MissScripture Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 During my freshman year of college, I had to transfer out of a logic class after a week, because I couldn't handle how few of my classmates could figure out the subject of the sentence. They were simple sentences, too! It should not have been difficult! But after 4 days of leaving the class and feeling like this: , I just switched to Intro to the Bible. That was a much better option!
Adrestia Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 [quote name='LaPetiteSoeur' timestamp='1308230632' post='2254556'] Yay for the Christian brothers! We had "Grammar Matters" in public school, but that was phased out when the best teacher retired. In Catholic school, we had sentence diagraming (Thanks Sr. Mary! It was [i]really[/i] helpful and I wish I remembered how to do it) and spelling tests every week. Then in high school....we had big points deducted for every mistake in an essay, so we checked them over and over. Oh! and in preparation for AP tests, we'd go over tons of grammar. too bad no one in my sister's grade and younger have rarely heard of grammar. [/quote] Some can't even spell grammer. By the way, when did it become acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition? I know that Strunk and White were not grammarians, but they were correct about prepositions... weren't they? ref: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497
Nihil Obstat Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 [quote name='tgoldson' timestamp='1308264722' post='2254818'] Some can't even spell grammer. By the way, when did it become acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition? I know that Strunk and White were not grammarians, but they were correct about prepositions... weren't they? ref: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 [/quote] A lot of modern style guides will say that one should avoid ending with prepositions, but not so much that they make the sentence sound awkward. Iunno, I still won't do it. Call me old fashioned.
MissScripture Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 Well, half the time, the reason it sounds awkward is because people don't use proper grammar in the rest of the sentence!
Mr.Cat Posted June 16, 2011 Posted June 16, 2011 (edited) Being the Internet, I accept what people can put forward. People come from different backgrounds and are not always privy to the same education or frame of reference. Whenever subjects like this come up I think of [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM"]Grammar Nazis[/url]. I admit my grammar and spelling could use some improvement, but one would have to understand school growing up for me to know why. To put it simply, it was never taught to me and they didn't care. Edited June 16, 2011 by Mr.CatholicCat
rhetoricfemme Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 ! If you're going to use the ellipsis (...) make sure the put a space between the last word and the ellipsis. I don't always do this myself, but always notice when it's used improperly. Even if I'm the one doing it ...
fides quarens intellectum Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 (edited) People would make less grammatical mistake's if they knew their grammar good. Edited June 17, 2011 by fides quarens intellectum
Nihil Obstat Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='rhetoricfemme' timestamp='1308268849' post='2254833'] ! If you're going to use the ellipsis (...) make sure the put a space between the last word and the ellipsis. I don't always do this myself, but always notice when it's used improperly. Even if I'm the one doing it ... [/quote] I do that consistently, even though I know it's wrong, and even though I know it completely destroys my sentence structure. I like doing it, and I think it adds a bit of my personality to the occasional post.
homeschoolmom Posted June 17, 2011 Author Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='Nihil Obstat' timestamp='1308270857' post='2254844'] I do that consistently, even though I know it's wrong, and even though I know it completely destroys my sentence structure. I like doing it, and I think it adds a bit of my personality to the occasional post. [/quote] Bleh... I never use a space...
Vincent Vega Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='tgoldson' timestamp='1308264722' post='2254818'] By the way, when did it become acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition? I know that Strunk and White were not grammarians, but they were correct about prepositions... weren't they? ref: http://chronicle.com/article/50-Years-of-Stupid-Grammar/25497 [/quote] "Some of the "rules" of English grammar that you learned in school were devised by pedants who believed that English was inferior to Latin and should be improved by forcing it onto the Procrustean bed of Latin grammar. But English is descended from an ancestral German dialect, not from Latin, and certain of the rules based on Latin grammar simply do not fit the structure of English. Often what looks like a preposition in an English sentence is really not a preposition but a part of the verb (the technical term is adverbial particle). Consider these verbs: to put, to put up, to put up with. Obviously these are not the same verbs, and equally obviously the words that look like familiar prepositions are actually a part of each of the last two verbs." http://grammartips.homestead.com/prepositions1.html The reason that moving the preposition to somewhere other than the final position sounds so terrible becomes clear when you study German. (And although we get something like 70% of our modern day vocabulary from Latin, our grammar is still primarily derived of Germanic roots.) There are verbs in German that are basically composed of a preposition part and a "do" part. Take this sentence for instance: Ich [b]stehe [/b]am 8 Uhr [b]auf[/b]. = I get up at 8 o'clock. The verb is bolded, and its infinitive is "aufstehen". Because our infinitives work differently, this quirk is not as apparent in our language, and for the life of me I cannot think of any examples right now, but the answer is that it can generally be correct to end a sentence with a preposition and the "rule" was born of silly Latinophilia with no historic basis.
