Author Topic: Grammar nazi  (Read 184548 times)

Malaysia41

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #350 on: June 27, 2015, 06:55:27 PM »
It is very unlikely I could be friends with grammar nazi types. Talk about being wound up WAY too tight.

...and now you'll be receive notifications of all ensuing grammar nazi posts JS ;). 

Another one I've noticed lately: whinghing or whinging for whining.  What's with that g smooshed in the middle there?  I don't get it.

JS - am I now banned from stepping foot on your island?  I sure hope not.  That would send me whinging out of control.

Grid

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #351 on: June 27, 2015, 07:00:02 PM »


You guys should know this:  does the exclamation point go inside or outside the quote mark?

If it's not part of the quoted material, it should go on the outside. 

Example:

He said, "I hate it when people misspell words!"


vs.

I hate it when people don't know the difference between "whoa" and "woe"!

I think only the U.S. actually considers quoted punctuation a way to correctly end a sentence.  I think it's much clearer when there's a full separation of ideas inside and outside the quotes (and no associated commas, inside or outside the quotes):

He said "I hate it when people misspell words!".

Grid

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #352 on: June 27, 2015, 07:02:29 PM »
I have a tendency to try to pack too much meaning into a single sentence (like stuffing clowns into a clown car), stringing together separate clauses with reckless abandon until even the most assiduous reader will have trouble parsing the tortured maze of a run-on sentence that results (not to mention my corresponding overuse of parenthetical clauses, which technically does not violate any rules of grammar of which I am aware but which (I would imagine) does not sit well with you grammar nazis either (or are you okay with Russian nesting dolls of embedded parentheticals?)).

This was legitimately fun to read.

Also noticed the two spaces after the full stops.

I've been on this forum for over three years and have posted here thousands of times.  In all of that text, I challenge you to find a single instance of me using a single space between sentences.  If you find one, it's a mistake.


Yay!  I do it for clarity's sake.

grantmeaname

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #353 on: June 28, 2015, 04:53:22 AM »


Another one I've noticed lately: whinghing or whinging for whining.  What's with that g smooshed in the middle there?  I don't get it.
It's the Queen's English. Wait till you hear someone pronounce it!

grantmeaname

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #354 on: June 28, 2015, 04:56:36 AM »
Also noticed the two spaces after the full stops.

I've been on this forum for over three years and have posted here thousands of times.  In all of that text, I challenge you to find a single instance of me using a single space between sentences.  If you find one, it's a mistake.

"I was young - and reckless!"

cerebus

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #355 on: June 28, 2015, 10:56:20 PM »

One of my grade-school teachers told me to insert a comma "wherever you would naturally pause, were you saying the sentence out loud". That's the rule I still use.

That's useful but it doesn't help to distinguish whether a comma, semicolon, ellipse or em-dash would be the most suitable punctuation for a natural pause.

I find myself using the ellipse all the time in informal chat (like forums and whatsapp) to punctuate my writing, as it seems to mimic the stream of consciousness of natural speech better than a comma. It's bad English but it feels like it works.


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monarda

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #356 on: June 29, 2015, 03:59:08 PM »
How did I not see this thread until now?

I have a low tolerance. I am definitely one of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation nazis that forms a negative opinion whenever I see violations.  I'm especially irritated by the incorrect use of apostrophes.   

Or while we're at it, "nukular" for nuclear!!


forummm

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #357 on: June 29, 2015, 04:53:09 PM »
How did I not see this thread until now?

I have a low tolerance. I am definitely one of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation nazis that forms a negative opinion whenever I see violations.  I'm especially irritated by the incorrect use of apostrophes.   

What do you have against apostrophe's?



;)

Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #358 on: June 29, 2015, 05:03:14 PM »
How did I not see this thread until now?

I have a low tolerance. I am definitely one of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation nazis that forms a negative opinion whenever I see violations.  I'm especially irritated by the incorrect use of apostrophes.   

What do you have against apostrophe's?


