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One for the grammar police

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Comments


  • Lincsaddick
    Lincsaddick Posts: 32,348
    never come between a man and his dialect !  >:)
  • clive
    clive Posts: 19,454
    never come between a man and his dialect !  >:)
    Daleks  Doctor Who
  • Billy_Mix
    Billy_Mix Posts: 2,707
    I stand behind no man in my enthusiasm for correct punctuation.  Some may even call it pedantry.
    The trouble for we noisy few, in pedants' corner, is the absence of a definitive authority on English punctuation, or even grammar for that matter.
    If you are older than about 50, you might have had some lessons in what was alleged to be rules of grammar, syntax etc.
    It was all massively overstated.  Little more than an excuse for bitter old bastards to bully children.
    The English language only has custom and common usage, it has no laws or rules.
    If you're not sure how the apostrophe should be used, better not use it at all.
    People quibbling about how a dialect should be printed are desperately missing the point.
    Dialect by its very definition is spoken.
    That sloppy northern mangling of our fine language is wholly indefensible, wherever you put t'chuffin 'postrophe.
  • Gisappointed
    Gisappointed Posts: 990
    edited July 2024
    "Well I think, like, if grammar is so important, like, my teachers, like, or my parents, like, would have spent more time, like, educating me, like, but I didnt need it, like, to get a job, like,  cos I got big tits."

    I like her honesty.
  • Gisappointed
    Gisappointed Posts: 990
    edited July 2024
    To avoid charges of sexism young men use similar interjections but they begin with 'f'.  And they boast big ...... 
  • Dippenhall
    Dippenhall Posts: 3,919
    Billy_Mix said:
    I stand behind no man in my enthusiasm for correct punctuation.  Some may even call it pedantry.
    The trouble for we noisy few, in pedants' corner, is the absence of a definitive authority on English punctuation, or even grammar for that matter.
    If you are older than about 50, you might have had some lessons in what was alleged to be rules of grammar, syntax etc.
    It was all massively overstated.  Little more than an excuse for bitter old bastards to bully children.
    The English language only has custom and common usage, it has no laws or rules.
    If you're not sure how the apostrophe should be used, better not use it at all.
    People quibbling about how a dialect should be printed are desperately missing the point.
    Dialect by its very definition is spoken.
    That sloppy northern mangling of our fine language is wholly indefensible, wherever you put t'chuffin 'postrophe.
    Before the printing press was invented apostrophes didn’t exist and there was no such thing as rules of grammar. 
    Grammar pedants don’t realise that grammar rules and spellings exist only because a standard set of rules grew up out of necessity to print a single style and pattern of speech as opposed to printing in 50 different dialects.  

    So today’s grammar rules are partly the result of random choices made by the print barons of the day reflecting what would be recognised as everyday speech and sounds of medieval Londoners,

     Academics and high society in later centuries decided to adopt secret rules of Latin and Greek grammar that only they understood to separate them from the peasants speaking ‘vulgar” English in their own local dialect.
  • sillav nitram
    sillav nitram Posts: 10,164
    edited July 2024
    I use a heading on my website titled, ArtCity, I know it infuriates a friend of mine. He says it looks like I’ve made a mistake. I might have some sympathy if I’d only used it once but I repeatedly use it and spell it that way. His frustration comes from his preprogrammed way of looking at English grammar and the so called “correct way” to do things but I think as an artist we have license and maybe a duty to challenge and break rules. In fact I quite enjoy doing things deliberately to piss off the establishment.
  • Ha. I just hope apostrophes and the Oxford Comma last my lifetime.
  • I don't see how the apostrophe can be trivialised.  Its use is essential in the clarification of a sentence and its misuse can completely change the meaning.

    I once received a 'save the date' card with 'Were getting married' written on it. A quick check revealed that they were in fact still getting married.  It can make the difference between knowing your shit or knowing you're shit. 
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  • KiwiValley
    KiwiValley Posts: 3,379
    How many times can you use the word “that” sequentially so that it’s still grammatically correct…..answer, believe it or not, is five
    Example….a teacher asks a pupil to give a sentence with two “that’s” in sequence.
    The pupil answers “I think that that hat looks nice.”
    The teacher then says to the class…..”That that that, that that    student just gave me is a good answer.”
    Doesn’t seem possible at first does it.
    Eight “had”s are also possible. 
    Fuck, fuck fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck - fuck me!
  • Wheresmeticket
    Wheresmeticket Posts: 17,304
    Grammatical rules: Do you understand what is being said or written?  
  • MrOneLung
    MrOneLung Posts: 26,853
    Grammatical rules: Do you understand what is being said or written?  
    What are you trying to say here? 
  • lordromford
    lordromford Posts: 7,783
    How many times can you use the word “that” sequentially so that it’s still grammatically correct…..answer, believe it or not, is five
    Example….a teacher asks a pupil to give a sentence with two “that’s” in sequence.
    The pupil answers “I think that that hat looks nice.”
    The teacher then says to the class…..”That that that, that that    student just gave me is a good answer.”
    Doesn’t seem possible at first does it.
    Eight “had”s are also possible. 
    11 “had”s actually.

    Consider this scenario:
    James and John are students. Their teacher asks them to choose a phrase describing a person who previously suffered from the flu. John chooses “Bob had the flu”. James chooses “Bob had had the flu.” The teacher is more pleased with James’ response.

    Ok? Ready? An observer could summarise this situation thus:

    ’James, while John had had “had”, had had “had had” - “Had had” had had a more positive effect on the teacher.’

    I thank you. 🤓