There Is/There Are

[Old Scratch]

First of all, I'd like to apologize for starting a fairly trivial topic, but I've noticed something about Avernum 3 (and Kelandon's Web site, which is what piqued me -- no offense intended) that I would like to point out publically.

 

Throughout the entire game so far, the contraction "there's" (there is) has consistently been used in place of "there are" (or "there're") when the latter phrasing is called for. I can't give you an exact example from the game because I don't remember any offhand, but this is the gist of it: "There's three ogres in the chamber to the north."

 

This replacement of "there're" with "there's" is becoming rampant in American society, mainly in speech but also occasionally in writing and literature.

 

For the most part, the grammar and vocabulary used in Avernum 3 is excellent, and the typos few and far between -- an astonishing feat for a game with so much dialogue. Spiderweb Studios does need to learn the nuances of a certain pair of contractions, though.

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Originally written by Old Scratch:
First of all, I'd like to apologize for starting a fairly trivial topic, but I've noticed something about Avernum 3 (and Kelandon's Web site, which is what piqued me -- no offense intended) that I would like to point out publically.

I believe you're referring to an individual typo as if it were a pattern, at least in my case. This one typo (on the Nine Vars page) has been fixed.

[Micawber]

There's also a pattern of speech issue - in written dialogue, for example in literature, grammatical "mistakes" are often copied from local usage, hinting at things like accent and rhythm of speech, which can less easily be conveyed in print.

 

I'm not saying that's what Jeff is doing in this case; but the use of "there's" with a plural is fairly common in speech.

[Old Scratch]

Quote:

Originally written by Micawber:
I'm not saying that's what Jeff is doing in this case; but the use of "there's" with a plural is fairly common in speech.

Yes, it has become quite a common blunder these days . . . in fact, I do it myself from time to time. I always catch myself and do a bit of self-flagellation, because it's a bad habit to get into. I've heard all kinds of people doing it, from TV weathermen to the clerk at the local Harris Teeter; it's pretty rampant.

Still wrong, though, local dialects notwithstanding.

[Dikiyoba]

There's sure a lot of picky grammer people on these boards!

 

(Yes, both mistakes are intentional.)

 

Dikiyoba didn't even know you could contract "there are" into "there're." It just doesn't sound or look right.

 

Edit: There was no typo here. Really.

[Alorael at Large]

There're isn't a very common contraction. It has the same number of syllables as "there are," which means the usual reason for a contraction is gone. Unless you love schwas, there's simply no incentive to use it.

 

—Alorael, who are in favor of prescriptivisms matter not how many person use unusual structure.

[Old Scratch]

Quote:

Originally written by That hem hath holpen:
There're isn't a very common contraction. It has the same number of syllables as "there are," which means the usual reason for a contraction is gone. Unless you love schwas, there's simply no incentive to use it.

—Alorael, who are in favor of prescriptivisms matter not how many person use unusual structure.

If one eschews the contraction "there're", then the only grammatically correct alternative is to use "there are" in its stead. The incentive for using correct grammar is . . . well, there isn't one just lately in our society; the Internet is a prime example of modern laxity in such matters. In earlier generations, the incentive was not looking like a doofus in front of your peers, but that pressure has gone up the primordial estuary without a means of locomotion (i.e., no one cares anymore).