;)

Oh, my god... The collective clenching of sphincters... Mine included...

cerebus

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #359 on: June 29, 2015, 09:47:23 PM »

How did I not see this thread until now?

I have a low tolerance. I am definitely one of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation nazis that forms a negative opinion whenever I see violations.  I'm especially irritated by the incorrect use of apostrophes.   

What do you have against apostrophe's?


;)

Oh, my god... The collective clenching of sphincters... Mine included...

Perfect example of the misappropriated ellipse. Or perhaps it's simply the appropriated ellipse. Someone has to rule on this.



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Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #360 on: June 30, 2015, 07:08:36 AM »

How did I not see this thread until now?

I have a low tolerance. I am definitely one of the spelling, grammar, and punctuation nazis that forms a negative opinion whenever I see violations.  I'm especially irritated by the incorrect use of apostrophes.   

What do you have against apostrophe's?


;)

Oh, my god... The collective clenching of sphincters... Mine included...

Perfect example of the misappropriated ellipse. Or perhaps it's simply the appropriated ellipse. Someone has to rule on this.



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Ha!  True enough.  I should have known better than to get lazy in my punctuation in this thread.  I picked this up from French many years ago, in which language it is an appropriate use.  I like it for the evocative "trailing off" of the voice it implies.  But I wouldn't use that punctuation in formal writing (nor, probably, would I be talking about my sphincter clenching).

Candace

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #361 on: June 30, 2015, 08:31:07 AM »
Most of the above grammar-related offenses bug me. But they bug me five times as much when I see them on CNN's website, in the New York Times, or in corporate materials, or in important personal correspondence. I'm trying to relax about bad grammar in informal speech and informal writing. But in more or less official material, I can't stand it.

My grammar isn't perfect by far, but it's probably better than 99% of native English speakers.

An aside: my boyfriend has a big brain. He has degrees in math, chemistry, business and law, and is a mostly wise and well-spoken person. But when he's relaxed, he likes to use bad grammar sometimes. I hate it. I think it makes him sound dumb, and he's not dumb. Not only that, but I think his doing it makes me sound dumb too, by association. He's actually asked me to let up on correcting him. He says he's expected to speak properly all day at work, especially in court, and he likes to let it go a bit when he's relaxed. Of course I think that speaking badly is less relaxing because it's dissonant and requires more effort to understand, but he doesn't see it that way. Since he almost never complains about anything, and tends to put up with a lot, I have to conclude that my correcting him bothers him a fair amount since he took pains to bring it up. So I'm gritting my teeth and not letting the sounds escape my mouth when he uses bad grammar. I have just asked him to please never do it around my parents :-).

secondcor521

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #362 on: June 30, 2015, 08:43:56 AM »
Oh Grammar nazis help me.

I'm usually very good to excellent.  I'm working on correcting the "Hopefully, I will..." error now.

The other one that flummoxes me, though, is when to use "that" vs. "which":

  Here is the banana that I plan to eat.
  Here is the banana which I plan to eat.

Which is correct?  Is there a simple rule?  I vaguely remember the Microsoft Word grammar tool correcting me on this a lot, but I can't remember which way, and I just changed it until the program was happy; I never internalized any good rule about it.

Thanks!!

Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #363 on: June 30, 2015, 09:01:58 AM »
Oh Grammar nazis help me.

I'm usually very good to excellent.  I'm working on correcting the "Hopefully, I will..." error now.

The other one that flummoxes me, though, is when to use "that" vs. "which":

  Here is the banana that I plan to eat.
  Here is the banana which I plan to eat.

Which is correct?  Is there a simple rule?  I vaguely remember the Microsoft Word grammar tool correcting me on this a lot, but I can't remember which way, and I just changed it until the program was happy; I never internalized any good rule about it.

Thanks!!

"That" is correct in this instance.  "That" is used when what follows is a restrictive clause.  That's just a fancy way of saying that you are eating a particular banana, and you're using "that" to clarify that particular banana.  "Here is the banana that I plan to eat," vs. some other banana that you plan to throw on the floor. 

