Grammar Police (What ticks you off?)

[ActionBuddy]

... I lived in Seattle for three years and one of the common things I heard was when people refer to their parents. Instead of parents, it was parenteses. Every time I heard someone say it, I heard Gollum in my head saying "Sneaky little hobbitses!"

I've lived in Seattle nearly my whole life. I have never heard anyone say "parenteses", instead of "parents".

What I have heard though is, mostly young men, calling their parents, "The Rents"... Like, their parents pay the rent.

 

[Infernal]

I've lived in Seattle nearly my whole life. I have never heard anyone say "parenteses", instead of "parents".

What I have heard though is, mostly young men, calling their parents, "The Rents"... Like, their parents pay the rent.

Maybe it was a Kitsap thing. I heard it frequently.

 

[ActionBuddy]

Maybe it was a Kitsap thing. I heard it frequently.

Yeah, maybe... Kitsap is another county, across Puget Sound from Seattle. A different place, and much less educated.

 

[Infernal]

Yeah, maybe... Kitsap is another county, across Puget Sound from Seattle. A different place, and much less educated.

But all of those sailors..... They made the stupidity worth it.

 

[Rsechs]

The failure to observe the distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative adjectives.

 

[ConanTheBarber]

The failure to observe the distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive relative adjectives.

Examples?

 

[Spartan727]

Fuzzy's rules (ignore at your peril):

1. Use fewer for things you can count; use less for everything else.
2. User farther for distances you can measure; use further for everything else.

What I’m wondering is exactly what. Grammar police dept is monitoring auto correct? This bitch is off the chain!

 

[Squirrel1]

What I’m wondering is exactly what. Grammar police dept is monitoring auto correct? This bitch is off the chain!

Yeah. I just noticed a post I did yesterday that had autocorrected bite to byte. Byte you in the ass wasn’t the point I was trying to make.

 

[NCbear]

Examples?

"That" versus "which."

The car that I drive regularly is a Honda Accord. ["That I drive regularly" is restrictive because the phrase is essential to the meaning of the sentence. Here, I'm explaining that it's not just any car but the car "that I drive regularly" that's a Honda Accord.]

My new car, which is a Honda Accord, isn't nearly as sporty as my Mazda6 was. ["Which is a Honda Accord" is non-restrictive because the phrase is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Here, I'm basically bemoaning that my new car--which just happens to be a Honda Accord--isn't anywhere near as good in terms of acceleration or handling as my Mazda6.]

Hoping these examples are helpful.

(And what Rsechs meant.)

NCbear (who was once an English major, back at the dawn of time when dinosaurs walked the earth and Democrats were in power in NC, which meant that we didn't have toll roads or high sales tax in the state or batshit-crazy theocrats in the legislature)

 

[NCbear]

P.S. Anyone ever heard of "you-uns" ["you ones"] or "us-uns" ["us ones"]?

NCbear (who had a college dorm mate from way up in the hollers ["hollows"] of the North Carolina mountains who spoke like that--and when she got angry one time, she said she was "mad enough to jump stumps"--and someone from New Jersey said he wanted to see her do that )

 

[FRE]

"That" versus "which."

The car that I drive regularly is a Honda Accord. ["That I drive regularly" is restrictive because the phrase is essential to the meaning of the sentence. Here, I'm explaining that it's not just any car but the car "that I drive regularly" that's a Honda Accord.]

My new car, which is a Honda Accord, isn't nearly as sporty as my Mazda6 was. ["Which is a Honda Accord" is non-restrictive because the phrase is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Here, I'm basically bemoaning that my new car--which just happens to be a Honda Accord--isn't anywhere near as good in terms of acceleration or handling as my Mazda6.]

Hoping these examples are helpful.

(And what Rsechs meant.)

NCbear (who was once an English major, back at the dawn of time when dinosaurs walked the earth and Democrats were in power in NC, which meant that we didn't have toll roads or high sales tax in the state or batshit-crazy theocrats in the legislature)

That's why I have a Mazda.

 

[NCbear]

That's why I have a Mazda.

Unfortunately, the 2006-2008 Mazda6 generation, which had sharp-as-hell steering and knife-edged handling (and came in a hatchback body with a stick shift), is now hard to find in good condition. My own 2006 Mazda6 hatchback bit the dust when it became a money pit over the last 1.5 years; the last straw was the failure of the "ABS braking module," which was not only $3500 (just for the part!) but also on "indefinite backorder" to Mazda's factory in Hiroshima. Um, yeah. So Carmax bought it from me for $500. (AIGHH! MY BABY!)

So, no more iconic "volcanic red" Mazda which as the "Sport Value" edition had a 6-CD changer in the dash, a two-position sunroof, front auto-down AND auto-up windows, and a 150-mph speedometer (which I'd seen hit 140 smoothly with my husband sleeping in the passenger seat five Thanksgivings ago, when the car had about 150K miles on it). No more midsize hatchback that could swallow a full-size washing machine with the hatch closed but park in a spot a Jetta couldn't fit into. No more smooth luxury ride coupled with incredibly fast reflexes (I once dodged several logs falling off a truck going up a mountain interstate in front of me). Nothing--NOTHING--sold today, only 13 years later, compares.

Instead, my Honda has a rough ride on godawful 19-inch wheels, slow steering, tremendously uncomfortable seats (including a passenger seat without enough adjustment possibilities!), and no CD player, but (oh god yes!) lots of electronic gewgaws that beep at me constantly. But at least it's got a stick--one of only two midsized sedan choices (VW Jetta or Honda Accord) that offered one. So I'm halfway resigned to my fate.

