green_grrl: (SPN_JAhee)
[personal profile] green_grrl
I, N, and G say that E and D have been known to take action in the past

A Tense Situation by John Atkinson

I can't resist a little verb-al humor. (Personally, I think E and D should be a little more worried about I, N, and G, as they like to be in the middle of the action, right now!)

See Fandom Grammar's parts of speech: verbs: tense tag to learn more about these rascals.
ariestess: (tyrol cylon -- from beeej)
[personal profile] ariestess

Source


Grant Snider over at Incidental Comics offers up a slew of new proofreader's marks for consideration. I happen to be down with all of them, especially the cyclopsis, horribly wrong font, and word tornado options.

What are your favorites, either from this list or from the established marks we already have? Do you have any new ones you'd nominate?

And for those of you interested in this topic, feel free to check our past forays into proofreader's marks in this Feature, this Friday Funnies, and this Friday Funnies.
whymzycal: Text saying proper use of their, there, and they're makes me hot (their there etc)
[personal profile] whymzycal

Hover text: later still: wait, HOW DID UTAHRAPTOR KNOW?


Malapropisms (replacing one word with an incorrect, similar-sounding word, usually in a way that ends up being funny) and mondegreens (sort of like malapropisms, except you mis-hear a word instead of saying the wrong word) are something many of the grammarians see and hear at their jobs. That said, thanks to Ryan North at Dinosaur Comics,I doubt anyone can do them as well as T-Rex.

So, do you have any favorite malapropisms or mondegreens? Mine is “from the gecko” (instead of “from the get-go”). I keep imagining the Geico insurance company’s spokeslizard—or maybe even a tiny, tiny T-Rex. Adorable!
chiroho: (android logo blue)
[personal profile] chiroho


While many of us were taught in school, at least those of us of a certain age, that a sentence should never be ended with a preposition, that's probably a philosophy that has carried over from Latin grammar and isn't really suited for modern English usage. There are certainly times when you shouldn't use a preposition at the end of a sentence, for example when the preposition is extraneous, but Oxford Dictionaries has a nice little blog that includes a primer on prepositions and how they can be used that should help you avoid mistakes.

Of course, in the specific example used in the cartoon above, I think I'd be convicting the defendant as well. :-)
ariestess: (grammar -- from cmzero)
[personal profile] ariestess

Source: Bizarro


My first thought on reading this is that the "real" should actually be "really", but that's probably just me being pendantic.

But this comic brings home the point of proper comma usage, too. If I was that bully, I'd probably punch the well-digger in the nose for calling me "Stupid."

So how would you rewrite this comic to be more grammatically correct?
[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com


"* Mad about jorts"


When I showed this comic to the other fandom grammarians they loved it. Have you seen something similar? Does the person who is the first to criticize someone wearing white after Labor Day behave in the same way as the person who goes ballistic at the inappropriate usage of an apostrophe? Then perhaps you're seeing the same correlation that Randall Munroe of XKCD does.
ariestess: (grammar use it -- from shoegal_icons)
[personal profile] ariestess
Welcome to another installment of the Friday Funnies! Just on a Monday!

{Bonus points to anyone who gets that reference.}


Cyanide & Happiness (Explosm.net)


Even when I hear things like this being said in Westerns or by "hillbillies", it still makes my skin crawl. But I'd be a hypocrite if I said I've never used a double negative before. My prime transgression? "Ain't nobody got no time for that."

So what's your favorite double negative to say?
ariestess: (regina apple -- from miz_tith)
[personal profile] ariestess

original image via Mother Goose and Grimm/Mike Peters Website


So let me start off this week's Friday Funny with an item of note. As far as I know, there has never been an instance of two Friday Funny posts in a row about the exact same error. This wasn't done on purpose, but it certainly shows that this is an error that comes up a lot. In fact, last week's comic brought up some interesting discussions regarding how and when to correct someone else's grammar faux pas. I'm not sure that's something that can easily be determined in a "blanket statement" kind of way, outside of the old cliche of knowing your audience.

That said, this is one of those misheard/misused phrases that actually irks me a lot. And when I've tried to explain it to people in the past, they get mad at me for "ruining the spirit of the moment".

In a nutshell, it's a matter of degrees, and it reminds me of the saying, "I have no f*cks to give." If you really don't have an iota of care about the situation, the correct phrase is "couldn't care less", but if there's even a smidgeon of care, then you can use "could care less". Plus, I tend to use the former if I'm just too bored to care at that particular moment in time.
[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com


"I literally could care less."


While I have loved XKCD for years, and I knew that this was a comic that I had to post here, I'm a little on the fence about Munroe's message in this particular instance. Perhaps not quite as much as Michael LeSauvage from Geek Dad, but I think along similar lines. What do you think about correcting other people's language?
[identity profile] whymzycal.livejournal.com
xkcd shows us why the language nerds shall rule the Earth: it's gotta be those mad linguistic skills!



Hovertext: Not to go all sentence fragment on you.


To become an Earth-ruling language nerd yourself, pop over to our "parts of speech" tags, peruse our "Grammar 101" tag, or have a peek at a couple of articles from About.com and NYTimes.com to read up on verbing nouns, adverbing adjectives, nouning verbs, and adjectiving nouns, etc.
[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com
XKCD shows us just how hard core linguists can be when it comes to the 'quotative like'.