Here's an example of when "which" would be used.

"Bananas, which are an excellent source of potassium, are nonetheless a little mushy for my taste."

Or, to try to be closer to your original sentence:

"That banana, which is too ripe for my taste, is going to be used for banana bread."

See, in these examples, "which" is used as a relative pronoun to give you extra information.  The main sentence is "This banana is going to be used for banana bread."  The non-restrictive clause, "which is too ripe for my taste," gives you extra information but doesn't restrict (or change the meaning of) the main sentence.

Does that make sense?

BlueHouse

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #364 on: June 30, 2015, 09:31:01 AM »
Oh Grammar nazis help me.

I'm usually very good to excellent.  I'm working on correcting the "Hopefully, I will..." error now.

The other one that flummoxes me, though, is when to use "that" vs. "which":

  Here is the banana that I plan to eat.
  Here is the banana which I plan to eat.

Which is correct?  Is there a simple rule?  I vaguely remember the Microsoft Word grammar tool correcting me on this a lot, but I can't remember which way, and I just changed it until the program was happy; I never internalized any good rule about it.

Thanks!!

"That" is correct in this instance.  "That" is used when what follows is a restrictive clause.  That's just a fancy way of saying that you are eating a particular banana, and you're using "that" to clarify that particular banana.  "Here is the banana that I plan to eat," vs. some other banana that you plan to throw on the floor. 

Here's an example of when "which" would be used.

"Bananas, which are an excellent source of potassium, are nonetheless a little mushy for my taste."

Or, to try to be closer to your original sentence:

"That banana, which is too ripe for my taste, is going to be used for banana bread."

See, in these examples, "which" is used as a relative pronoun to give you extra information.  The main sentence is "This banana is going to be used for banana bread."  The non-restrictive clause, "which is too ripe for my taste," gives you extra information but doesn't restrict (or change the meaning of) the main sentence.

Does that make sense?
I"m not sure that this rule works 100% of the time, but I was taught that whenever "which" is used, it must be preceded by a comma.  So when I use "which", I look to see if a comma is appropriate, and if not, I tend to change the sentence up a bit.

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #365 on: June 30, 2015, 09:39:27 AM »
The other one that flummoxes me, though, is when to use "that" vs. "which":

  Here is the banana that I plan to eat.
  Here is the banana which I plan to eat.

Which is correct?  Is there a simple rule?

Both are correct. The rule Kris gives above is a common prescriptivist rule, but it doesn't accurately state native English use and it doesn't need to be followed unless you want to avoid tickling the feathers of some people.

You should avoid using "that" to introduce a nonrestrictive clause because it will be jarring to native speakers, but using "which" is correct for either kind of clause. It also does not need to be preceded by a comma because the only rule on commas is the one I gave in my previous post.

Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #366 on: June 30, 2015, 09:47:18 AM »
Oh Grammar nazis help me.

I'm usually very good to excellent.  I'm working on correcting the "Hopefully, I will..." error now.

The other one that flummoxes me, though, is when to use "that" vs. "which":

  Here is the banana that I plan to eat.
  Here is the banana which I plan to eat.

Which is correct?  Is there a simple rule?  I vaguely remember the Microsoft Word grammar tool correcting me on this a lot, but I can't remember which way, and I just changed it until the program was happy; I never internalized any good rule about it.

Thanks!!

Also, let me add that another way to check is this: if you can remove the word completely, you should use "that."  Example: "Here is the banana I plan to eat."


OttoVonBisquick

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #367 on: June 30, 2015, 11:36:29 AM »
Haha well it's better than in German, where the verb is kicked to the end of the run-on sentence and by the time you get to it, you have no idea what it was referring to.

Reden Sie nicht schlecht über die schöne deutsche Sprache! ;)

Sorry if my German is terrible, I just started learning about 6 months ago.

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #368 on: June 30, 2015, 12:15:36 PM »
Haha well it's better than in German, where the verb is kicked to the end of the run-on sentence and by the time you get to it, you have no idea what it was referring to.

