Catpicklesdog
Hindsight is a wonderful thing!
Wow, I haven't heard that phrase for ages. My mum used to call my Nan an old fuddy duddy!!
Here you go, for nayone who has never heard of "Fuddy Duddy"
A brief whine about grammar.
- Thread starter echoofformless
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Wow, I haven't heard that phrase for ages. My mum used to call my Nan an old fuddy duddy!!
Here you go, for nayone who has never heard of "Fuddy Duddy"
I give myself a pass when the methodology in question is based on an arbitrary, outmoded "rule" that was merely made up as a means of forcing English to follow Latin grammar so that a bunch of pretentious jerks from the past could pretend to sound more educated. The same goes for ending a sentence with a preposition. Anyone who tries to catch you on these two "rules" or any other "rule" of grammar is just responding to classical conditioning and not utilizing the structure of the English language.
You want conjunctions to start sentences? :headbang2:
Seems all well and good to me! hehe
Breaking the word another into a and nother is simply incorrect. And using the possessive apostrophe before the S at the end of a plural word when the intention is to make a non-possessive plural word is also simply incorrect. Keep in mind that is my original whine and nothing more.
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Hooray for fuddy duddy! Methinks I'll be using that one. It has a sort of playfulness to it, don't you think?
OgreMkV
Father of Earth's Next Emperor
echo, I agree with you in principle. I make an effort to make my posts and correct as possible. Most people don't. It doesn't bother me unless I can't read what they write.
As far as why those two things bother you more than most, I can't help you. My wife capitalizes words for emphasis. It doesn't bother me in her e-mails to me, but I insist on reviewing any assignment she's turning in for class. That's the one that bothers me.
Finally, don't say that the English language will not change. Recently words like "malware", "Doh", and other 'slang' terms have been added to the dictionary. Are the formally correct, not now, but when the college and high school kids reach middle age, they very well might be correct.
As far as why those two things bother you more than most, I can't help you. My wife capitalizes words for emphasis. It doesn't bother me in her e-mails to me, but I insist on reviewing any assignment she's turning in for class. That's the one that bothers me.
Finally, don't say that the English language will not change. Recently words like "malware", "Doh", and other 'slang' terms have been added to the dictionary. Are the formally correct, not now, but when the college and high school kids reach middle age, they very well might be correct.
Indeed language does and should change. I'm all for the addition of new words. In fact I make up words all the time and I feel people have a right to make up any words they see fit to use in order to express themselves effectively. (Of course these words should meet certain criteria.) But in the end I feel that no one body (such as a dictionary editor) should have the right to refuse or include one word over another so long as the word is properly constructed and carries an understandable meaning.
I once called someone panzaic. I figured if one can be quixotic, another person who follows along with the quixotic person's insane hair-brained ideas is panzaic. But then there are non-words like irregardless; these are needless and have no necessary meaning.
I'm fearful however that the original intent of this thread has gotten lost in the grammar debate. If you examine my original post, I mentioned nothing about the way language develops, or the degeneration of language through misuse. I merely whined about two particular things that were bothering me - neither of which can be understood as a development or a degeneration of language. One is simply a wrong use of the apostrophe (which is rather ironic really - the tendency for most people is to leave things out rather than add them in) and this strange practice of thinking another is a nother. Not really what I would call a mechanical error so much as I would call it an evident lack of problem solving skills.
Imagination coupled with problem solving skills is what makes a language grow. I really like your post.
lol, everything that pertains to any language is made up, it comes down to peoples acceptance of the rule that give it meaning.
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