MissScripture Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='rhetoricfemme' timestamp='1308268849' post='2254833'] ! If you're going to use the ellipsis (...) make sure the put a space between the last word and the ellipsis. I don't always do this myself, but always notice when it's used improperly. Even if I'm the one doing it ... [/quote] The worst is when people use too many periods in the ellipsis. That is one thing that MAJORLY bugs me.
Luigi Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='homeschoolmom' timestamp='1308228929' post='2254541'] Are there varying degrees of definately? Most definately! [/quote] Come on, let's get that spelling correct - you can do better than that! It's "most defiantly!"
Luigi Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='LaPetiteSoeur' timestamp='1308229318' post='2254544'] Yes! And "on accident." My little sisters says it ALL THE TIME. It's by accident, I'm pretty sure. Though I can't really talk, as I still mess up [i]less[/i] and [i]fewer[/i]. Everytime. [/quote] Ummm.... I'm not sure how to break this to you.... "Everytime" is supposed to be [i]two[/i] words..... sorry... crawling back in my hole now....
Nihil Obstat Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='MissScripture' timestamp='1308282582' post='2254946'] The worst is when people use too many periods in the ellipsis. That is one thing that MAJORLY bugs me. [/quote] .............................
Vincent Vega Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 (edited) [quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1308272181' post='2254859'] Ich [b]stehe [/b]am 8 Uhr [b]auf[/b]. = I get up at 8 o'clock. [/quote] stehe [u]um[/u]* Sorry. Edited June 17, 2011 by USAirwaysIHS
homeschoolmom Posted June 17, 2011 Author Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1308272181' post='2254859'] "Some of the "rules" of English grammar that you learned in school were devised by pedants who believed that English was inferior to Latin and should be improved by forcing it onto the Procrustean bed of Latin grammar. But English is descended from an ancestral German dialect, not from Latin, and certain of the rules based on Latin grammar simply do not fit the structure of English. Often what looks like a preposition in an English sentence is really not a preposition but a part of the verb (the technical term is adverbial particle). Consider these verbs: to put, to put up, to put up with. Obviously these are not the same verbs, and equally obviously the words that look like familiar prepositions are actually a part of each of the last two verbs." http://grammartips.homestead.com/prepositions1.html The reason that moving the preposition to somewhere other than the final position sounds so terrible becomes clear when you study German. (And although we get something like 70% of our modern day vocabulary from Latin, our grammar is still primarily derived of Germanic roots.) There are verbs in German that are basically composed of a preposition part and a "do" part. Take this sentence for instance: Ich [b]stehe [/b]am 8 Uhr [b]auf[/b]. = I get up at 8 o'clock. The verb is bolded, and its infinitive is "aufstehen". Because our infinitives work differently, this quirk is not as apparent in our language, and for the life of me I cannot think of any examples right now, but the answer is that it can generally be correct to end a sentence with a preposition and the "rule" was born of silly Latinophilia with no historic basis. [/quote] Thanks, that was very interesting. [quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1308287184' post='2254964'] stehe [u]um[/u]* Sorry. [/quote] I was sorta wondering...
Archaeology cat Posted June 17, 2011 Posted June 17, 2011 [quote name='tgoldson' timestamp='1308198078' post='2254433'] For some reason, I had a crop of students tell me (their volunteer Religious Ed teacher) that "I" always follows "and" in a sentence. When I brought up the difference between a subject and an object, they had no idea what I meant. They believed that "Mom brought cupcakes for Tom and I" was correct; and "Mom brought cupcakes for Tom and me" was incorrect. When I attempted to correct them, they assumed that I didn't really know English because I'm - well - let's just say that they assumed I have a poor grasp of English grammar. I eventually gave up. [/quote] Yes! Annoys me to no end [quote name='tgoldson' timestamp='1308227820' post='2254533'] [img]http://www.yourdictionary.com/images/articles/lg/702.DiagrammedSentances.jpg[/img] [/quote] Love it. I had to diagram sentences in 7th grade. Other pet peeve is using "mute" instead of "moot".
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