Reden Sie nicht schlecht über die schöne deutsche Sprache! ;)

Sorry if my German is terrible, I just started learning about 6 months ago.

Google "the awful German language" by Mark Twain if you haven't read it yet.  Or just search for sentences that end in ridiculousness like "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein" to get a feel for the shenanigans.

OttoVonBisquick

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #369 on: June 30, 2015, 12:19:06 PM »
Google "the awful German language" by Mark Twain if you haven't read it yet.  Or just search for sentences that end in ridiculousness like "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein" to get a feel for the shenanigans.

Will do. Also, found a fun little book called "Schottenfreude", which describes fun (and, as you alluded to with your sentence, verbose) words that exist in German (although likely rarely used) to describe complex feelings or emotions.

Plan on buying it sometime soon, as I'm weirdly addicted to the sound of the language, and I think it would be fun to boost my vocabulary with these funny little sayings.

Gerard

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #370 on: June 30, 2015, 01:06:54 PM »
An aside: my boyfriend has a big brain. He has degrees in math, chemistry, business and law, and is a mostly wise and well-spoken person. But when he's relaxed, he likes to use bad grammar sometimes. I hate it. I think it makes him sound dumb, and he's not dumb. Not only that, but I think his doing it makes me sound dumb too, by association. He's actually asked me to let up on correcting him. He says he's expected to speak properly all day at work, especially in court, and he likes to let it go a bit when he's relaxed.

I got a little confused by this. Do you mean he actually uses bad grammar, such as saying "I will go" when he means "I went"? Or do you just mean that he's more skilled at style switching than you are? Like, saying "Ain't gonna happen" when you might say "That eventuality is highly unlikely to occur"?

forummm

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #371 on: June 30, 2015, 01:54:18 PM »
Walla instead of voila.

My dad once kept saying "fawalla" and I couldn't figure out why. Eventually I figured out it was "voila". He also spelled it out wrong when I was trying to figure out what the "word" was.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2015, 01:56:13 PM by forummm »

Candace

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #372 on: June 30, 2015, 01:59:45 PM »
An aside: my boyfriend has a big brain. He has degrees in math, chemistry, business and law, and is a mostly wise and well-spoken person. But when he's relaxed, he likes to use bad grammar sometimes. I hate it. I think it makes him sound dumb, and he's not dumb. Not only that, but I think his doing it makes me sound dumb too, by association. He's actually asked me to let up on correcting him. He says he's expected to speak properly all day at work, especially in court, and he likes to let it go a bit when he's relaxed.

I got a little confused by this. Do you mean he actually uses bad grammar, such as saying "I will go" when he means "I went"? Or do you just mean that he's more skilled at style switching than you are? Like, saying "Ain't gonna happen" when you might say "That eventuality is highly unlikely to occur"?

I mean he'll say things like "I don't like them grammar nazis" or "He don't care if he sounds dumb". [Edited with a second example]
« Last Edit: July 01, 2015, 06:58:42 AM by Candace »

enigmaT120

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #373 on: June 30, 2015, 02:38:44 PM »
Google "the awful German language" by Mark Twain if you haven't read it yet.  Or just search for sentences that end in ridiculousness like "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein" to get a feel for the shenanigans.

Any language with a word that means an improvement that makes things worse can't be all bad.  No, I never can remember the word.  And I need it depressingly often.


Malaysia41

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #374 on: July 01, 2015, 10:37:15 AM »
Was thinking about this thread as I finished reading the book The Universe vs Alex Woods last night. This excellent and hilarious book is set in (and perhaps written in) the UK, and also enjoys playing with German (one of my favourite languages). As has been noted, many of the "errors" listed in this thread are not errors at all, but region (including country) specific. I grew up with parents from different parts of the word, one very masterful with English, but the UK form, and the other just trying to make a good go of it and beating the pants off of all of us in Scrabble. I learned so much from both of them about what isn't wrong, and how often we err if we assume our own form of a given language is "the right" one.
Ha! My brain enjoys imagining your parents being from different parts of the word.  What word? THE word?  That word?  Which word?


daverobev

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #375 on: July 01, 2015, 04:55:16 PM »
It is very unlikely I could be friends with grammar nazi types. Talk about being wound up WAY too tight.

