I’ve once said that the one thing that truly grinds my gears is BAD GRAMMAR. Well after putting it off for a long time, I’ve finally decided to begin a [possibly never-ending] set of grammar lessons on Angry Chinese Driver. Sad, I know; even sadder is the fact that many of you need to learn basic English from random websites that berate bad drivers, rather than in elementary school. So without further ado, let us start with the most common — and definitely most irritating — grammatical error found amongst young people (and sadly, even some mature adults).

QUESTION: Do you find anything wrong with the sentence, “Your such an idiot“?

If so, I’m sure you sympathize with the pain that I must endure every time someone writes that out. If not, please read on.

YOUR is a possessive term; it belongs to YOU. Examples would be “your car”, “Is that your ride?”, “I saw your driver”.

YOU’RE is a contraction of YOU ARE. Examples would be “You’re inept at this”, “some say you’re terrible”.

Get it? So the next time you decide to insult someone by typing “your such a retard”, think twice. Please. I doubt that when you’re all grown up and you write to your employer “I have followed you’re recommendations…”, you’ll make a positive impact.

Check out the next grammar lesson on THERE vs. THEIR vs. THEY’RE!