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Thu 28 Oct, 2010 06:36 am
what can it be besides rubbish?
and, if we mean somgthing in the culture is useless, can rubbish be used to describe it?
Thx
I'm not certain which sentence you want to know is correct. Generally, in English, a sentence begins with the first word capitalized, and ends with a period, or another finalizing punctuation mark. I'll work from there.
what can it be besides rubbish?
This can be considered a sentence by itself, as it ends in a question mark. Grammatically, i see nothing wrong with it.
and, if we mean somgthing in the culture is useless, can rubbish be used to describe it?
This can also be seen as a discrete sentence, because, once again, it ends in a question mark. Grammatically, although i can't say the sentence is wrong; however, in English one usually tries to avoid starting a sentence with the conjunction "and." So, you might better write the sentence: If we mean something in the culture is useless, can rubbish be used to describe it?
@Setanta,
Quote:Grammatically, although i can't say the sentence is wrong;however, in English one usually tries to avoid starting a sentence with the conjunction "and."
This is precisely that type of advice that I warned about in another thread. It's so misleading that it's useless. There is nothing at all wrong or ungrammatical with starting a sentence with 'and' or any conjunction for that matter.
Where does this nonsense come from?
Quote:
November 01, 2006
HOWEVER,...
...
A little story: whenever Kenter and I talk about our investigations into but and however, a significant number of people in our audiences are astounded to hear that there are authorities actually RECOMMENDING sentence-initial but. Almost all of the students in the audiences respond this way. (And now, after yesterday's posting, my mailbox is filling up with similarly surprised messages from all over the place.) But, but, they clamor, we were taught NEVER to begin a sentence with but, or any other coordinating conjunction (and and so are the other usual offenders).
Taught where? In grade school and high school. No Initial Coordinators (NIC) is all over the place in those precincts. Some Stanford undergraduates told us that their section instructors in PWR (Program in Writing and Rhetoric, the successor to Freshman Composition) insisted on NIC. I happen to know that the main texts used in PWR do not advocate NIC, so these section instructors were rolling their own advice (well, probably just handing on things they themselves had been taught). Still, NIC had some college presence. And at Stanford. I was appalled.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003723.html
@Setanta,
Setanta wrote:
in English one usually tries to avoid starting a sentence with the conjunction "and."
Nobody told William Blake.
@contrex,
Hypocrite. I've seen you make the very same comment.
@Setanta,
Quote:Hypocrite. I've seen you make the very same comment.
Well, that's a possibility, Set. Contrex is, after all, an English Lit major.
But, wouldn't it be the adult thing to take responsibility for your own errors, junior.
On a side note, isn't it ironic that, all too often, the English Department and English teachers are the ones that don't know about how language works.
@JTT,
JTT wrote:On a side note, isn't it ironic that, all too often, the English Department and English teachers are the ones that don't know about how language works.
A profoundly fatuous remark. Inspired by past experiences?
@contrex,
Quote:Inspired by past experiences?
Not only past experiences, C, present ones, also.
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