...and now you'll be receive notifications of all ensuing grammar nazi posts JS ;). 

Another one I've noticed lately: whinghing or whinging for whining.  What's with that g smooshed in the middle there?  I don't get it.

JS - am I now banned from stepping foot on your island?  I sure hope not.  That would send me whinging out of control.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whinge

It's a word.

Malaysia41

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #376 on: July 02, 2015, 01:16:00 AM »
It is very unlikely I could be friends with grammar nazi types. Talk about being wound up WAY too tight.

...and now you'll be receive notifications of all ensuing grammar nazi posts JS ;). 

Another one I've noticed lately: whinghing or whinging for whining.  What's with that g smooshed in the middle there?  I don't get it.

JS - am I now banned from stepping foot on your island?  I sure hope not.  That would send me whinging out of control.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whinge

It's a word.


Well, slap my ass and tell me to stop whinging. 

I still don't like it, even if I'm dead wrong.  :)

cerebus

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #377 on: July 02, 2015, 01:36:37 AM »
Whinge is perfectly fine English. It's more of a British term than American. You don't like it because of culture, nothing more. However, the correct gerund form is whingeing. There's a subtle difference between whine and whinge - whining is quite stringent, and whingeing is peevish. It's basically the same though.
« Last Edit: July 02, 2015, 01:39:19 AM by cerebus »

Malaysia41

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #378 on: July 02, 2015, 03:18:34 AM »
I concede, and congratulate ye victors who understand the rules o'English better than I. 

Job well done. Top notch. 

I shall resume my place in the bleachers, or as the British say*, behind the bike shed.

Carry on.

*At least, that's what wikipedia tells me they say. 

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #379 on: July 04, 2015, 11:04:22 AM »
Whingeing - the non-Brits among us got it from Harry Potter. It does add another word to our vocabulary. I appreciated being able to tell DD to stop whinging, she got what I meant right away.
And now I suppose I am also banned from Jon_Snow's island   ;-(

johnny847

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #380 on: July 04, 2015, 04:53:48 PM »
I concede, and congratulate ye victors who understand the rules o'English better than I. 

Job well done. Top notch. 

I shall resume my place in the bleachers, or as the British say*, behind the bike shed.

Carry on.

*At least, that's what wikipedia tells me they say.

Thank you for getting that right (although I guess to be expected on the Grammar Nazi thread). Too many people say "me."

Cathy

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #381 on: July 04, 2015, 08:24:42 PM »
I concede, and congratulate ye victors who understand the rules o'English better than I. 

Job well done. Top notch. 

I shall resume my place in the bleachers, or as the British say*, behind the bike shed.

Carry on.

*At least, that's what wikipedia tells me they say.

Thank you for getting that right (although I guess to be expected on the Grammar Nazi thread). Too many people say "me."

This one is debatable. The old-school prescriptivists will tell you that "than" is a conjunction, in which case "I" was correct above; however, "than" can also be treated as a preposition, in which case "me" would be correct. The latter use is very standard in the year 2015.

johnny847

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #382 on: July 04, 2015, 08:31:24 PM »
I concede, and congratulate ye victors who understand the rules o'English better than I. 

Job well done. Top notch. 

I shall resume my place in the bleachers, or as the British say*, behind the bike shed.

Carry on.

*At least, that's what wikipedia tells me they say.

Thank you for getting that right (although I guess to be expected on the Grammar Nazi thread). Too many people say "me."

This one is debatable. The old-school prescriptivists will tell you that "than" is a conjunction, in which case "I" was correct above; however, "than" can also be treated as a preposition, in which case "me" would be correct. The latter use is very standard in the year 2015.