"God was like, 'Let there be light,' and there was light."


[livejournal.com profile] fandom_grammar hasn't done an article specifically on the 'quotative like', but you can certainly check out our usage tag for general information on usage. There's also a Grammar Girl article called Why Do People Say "Like" So Much? which covers multiple different ways "like" is used.
ariestess: (grammar -- from cmzero)
[personal profile] ariestess

Click to embiggen


Here at [livejournal.com profile] fandom_grammar, we've covered commas several times in the past, so I won't necessarily rehash that information here.

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm a stickler for the Oxford comma. But when I first saw this graphic, I nearly died from laughing so hard. I could picture the pauses with each comma. Of course, it didn't help -- or is that hurt? -- that I could also hear Walken's and Shatner's voices in my head as I was reading their panels.

I suppose this graphic, while hilarious, just illustrates the point of choosing your comma style and being consistent in its usage.
[identity profile] lady-ganesh.livejournal.com
Grammar is essential for clear communication. But did you know that grammar can also help you with tricky social situations? Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal shows you how!



I really should use this trick more often.
[identity profile] http://users.livejournal.com/traycer_/
We all know that person. The one who makes us cringe every time they say a word wrong or mangle it in the process. There are quite a few phrases, but here’s a sampling of ten common terms:



From: 10 Misspoken Phrases

And yes, I admit it. I used to say "irregardless" a lot, until someone came along and threatened to chop my head off if I ever did it again. Fortunately, there are several online dictionaries that include a spoken pronunciation of multisyllabic words if there is ever any doubt.

But how about you? Are there any common phrases or words that drive you nuts? Feel free to share them in the comments!
[identity profile] achacunsagloire.livejournal.com
When you're a grammar nerd, there's nothing quite like seeing an entire scroll's worth of Facebook status updates filled with erroneous grammar to make your skin crawl.  It's even worse if you find yourself immersed in a gripping read (that you paid for, too) only to spy--gasp!--an incorrectly conjugated verb that the editor failed to notice.  And let's not even get started on how much you want to scream when you see a misspelling in your own work.

In short: it's hard out here for a grammar nerd.  Your Gen-Ed Writing peers hate you and your amazing grades; your friends groan when they receive notifications from you because nine times out of time you've only pointed out their incorrect use of "there" without even mentioning how cute their dog looks in a pink tutu; and society reviles you as some hoity-toity know-it-all who can't get no satisfication.  (Wait. What?)

But let's be real: hoity-toity know-it-alls are the people who get things done, and in the world of English grammar, you pack it, you package it, and you sell it hotter than "Supernatural" slash fanfiction.  We at [livejournal.com profile] fandom_grammar appreciate your contribution to the world of linguistics (as well as internet posts that don't assault the eye to the point of inducing physical pain), and so does the English language.  Give yourself a pat on the back, Cupcake; you've earned it.

And while you're flapping that scrawny hand of yours against your shoulder blade like a dusty old fan belt, check out this list that Grammarly, a grammar-oriented Facebook page run by grammar nerds (like you!), posted:

Much more accurate than that one "Which Mean Girls Character Are You?" quiz that said you were Karen Smith instead of Janis Ian, eh?

I believe we can add "11. Seeing 'could of' in the place of 'could have' grates your nerves like an iron file on a gutter pipe" to the list.

Anyone got a 12?  13?  14?  71?

[identity profile] chiroho.livejournal.com
While I can't say that I've encountered such inflammatory disagreements here at [livejournal.com profile] fandom_grammar, we grammarians certainly have our disagreements, don't we?


Third Way

[rollover text:] 'The monospaced-typewriter-font story is a COMPLETE FABRICATION! WAKE UP, SHEEPLE'
'It doesn't matter! Studies support single spaces!'
'Those results weren't statistically significant!'
'Fine, you win. I'm using double spaces right now!'
'Are not! We can all hear your stupid whitespace.'
[identity profile] melayneseahawk.livejournal.com
This is already all over the internet, but we just had to share it, too! Sit back, relax, and enjoy:

[identity profile] green-grrl.livejournal.com
theiyr're

Guaranteed to set the grammar police's collective teeth on edge!

[livejournal.com profile] fandom_grammar has tackled the their/there/they're issue before, notably here and here.

Image found at imgur.com and numerous other places across the internet.
[identity profile] melayneseahawk.livejournal.com
This week, Facebook serves up some punctuational goodness, care of George Takei's feed:

I've done far worse than kill you. I've split infinitives. )
theemdash: (M Bookworm)
[personal profile] theemdash
As Scott Clark illustrates, pirates be are natural grammarians.


Click me! There's more!


For more on the pirate captain's dilemma, check out our other articles on verbs and subject-verb agreement, including our Grammar 101 Verbs: What Are They?.

Profile

fandom_grammar: (Default)
Fandom Grammar

December 2017

S M T W T F S
     12
3456789
10 111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31      

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Syndicate

RSS Atom
Page generated Wednesday, 9 July 2025 02:25