Het archief voor de „Grammatica zuigt“ Categorie

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Zes-maand-oude babys in TV- advertenties wie het Engels zoals de gediplomeerden van 35 éénjarigenHarvard MBA spreken?

Honden en andere dieren die het Engels (of zoals slecht) als uw typisch bedorven tiener volgende deur kunnen eveneens spreken?

(Of hagedissen dat kan dansen?)

Ik zou eerder mensen' zien ontschorsend dan honden' het sprekende Engels, of gekweekte volwassenen die' „en“ als zuigelingen eerder dan zuigelingen' mewling puking peorating over verbruiksgoederen. Minstens zou het nauwkeuriger de menselijke voorwaarde afschilderen.

Gepost door grammarblogger

Een Seriouse Lacke van Oordeel

O.k., ben ik gebruikt aan het gebruik van het verkeerd geschreven woord geworden oordeel op Chef van het ijzer. Nochtans, nu wordt het ook gebruikt Het Centrum van Sporten ESPN.

Ik deed wat woordenboekonderzoek zien of oordeel, heeft de spellingfout, aanvaardbaarheid bereikt. Het antwoord is ja en nr. Één woordenboek maakt een lijst dan van de „e“ spelling als alternatief, maar gaat het gebruik illustreren oordeel door zinsvoorbeelden het gebruiken aan te halen oordeel, de correcte spelling. Het bepaalde ook oordeel eng, zeggend was het het „wettelijke document dat de reden voor een gerechtelijk advies opgeeft.“

De lijn van de bodemoordeel is de enige spelling, die uit het Franse woord voortkomt jugement (wat „e gebruikt,“ merkwaardig).

Gepost door grammarblogger

Word van het Tweede Onderzochte Amendement

Niemand kan de auteurs van onze Grondwet van het zijn ooit beschuldigen grammaticadeskundigen. Neem het Tweede Amendement, onderwerp van yesterday Opperste Uitspraak van het Hof. Het leest:

Een „goed-geregelde Militie, die noodzakelijk voor de veiligheid van een vrije Staat, het recht van de mensen Wapens te houden en te dragen, zal niet overtreden worden.“ is

Nu, negerend het feit dat, in de 18de eeuw, de mensen vaak zelfstandige naamwoorden voor nadruk kapitaliseerden, heeft de zin nog structurele problemen. Het zou moeten lezen, „goed-geregelde militie die noodzakelijk…. is“ Zijnd is een gerundium en moet zo door possessief zijn voorafgegaan. Ook, de komma daarna Wapens scheidt het onderwerp van het werkwoord en is een echt geen-nr.

Wat over de betekenis van het amendement?

Volledig Verhaal“

Gepost door grammarblogger

Credit Shakespeare With Oyster Supremacy

In irony of ironies, considering how poor I am, I woke up this morning and opened the shutters in my living room to see the sun rising from the east and said outloud (yes, I do talk to myself), "The world is my oyster." Of course, it’s not, and actually I said, "The woild is my oyster," mimicking a Mafioso or someone from stereotypical New Jersey/New York.

That got me to look up the origins of the saying, and it is indeed something from The Bard in The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Said Pistol to Falstaff therein:

Why, then the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.

Maybe I’ll just fall on my sword. LOL

Posted by grammarblogger

AP Takes on the Blogosphere

A site called the Drudge Retort, a liberal answer to the Drudge Report, was ordered by the Associated Press (AP) to cease and desist using snippets of AP articles in its own articles this past week.

Drudge II complied, but objected that copyright law permits the "fair use" of copyrighted material, in limited portions, for scholarly and academic purposes.

I doubt I’d consider either Drudge I or Drudge II scholarly or academic, but I defend their right to quote from published sources and comment on them. This is the meaning, to me, of a free press. I do it all the time here and on my other blogs.

Anyway, a spat ensued, and eventually AP backed away from its legal threat and said the organization "needed to rethink" matters.

What really galled AP, from what I can determine from reading between the lines, is that Drudge and other sites were using the quotations as tie-ins to advertising.

If that’s the case, then AP has a good argument.

Posted by grammarblogger

Happy Friday the 13th, You Paraskavedekatriaphobiacs

Paraskavedekatriaphobia is a word formed from three Greek words: paraskevi (Friday,) dekatreis (thirteen) and phobia (fear or phobia), meaning "fear of Friday the 13th." Triskaidekaphobia means just "fear of the number 13."

There you go. Learn something everyday. Happy Friday the 13th!

Posted by grammarblogger

Nothing to Do With English Grammar, But Useful

I came across this site that lists the highest–and lowest–gasoline pump prices in each state and counties, parishes, areas, etc., within that state.

I checked it against my local knowledge, and while it was good, it didn’t list the stations that I know to consistently have the lowest prices. Still, it beats not knowing where to save money.

It’s called Gas Buddy.

PS Unless I’m mistaken, look for gas prices to reach $5 a gallon by the Fourth of July, or shortly thereafter. They’ll come down in September or October for the presidential election and then continue their upward march after the new president is elected.

Posted by grammarblogger

Congrats to Spelling Bee Champ Sameer Mishra

Much was made on the video waves about his earlier confusion of the word numnah with numbnut, but 13-year-old Sameer Mishra finally won the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee with the word guerdon. Watch below:

Posted by grammarblogger

NOPEC Shows Government Garble at Its Standard Worst

The politics is bad too, but I’ll leave that aside.

Congress recently passed a piece of legislation known affectionately as NOPEC, which may as well stand for No One Possibly Expects Clarity, but instead is an acronym for The No Oil-Producing and -Exporting Cartels Act." Okay, I added the hypens because no one in Washington, D.C., could possibly understand compound adjectives, let alone writing basic, clear English.

What this act does is allow Congress and its designated henchmen to sue OPEC countries if they feel the latter has been withholding production of oil and thus artificially raising prices through manipulation of supply and demand. Good luck with these lawsuits, but let’s take a look at the enabling language of NOPEC:

"It shall be illegal and a violation of this Act," declared the House of Representatives, "to limit the production or distribution of oil, natural gas, or any other petroleum product … or to otherwise take any action in restraint of trade for oil, natural gas or any petroleum product when such action, combination, or collective action has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on the market, supply, price or distribution of oil, natural gas or other petroleum product in the United States."

As I said, good luck with NOPEC. And good luck with writing clear English. You’ll need it in both cases.

Posted by grammarblogger

Nice Use of Juxtaposition in Newspaper Story

The sports journalists of the world made hay this past week with allegations that USC college basketball phenom O.J. Mayo had been on the take the whole time since high school.

A few days after the story broke, Mayo met with Los Angeles Times reporter Ben Bolch to deny the allegations, saying:

"So for them to say I received $30,000 or whatever the case is, I definitely don’t think that’s enough to sell out myself and my family."

That was in the next-to-last paragraph. Here’s what the last paragraph observed:

"Following the interview, Mayo slipped off into a new red Porsche Cayenne GTS with two friends and drove off."

Nice juxtaposition. Or was it irony?

Posted by grammarblogger