Yet another example of how the rules of any language change over time.

The same way that unique originally meant "one of a kind," but now people have misused it so many times (under the old definition) that it has been degraded to mean rare. This is easily noticed when somebody says something is more unique than something else.
I personally do not like this change.

Another example is one I believe we discussed earlier on this thread: using gift as a verb. It used to be wrong to do so, but it seems to be generally accepted nowadays.

Side note: Is there a word in the English language for somebody who has lost stuff? (Guardians of the Galaxy movie reference)
« Last Edit: July 04, 2015, 08:33:21 PM by johnny847 »

Cathy

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #383 on: July 04, 2015, 08:33:19 PM »
Yet another example of how the rules of any language change over time.

Historically, well-known writers did not follow many of the prescriptivist rules which are taught by schoolteachers today. The claim that "than" is strictly a conjunction is an historical prescriptivist rule, but there's no evidence that it's actually an historical rule of the language.

johnny847

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #384 on: July 04, 2015, 08:34:33 PM »
Yet another example of how the rules of any language change over time.

Historically, well-known writers did not follow many of the prescriptivist rules which are taught by schoolteachers today. The claim that "than" is strictly a conjunction is an historical prescriptivist rule, but there's no evidence that it's actually an historical rule of the language.

Cathy where do you know this stuff from?

marty998

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #385 on: July 04, 2015, 08:35:43 PM »
Also noticed the two spaces after the full stops.

I've been on this forum for over three years and have posted here thousands of times.  In all of that text, I challenge you to find a single instance of me using a single space between sentences.  If you find one, it's a mistake.

Well when you set a challenge someone is going to take it on. I found one Sol! Looked up your profile, picked one page of posts at random (page 36) and here it is:

I think most of recognize that the game is rigged to favor the elite minority. 

The world is pyramid shaped, with a select few living off the backs of the squalid masses below them.  This is just as true for Warren Buffet as it is for the average Walmart shopper, just at different scales.  Buffet doesn't profit without an actively participatory consumer class, and you can't buy a $3 T-shirt without Vietnamese sweatshop labor.  We all prosper in America because the third world is horrendously exploited.

If I were a man of deeper conviction, I could devote my life to changing this system.  In reality I am a man of selfishly expedient optimization, and so I instead choose to learn to game the system, to join the investor class and thus perpetuate the gross injustice of this system simply because it can benefit me.  This is the nature if capitalism and organized crime. Everyone sees it sucks, but as long as it sucks less for me than for you, we all continue to play.

Funny how in the thousands of your posts I never noticed the double space until you pointed it out just now :)

Cathy

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #386 on: July 04, 2015, 08:38:15 PM »
Cathy where do you know this stuff from?

Here is one source regarding the status of "than" as a conjunction versus a preposition: https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/t.html#thani

According to that source, "people have been treating than as a preposition for centuries".

That said, my claim was just subjectively based on reading historical texts over the years.

sol

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #387 on: July 04, 2015, 08:52:00 PM »
Well when you set a challenge someone is going to take it on. I found one Sol!

Since making that challenge, I've grown suspicious that several of the phones I've used over the years use single spaces.  So there are probably lots more, from cases when I wasn't using a physical keyboard.

RetiredAt63

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #388 on: July 04, 2015, 10:10:59 PM »
When I learned to type, on a manual typewriter, we always put 2 spaces after a period because one space wasn't much.  With proportional fonts on computers one space often looks OK. I still tend to use two out of habit, but not on a tablet keyboard (like now) when typing is a pain.

daverobev

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #389 on: July 05, 2015, 12:52:46 PM »
I concede, and congratulate ye victors who understand the rules o'English better than I. 

Job well done. Top notch. 

I shall resume my place in the bleachers, or as the British say*, behind the bike shed.

Carry on.

*At least, that's what wikipedia tells me they say.

Thank you for getting that right (although I guess to be expected on the Grammar Nazi thread). Too many people say "me."

