annzeepark914 February 29 Share February 29 It's hard to hear most times as it can sound like "have" is being used. I hate it, though...almost as much as I loathe hearing & reading, "try and" instead of "try to". This one is fingernails on a blackboard for me 😬. 6 2 Link to comment
Quof February 29 Share February 29 (edited) I recently heard a person say "Valentimes Day". I thought I misheard, but she said it 2 more times. I wanted to ask "How do you spell that? When you see greeting cards in the store, do you wonder why Hallmark made a spelling mistake?" Edited February 29 by Quof 4 2 3 Link to comment
GHScorpiosRule February 29 Share February 29 18 hours ago, Bastet said: I don't hear it, but I go ape shit when I see it written. Can I sit with you? You know that this also drives me batshit crazy and I've posted previously the others that make me want to bash my head into a wall: typing "your" when they obviously mean "you're" as in you are. NOT the possessive! 6 Link to comment
Quof February 29 Share February 29 I just did some online training for work, which was clearly written by ChatGPT. The grammar made me want to scream (as well as click "none of the above" for every question, since neither the questions nor answers were written correctly.) 2 4 Link to comment
annzeepark914 March 1 Share March 1 10 hours ago, Quof said: I recently heard a person say "Valentimes Day". I thought I misheard, but she said it 2 more times. I wanted to ask "How do you spell that? When you see greeting cards in the store, do you wonder why Hallmark made a spelling mistake?" In my husband's home town, he heard people say, "assalete" instead of athlete. I think this is another example of immigrants from countries that do not pronounce "th" trying to use an English word. 4 Link to comment
supposebly March 1 Share March 1 20 hours ago, annzeepark914 said: I think this is another example of immigrants from countries that do not pronounce "th" trying to use an English word. If that were true, you would find pronunciations like that around the country, not just in one town. And with other words too. Link to comment
chitowngirl March 6 Share March 6 Our School District has a Foundation that gives Grants to teachers. They sent out their quarterly newsletter. Item #4: “The Foundation Excepting Applications for $26,000 in 2024 Scholarships.” Excepting? 6 9 Link to comment
SweetieDarling March 19 Share March 19 Read this headline today: "MDTA maintenance crew picking up litter alongside I-95 injured in tractor-trailer crash" The litter was injured in the crash? or was I-95 Injured? I'm not quite sure. Also: I can't find the other grammar thread. Does anyone know what happened to it? 3 Link to comment
SoMuchTV March 19 Share March 19 (edited) 4 minutes ago, SweetieDarling said: Also: I can't find the other grammar thread. Does anyone know what happened to it? The one on grammar in tv shows? I think it got merged into this one. I guess there was a lot of crossover? Edited March 19 by SoMuchTV 1 Link to comment
EtheltoTillie March 20 Share March 20 (edited) 3 hours ago, SweetieDarling said: Read this headline today: "MDTA maintenance crew picking up litter alongside I-95 injured in tractor-trailer crash" The litter was injured in the crash? or was I-95 Injured? I'm not quite sure. Also: I can't find the other grammar thread. Does anyone know what happened to it? I don’t know of another grammar thread unless it was one of the TV threads? That’s a great copy editor nerd joke. We used to laugh at those when I was a copy editor. Edited March 20 by EtheltoTillie Link to comment
Bastet March 20 Share March 20 (edited) 7 hours ago, SoMuchTV said: The one on grammar in tv shows? I think it got merged into this one. Yes, shortly after this one was created that one was merged into it, which is why it's so large -- it has the newer thread's title and the older thread's start date, with all the posts from both. Edited March 20 by Bastet 1 4 Link to comment
Milburn Stone March 20 Share March 20 Fascinating article by a superb writer on why the prescriptivism vs. descriptivism debate is a red herring. Short answer: Because descriptivism actually is prescriptivism in descriptivist clothing. Link. 1 Link to comment
stewedsquash March 20 Share March 20 (edited) That article was a lot. And I am not sure which side of the convoluted debate he is on, even after ready the whole thing. Maybe that was the point? I am going to check out his 90’s one. Even though the 70’s and 80’s ruled, lol Edited March 20 by stewedsquash Link to comment
supposebly March 20 Share March 20 Since I'm a linguist by trade, I have to add a correction as the beleaguered minority. Descriptivist linguists don't think teaching grammar is useless. There is nothing I would love to see more of in schools is grammar teaching. Just not, you know, teaching kids that having prepositions at the end of a sentence is wrong and similar nonsense. I love teaching my students that English is quite interesting in that it allows such a thing under certain circumstances. THAT is grammar teaching from a descriptivist's perspective. That formal language has certain conventions and spoken language has other conventions. That there are instances where you can leave the preposition at the end but probably wouldn't in formal writing and there are instances where you HAVE to leave it at the end, regardless of the style of writing. Where you have to leave it: I wish I remembered where she was FROM. Most speakers would be unlikely to say: I wish I remembered FROM where she was. Where you cannot leave it behind: I can tell you IN what order the words go. But not for most variants of English: I can tell you what order the words go IN. I don't know what kind of descriptivists this person talks about, but maybe it's better to talk to a linguist instead. There is teaching grammar as a part of human language and there is teaching the tools of grammar to write. These are very different things. And they have very little to do with the difference between prescription and description. English majors and educators tend to confuse the two. And often make students worry so much about this grammar monster, they forget that they have grammar that they use every day. Language doesn't exist without a rule system. 8 1 Link to comment
Milburn Stone March 20 Share March 20 @supposebly, if that's what descriptivism is, then call me a descriptivist! 1 1 1 Link to comment
shapeshifter April 2 Share April 2 Since I can't find the thread that was more about funny typos, I'll give this thread a bump with this Sun Hat review on Amazon: 1 12 Link to comment
shapeshifter April 7 Share April 7 Here's a gift link to an opinion piece in yesterday's NYT: “‘Little Women’ and the Art of Breaking Grammatical Rules” nytimes.com/2024/04/04/opinion/little-women-grammar-rules.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ik0.cwHC.YJzs6bqKrXr0&smid=url-share He echos a lot of what has been said here. He also suggests this 2024 book by linguist Anne Curzan: “Says Who? A Kinder, Funner Usage Guide for Everyone Who Cares About Words” It's available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Says-Who-Kinder-Funner-Everyone-ebook/dp/B0C9GQQ5J7 And also from your local library: (scroll down the linked pages to see your local libraries that have the book) https://search.worldcat.org/title/1389605998 https://search.worldcat.org/title/1428043306 (Audio book) 1 1 1 Link to comment
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