Grammar Police "anymore"

JasonFox said:
................. Learn to speak and write well. If you're not the smartest person in the room, you'll sound like you are...................
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If I write in texting format; will that cause others to believe I am intelligent?
(I used a semicolon---somebody grade me)
 
Intelligence is relative. Your intelligence may be judged highly, but only in comparison to, well, plant life...
 
gco said:
If I write in texting format; will that cause others to believe I am intelligent?
(I used a semicolon---somebody grade me)
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See? I would just use a comma. There should be a segment on Unsolved Mysteries about semicolon use. It's way scarier than bigfoot.
 
Does that sentence even really need a comma?

If I write in texting format will that cause others to believe I am intelligent?

^ that seems to read just fine without a comma or semicolon...
 
Me fail english? That's unpossible! - Ralph (Simpsons)

Hawk Teflon said:
But people here are saying it instead of "now" or "from now on."

"We need to carry these boxes to the other closet anymore."
"I used to eat cereal, but I eat eggs anymore."
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Wait wait wait wait... what? Who says that? I'm more surprised by the fact that people are confirming this.

I have never heard this ever before (maybe it's not a Canadian thing?). If I did I would stand there, stare at the guy and ask "what?"

So would it be that they don't need to bring the boxes to the closet anymore, however they chose to put the words in the positive? Or what is it saying?

As for the cereal sentence, what does it mean as well? Is it saying they now eat eggs instead of cereal, or is it saying they don't eat eggs or cereal?

To me I would just think "okay, they forgot to put it in the negative," but you're saying it replaces "now?" Please explain...

Sad Max said:
Dictionaries don't establish correct usage; they just track common usage. So no matter how apparently wrong or stupid a given connotation or pronunciation for a word might be, if enough people use it it will eventually be included as a standard. Which is a pity; it means that the worse people get at using a language, the worse the quality of the basic guidebook for using that language becomes.
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This is true, but then why hasn't "funner" become a word? I don't use it and correct people all the time, but I hear so many people say this word, especially the younger generations.

In fact after I correct people, telling them it's "more fun" they realize their error and often say "they should make 'funner' a word." Now while I disagree, I have a feeling this is where it's going to go as it's so common.

Then again, it's more fun to say funner.
 
Maybe 'funner' will make it into the next edition. Depends upon the tastes of the editors; dictionaries are edited like any other text.

Although I would push for 'funner' to be entered as a noun, as well as an adjective. As in a person who makes fun of things: Damn, Cap'n Quirk is *such* a funner.
 
gco said:
If I write in texting format; will that cause others to believe I am intelligent?
(I used a semicolon---somebody grade me)
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I'm not a master on semi-colons, but the only time I use it is when I have something that I feel needs to be one sentence, yet happens to be two. It's like a constant thought, but it's in the place of a period. Basically, I'll write a sentence without realizing that it's two sentences slapped together, and when I fix things up I'll replace it with a semi-colon.

------------

As for funner I've been thinking, it really should be a word. The only reason someone may dislike the word is because they've been taught otherwise. Those that have been taught otherwise will look at "funner" and say it makes you sound less intelligent when you use it.

It almost seems like the English language has these strange rules in place simply to separate the well educated from the poorly educated.

Funner is a great example of this. Brighter signifies something that is more bright, stronger signifies something that is more strong, in fact adding -er to adjectives seems to be more common. So it's become common for slang to just ad -er to words to make it easier and faster.

I mean look at how ridiculous some of the english language really is. Like plurals, Moose is Mooses, so why is Goose Geese? Cactus Cacti, etc.

What about pronounciations? Asthma is pronounced Asma, the TH is silent. So why is it there!? What about pronunciation of 'ough'? Through, cough, rough, dough, etc... And by far the strangest pronounciation... how exactly does Collonel pronounce as Kernal?