This one is debatable. The old-school prescriptivists will tell you that "than" is a conjunction, in which case "I" was correct above; however, "than" can also be treated as a preposition, in which case "me" would be correct. The latter use is very standard in the year 2015.

Yet another example of how the rules of any language change over time.

The same way that unique originally meant "one of a kind," but now people have misused it so many times (under the old definition) that it has been degraded to mean rare. This is easily noticed when somebody says something is more unique than something else.
I personally do not like this change.

Another example is one I believe we discussed earlier on this thread: using gift as a verb. It used to be wrong to do so, but it seems to be generally accepted nowadays.

Side note: Is there a word in the English language for somebody who has lost stuff? (Guardians of the Galaxy movie reference)

"Very unique" drives me up the wall.

johnny847

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #390 on: July 05, 2015, 02:52:34 PM »
I concede, and congratulate ye victors who understand the rules o'English better than I. 

Job well done. Top notch. 

I shall resume my place in the bleachers, or as the British say*, behind the bike shed.

Carry on.

*At least, that's what wikipedia tells me they say.

Thank you for getting that right (although I guess to be expected on the Grammar Nazi thread). Too many people say "me."

This one is debatable. The old-school prescriptivists will tell you that "than" is a conjunction, in which case "I" was correct above; however, "than" can also be treated as a preposition, in which case "me" would be correct. The latter use is very standard in the year 2015.

Yet another example of how the rules of any language change over time.

The same way that unique originally meant "one of a kind," but now people have misused it so many times (under the old definition) that it has been degraded to mean rare. This is easily noticed when somebody says something is more unique than something else.
I personally do not like this change.

Another example is one I believe we discussed earlier on this thread: using gift as a verb. It used to be wrong to do so, but it seems to be generally accepted nowadays.

Side note: Is there a word in the English language for somebody who has lost stuff? (Guardians of the Galaxy movie reference)

"Very unique" drives me up the wall.

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

cerebus

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #391 on: July 06, 2015, 12:41:42 AM »
I used to be quite a rigid proponent of the double space rule, but this article convinced me otherwise:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

Now I view it as an amusing flourish of the grammatical dilettante, like a comically exaggerated curtsy.

Carry on :D

Candace

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #392 on: July 06, 2015, 09:47:08 AM »
I used to be quite a rigid proponent of the double space rule, but this article convinced me otherwise:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

Now I view it as an amusing flourish of the grammatical dilettante, like a comically exaggerated curtsy.

Carry on :D
+1

That article, or one similar to it, changed my mind as well. I'm now in the single-space camp.

Philociraptor

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #393 on: July 06, 2015, 09:51:21 AM »
I used to be quite a rigid proponent of the double space rule, but this article convinced me otherwise:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/01/space_invaders.html

Now I view it as an amusing flourish of the grammatical dilettante, like a comically exaggerated curtsy.

Carry on :D
+1

That article, or one similar to it, changed my mind as well. I'm now in the single-space camp.

Not helping this habit is the fact that the iPhone keyboard has a feature in which entering two spaces autocorrects to a period and a space. I'm typing 2 spaces and getting 1, which is technically correct but still involves entering two spaces. After reading a similar article (or maybe that one, I don't remember) I've been working to change to single-space as well.

Rezdent

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #394 on: July 06, 2015, 08:57:00 PM »
Arggh!

It's not "would of".  What the hell does that mean?
It's "would have"; as in, "I would have been"
I'm sorry, I have seen this in three separate threads today.  Thanks for letting me vent.  I feel much better now.
Confession time: I often doublespace.  It is an old habit left from manual typewriters.

Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #395 on: July 07, 2015, 07:19:37 AM »
Arggh!

It's not "would of".  What the hell does that mean?
It's "would have"; as in, "I would have been"
I'm sorry, I have seen this in three separate threads today.  Thanks for letting me vent.  I feel much better now.
Confession time: I often doublespace.  It is an old habit left from manual typewriters.