NCbear (who just might bring home another 2006-2008 Mazda6 if I can sneak a $5000-6000 purchase past my husband; there's one in Minnesota and another in Florida that look like good candidates, considering they only have 105-110K miles on them)





. . . sorry for the derail. Back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[Fuzzy_]

"I literally died while finishing the exam."

What I’m wondering is exactly what. Grammar police dept is monitoring auto correct? This bitch is off the chain!

It ducking sucks.

 

[NCbear]

Several things I saw in a 30-page grant proposal today:

1. Comma splices, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments

2. Cause-and-effect statements that weren’t true/valid

3. Introductory phrases that weren’t set off with commas

4. Incorrectly used apostrophes

5. Incorrectly used hyphens

6. A tendency to use additive logic (and this and that and the third thing) rather than prioritized logic (main ideas versus sub-ideas)—the former is much less sophisticated than the latter

7. Undifferentiated masses of text without indents to indicate paragraphing

The whole thing read as though a precocious toddler with a polysyllabic technical vocabulary wrote it rather than a PhD and native speaker of English. I’m internally conflicted over whether I can/should hint at the apparent lack of maturity in this draft.

I’m also internally conflicted over whether I should correct the abysmally immature grammar or whether I should just give the writer the list above and tell them to go fine the issues.

NCbear (who’s really tired of being a glorified elementary school teacher for some grant proposals)

 

[yhtang]

Several things I saw in a 30-page grant proposal today:

1. Comma splices, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments

2. Cause-and-effect statements that weren’t true/valid

3. Introductory phrases that weren’t set off with commas

4. Incorrectly used apostrophes

5. Incorrectly used hyphens

6. A tendency to use additive logic (and this and that and the third thing) rather than prioritized logic (main ideas versus sub-ideas)—the former is much less sophisticated than the latter

7. Undifferentiated masses of text without indents to indicate paragraphing

The whole thing read as though a precocious toddler with a polysyllabic technical vocabulary wrote it rather than a PhD and native speaker of English. I’m internally conflicted over whether I can/should hint at the apparent lack of maturity in this draft.

I’m also internally conflicted over whether I should correct the abysmally immature grammar or whether I should just give the writer the list above and tell them to go fine the issues.

NCbear (who’s really tired of being a glorified elementary school teacher for some grant proposals)

I would assume that a person applying for a grant would take pains to ensure the document is properly written, and is proofread before is was sent out.

If, to put it colloquially, not many fucks had been given in preparing the proposal, does it not infer that the applicant is not exactly vested in the project? Would that not rather guarantee a rejection?

 

[yhtang]

I believe I am old fashioned (I am a bit past my half century on this planet) and I was brought up on British English. I do not live in the US, nor am I a native speaker.

I am rather disturbed that the present trend in American writing is to present everything in the present tense - even events that happened in the past. What happened to past tense in current writing? I am sticking to my old ways, at the risk of my posts looking odd to some readers who are more used to reading text presented in the present tense.

 

[Braalian82]

It feels like schools aren’t even trying to teach proper grammar anymore. And it also feels like vocabulary is shrinking, as kids use a narrower pool of words. Within a generation English will become a hybrid of texting slang/acronyms and Orwellian Newspeak

 

[NCbear]

I would assume that a person applying for a grant would take pains to ensure the document is properly written, and is proofread before is was sent out.

If, to put it colloquially, not many fucks had been given in preparing the proposal, does it not infer that the applicant is not exactly vested in the project? Would that not rather guarantee a rejection?

Yes, lack of caring about grammatical rules to many funders means lack of caring about other rules, including financial ones. As a result, part of my job for several years has been similar to that of the rebellious teenager who ran away from home to join the circus: cleaning up behind the great big elephant in the room, which is that many highly educated people can’t write worth a damn.

. . . And I’m not talking only about grammatical disabilities. Far too many people, including both native and non-native speakers of English, simply can’t (don’t?) use language powerfully or compellingly enough to express their ideas in such a way that a funder is inspired to write a check. Or organize their ideas clearly enough that a review panel can see a logical progression of the case they are making for funding their idea. Or provide enough detail that the reviewers can clearly understand the ways in which the project elements fit together into an overall vision.

Or . . . you get the picture.

NCbear (who’s still amazed at how many people who say, for example, that they have four project goals in their intro-and-rationale sections but only end up discussing three in the remainder of their proposal drafts, or display some similar inconsistency; hell, though, it’s job security and it pays the bills!)

 

[seventiesdemon]

How about everyone turn off the AI enhancement. There is a huge difference between poor grammar to totally crap grammar. As long as it's understandable.

I try to express what I wish to say in the shortest means possible. If people are not going to get the gist in around 200 words more or less in one post, then it's not worth pursuing.

I lack vocabulary, yet when I read a person who has a dictionary for a mind..it doesn't make them any more or less interesting than a person who express themselves using less skills. Sometimes the meaning becomes lost in the weirding of wording.

 

[windibundu]

In Ohio and parts of Michigan, lots of people use the phrase, "your car needs fixed" to mean, "your car needs to be fixed" - or, "your car needs fixing". For some reason that always annoys me, though they're really is no logical reason why we're supposed to use the auxiliary verb/gerund.