Your or you’re – a lesson on humility
I’ve been a bit unwell recently, so in an excuse of resting and recovering, I’ve been scrolling a lot on Facebook. One of my bad habits while scrolling the newsfeed (which is a bad habit in itself) is to read the comments, especially watching a video or reading a post that sounds hard to believe. I try to find reasons or validation by reading the comments. Sometimes there are gems in the comments, but most of the times they are filled with junks.
Being labelled as a grammar nazi, I pay particular attention on the spellings and stuff, and one of my pet peeves is the wrong spelling of your or you’re. To me this is a simple mistake since I grew up learning by reading but I guess for people who learnt English through daily conversation, i.e. native speakers, this might be very hard for them to spot, and worry about, especially when commenting on Facebook. To me, if it can be expanded into “you are/were”, then “you’re” is the word you’re looking for, and vice versa.
Regardless (not irregardless) of that, I am annoyed at most of the wrong usage of you’re vs your that my mind used the heuristic or short cut linking the wrong usage of you’re/your = useless comment or junk. That way I can read and skim the comments much faster, I reasoned. In truth, I think it is more related to my ego and feeling superior that I created the reasoning, because let’s face it, not all knowledge or useful information are worded in exquisite grammar.
Anyways going back to me being unwell, I went to see the doctor since I started to have slight headache and aching on my temple and nose, especially when praying. The doctor asked whether it hurt, and during my fumble to answer, I said, “Yes, it hurts a bit, especially when I pros.. prostate.”
The doctors’ eyes widen a bit.
“I mean when I prostrate,” I said. The doctor nodded as if I didn’t say anything wrong.
On my way back from the doctor, I was reminded of my arrogant heuristics/assumptions of comments with misuse of your/you’re that I believe this was a reminder from Allah in the month of Ramadhan.
So when I prostrate, I remember that everyone makes mistake and we should not be too quick to judge. 🤣
Yours truly.
Thank you for reading.