Spelling and grammar; what the Hell happened to it?

16 Feb 2012

Quote by Derek_kelp
D'you know, I was having a similar convo with a friend who was taught English in India only last night.

Wow! One night eh? It's taken me 43years so far and I'm still not finished!
...and that's why I luuuuurve the language wink

Better?

Quote by noladreams
D'you know, I was having a similar convo with a friend, who was taught English in India, only last night.

:wink:

16 Feb 2012

Quote by Cubes
It's fine if you disagree, but if so, just ignore it and move on!

That's good advice, and it applies to all areas of life. :thumbup:
;)
Just re-reading this thread, and I despair at the above.

16 Feb 2012

Quote by noladreams
D'you know, I was having a similar convo with a friend who was taught English in India only last night.

Wow! One night eh? It's taken me 43years so far and I'm still not finished!
...and that's why I luuuuurve the language wink

Better?

Quote by noladreams
D'you know, I was having a similar convo with a friend, who was taught English in India, only last night.

:wink:
Don't get me started...I'll be here all day :wink:

17 Feb 2012

Quote by Derek_kelp
Don't get me started...I'll be here all day

Nodding... Can you see us getting into an endless spiral of grammaticosyntactical pedantry? I can! What fun would that be! Time-consuming, though, better book a day or two off just in case.
Though I WOULD like to know what a split infinitive is, and why it is so EVIL. (Feel free to PM about it - though I won't reply ;) )

17 Feb 2012

Quote by pebble
Don't get me started...I'll be here all day

Nodding... Can you see us getting into an endless spiral of grammaticosyntactical pedantry? I can! What fun would that be! Time-consuming, though, better book a day or two off just in case.
Though I WOULD like to know what a split infinitive is, and why it is so EVIL. (Feel free to PM about it - though I won't reply ;) )
'To boldly go' is an example of a split infinitive. You put an adverb between 'to' and the verb. Who says it's evil?

17 Feb 2012

Quote by pebble
Don't get me started...I'll be here all day

Nodding... Can you see us getting into an endless spiral of grammaticosyntactical pedantry? I can! What fun would that be! Time-consuming, though, better book a day or two off just in case.
Though I WOULD like to know what a split infinitive is, and why it is so EVIL. (Feel free to PM about it - though I won't reply ;) )
I'm the chilled half with regards to this lol

17 Feb 2012

Quote by Freckledbird
Though I WOULD like to know what a split infinitive is, and why it is so EVIL. (Feel free to PM about it - though I won't reply ;) )

'To boldly go' is an example of a split infinitive. You put an adverb between 'to' and the verb. Who says it's evil?
The supposed rule about not splitting infinitives is an old one that goes back to a slightly odd belief that formal English should try and match the grammar of the Latin spoken by scholars, the present tense infinitive being a single word in Latin impossible to split. Quite why infinitives should be so favoured given that most verbs ((( With the exception of some of the trickier tenses. ))) are single words in Latin is beyond me? Noone ever seems to have had a problem with 'He quickly went' but seems to me you could use the exact same logic as that applied to the splitting of the infinitive.
In any event there's no rational basis for the rule in English, and trying to avoid one can lead to some clumsy phrasing, or phrasing that lacks proper clarity. 'You really have to watch him' doesn’t have quite the same meaning as 'You have to really watch him'. The emphasis is slightly different. 'To boldly go' is a perfect example where the supposedly more proper 'To go boldly' doesn't work nearly so well.

17 Feb 2012

Quote by neilinleeds
Though I WOULD like to know what a split infinitive is, and why it is so EVIL. (Feel free to PM about it - though I won't reply ;) )

'To boldly go' is an example of a split infinitive. You put an adverb between 'to' and the verb. Who says it's evil?
The supposed rule about not splitting infinitives is an old one that goes back to a slightly odd belief that formal English should try and match the grammar of the Latin spoken by scholars, the present tense infinitive being a single word in Latin impossible to split. Quite why infinitives should be so favoured given that most verbs ((( With the exception of some of the trickier tenses. ))) are single words in Latin is beyond me? Noone ever seems to have had a problem with 'He quickly went' but seems to me you could use the exact same logic as that applied to the splitting of the infinitive.
In any event there's no rational basis for the rule in English, and trying to avoid one can lead to some clumsy phrasing, or phrasing that lacks proper clarity. 'You really have to watch him' doesn’t have quite the same meaning as 'You have to really watch him'. The emphasis is slightly different. 'To boldly go' is a perfect example where the supposedly more proper 'To go boldly' doesn't work nearly so well.
Not ending a sentence with a prepostion has the same source. Scholars trying to force rules from one language into a langauge with a different structure. Just makes them look a bit stupid to be honest.
Prepositions are: with, to, of, from and suchlike. The classic example usually quoted is " A prepostion is a bad word to end a sentence with." All it proves is that this 'wrong' structure makes a perfectly sensible sentence.

