Quick Grammar Banter

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sage
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Sage
  • It's I, not me! Or is it? – How many times have you thought, "Am I supposed to say Anne and I or Anne and me?" I'll admit that I didn't really know how to correctly figure this out until my 7th grade English teacher taught me the following trick: Cover up the other person's name and the "and" part, then see if it makes sense. For example:
    Anne and I went to the party.
    Anne and me went to the party.​
    The first one obviously sounds better… you'd say "I went to the party", not "Me went to the party". Thus, you know to use "I" in that sentence. Very easy method, and works 100% of the time.
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Another fun way of learning this is the "We & Us" rule. If you can replace the persons in the sentence with "We" then it should be "and I". On the other hand, if you can replace the persons in the sentence with "Us", then it should be "and me".

In short, "If it's "we", it's not "me"."
 
Different Than/From - Do not use than in conjunction with different.

Correct: My brother's shirt is different from mine.
Incorrect: My brother's shirt is different than mine.

My organs explode everytime I see this. Hell, just yesterday I noticed the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles committed this error on a form I had to fill out.

Who/That - Use who when referring to a person. Use that when referring to a thing.

Correct: Name any leader of any country who hasn't breached this so-called 'international law' in the last 100 years.
Incorrect: Name any leader of any country that hasn't breached this so-called 'international law' in the last 100 years.

Ha! I schooled neon_duke,

I've seen a few people use apostrophes incorrectly with years. Referring to 1997 as 97' is not correct. If you can't refer to it as 1997, use '97. Note that the apostrophe takes place of the 19, not of some imaginary characters that come after 1997.
 
Yes, yes you did, and thank you for doing so.

That being said, a preposition such as "with" or "for" or "on" or "by" is a horrible word with which to end a sentence.

And for the love of trees, people, those things that stop the car are BRAKES, not breaks.
 
Yeah, I always see people typing it like that and I was thinking "I'm sure it's brakes..."
 
neon_duke
And for the love of trees, people, those things that stop the car are BRAKES, not breaks.
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Don't be so rediculous.

Klos, where would you stick "different to" in your "different from/than" lesson? I almost never use "different from", but prefer "different to", as it keeps the subject and object apart.
 
Uh, yeah. I don't think I've ever heard anyone use 'different to' hence my decision to not include it. But it does make sense.

I use a ton of sentence fragments when I type. Most of the time for dramatic effect. Like that; except that wasn't dramatic. Is this frowned upon, or accepted? I've always been told that sentence fragments are the work of terrorists, but when used correctly, I think they add something to the statement being made. Or maybe not.
 
I think it's ridiculous to expect anybody to never type a sentence fragment. If anything, they can be more powerful than a full-on sentence, since it merely contains the point, not the extra drivel (even completing a sentence with a pronoun adds too much fluff sometimes). So, right. (!)
 
He's whom the thread was invented by. Dont be so redeculise ! Read from the left too the rite and start from the begining to comprehend the context of the body of the paragraphs .
And they went wee wee weee all the way home. I must say I may benifit the most by this thread, so please disreguard the previouse prattle. I get confused alot. :crazy:
 
tabs
It usually helps to read the thread before you reply, usually.
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I will try to reply using good English so that I do not get criticised by Klost.

I cannot be bothered to read the whole thread because I am on 56K.
 
*bump*

Lately, I've been seeing a lot of people using an apostrophe to make a word plural, and I swear I'm going to collapse and die the next time I see it. You don't eat pie's, you don't send PM's, if it belongs to him and her then it's theirs, not their's, and there aren't multiple chimp's and chimpanzee's.

I do have one quick addendum though: The only time you ever, ever, ever use an apostrophe for making a word plural is when a lack of an apostrophe could cause confusion. The only example I can think off the top of my head is when you want to indicate more than one of a single letter, for example: Mind your p's and q's. In this case, "Mind your ps and qs" would be rather difficult to figure out, so the apostrophe is fine. Or, another example: I had straight C's this semester. You wouldn't use an apostrophe when there's no ambiguity: I have many CDs, I was born in the 1980s, I send PMs. All of those make perfect sense without the apostrophe.

So, 99.9% of the time, don't use it for pluralization!
 
Sage
theirs, not their's, and there aren't multiple chimp's and chimpanzee's.[/i]
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I'm surprised it took you this long before you did something about my typing.

Aren't I kaniving that way? It just drive's you nut's doesn't it? Maybe I'll keeping going. Or use bad form! *gasp* And all that stuff.
 
Also, an apostrophe is used to make a word plural when it is addressed as the word itself. For example, "There's is a lot of good's in your essay, Billy."
 
You just used the word "good's". I'm going to use the word "good's" a second time. That makes 3 good's's.
 
What about the use of a comma??
Not being English, I find it very hard sometimes to read a long sentence without a or more than 1 comma. People should start using commas
 
This definately needs a sticky. Or be spread to other forums of the net. Some people on other forums could definately learn this.

Sage could be a grammar teacher.

I think I've been doing some good sentences, of course, with the occasional mistake.
 
But my grammar is generally terrible!

Please can I be excused from the bullwhipping?
 
Wow, great thread! I didn't even know that using apostrophes like that (i.e.: CD's, DVD's, etc.) was wrong.
kikie
What about the use of a comma??
Not being English, I find it very hard sometimes to read a long sentence without a or more than 1 comma. People should start using commas
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I was also wondering about this... In Spanish (or Castellan, which is actually the correct name of the language that we speak in Latin America), we tend to use as much commas as necessary to "pause" the reading and breathe between one phrase and another, but I don't know about the number of commas needed, and when to place them; I find myself often using way too many, or so I think.
 

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