Fandom Grammar

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.

Today we're revisiting two homonyms that can cause a lot of confusion: compliment and complement and their cousins complimentary and complementary, with help from the cast of Saiyuki Gaiden.

( Compliment and Complimentary vs Complement and Complementary )

Welcome back to "Say What?"

Today, we'll look at two rather tasty, if cynical, English phrases. Our friends Sherlock Holmes and DI Lestrade (from the original stories as well as the BBC version) will help.

( Parsnips, Eggs, and Butter )

Welcome to our new feature, Foul-Mouth Fridays! We decided for 'summer vacation,' we should take a look at some of our favorite profanities, both real and fictional.

We're kicking things off with the nuclear bomb of profanity: The 'F' word.

( Fair warning: Pretty much none of this is safe for work. )

Have you ever been bothered by someone "overusing" quotation marks? Dinosaur Comics tackles this "ambiguous" topic.

( Check under the cut for 'more' )

lilmoonbunny16 asked: What is the difference between "theatre" and "theater"?

"I'm doing my homework," Buffy protested. "Do you spell theater 'e-r' or 'r-e'?"

"Ah, yes," Giles sniffed. "The manufactured American dilemma, one of my perennial favorites."

Giles is right: Unless you're an American author or are using American spellings, the answer is that 'theatre' is the correct spelling.

Generally, 'theatre' is used through most of the world. The most plausible difference for the difference in the US I've found is that in the 1820s, Noah Webster (of Webster's dictionary fame) worked to simplify American English spellings by making all 'er'-sounding words consistent in spelling, which meant turning 'theatre' to 'theater.' However, the difference didn't stick (though as noted below, it did with 'color' and 'center'), and now in American English we have the National Theatre of the Deaf as well as the Charles Theater of Baltimore.

There are a few vague, non-binding rules of thumb:

• Some organizations use 'theatre' as the art form and 'theater' as the building the art is staged in.
• A movie palace is more likely to be a 'theater' than a venue for live performance (much less the performance itself). I've read theories that theatrical companies held on to 'theatre' in an effort to distinguish themselves from movie houses, but I couldn't find any proof of that.
• In Canada, India, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia, the word of choice is 'theatre.' Only the Americans tried this 'reform the spelling' idea.

"I'm going to be on Broadway," Rachel declared. "So that's what I wrote my article about."

"Well," Kurt sniffed, "in your enthusiasm you forgot how to spell the name of the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre."

Rachel pouted. "I did not! It's got two 'n's, and--"

"'T' and 'e' at the end, not 'e' 'r.'" Kurt snapped his copy of the school newspaper at her.

Rachel's face fell in horror. "That copy editor!"

In general, unless you're not American or are working from a specific style book, you can use whichever spelling feels more comfortable to you. If you're talking about a specific building or theatrical company, look up the official name of the theater (or theatre) you're using to be certain.

Here's an article from Theatre in Chicago that endorses the Webster theory.

How do you find the right words?

Word choice is both incredibly simple and impossibly difficult. Every day we experience millions of words; we say them, we read them, we hear them on the radio or television, or in the songs played on our iPod. What's the way to get to the right word?

( Here's my advice. )

immortalje asked:

In the example "the Weasley twins", should "twins" be capitalized?

With examples from Harry Potter and The Venture Brothers.

( In general usage, the answer is 'no.' )

Hanukkah vs. Chanukah? Mohammed or Muhammad? Why do some people call Light Yagami "Raito?" And what the hell is "Arucard" doing in the first Hellsing translation, anyway?

Welcome to the wonderful world of transliteration!

( It's all about the alphabet... )

Dialogue: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

With examples from Saiyuki, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, NICS, and Weiss Kreuz.

Dialogue is the backbone of most stories. It's a rare story that doesn't feature dialogue, and that's even more true in the world of fanfiction, where setting a scene usually comes second to letting familiar characters interact with one another.

Good dialogue can make your story more believable and interesting. Bad dialogue can make your story leaden, confusing, or dull. So it's important to know both the grammatical and the stylistic rules of dialogue.

Let's start with The Good and the Bad.

( I hate listening to people's dreams. It is like flipping through a stack of photographs. If I'm not in any of them and nobody is having sex, I just don't care. )