17 Feb 2012

Quote by foxylady2209
The classic example usually quoted is " A prepostion is a bad word to end a sentence with." All it proves is that this 'wrong' structure makes a perfectly sensible sentence.

Exactly. And one that reads much better and is more natural sounding than the more 'correct' "A preposition is a bad word with which to end a sentence."
Just realised reading that back I started a sentence with a conjunction there. My bad! lol

17 Feb 2012

Quote by neilinleeds
The classic example usually quoted is " A prepostion is a bad word to end a sentence with." All it proves is that this 'wrong' structure makes a perfectly sensible sentence.

Exactly. And one that reads much better and is more natural sounding than the more 'correct' "A preposition is a bad word with which to end a sentence."
Just realised reading that back I started a sentence with a conjunction there. My bad! lol

It's a minefield out there, isn't it? I do love reading old books - like Darwin's records of the voyage of the Beagle. His phrasing as just that bit different from what we would put now - but perfectly understandable. And always sounds like you need to be wearing a frock-coat or corset to read it. :giggle:

17 Feb 2012

It's a minefield out there, isn't it? I do love reading old books - like Darwin's records of the voyage of the Beagle. His phrasing as just that bit different from what we would put now - but perfectly understandable

All I have to say is if starting sentences with a conjunction was good enough for the , it's good enough for me! :P

17 Feb 2012

Quote by neilinleeds
It's a minefield out there, isn't it? I do love reading old books - like Darwin's records of the voyage of the Beagle. His phrasing as just that bit different from what we would put now - but perfectly understandable

All I have to say is if starting sentences with a conjunction was good enough for the , it's good enough for me! :P
And that goes for me too.

18 Feb 2012

A friend of mine recently walked away from the computer and left himself logged on. I sent a very suggestive email on his behalf to a female colleague. She approached me about it less than five minutes later and when asked why she believed it was me she stated that there were 'real words not fucking text crap' in the email.

18 Feb 2012

Quote by MikeNorth
And that goes for me too.

Ha! I see what you did there.
True though innit? If you're gonna get all grammatically correct English on someone might as well go all out 17th century biblical. Can't argue with that, can they?

18 Feb 2012

Stolen from someones FB page.....

lol

18 Feb 2012

i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far bolt

18 Feb 2012

Quote by Lizaleanrob
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wrong hole.

18 Feb 2012

Quote by foxylady2209
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wronghole.
You might want to sort out the bits above before inspector FreckleBird of the spelling and grammer police pops a cap in yo' ass innocent

:bolt:

18 Feb 2012

Quote by meat2pleaseu
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wronghole.
You might want to sort out the bits above before inspector FreckleBird of the spelling and grammer police pops a cap in yo' ass innocent

:bolt:
So might you! lol

'Freckledbird' and 'grammar'

18 Feb 2012

Quote by Freckledbird
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wronghole.
You might want to sort out the bits above before inspector FreckleBird of the spelling and grammer police pops a cap in yo' ass innocent

:bolt:
So might you! lol

'Freckledbird' and 'grammar'
the list just got shorter

:rotflmao:

18 Feb 2012

Quote by Freckledbird
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wronghole.
You might want to sort out the bits above before inspector FreckleBird of the spelling and grammer police pops a cap in yo' ass innocent

:bolt:
So might you! lol

'Freckledbird' and 'grammar'
Bugger....guilty on the 2nd one but in defense of the 1st one, i've always called her Frecklebird :doh:

18 Feb 2012

Quote by Lizaleanrob
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wronghole.
You might want to sort out the bits above before inspector FreckleBird of the spelling and grammer police pops a cap in yo' ass innocent

:bolt:
So might you! lol

'Freckledbird' and 'grammar'
the list just got shorter

:rotflmao:
My 'list' is made up of real people, 100% flesh.

19 Feb 2012

Quote by Freckledbird
i have quite a good list of who can write a good shag and who can talk one so far

You have raised an exccellent point there. Reading a sexy story and getting bad grammar is about as off putting as having sex and getting the him wronghole.
You might want to sort out the bits above before inspector FreckleBird of the spelling and grammer police pops a cap in yo' ass innocent

:bolt:
So might you! lol

'Freckledbird' and 'grammar'
the list just got shorter

:rotflmao:
My 'list' is made up of real people, 100% flesh.
ah yes you mean a list of who is actually a good shag, sorry i find it advantageous to be added to them rather than make them flipa