Grammar Rocks
POSTED BY: maugwai
UPDATED: Saturday, October 30, 2004 01:32
VIEWED: 19692
PAGE 4 of 8
Channain, Gotcha!
Your "...if it takes less keystrokes...."
Should be: "...if it takes fewer keystrokes...."
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I had an argument with a fellow (male) editor some years back, concerning the use of the term "late."
One of use wanted to say something like, "He was out walking with the late Mr. Jones."
The other went for, "He was out walking with Mr. Jones, now dead."
Thoughts, please.
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Channain, Instead of "Whassup," I noted the use of " 'Tsup?" by Selma Blair in her short-lived TV comedy series (with Lex Luthor-to-be). But I've noticed that most folks have no idea what you've just said when this word is used in real life.
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Anyone notice the increase of apparent dyslexia with advancing age (over 30)? I find myself inverting letters as I type, with apparent increasing frequency. And omitting the last letter quite ofte.
..........Ruxton
[Male; editor by profession; cranky old fart by choice.]
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It's also a good thing that we aren't evaluating punctuation. 
Quote:
I had an argument with a fellow (male) editor some years back, concerning the use of the term "late." Also this was very funny... "And omitting the last letter quite ofte."
LOL
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Inara: Who's winning?
Simon: I can't really tell, they don't seem to be playing by any civilized rules that I know.
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ManiacNumberOne
If you mean I ought to have inserted a comma before "late," you are incorrect.
..........Ruxton
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Quote:"Less" versus "fewer" might be why I'm not an editor anymore. A girl can twist her brain around it for only so long. I'm MUCH better at catching that kind of thing in other people's work; hence the pursuit of a degree in graphic design, not English or creative writing.
Originally posted by Ruxton:
Channain, Gotcha!
Your "...if it takes less keystrokes...."
Should be: "...if it takes fewer keystrokes...."
Anyone notice the increase of apparent dyslexia with advancing age (over 30)? I find myself inverting letters as I type, with apparent increasing frequency. And omitting the last letter quite often.
My fellow editors had a huge debate over whether it should be "over the last year" or "during the past year". "During" won, but by a teensy margin.
Regarding the 30-plus dyslexia, I am with you there! I canNOT type the third "n" in announcement to save my soul, especially in an e-mail. I don't know why, and I can't stop it. I did it just fine here, but my typing speed went WAY down.
T'sup sounds like an acronym for "To sup" as in "to have supper". Nope, still don't like it.
So, anybody in here doing beta reading for the fan fic writers in our happy little blue realm?
Fans come and fans go...but zealots are with you until the bitter black end.
I draw...therefore I am.
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922
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Quote:
Originally posted by ManiacNumberOne:
It's fun to point out grammatical errors. If we were pointing out spelling errors too, I'd have a little to say about your initial post, maugwai.
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Inara: Who's winning?
Simon: I can't really tell, they don't seem to be playing by any civilized rules that I know.
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By all means, don't hold back. That's the point of the thread. What spelling error? Unless you're talking about my name, I'm not sure what else you could possibly mean.
"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."
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Channain,
"T'sup sounds like an acronym for "To sup" as in "to have supper". Nope, still don't like it."
Ah! That's why, whenever I used "T'sup?" most people asked me, "T'son?" (i.e., What's on?)
I could never figure that out, 'til now.
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re: "Over the past year," vs. "During...."
I suspect it's a regional preference.
I note with great grinding of teeth, almost everyone in the Buffy/Angel/Firefly 'verse pronounces "either" as though it were spelled "Ii-ther" (long 'i'). I have always pronounced it "eee-ther." Anyone else find this odd? Is it a Hollywood thing?
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Quote:I suspect it's an English thing, as in the Queen, not as in grammar. EYE-tha rather than EE-ther. Like THEE-a-tah and theadder.
Originally posted by Ruxton:
I note with great grinding of teeth, almost everyone in the Buffy/Angel/Firefly 'verse pronounces "either" as though it were spelled "Ii-ther" (long 'i'). I have always pronounced it "eee-ther." Anyone else find this odd? Is it a Hollywood thing?
dong ma?
Fans come and fans go...but zealots are with you until the bitter black end.
I draw...therefore I am.
http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=7922
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Since you asked (axed) for thoughts... I don't see anything wrong with saying "the late Mr. Jones" but I wouldn't use "Mr. Jones, now dead." (I was taught never to say someone was DEAD, it's too disturbing.) "Mr. Jones, now deceased" works, though.
"Whassup" isn't even a word, dang it.
I've never heard anyone use "amn't" ever, ever. Awkward contraction. Have you ever noticed how awkward the word awkward is??
I haven't noticed increasing dyslexia so much as a tendency to insert extra vowels. I'll glance up at what I've typed and find extra "o"s strewn throughout. Oh, but a little dyslexia in consistently typing University as Unviersity.
Uh... topic... Firefly. Boy, I like that there grammar on Firefly. I especially like the litotes - affirming a thing by denying its opposite, as in Mal's "You ain't wrong." I especially like it because how often do I get to use the word "litotes"??
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Zencat, thanks for insight on "...now dead," etc. When the argument was ongoing, I voted with you for "the late Mr. Jones." The other guy thought it sounded like walking with a dead guy.
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Awk! It is awkward.
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On a new note, a few years ago everyone was using the single word "not" as a cutesy response, borrowed from that movie with Dana Carvey (The Church Lady) in it, the one with Mike Meyers. Yet Carvey used the word only twice in the movie, as I recall, and used it correctly. Louis L'Amour was fond of the same archaic construction, as in, "He liked it not." All Carvey did was delay the last word. Yet for years, one heard bozo after clown after dumbell trying to be cute by uttering that word out of context. (Yup, I've seen that chool moovy. Ain't I good! Not!)
Drove me nuts.
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Apropos of nothing, many think Sherlock Holmes smoked a calabash, or other bent pipe. But at the time Conan Doyle wrote, all pipes were dead straight. (Like billiards, Dublins, etc.) An actor (before Basil Rathbone) used a bent pipe in some performance in the 1920s or early 1930s, and then Rathbone used a calabash, and the die was cast.
Had to get that out of my system. Yes, it's late at night.
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