Posted on 09/28/2011 1:00:49 PM PDT by iowamark
“I write in vernacular in certain situations, but never formally. For instance, when using instant messenger type programs I’ll write “prolly” or “fixin’”.
Growing up in the south, “fixin’ to” was a way of life but I never saw “prolly” (or “praps”) until FR.
Or “irregardless of whether or not”. Repetitive and reduntant.
Must "whose" refer to a living person? If so, then how do you correctly express something like the following: "my car whose six cylinder engine is powerful, can go 0 to 60 in 15 seconds"?
I wonder if it makes a difference if no one knows anyway?
Don’t forget has/have. Or corps/corpse—this one is missed in all 57 states apparently.
Uh...”redundant”..
Crap.
Your points are well-made except that sometimes, for clarity, I think it’s necessary to use an apostrophe to pluralize. I think it’s clearer to the reader if it’s “Oakland A’s” rather than “Oakland As”.
Great article and thanks!
A side note about “communication skills” as a job requirement.
In my experience it has always been a euphemism for the skill of sucking up, and never the skill of communicating in English.
I rarely use those on my resume. :-)
You might consider offering the addressee of this letter a compliment for having sensibly chosen the long-term care that complements the existing benefits...assuming, of course, that it **is** a sensible choice, which in some cases it may not be.
I’m still waiting for a good explanation of “as” versus “like”
He apparently wanted to ensure he was right about half the time.
Thanks - great post.
I've never felt the need to make a distinction, and neither does this guy, and he is pretty "anal" grammar-wise.
http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/which.html
Don’t leave out
Republican/RINO/Conservative.
They’s used interchangeably but be very different words.
MSM types should of learnt the difference more earlier.
If/then is a correlative conjunction. You can usually omit the word “then.”
The “then” does perhaps refer to the passage of time after we make the assumption “if.”
http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/durrus/153/gramch28.html
Here’s my rule of thumb on “which” and “that”: Replace the “which” with a “that” and then remove the “that”
Word Perfect for DOS grammar checker used to call me “vague and pretentious” when I used “which” and “that” too often. I was never able to achieve Ernest Hemingway status until I removed most of them.
I like people who use RHINO. I always want to ask what the H is for.
Heart wrenching should be heart rending...as in torn.
Gut wrenching is right.
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