in the library. Its a very good book and Strunks way of eliminating useless words reminds me of Mo Yeongsu. Still no answer. I would do it but I think Mo Yeongsu should. Lets hear it. ~Kirby
