What do people so many people find it so hard to know the difference between?

Question

he's and his?

it's and its?

there, their and they're?

here and hear?

you're and your?

I was a non-english speaker until the age of 13 when I had to learn english after moving from France to Australia and it took me less than six months to be able to spell properly in english, yet there are people who have been speaking english all their lives and still don't know the difference between those basic grammatical concepts. Why? Who else finds it extremely annoying?

Answer 1

There are plenty of illiterate people living in any country, and, although it is annoying to a great extent, it is very natural. That is why language professors usually advise their students (I mean language learners) not to trust ANY native speaker on spellings, and stick to their books for learning writing a foreign language.

Answer 2

Two reasons:

1. In languages like Spanish and Portuguese, the "i" has an "e" sound. They don't have the "short i" sound. So it can be very difficult for those learners (especially when reading) to distinguish between the sounds "he's" and "his".

2. It also depends on how much exposure a learner gets from native speakers of the target language. For example, in California, many Spanish-speaking immigrant children are placed into ELD classes, where they study about the same topics, but in English/Spanish. Unfortunately, many of these students get stuck in these classes. That, along with the fact that they most likely don't speak English at home and their peers mostly speak Spanish amongst themselves, basically perpetuates mistakes like "he's/his" in SPEAKING.

As for "it's" and "its" and similar mistakes in SPELLING from NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS, well, that's just plain inexcusable (unless of course they have a learning disability like Caicos Turkey pointed out).

Answer 3

Laziness maybe - some people leave out apostrophes and extra letters when texting and typing on the internet. Or just plain ignorance. It annoys me too.

Answer 4

Perhaps in your case it's a combination of just having to make an effort (sink or swim!) and natural ability. You put me in mind of an Italian girl I knew in France who arrived not speaking any French and yet within a year was top of her class in French! Some people don't see the point in making an effort to spell and some people have real learning problems. It doesn't do to be too irritated -- perhaps the person in question is dyslexic!

Answer 5

Yeah i don't get why people do that.Maybe they haven't been taught properly.Who knows.