<p>Great! This kind of progress is how and why I fixed my grammar for.</p>
<p>With this kind of grammar, is it a wonder our country is where its at?</p>
<p>My mother would turn over in her grave. Hopefully and irregardless were always cause for a scolding in our household.</p>
<p>One of my favorite teachers in high school had a sign over her homeroom door that said “Abandon hopefully, all ye who enter here.”</p>
<p>Here’s a brief explanation of the issue:</p>
<p>[Grammar</a> Girl : Starting a Sentence With “Hopefully” :: Quick and Dirty Tips](<a href=“http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/hopefully.aspx]Grammar”>http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/hopefully.aspx)</p>
<p>IMO, people who argue about these things have way too much time on their hands. “Hopefully” is accepted by the majority of people. It’s different from there/their/they’re because it’s not widely accepted to use the wrong ones in different places. </p>
<p>Maybe in a few generations, but not now. Hopefully, not in my lifetime ;)</p>
<p>It’s in a different category from using the wrong word ( there etc) or misspelling.</p>
<p>And also, it was always unnecessarily aberrational, as other words are used in a similar manner with no objections.</p>
<p>Thankfully, this will no longer be the case.</p>
<p>Mercifully, this argument may now be over. Frankly, I think it’s run its course.</p>
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It’s used by the majority of people, which is why it has finally become accepted by dictionaries and stylebooks. Since there is no official guardian of English (as there is with some other languages), this is how changes happen. I think this one is right, although I somewhat regret it. I suppose using “them” or “their” as an ungendered singular pronoun is next.</p>
<p>The LGBT community uses ze as a gender neutral alternative to he/she and zir for his/her. Maybe we can adopt that rather than use their?</p>
<p>It’s only the end of the world when its becomes it’s.</p>
<p>Hunt, I think you’re righ about the non-gendered “their”. And I think that and hopefully are functionally different from confusion errors like it’s and its or their,there,they’re.</p>
<p>There are battles where there are reasons for their defense, and there are others where they’re wrong.</p>
<p>While we’re on the topic, can someone explain this trend in using 's when you want to make something plural. “The cat’s are in the van.”</p>
<p>I see it on here all the freaking time. I see it on facebook, too. Is there some kind of rule that allows this?</p>
<p>^My husband is always doing that on structural drawings for buildings - “This detail applies to all C8’s.” Ack! I tell him to take the dang apostrophes out, but he wants them in.</p>
<p>No rule allows that. It is so annoying.</p>
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<p>I confess to doing this in conversation. I know it’s not correct, but it’s just so darn annoying to have to say, “If anyone calls, tell him or her I’m in a meeting unless he or she says it’s about the widget problem. In that case, get his or her number and tell him or her that I’ll call him or her back this afternoon.”</p>
<p>People use the 's incorrectly so often that sometimes I think I must have missed that decade of English class.</p>
<p>You know that thread on the parents forum about whether CC is the most depressing site on the Internet? This thread is an example of what keeps us all coming back, even during those years when we don’t have college questions or concerns!</p>
<p>Just saw this on a friend’s facebook and had to laugh:</p>
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<p>I immediately thought of this thread (not that I’m saying anyone here is a grammar nazi).</p>
<p>I never knew that the word “hopefully” wasn’t supposed to be used like that.</p>
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<p>The reason why people keep using them and their this way is that English lacks a suitable ungendered singular pronoun for anyone to use. It’s a gap in the language, so people fill the gap as best they can.</p>
<p>The closest thing that English has is "it’ and “its.” But in actual usage you would, by implication, be stripping the person being discussed of being human, or even of being alive. “It” normally applies to animals or inanimate objects. Most people will resort to the incorrect “their” rather than reduce a person to an “it.”</p>