Still on pronounciations, many words are written the same, yet have different meanings and different pronounciations in different context. http://hubpages.com/hub/Oddities_of_English

I'm sure there are more than I've thought up. But honestly, let's simplify this language and not give the chance for pompous english students to correct every little mistake we make, or slang we use.
 
rsbush said:
"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college." - Kurt Vonnegut


Yeah right, next you'll be telling me to use the full range of my vocabulary.
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No, then you'll just sound like a pompous schmuck. Unless that's what you're going for. :beer:
 
gco said:
If I write in texting format; will that cause others to believe I am intelligent?
(I used a semicolon---somebody grade me)
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In this case, the semicolon is incorrect. You could use a comma or not since omitting it doesn't cause confusion. I'd use the comma just because that's how I roll.

Semicolons, like Jon said, can be used to marry two independent clauses into one sentence. They are also used in place of a comma when using a conjunction like "therefore" to join a clause. "I eat; therefore, I poo." Granted, a lot of people ignore this rule as it makes the sentence look a tad frou-frou.

My general rule is to write at a level just above your audience. And since you all are my audience, you can take from that what you will. :beer:
 
I get way comma happy when typing on the net....

I think that "there, their, to, two, too" get somewhat of a pass on things like internet forums and chatting, etc... At least for me. I know their proper usage, but the nature of your fingers being your voice (if you are an experienced typist) tends to cause the sound to get typed as opposed to the proper word. Fingers reach the point where they act more as a voice than as a transcription tool, if that makes sense :)

One that does get to me though is the misuse of the words "good" and "well"...

I'm big on overuse of "," and "..." Use them both liberally.

I do well with proper word usage when I want to, but grammar... not so much... don't even ask me about ";" The only time those get used by me are when making a winking smiley.

later,
Jason
 
Sad Max said:
Intelligence is relative. Your intelligence may be judged highly, but only in comparison to, well, plant life...
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Agreed, to add further:

Not only is intelligence relative, but of different types, i.e. intelligence in different areas.

Some people are intelligent in different ways e.g: visual/audio/linguistic/logic etc.

But the question of 'what actually constitutes intelligence' is a rather difficult subject matter in its self.

Take for example that person A solves a puzzle in time X, and that person B solves the same puzzle in X+d, where (X) < (X+d).

Does that make person B any less intelligent?

Put it another way, if two persons both cross a 1 mile walk, but one person arrives before the other, does that make the former person any less capable?

Therefore is not intelligence a measure of Performance as opposed to Capacity?

Anhar
 
MattinSTL said:
It's height "hyte"... not high-th.

I hear this one a lot... I think it came from width.
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Yes!

I thought of this one today during school. I hear it SO much by my teachers during math problems. For a while I started to think I was wrong, but no.
 
Honestly... I hate grammar. And spelling... Don't get me wrong... they have their purpose... but what I care about is the thoughts behind the words. I wish I had all of my Spanish and Elnglish knowledge plus the little French and Portuguese I know lumped into one language. Still... I will always write my own way... ... ... ... notice these "..."? ... ... I like them ... to me... they LOOK like a pause... people pause... and so I use them... cause I pause... all the time... my brain doesn't work well... so I pause...

Weee.... useless post!!!?!?!? <---- these are also very cool

I bet some of you want to choke the life out of me for typing like that, but since I post like a MANIAC on three different forums I will have more of an effect in shaping our future language than most of you, so get used to these "..." you will have to learn how to use them "properly" ... MUAHahahaHAHahHAaHAHAaHaHAHHAHaHa...

...no more coffe...

Anhar, INDEED man! There are many types of intelligence. Intelligent people know that. :D

In gramar I am often borderline retarded :D

I kid... but I like to type on forums carelessly cause to me they are conversations, not published work or homework.
 
I've never heard the word pronounced high-th. I'm very glad about that.

Much like USLatin, though, I do use a lot of ellipses.

I'm glad I learned most of my grammar when I did, as I had a Bible professor that cared more about MLA structure than anything else. I wrote an AMAZING paper for her my freshman year, but received an 81 because of how I cited my works, not the content. Minus 19 for citation. We never got along after that.

I've yet to use citation in the real world.
 
I have two pet peeves that I see on reality shows:

I did good. It's not "I did good" people, it's I did WELL!

Also, it's between us -- when there are more than two people invovled, it's AMONG us, "between us" is two people, among us is three or more.

What's wrong with you reality show personalities!!! Did you not attend English class?

I think I made my point, I did good - ugh.
 
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