The Grammar Bitch reports

[azurelunatic]

Conscious is being aware of something. You have a conscious mind, which you are aware of being aware of, and a subconscious mind, which you are not particularly aware of. When you are awake, you are conscious. When you have been knocked out, you are unconscious.

Conscience is that thing that tells you what right and wrong are. That obnoxious little cricket served as conscience for the little puppet, and taught him right from wrong. Your conscience nags you when you've fucked up and should make it right but haven't yet.


One does not ever have a "guilty conscious". One may be conscious of guilt, or have a guilty conscience. BUT NOT MOTHERFUCKING "GUILTY CONSCIOUS"!!!!!!!!!!!!


This grammar bitch report is brought to you by $FANFIC_AUTHOR, who has just comitted an Unforgiveable.

[Edit: Fic fixed. Author knows better; spell-checker didn't catch it.]

Comments

[eequor.livejournal.com]

I can think of a couple of situations where one could have a guilty conscious or maybe a guilty consciousness. I think the first one makes more sense than the second, though....

You might like Holy Mother Grammatica's Guide to Good Writing (http://www.skeeter63.org/~silvablu/HMG/00-Introduction.htm), by Neil Gaiman.

[conscience.livejournal.com]

*I* am a guilty conscience, damnit! ME! ME!
heh...I just had to, 'cause, well, ya know...

[lubedpumpkin.livejournal.com]

Wa-waa..

[your pigtails are so cute!]

[moniqueleigh]

Yes. Thank you. You have hit upon one of my many, many pet peeves. I love my friends, even my email-only friends, but the mangling of conscious/conscience drives me batty. *sigh*

[azurelunatic]

One might have conscious guilt and unconscious smugness, but I would probably phrase it a guilty conscious mind.

[azurelunatic]

Silly. :)

[azurelunatic]

It especially hits me when I'm reading it by someone who Really Ought to Know Better.

[moniqueleigh]

Yes. Precisely. If I know the guilty party has issues with getting words straight, or has regular spelling problems (or just probably fat-fingered this one), I just shrug off these sorts of mistakes. But when the person has an otherwise extremely intelligent post (story, whatever) & uses the wrong version througout? Ack. Get a frelling dictionary.

[azurelunatic]

In this case, the guilty party did know better, and should have caught it, except everything's better with beta, and Mr. Spellchecker is not Mr. Beta Reader.

[conscience.livejournal.com]

hehheh...I am so good at whininess...so the hubby says..!
Thanks for the compliment on the pigtails! :)

[conscience.livejournal.com]

pthhhhpt!