Tag Archives: grammar

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dreams are made on


“The importance of English word order is also the reason that the idea that you can’t end a sentence with a preposition is utter hogwash. In fact, it would be utter hogwash anyway, and anyone who claims that you can’t end a sentence with up, should be told to shut. It is, as Shakespeare put it, such stuff as dreams are made on, but it’s one of those silly English beliefs that flesh is heir to.”

 

― Mark Forsyth

The Elements of Eloquence: How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase

 

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Don’t p@nic: Punctuation has rarely been truly stable



 
INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORD, and the word was run together. Ancient texts (like the Greek of the Gospel of John) had few of the devices that tell readers where words begin and end (spaces), which words are proper names (the upper-lower case distinction), where breaks in meaning come (commas, dashes, semicolons and full stops), who said what (inverted commas), and so on.
 
Most people take punctuation to be something obvious and settled. In fact, the system is in a bit of upheaval.

via Don’t p@nic | The Economist

 

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No Logic in “Etymological”: A Response I Actually Sent


Simply beautiful, irregardless of what you think:

Today I got an email from someone who watched the “irregardless” video and was appalled (though in the gentlest and kindest manner possible) that I said “irregardless” was a word. It’s not logical! Just look at that sloppy coinage: “ir-” and “regardless.” Why, it should mean “WITH regard to,” not “without regard to”! Who in their right mind is going to use “irrespective” and “regardless”–both perfectly serviceable words–to create a synonym of each word that looks like it should mean the opposite of what it does?

I drafted the reply I wanted to send and saved it to my Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen folder. Midway through my real response, though, I changed my mind: this guy needed to see the NKTTIS response. Something about the tone of his letter was bothering me. It was not, as these letters usually are, arrogant. It was sad.

Read the Full Thing Here: No Logic in “Etymological”: A Response I Actually Sent | harm·less drudg·ery

 

harm·less drudg·ery

Today I got an email from someone who watched the “irregardless” video and was appalled (though in the gentlest and kindest manner possible) that I said “irregardless” was a word. It’s not logical! Just look at that sloppy coinage: “ir-” and “regardless.” Why, it should mean “WITH regard to,” not “without regard to”! Who in their right mind is going to use “irrespective” and “regardless”–both perfectly serviceable words–to create a synonym of each word that looks like it should mean the opposite of what it does?

I drafted the reply I wanted to send and saved it to my Nobody Knows The Trouble I Seen folder. Midway through my real response, though, I changed my mind: this guy needed to see the NKTTIS response. Something about the tone of his letter was bothering me. It was not, as these letters usually are, arrogant. It was sad.

English is a little bit like…

View original post 664 more words

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Jerk


A Southerner stopped a stranger on the Harvard campus and asked, “Could you please tell me where the library is at?” The stranger responded, “Educated people never end their sentences with a preposition.” The overly polite Southerner then apologetically repeated himself: “Could you please tell me where the library is at, you jerk?”

Is Ending a Sentence with a Preposition Ever Acceptable?

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Want to name my offspring Inkle


An inkling of medieval times

Q: I just read an article in an information technology trade magazine wherein the author used the word “inkle” as a verb meaning to imply or to hint. That can’t be right – can it?

A: This is one of those “Eureka!” moments.The verb “inkle” is extremely old, and dates back to the 1300s. Its original meaning, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was “to utter or communicate in an undertone or whisper, to hint, give a hint of.”

via An inkling of medieval times | The Grammarphobia Blog

 

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An Historic


Oh god I don’t know if I’m the only one who is going crazy with all the “an historic…”(s) being thrown around…

Here is a quick explanation for the usage:

Quoting from the OED:

“There is still some divergence of opinion over the form of the indefinite article to use preceding certain words beginning with h- when the first syllable is unstressed: ‘a historical document’ or ‘an historical document’; ‘a hotel’ or ‘an hotel’. The form depends on whether the initial h is sounded or not: an was common in the 18th and 19th centuries, because the initial h was commonly not pronounced for these words. In standard modern English the norm is for the h to be pronounced in words like hotel and historical, and therefore, the indefinite article a is used; however, the older form, with the silent h and the indefinite article an, is still encountered, especially among older speakers.”

There are rare cases in American English where the ‘h’ is silent, like the word ‘honorary’. In that case, it would be appropriate to say ‘I received an honorary degree.’ But in most other cases, like historical and homeless, we would say, ‘I gave charity to a homeless man today’ or ‘Digging a hole also builds a hill.’ Saying these with ‘an’ instead of ‘a’ indicates how silly it sounds.

In most cases, like with the word ‘historic,’ we pronounce the ‘h.’

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Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location 


It was nearly hidden on a New York City Transit public service placard exhorting subway riders not to leave their newspaper behind when they get off the train.“Please put it in a trash can,” riders are reminded. After which Neil Neches, an erudite writer in the transit agency’s marketing and service information department, inserted a semicolon. The rest of the sentence reads, “that’s good news for everyone.”

via Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location | The New York Times