Off Topic: English grammar

[ZOOMIE1980]

ORIGINAL: max_h

another reason why english sucks.


[:D]

lets make a fully logical language the world language - german!!!

Yes, it does.

[aspqrz02]

ORIGINAL: khelvan

My pet peeve is when people use "should of," "could of," or "would of" (which make absolutely no sense) instead of should have, could have, or would have.

Or, indeed, should've, could've or would've ... but, I will admit, the "phoneticisation" that this represents was, sadly, all too common some years ago here in Oz High Schools. Seems to have died out, though - and I'd like to think I played a small part in helping it do so!

Allot/alot is a pet peeve. too.

As is ...

Little Sally: "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Me: "I don't know, can you?"

Little Sally (after scrunching up brain and thinking): "May I go to the bathroom?"

Me: Sorry, we don't have any Bathtubs at this school.

Little Sally: "May I go to the toilet?"

Me: "Yes, of course, Sally. Why didn't you ask in the first place?"

(NB: Can = "am I physically able to". May = "have I got permission to". "Bathroom" = an americanism, not to be encouraged in Australian schools, though, of course, OK in the US)

The kids hate it ... the common response is "Oooh! You're just like Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss XXX" ... which goes to show, we all do it [;)]

Phil (a current History/English teacher in Australia)

[Drongo]

ORIGINAL: aspqrz
Little Sally: "Can I go to the bathroom?"

Me: "I don't know, can you?"

Little Sally (after scrunching up brain and thinking): "May I go to the bathroom?"

Me: Sorry, we don't have any Bathtubs at this school.

Little Sally: "May I go to the toilet?"

Me: "Yes, of course, Sally. Why didn't you ask in the first place?"

Little Sally: "May I now have a mop instead, you bastard?"

[Knaust]

straight!....strait is another thing[:)]...anyway, excuse me for my poor English...second language, of course

[Buck Beach]

Boy do the people on this board need patch 1.3 or what? Over 2 pages of replies in one day to this who cares item.[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[tsimmonds]

ORIGINAL: max_h

another reason why english sucks.
[:D]

lets make a fully logical language the world language - german!!!

One of the payoffs for using the "sucky" english language is the fun of wordplay. Just look at all the amusing examples of it in this thread. Try to do the same thing auf Deutsch and native german-speakers will just look at you with straight faces and say, "That's wrong, you can't say that." [;)]

[Central Blue]

I've never seen a thread like this on a sports fan-board. Well, I have seen a few... They usually end in flames pretty quickly.

I like Warriner's for all of the rules and Rhetoric for Writers on style.

[CMDRMCTOAST]

ORIGINAL: Knaust

straight!....strait is another thing[:)]...anyway, excuse me for my poor English...second language, of course

Just keep reading this thread while I invade Japan on you as I think your Italian
front line is ready to collapse as soon as my heavies show up.[:D]

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: aspqrz
Hmm. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" ... surely you mean "That is atrocious" rather than "That is attrocious?" [:-]

And you endorse an ostensible quote that begins with "let he?" "To let," when used as meaning "to allow," is a transitive verb. The objective case is called for. "Let him" is correct. The original text was not originally cast in English, so that the translator of the version you "quote" is the person in error, not the original writer in Greek.

Let those who can teach.

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: donkuchi

I don't know what you are talking about pasternakski. Unless you don't understand that students make mistakes and will use their's instead of there's. That is what I was talking about. I have that experience on a daily basis of students making mistakes, and then helping them to correct those mistakes.

But thank you for showing your ignorance by attacking me when I was talking about not attacking teachers.

(Ex. There's a way to defeat the Japanese in WITP. NOT Their's a way to defeat the Japanese in WITP.)

You merely need to explain yourself more clearly and demonstrate the correctness of your understanding. My daily experience, by the way, is as a professor of English at a major American university (and I do not capitalize common pronouns in the body of a sentence as you apparently deem appropriate).

[Halsey]

What other forum can you go to and get a grammar lesson?[:D]

This is the best forum on the web![;)]

[Mr.Frag]

Little Sally: "May I now have a mop instead, you bastard?"

Thats worthy of a salute!

[Knaust]

....and a meager Italian was the starter[8|]

[Knaust]

ORIGINAL: CMDRMCTOAST

ORIGINAL: Knaust

straight!....strait is another thing[:)]...anyway, excuse me for my poor English...second language, of course

Just keep reading this thread while I invade Japan on you as I think your Italian
front line is ready to collapse as soon as my heavies show up.[:D]

Italian front line collapsing?[&:]...just ready to open a second front in Europe?...is this option available in WITP?[:'(]

[donkuchi19]

ORIGINAL: pasternakski

ORIGINAL: donkuchi

I don't know what you are talking about pasternakski. Unless you don't understand that students make mistakes and will use their's instead of there's. That is what I was talking about. I have that experience on a daily basis of students making mistakes, and then helping them to correct those mistakes.

But thank you for showing your ignorance by attacking me when I was talking about not attacking teachers.

(Ex. There's a way to defeat the Japanese in WITP. NOT Their's a way to defeat the Japanese in WITP.)

You merely need to explain yourself more clearly and demonstrate the correctness of your understanding. My daily experience, by the way, is as a professor of English at a major American university (and I do not capitalize common pronouns in the body of a sentence as you apparently deem appropriate).

If you are talking about where I said NOT Their's ..., that is actually where I left out punctuation by accident. (OOPS) Sorry if I wasn't more clear. I meant for the part after NOT to be a separate sentence.

HEY MATRIX ----- We need a grammar and spell checker for the posts now. I am tired of typing twice. Now I have to type it in Word first so I can spell check and grammar check everything. Then I have to type the corrected version in the box again. Forget the patch, I want a spell check and grammar check for my posts!!!!!![:D][:D][:D]

[RevRick]

ORIGINAL: aspqrz

ORIGINAL: RevRick

I would find a good Grammar book, Warriners comes to mind - notate the page(s), and send that lovely bit of misinformed miseducation to the schools department head, cc's to the Principal, and each member of the local School Board. That is attrocious.

Hmm. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" ... surely you mean "That is atrocious" rather than "That is attrocious?" [:-]

Phil (a current History/English Teacher)

Hey! I was hired as a teacher, not as a typist. If I thought there was to be a grade on this forum, I would have proofed the text.

To be perfectly clear about my response, my umbrage was not about the error as much as about the teacher's response. Intellectual arrogance has no place in the classroom - even though we have all experienced it from time to time.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: byron13

Ya know, Knaust, you have absolutely, positively come to the wrong place for advice on grammar.

LOL [:D]

[DrewMatrix]

My daily experience, by the way, is as a professor of English at a major American university

You needn't apologize. You are welcome to post here even so, just provided you are funny.[:)]

[Mike Scholl]

You want funny? I'd bet that the Funny part of this whole posting string is that 4 out of 5
of the participants didn't like English in school and couldn't wait to be done with it forever.
I know it's the way I felt. And now we're all here playing English Teacher..... THAT'S FUNNY.