2007年12月のアーカイブ

ある`オハイオ州の私の神は!」 Sacrilegiousか。

この討論は全体でを私がaを偶然見つけたまで私を渡した ワシントンポスト 「オハイオ州の広まった使用上の驚きがあることに今朝物語、しかしそれは現われる、私の神!」

ある人々はそれが「私のオハイオ州おやっ」か「オハイオ州と同じようなちょうど毎日の表現であること神の名前を無駄に取っていることを論争する、他s-!」 (それに発言をsacrilegiousか。またする人々は時々「s」の表現をに「」神聖、そうする加える)

読んだ「あなたの略称を見なさい」あなた自身のために決定すれば。

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幸せな休日のMusings

残念、しかし私ショッピングおよび戻る現在およびブログをそんなに気にしないことの休日のざわめきで追いつかれた。

私はまたOscarのずっと好みとして述べられる映画のいくつかを見本抽出している。 1つは非常に文学を証明した; 他はより叙情的、だった(血だらけ)。

償い 文学的な1つはある。 ダイアログおよびvoiceovers (内部思考)は調子で文学強力で、美しい英語を、かなり運ぶ。

Sweeneyタッド Tim Burtonによって映画になされるオペラまたはBroadwayのはミュージカルであるので叙情的な1つは、文字通りある。 物語はよい1であるが、効果はかなり血だらけである。 (プロット、公正な訪問をMRQE.comのような場所知らないし、「Sweeneyタッドをタイプインしなければ。」)

評決か。 に行きなさい 償い 強力な視覚イメージおよび強力な話されていた英語両方でスクリーンを満たす文学仕事を好めば。 に行きなさい Sweeneyタッド 元のスティーブンSondheimまたはTim Burtonのファンなら。 しかし行けばより多くの血のためにより準備されなさいあなたの生命に見たあることが。

映画は両方ともあなたの時間の価値が充分ある。

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現実を攻撃することは困難である

私は私が教えた大学クラスものスコアそして何百から既に精々100人の大学生に付き1人だけに単語糸口があるように完了してしまった 彼等の 存在している。 ほとんどの学生はちょうど定期的に訂正する そこに それらは副詞か所有代名詞としてそれを必要とするかどうか。

この多くの広まった無知および濫用によって、私はで確実goolのolの」 obligin」の人々である オックスフォード英国辞書 will soon sign off on the use of there as both adverb and possessive pronoun. Oh, sad day.

Now, here’s a cute double-whammy I came across this morning in one of my U.S. history classes.

A student did some research on presidents and discovered that only 19 in total ever served at least four years (seems low, though I didn’t challenge it), but her rationale was more revealing: Since, she wrote, most people don’t become president until they’re really old in their (she wrote there) 60s, they quickly die of hard attacks.

You can’t argue with such logic.

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Mitchell Goes Yard, Fehr Whiffs

I don’t know how many of you live in the United States, and of those who do how many follow baseball, but I spent yesterday watching, first, the George Mitchell news conference on steroid use among athletes, and then, union boss Donald Fehr’s response a few hours later.

I thought both men were well spoken with reasonable statements and arguments, but that aside, let me judge their English usage.

Mitchell was impeccable in his grammar. At one point in a long sentence beginning with everyone–and then interrupted by a bunch of names in between–he even managed to get the correct singular usage of the verb to match his subject. Most people would’ve gotten confused by all the names listed in between and reverted to an incorrect plural verb.

Mitchell gets a home run for his English performance.

Now, Fehr–who tended to speak more circuitously but not necessarily incorrectly–did make one boo-boo (which is why I said he “whiffs”) when he said he had given something “to he….”

Naughty, naughty–prepostions always (a simple rule) take the objective case, so he should’ve said “to him.”

Okay, Fehr hit a triple rather than whiffing, but I had to make a contrasing headline.

It’s baseball that struck out.

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Building Blocks of English XIII: Verb Mood

English employs three verb moods–indicative, imperative and subjunctive.

Indicative mood is for simple statements, while the imperative is for commands: “Run!”

However, it’s the subjunctive, represeting a wish or untrue situation, that befuddles virtually every English speaker.

Remember the line from the song in Fiddler on the Roof, “If I was a rich man…”?

Completely wrong verb usage!

Since the singer (”I”) is expressing an untrue situation, or a wish, the verb must be changed to the plural subjunctive form, were: “If I were a rich man….”

If can be a big indicator that the subjunctive mood is called for, but not invariably. I wish is a definite call for the subjective: “I wish you were more serious.”

For more examples, peruse this handy guide.

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New Grammar Questions Answered System in Place

Because a lot of immature fools out there can’t handle the responsibility of free speech, I’ve deleted my grammar questions forum and instituted an e-mail form for you to send me your grammar questions.

All serious grammar questions will be answered by a posting on my main page. Please send serious grammar questions only. My delete button is quite functional, as it was with the now-defunct grammar forum. Sad, sad, sad.

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‘It Is What It Is’–Or Is It?

Out where I live in California, the saying, "It is what it is," is gaining a lot of use and cachet.

However, what exactly does it mean? It seems to be one of those usages that, like awesome, has somehow become the saying du jour.

There’s nothing wrong with this particular sentence, but I’ve always wondered how certain words and sayings make the rounds.

Is this an example of viral language (like viral marketing)?

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Building Blocks of English XII: Verb Voice

Whenever I teach a grammar/writing class, invariably more than a few students (read: a majority) keep confusing passive voice with past tense. (I covered tenses in a previous Building Blocks post.)

English verbs can have just two voices–active and passive.

The active voice is what you employ for almost everything you say.

Active: "I am sitting at my desk typing a blog post."

Simple, straightforward English that depicts an action taking place–that’s the active voice.

Now, were I to make this into a passive voice sentence (I can’t imagine why I would, however), it would read something like this:

"A blog post is being typed by me while I am sitting at my desk."

Notice that the whole point of the passive voice is to turn the object (of an active voice sentence) into the subject. In this example, blog post has switched from being the direct object to being the subject. That’s why you end up with the passive voice verb construction, is being typed.

To make things even more ridiculous to the ear–and to the comprehension–to change the subject of the active sentence, I, to the object, I has to take the form of a prepositional phrase, by me. (And in this example, getting that "sitting at my desk" part in there is really cumbersome.)

I didn’t pick the greatest example, but here’s another.

Active: "I am eating a hamburger."

Passive: "The hamburger is being eaten by me."

The distinguishing feature between active and passive is that the passive construction actually starts with an object in a role reversal as a subject.

Bottom line: Avoid the passive voice as much as possible. Leave it to scientists ("the patient was observed to expire after three weeks of non-feeding") and crime scene investigators ("the body was found in a pool of blood").

English grammar was indeed found to be complicated when the student shouted in frustration, "English grammar sucks!"

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