Using context selectors with links

ok so im new to this but I wrote context selectors for three different kinds of links so that I could have different link formats on one page as in:

a.one:link {.....}

a.one:hover {....}

a.one:visited {...}

a.two:link and so on the in the code (a href="url" class="one")

it works fine in Mac safari but doesnt work at all in IE.

Tried another way using contect selection as in:

p.nav a:link {....}

p.nav a:hover {...}

p.nav a:visited {...}

so in the code (p class="nav")(a href....)

work fine in mac safari but in IE, get this, the link format is okay but when u hover ONLY THE UPPER HALF of the letters are in the hover color.
What on earth am i doing wrong! Help please!

William