I unapologetically double space after periods.  I get that it has become "wrong," but I am a very fast typist, and I only learned in the past couple of years that the standard had changed.  I'm too old and too lazy to retrain myself.

And here's a new one, which I read on FB yesterday: "escape goat," instead of "scapegoat."

johnny847

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #396 on: July 07, 2015, 08:14:39 AM »
Arggh!

It's not "would of".  What the hell does that mean?
It's "would have"; as in, "I would have been"
I'm sorry, I have seen this in three separate threads today.  Thanks for letting me vent.  I feel much better now.
Confession time: I often doublespace.  It is an old habit left from manual typewriters.

I unapologetically double space after periods.  I get that it has become "wrong," but I am a very fast typist, and I only learned in the past couple of years that the standard had changed.  I'm too old and too lazy to retrain myself.

And here's a new one, which I read on FB yesterday: "escape goat," instead of "scapegoat."

Your Facebook friend better run after that goat.

Friend of a friend got an email saying he was busy because it was the end of their physical year.

So....they're done with all physical activity for the year? They plan on vegetating for the rest of the year?

Kris

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #397 on: July 07, 2015, 09:22:54 AM »
Arggh!

It's not "would of".  What the hell does that mean?
It's "would have"; as in, "I would have been"
I'm sorry, I have seen this in three separate threads today.  Thanks for letting me vent.  I feel much better now.
Confession time: I often doublespace.  It is an old habit left from manual typewriters.

I unapologetically double space after periods.  I get that it has become "wrong," but I am a very fast typist, and I only learned in the past couple of years that the standard had changed.  I'm too old and too lazy to retrain myself.

And here's a new one, which I read on FB yesterday: "escape goat," instead of "scapegoat."

Your Facebook friend better run after that goat.

Friend of a friend got an email saying he was busy because it was the end of their physical year.

So....they're done with all physical activity for the year? They plan on vegetating for the rest of the year?

I propose that "physical year" become an official term.  Definition: The period of time between the beginning of one's New Year's Resolution to exercise more, and the moment when one officially abandons said resolution.

Therefore, the end of the "physical year" for most people would be... January 2.

jordanread

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #398 on: July 07, 2015, 09:47:25 AM »
Arggh!

It's not "would of".  What the hell does that mean?
It's "would have"; as in, "I would have been"
I'm sorry, I have seen this in three separate threads today.  Thanks for letting me vent.  I feel much better now.
Confession time: I often doublespace.  It is an old habit left from manual typewriters.

I unapologetically double space after periods.  I get that it has become "wrong," but I am a very fast typist, and I only learned in the past couple of years that the standard had changed.  I'm too old and too lazy to retrain myself.

And here's a new one, which I read on FB yesterday: "escape goat," instead of "scapegoat."

Your Facebook friend better run after that goat.

Friend of a friend got an email saying he was busy because it was the end of their physical year.

So....they're done with all physical activity for the year? They plan on vegetating for the rest of the year?

I propose that "physical year" become an official term.  Definition: The period of time between the beginning of one's New Year's Resolution to exercise more, and the moment when one officially abandons said resolution.

Therefore, the end of the "physical year" for most people would be... January 2.
This thread has mostly irritated me since I participated (who knew it would stay active for so long?), but this made me laugh. Thanks.

mlejw6

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Re: Grammar nazi
« Reply #399 on: July 08, 2015, 10:06:45 AM »
Google "the awful German language" by Mark Twain if you haven't read it yet.  Or just search for sentences that end in ridiculousness like "haben sind gewesen gehabt haben geworden sein" to get a feel for the shenanigans.

Any language with a word that means an improvement that makes things worse can't be all bad.  No, I never can remember the word.  And I need it depressingly often.

I don't know the word, either, but here's something funny about the word improvement: In the field of civil engineering, an "improvement" is any man-made thing on a piece of land. So, any building, sidewalk, water line, parking lot, fence, power pole, electric line, curb, storm drain, you name it, is an "improvement" on that land.

Thoreau must be spinning in his grave.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!