grammar mistakes

I cringe when I hear the passive voice. I spent 10 years with teenagers, some of whom had no sense of responsibility.

The window got broken.

My homework isn't finished.

Etc. I don't even want to drift down Memory Lane.

D et R, I think Churchill was actually saying we should not be too hidebound by rules, and if it makes sense to break them (for reasons of simplicity, or brevity, etc) then break them we should, where appropriate.

And that's one idea I can cope with. And relate to.

... what a wonderfully half-subtle shot at the end.

Yes.. but we shouldn't allow 'brevity' or 'simplicity' to kill our subjunctive, or change our language to make it even easier; that just increases the laziness of some people...

By the way, I dis-agree with hyphenating too, in this case. It reminds me of people who put the emphasis on the start, as if one were not capable of seeing that 'dis' changes the meaning of the verb.

Aren't Churchill and you folks talking about prepositions at the end of sentences?

I,m going to confess right here and now. I admit I must be the king of all this bad grammer and malapropism.
It's just that in Maine english wasn'ta priority over local slang and outr teachers never corrected us. When I left the fair state I slowly to my complete horror sounded like the dumest hick from hickville junction. It was so horrible nothing of mine creatively could get through if you heard me talk. Silent submissions were the best for me.

When I came back to my birthplace Canada you can not imagine the bad vibes I c got becaus eI was sublevel. Well nothing like a harsh teacher to correct old mistakes and now I feel all the better for it.

This is my only confession I will make in my entirelife about this .I promise..

Wouldn't know and you could be right but there are 111,000 hits for that quote on Google. Maybe they copied each other? That is a problem with quotes... unless you have the context, source & date... very flimsy.


Craven - That was the proper use of a double negative? Are you sure?


Algis -- Anyone with the wit to malaprop is fine with me.

thing is that was really an exageration i always wanted to speak propeller english

Yep. It was not logically inconsistent. If there was an error it was the use of "if"instead of "that".

Here's another:

"I don't want you to not go just because I'm not going."

That can easily be rephrased to make it less awkward but the rule against double negatives is a logical one and as long as the double negatives aren't changing the intended meaning it's correct.'

Here's a better example: "It's not like she has never had a chance."

Not reading back fully, I'll jump in to say I thought "The window was broken" was passive, the window was acted upon as well as being there in an adjectival state after it had been broken.

Thinking.......(tick, tick) in italian, a lot of past participles are also adjectival. In any case, they read the same way on the page, but they aren't listed as adjectives but as parts of verbs.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is no longer a no-no. And, in fact, some sentences that end with prepositions are far less awkward than the rewording necessary so that the preposition is not the last word.

There was talk of conjunctions, oh, ne'er mind.

And?
But?
However?
Notwithstanding? What were you going to say, Osteopath?

Je no longer comprends le convo. I often wonder what the subjunctive is in Franglais though.

No idea, but it's Konjunktiv in German, and it's v v important.

Hi, thirst. Welcome to A2K. I have taught tenth grade English, so I feel that I am somewhat qualified to make a few suggestions.

First of all, when we speak of "grammar", we are simply speaking of the structure of a language. What you refer to here is "usage" of that language. The best thing for you to do, should you want to avoid barbarisms, (unacceptable use of any language) is to hear it right, then say it right. The "fine tuning" as Roberta calls it, will come eventually.

Then, in composing, remember that communicating in an efficient and straight forward manner, is your main concern. Always read your finished product aloud to someone else, preferably one who is proficient in composition.

Good luck in your English class.

Drom said -
I agree with Churchill on not putting a conjunction at the end of a sentence; archaic though it may seem, I think putting a conjunction at the end of a sentence sounds clumsy, although it is fine in informal conversation.

Osso said -
Aren't Churchill and you folks talking about prepositions at the end of sentences?

That's what I meant, in speaking of talk about conjunctions, and never mind, carry on!

I think that he was trying to be funny by changing around your words, Osso.

I stand by my stuffiness , 'though I'm not one of these people who read grammar textbooks too often for fun, who start criticising people on the bus:

'That's Jargon!
That's a conjunction at the end of the sentence!
Oh my sweet Lord, that's a... a... colloquialism...
*dies from hyperventilation.*'

You don't get many people that bothered about language anymore, which is a shame...

Many of them are here, though, d et r, so I hope you feel buoyed up.
Don't be too despondent.

BTW we haven't begun discussing dialect yet. It can be very rich, rewarding, and expressive.

Yes, I noticed that; I've never met so many interesting, smart, fun and true people in one place; I was talking about society in general, where the attitude is, 'why consider whether what you're saying makes any sense when you can just say it.'

I think dialect is a great expression of one region or group's individuality; Scottish dialect, although one cannot classify all under one name, is a great example of this. It's fascinating to see where all the dialect words come from, too.