“The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions of grammar.”
It is quite late for my posting. I first woke up at 7:30, and when Gracie heard me, she left her crate and came to me in the den, her usual morning routine. We went to the door, and as soon as I opened it, she backed away. It was raining quite heavily. I went back to bed and Gracie joined me on the couch. We both slept away the morning.
The day is very dark and very still. All my windows are closed. The rain has stopped, and I miss the beating of rain on the roof. It has always been on the list of my favorite sounds. If I were to build a tiny house in my yard, it would have a metal roof. I would go there every time it rained.
One Easter, I wanted a suit and a new blouse instead of froufrou. I had outgrown froufrou. The blouse was white with a bit of frill on the collar, and the suit was blue, a darker blue. We were at my grandmother and grandfather’s house on Easter Sunday where the whole family converged on some weekends and on every holiday. I overheard my aunt ask my mother why I was wearing a suit and not a new dress. My mother said that’s what she wanted.
Gracie and I have a couple of errands today. She needs refills on pills, and I need a few things for movie night which has been postponed until tomorrow because of inclement weather. I always wanted to use inclement weather. I didn’t have much of an opportunity.
I think television dialogue ought to set an example by using correct English. Perhaps hearing it often enough would permeate even the thickest of minds. The object of a preposition is in the objective case. Stop using I after a preposition. For example: after Don and I isn’t correct. It is after Don and me, with me being the objective case. I used to tell my students to take out the name and just use the pronoun. It would then become after I. Does that sound right? How about after me? That was lesson number 1.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsThis entry was posted on August 12, 2017 at 1:34 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: conventional, dark, dog's pills, Easter clothes, froufrou, inclement weather, late, metal roof, objective case, preposition, raining, small house, sound of rain, still, television dialogue
Both comments and pings are currently closed.8 Comments on ““The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions of grammar.””
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August 12, 2017 at 3:40 pm
My theory has always been the same as the newspapers, if it’s readable it’s printable. Grammar is nice but written words on the web only last a millisecond so who cares if your grammar is 100% correct. Oops, I forgot you are a former English teacher and bad grammar must sound in your brain like a flat note would sound to a symphony conductor. 🙂
This morning we walked around Costco to get some necessities such as toilet paper. When we moved from the burbs back to the city we had to drive more than ten miles to get to the nearest Costco. Finally, the city of Dallas and Costco came to a financial agreement to build their first store in town and located it less than two miles from my condo. Although there have always been a Sam’s Club nearby I prefer to shop at Costco. Besides, Costco pays better and treats their employees better than Sam’s while offering everyone benefits.
August 12, 2017 at 4:33 pm
Bob,
English is our national language. It still changes as it is alive. We add new words all the time and remote archaic no longer used words. To communicate well and properly is the sign of an educated person.
“fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.
i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghi t pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.”
I can read what is written above so by your theory that could also then be printed.
Using bad grammar does strike a dissonant sound to my ears.
August 12, 2017 at 5:15 pm
I had no problem reading any of it. My favorite one is to ask people to read a list of colors with the letters of the words printed in a different color. For instance the word Red would be in green and the word Green would be in yellow. That one’s difficult.
August 12, 2017 at 8:24 pm
Bob,
By your rules, it is then acceptable because it can be read.
I remember the colors and the list. I did well.
August 12, 2017 at 5:27 pm
“… up with I shall not put.”
Cheers
August 12, 2017 at 8:23 pm
minicapt,
I guess correct grammar can be quite awkward sometimes.
August 13, 2017 at 4:23 am
It rained here all day yesterday and I wasn’t surprised because they had said that the rain wouldn’t even come close to this area 🙂 🙂 Today started sunny but now it is cloudy again.
It would be very wrong to write Don and me in Swedish, we write and I 🙂 We use me like in Don is older than me. So for me as a swede it sounds painfully wromg to write Don and me 🙂 🙂 🙂 If we can put the swedish word for am (är) behind I it’s always I, me and am doesn’t work together at all 🙂
I have no more chores to do today if it doesn’t dry up properly after yesterdays rain, I would like to start cutting down my hedge but I don’t like to mix water with electric toles 🙂 The laundry however is already done.
Have a great day!
Christer.
August 13, 2017 at 11:33 am
Christer,
Its also rained most of the day here as well. Today started cloudy, but the weather says hot and sunny.
I is used for the nominative case like Don and I went out to dinner. The me is used in objective cases as in Give it to Don and me. Correct pronouns are determined by the usage of the pronoun. Am as a verb by itself also never uses me in English.
I hope for the sun!!
Have a great day!