Can you believe this mum-of-two only JUST discovered the reason behind abbreviations?
- Replies 27
Uh oh, it appears that one mum needs a refresher on her primary school lessons after forgetting the conventions for adding suffixes to ordinal numbers.
Gemma Lou, who is 32 years old, admitted that she only recently understood why certain adverbs, like "first," "second," "third," and so on, are abbreviated with specific letters, such as "1st," "2nd," and "3rd."
In a video she posted on TikTok, she describes how the final couple of letters from the written-out words are taken and put behind the corresponding numbers.
"I recently discovered that the "st" in "1st," "nd" in "2nd," and "rd" in "3rd" are the final letters of the words "first," and so forth," said the mum-of-two from the UK.
On TikTok, a seemingly basic grammar rule has astonished thousands of users. Credit: TikTok/@gemmawat89.
Since then, the video has received an astounding 2.7 million views and more than 2,500 comments, many of which admit they also "had no idea" the rule even existed.
In the comments section of the video, one user said that they were "absolutely baffled" by the discovery, with another agreeing and adding, "Why did I not know this?"
Others who commented on the post used phrases like "oh my god," "no way," "wait what?" and "I'm genuinely shocked."
On the other hand, many users, some of whom are even non-native English speakers, claimed that they had known the reasoning behind the rule for years and thought it to be "common sense."
"English is my second language and I have known this since primary school," one person wrote. Another one added, "I thought this was a common-sense thing – I've known since primary and I'm 13."
A third user chimed in and added, "I am worried for everyone in the comments."
Errors in grammar can be quite easy to overlook, and they frequently develop into bad habits.
The following are some of the most common grammatical errors in the English language that people frequently make without even realising it:
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Gemma Lou, who is 32 years old, admitted that she only recently understood why certain adverbs, like "first," "second," "third," and so on, are abbreviated with specific letters, such as "1st," "2nd," and "3rd."
In a video she posted on TikTok, she describes how the final couple of letters from the written-out words are taken and put behind the corresponding numbers.
"I recently discovered that the "st" in "1st," "nd" in "2nd," and "rd" in "3rd" are the final letters of the words "first," and so forth," said the mum-of-two from the UK.
On TikTok, a seemingly basic grammar rule has astonished thousands of users. Credit: TikTok/@gemmawat89.
Since then, the video has received an astounding 2.7 million views and more than 2,500 comments, many of which admit they also "had no idea" the rule even existed.
In the comments section of the video, one user said that they were "absolutely baffled" by the discovery, with another agreeing and adding, "Why did I not know this?"
Others who commented on the post used phrases like "oh my god," "no way," "wait what?" and "I'm genuinely shocked."
On the other hand, many users, some of whom are even non-native English speakers, claimed that they had known the reasoning behind the rule for years and thought it to be "common sense."
"English is my second language and I have known this since primary school," one person wrote. Another one added, "I thought this was a common-sense thing – I've known since primary and I'm 13."
A third user chimed in and added, "I am worried for everyone in the comments."
Errors in grammar can be quite easy to overlook, and they frequently develop into bad habits.
The following are some of the most common grammatical errors in the English language that people frequently make without even realising it:
- your vs you're (this one is a pet hate of ours)
- there vs their vs they're
- to vs too vs two
- its vs it's
- affect vs effect
- than vs then
- who vs whom
- lose vs loose
- brake vs break
- whether vs weather
Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
.png){kind=icon}
