Grammar Geeks

[Caledonia]

Dun't help o'course that we're promoting this as the three Rs.

Sorry bk. Not following. Dunce material here. (edit: me not you!) [huh]

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Sorry for misunderstanding. Not a comment re. your good self ("we're" was referring to society in general - if we were Spanish: vosotros (us, general, not including self)).

Reading Writing and Arithmetic is generally promoted in schools as "The Three Rs" (Reading, Riting and Rithmetic). I always wondered how many problems this causes ... I think we could just as successfully promote these as WAR. Much better.

bk

 

[Caledonia]

lol lol Got it now.

 

[photobyalan]

I generally don't correct anyone's grammar (with the exception of my children's grammar, of course) but I can't always control myself. After all, there are some things, such as ending a sentence with a preposition, up with which I will not put.

Speaking of which, didja hear the one about the farm boy who was visiting Harvard University? He stopped a fellow on Oxford Street and said "'Scuse me, buddy, can you tell me where the Lamont Library is at?" The man stopped, looked at him disdainfully, and said, "Young man, I am a Haavaad professah and you should not address me as 'buddy'. And, here at Haavaad, we never end a sentence with a preposition."

The farm boy thinks for a second and replies, "Well excuse me perfesser, let me rephrase that. Can you tell me where the Lamont Libraray is at, A***OLE?

My mother told me that one (and with no asterisks!).

 

[Paisley]

A few good grammar and style books:

• The Elements of Style
• The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
• The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: The Ultimate Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed
• The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to the English Usage
• On Writing Well

All of these books are very readable; some are pretty funny, too.

Also, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., has a CD-ROM that is compatible with Word. You right-click on a word in Word and it displays the definition, synonyms, etc. Slick.

 

[magneto]

In the same utterly ridiculous vein as LOL, businessmen are now using the technological term 'ping' to mean contact.

It would be really funny if the "pingee" responded with "Ow! Watch the header data on those ICMP packets, eh!"

I do carry a dry-erase marker to fix errant apostraphes (usually on those whiteboard restaurant signs), although in the paper yesterday I saw *2* ads, aluding to "Sometime's" (ahh!) and "Writer's" (as in, more than one writer). C'mon, how can you not remember "apostrophe-s is short for 'is'"??

 

[Veronica Parra]

Here's your chance ... to share with us the blatent displays of ignorance that you've seen in print.

It's spelled "blatant".

lol

 

[Veronica Parra]

When you hit the street with a graduate degree that I had a hand in, you will be able to write clearly, consicely and accurately.

It's spelled "concisely".

lol

 

[Veronica Parra]

[QUOTE="Doc" Devereux]Thus I am forced to use three uspaced full stops in place of an ellipsis, which is perfectly alright by the Oxford University Press' stlye guide.[/QUOTE]
It's spelled "unspaced".

It's spelled "style".

lol

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Veronica, I've found many more but have been keeping quiet.

 

[Veronica Parra]

This is definitely not the quiet thread.

 

[colleency]

I'm currently reading a book that had a large section of the acknowledgments dedicated to the proofreader, and it is the worst-proofread(?) book I have ever read.

Please, someone tell him that loose and lose are spelled differently!

 

[jake_fink]

I am now marking my way thorugh a chin-high stack of first year college English papers; if anyone cares to pitch in, I'm happy to share. You can have the pleasure of correcting grammar all day and well into the night.

Or you could just drop by and shoot me.

 

[raiderrescuer]

grammar geek pet peeve...

My pet peeves:

Using MS Word and having ran the "Spelling and Grammar" tool and it tells me all first characters of each line needs to be a capital letters even in the same paragraph.

Having an English Teacher who always started the class with: "My name is Mrs. Stallard, it's sounds just like Mallard as in the type of Duck."

 

[scotrace]

.


Give 'em Hell, Veronica!










.

 

[skinnychik]

You know what's REALLY infuriating? When people thoughtlessly post new threads about grammar without even proofreading their own work! Oh, that was me. :eusa_doh:

I've been sufficiently spanked.



I can't agree with the interchangeable fewer/less argument though. The traditional rule says that you should use fewer for things that can be counted (fewer than four players) but less with mass terms for things of measurable extent (less paper, less than a gallon of paint). You can use less than before a plural noun that denotes a measure of time, amount, or distance: less than three weeks, less than $400, less than 50 miles. The American Heritage® Book of English Usage.
You wouldn't have less than three items in a grocery store checkout line, unless one of the items is only a portion of a whole.

(and Count Basie should've said "doesn't" or "does not")

 

[Senator Jack]

For anyone who has not read through from the beginning of the thread, I shall quote myself.

Originally posted by Senator Jack:

This grammar thread has surfaced a few times now, and while I always find it an interesting topic for discussion, it tends to get closed down because members start correcting each other. Perhaps if we're careful this time - if we re-read our replies before posting - we can actually keep it going.

Carry on - without the one-up-manship, please. (and feel free to correct one-up-manship)

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[NewMexExpat]

Ping/creativity/substandard variety

Many slang terms and colloquialisms are successful because they are like analogy, accurately conveying the feel of a wide variety of situations by using language specific to only one, specific action or situation. (That was clumsy, wasn't it?) Phrases like, "That dog won't hunt.", or "Deep-six that idea." come to mind. But when the common knowledge of the culture or situation behind the original phrase is lost, then I guess use of the phrase begins to change.

Earlier this year I was puzzled to hear my 18 year old son and his friends saying things like, "Shotgun that last piece of pizza!", or "Shotgun on the Dr. Pepper!". I thought they wanted it thrown to them. No, they were staking a claim: "I have dibbs on the passenger seat!". They were, in my mind, abusing the old, "Shotgun!", called to claim the front passenger-door seat in a sedan when more than two people were going somewhere in the same sedan. Riding Shotgun -- the rider next to the driver on a stagecoach, covered wagon, etc. who rode with a shotgun to protect the cargo and passengers, (at least in the lore of the American TV/movie western). But most teenagers didn't grow up watching those the way we at the tail end of the baby-boom did. Still bugs me, though.

- Mark

 

[Doh!]

People who use "LOL" for their own postings instead of "just kidding" or even a smiley ("That hat makes you look like an undertaker LOL!"). First of all, LOL has been used to death so I've never used it (outside of sarcastic emails to friend's... er, friends). Second, it's short for "laugh(ed) out loud" so isn't that like saying, "Blah, blah, blah -- my joke is funny!" ?

One other: "kewl." This is supposed to be short for "cool," right? But they have the same number of letters -- so what is gained by making up a new spelling for a perfectly usable word?

Kids these days.
;-)

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I think the idea behind "Kewl" is that it sounds like someone saying "Cool" with the late unlamented "Valley Girl" accent.

Or woids to that effect.