Conan the Grammarian

[jocose]

See, told ya Jocose...you make a post complaining about bad grammar/spelling/ect, and you make mistakes in your very own post! I think it's a curse!

Actually, I don't think I said anything about spelling (except for misplaced apostrophes, which is still grammar and not spelling).

The problem is that I'm so far superior to all of you on grammar that all you can do is snip at my ankles by pointing out my misspellings :lmao:

OK, I'm just teasing about that. The truth is, I know very little about grammar--that's what irks me so much. If I can do it right and know so little why can't everyone?

 

['Daniel']

An apostrophe is punctuation, not grammar.

I hate the way people write for example:

"I ate a apple"

It's so annoying.

 

[Corry]

You're forgiven (to be typing "your" is a grammatical error :greenpbl: ).

And leaving out "e's" in never or "i's" in "claimed" isn't too bad, either :greenpbl:

Sorry. Forgive me!

And I shall quote Lafoto...you DID make a grammatical error!! Muahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

BTW, I wanna watch Conan the Barbarian now. I had to call my boyfriend and have him bring it home with him this afternoon (I gave him both Conans as a gift last year, cuz he loves those movies! )

 

[Corry]

An apostrophe is punctuation, not grammar.

I hate the way people write for example:

"I ate a apple"

It's so annoying.

Now that one IS annoying!!! That one I do think should be very easy for everyone! It's HARDER to say "I ate a apple" than it is to say "I at an apple"...so shouldn't it just come naturally? I don't see that one too often, but I noticed it somewhere on the forums recently.

 

[LaFoto]

Well... let's agree to disagree on the "punctuation aspect" of the apostrophe --- it is a grammar mistake to misplace it.

When it indicates a genitive (My father's hat...) it is pure grammar.
When it replaces part of a verb (It's black...) it is pure grammar.

But ok.
Let's agree to disagree, right? Peace!

 

[clarinetJWD]

My friend from Pennsylvania says these things, and it really bothers me:

"It's all" instead of "it's all gone"
"The kitchen needs cleaned" For goodness sake remember your Be-verbs!

 

[Corry]

My friend from Pennsylvania says these things, and it really bothers me:

"It's all" instead of "it's all gone"
"The kitchen needs cleaned" For goodness sake remember your Be-verbs!

Huh?

 

[jocose]

Well... let's agree to disagree on the "punctuation aspect" of the apostrophe --- it is a grammar mistake to misplace it.

When it indicates a genitive (My father's hat...) it is pure grammar.
When it replaces part of a verb (It's black...) it is pure grammar.

But ok.
Let's agree to disagree, right? Peace!

No arguments, but if there were, I'd be on your side, LaFoto

As to the "a" vs. "an." I'll take it a step further. The rule as I understand it is you use "a" when the next word begins with a consenent and "an" when the next word begins with a vowel. BUT, what about the "h" which is hard in the word hard, but soft in the word "hour." From what I understand, it's a toss up. on soft "h"s you always use "an" but you can either say on ALL "h"s use an or only on soft ones. I have tended to lean towards the latter and only done it on the soft ones.

At work a few weeks ago, I used an before an "h," and boss thought I'd lost my mind. Why on earth would I put "an" when the next word is a consenent word. Needless to say, it was a soft "h" and was supposed to be there.

C'est la vie...they want to pay me to write incorrectly, that's something I can be down with

 

[jocose]

My friend from Pennsylvania says these things, and it really bothers me:

"It's all" instead of "it's all gone"
"The kitchen needs cleaned" For goodness sake remember your Be-verbs!

are you sure he isn't just saying "that's all" in that freaky appalachian hamlet inbred sort of way the PA folks have of talking?

 

[clarinetJWD]

Nope, I asked himand his family about it, and they thought I was nuts for saying "It's all gone"

 

['Daniel']

Jocose it is also used in abbreviations.

example:

"An NBA official"

"An ROP cleaning product"

this is if the first letter has vowel at the beginning of the pronunciation of the letter. Not really for your benefit as you probably already knew.

 

[Corry]

No arguments, but if there were, I'd be on your side, LaFoto

As to the "a" vs. "an." I'll take it a step further. The rule as I understand it is you use "a" when the next word begins with a consenent and "an" when the next word begins with a vowel. BUT, what about the "h" which is hard in the word hard, but soft in the word "hour." From what I understand, it's a toss up. on soft "h"s you always use "an" but you can either say on ALL "h"s use an or only on soft ones. I have tended to lean towards the latter and only done it on the soft ones.

At work a few weeks ago, I used an before an "h," and boss thought I'd lost my mind. Why on earth would I put "an" when the next word is a consenent word. Needless to say, it was a soft "h" and was supposed to be there.

C'est la vie...they want to pay me to write incorrectly, that's something I can be down with

I nearly completely agree with you. Except I think it should be 'a' in front of all hard 'h's and an in front of all soft ones. Say this: "That a hard one." and then say this: "That's an hard one.". The 'an' just doesn't sound right.

 

[jocose]

Nope, I asked himand his family about it, and they thought I was nuts for saying "It's all gone"

Well, yea, sure, I mean that 1/4 of breath it takes to say that extra word--you might need it one day. You'll be being chased, and all you'll be able to say is "HE.." and no one will know you mean help.


I also hate, the "do you want to come with?" Come with what exactly???

 

[clarinetJWD]

That a hard one, yo.

 

[jocose]

Jocose it is also used in abbreviations.

example:

"An NBA official"

"An ROP cleaning product"

this is if the first letter has vowel at the beginning of the pronunciation of the letter. Not really for your benefit as you probably already knew.

You, sir, are correct, but that's because, exactly like you say, when you spell out "enbeeah" it's a vowel. BUT, try this: "A NASA official" or "An NASA official." Then you use "a" because if you spell it, "nasa" (OK, so spelling it didn't work so well, but you get my drift), it's a consenent.

Good job, my man!