Weird grammar question that's been bugging me for a while with regards to reversing questioning clauses at the end of declarative sentences.
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posted by WCityMike
on Sep 8, 2006 -
22 answers
My girlfriend is Korean, and has been living in the US since 2000. Her English is fairly good, but she still makes a few grammatical errors on a regular basis, especially when writing. Can anyone recommend a good, and probably more importantly interesting to read, book on English grammar she could use to get better?
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posted by Sangermaine
on Aug 8, 2006 -
16 answers
Bruce Sutter's Hall of Fame plaque notes that he ..."lead the league in saves five times." Is this a typo? Or this one of those things that can go either way? ("led" or "lead" for the past tense of "lead")
posted by stupidsexyFlanders
on Jul 30, 2006 -
14 answers
Which words in the following sentence are adjectives?
"My wife put a 1kg Nescafe coffee tin on top of that oily cardboard box."
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posted by meech
on Mar 23, 2006 -
24 answers
Are there any web authoring applications that have a robust grammar (not just spelling) checker?
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posted by markmillard
on Mar 8, 2006 -
5 answers
Why is Quiznos Sub the official name of the sandwich shop and not Quizno's Subs?
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posted by Gucky
on Feb 9, 2006 -
36 answers
Why does one not use the word "one" more often when refering to people in general?
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posted by Jase_B
on Jan 10, 2006 -
24 answers
Do you use "please" or "kindly" to soften a formal imperative? And if you say "kindly," why?
posted by Saucy Intruder
on Dec 31, 2005 -
21 answers
How does one correctly pluralise an acronym or an abbreviation? How does one specify an acronym's ownership? How should one go about specifying the ownership of a collection of acronyms?
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posted by PuGZ
on Nov 20, 2005 -
39 answers
Which is correct?
"six ten-dollar installments" or "six ten dollar installments" or "six $10.00 installments"
Or something else? Please give citations of grammar books, rules, etc along with your answer.
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posted by anastasiav
on Nov 11, 2005 -
62 answers
"Hear hear" or "here here"? What's the correct way to express this exclamation in writing?
posted by WolfDaddy
on Nov 1, 2005 -
16 answers
Microsoft word help! Midterm paper due in the morning and I can't figure out the teacher's grammar check requirements!
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posted by sarahmelah
on Oct 24, 2005 -
14 answers
[GrammarFilter] "the show was broadcast live" or "the show was broadcasted live"?
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posted by banished
on Sep 7, 2005 -
9 answers
Spanish hyphenation rules/exceptions? Due to some new responsibilities, i need to improve my more-than-basic-but-less-than-fluent Spanish. Are there any online or purchasable cheatsheets/books outlining when/how to break words? (it's a general Latin-American Spanish and not pure Castilian)
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posted by amberglow
on Aug 20, 2005 -
12 answers
When Americans talk about things like bands and sports teams they use the singular but when people in the UK/Ireland do so they use the plural. Who's right?
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posted by daveirl
on Aug 11, 2005 -
22 answers
Are there any resources I can recommend to a coworker who has very poor writing skills?
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posted by alms
on Jul 22, 2005 -
15 answers
Which is correct, and why?
(a) "None of those were..."
(b) "None of those was..."
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posted by cortex
on Jul 14, 2005 -
28 answers
Languages: I would like to teach myself a foreign language with the primary motivation of reading literature written originally in that language. (Italian, in this case.) For now, speaking and pronunciation are not as important as learning grammatical rules, sentence construction, and growing my vocabulary. Ideally, I would like to learn at my own pace, without having to hire a tutor or enrol in language classes, and I would prefer to skip general phrasebook greetings. Apart from a dictionary, what should I arm myself with? Are there any good resources on the web for this? How should one go about teaching oneself to read a foreign language? Thanks!
posted by Lush
on Jul 6, 2005 -
18 answers
I am wondering if any of you brilliant grammarians and linguists can tell me about using "Would" at the beginning of the sentence in a particular construction. Sometimes I will hear a particular construction that sounds weird if not incorrect: e.g. "Would that I had done it differently."
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posted by dios
on May 9, 2005 -
18 answers
Which statement is correct?
Does either of you recognize this person?
Do either of you recognize this person?
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posted by pelican
on Mar 19, 2005 -
19 answers
If you were creating text for an invitation, and the reception following the event was at a specific family’s house, but you wanted to omit the actual noun “house”, what would be the proper (or more common) way to implement the apostrophe?
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posted by naxosaxur
on Feb 23, 2005 -
21 answers
I know I'm being a bit of a hypertext pedant, but are there any grammatical rules for linktext? Any stylistic rules for linktext? Linktext is the stuff that goes in between <a> and </a>. I know to
never use "click here" as linktext but I'm interested in other rules about syntax and style. (more inside)
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posted by revgeorge
on Feb 9, 2005 -
23 answers
Grammar/ Style Filter:
I'm writing an undergraduate history thesis. Should I do all I can to avoid the passive voice? [More has been placed inside]
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posted by PhatLobley
on Jan 25, 2005 -
54 answers
[Language(hat)Filter] In the famous line from the
Aeneid "Quidquid id est, timeo danaos et dona ferentis", why is
ferentis in the genitive? [plus intus]
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posted by sbutler
on Jan 7, 2005 -
9 answers
What is the origin of the awkward sentence fragment construction "Long time
[something], first time
[something else]?" I've been seeing it written (here and elsewhere) with increasing frequency over the last couple of years. It has the ring of a catch phrase being parroted, but as someone with a patchy at best grasp on pop culture, I'm unable to determine its roots.
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posted by majick
on Dec 22, 2004 -
35 answers
PunctuationFilter: I'm writing the copy for a CD insert booklet in which the title of a book is mentioned. Typically, I'd italicize it, but the entire piece is already in italics. What's the standard here?
posted by plexiwatt
on Dec 6, 2004 -
18 answers
[Grammar] Is there a preferred time to use "nobody" versus "no one?"
posted by davebug
on Nov 22, 2004 -
15 answers
"One is not amused..." Personal pronoun, or third person generalisation? [MI]
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posted by benzo8
on Nov 6, 2004 -
9 answers
When should I use "presume" and when should I use "assume?" Or are they interchangable?
posted by davebug
on Nov 5, 2004 -
10 answers
I have a grammar question and google is yielding answers for both results (which makes me think that it's a common mistake): Is it "borne of" or "borne from" as in "laws are borne of/from ideals?"
posted by AwkwardPause
on Sep 19, 2004 -
8 answers
UK versus American English usage question: In a recent post, the one on Chinese singing, I noticed that English speakers from England seem to use 'to' where most Americans would use 'from' or 'than.'
Example: "So 'bang' with a rising tone is different to 'bang' with a falling tone is different to 'bang' with a rising then falling tone."
Why is this, and how did this difference in usage originate?
posted by geekhorde
on Sep 5, 2004 -
19 answers
Is it
ever OK in prose to start a sentence with "and"? The general situation I'm thinking of is when you want to insert a sort of dramatic pause into the middle of a narrative sentence that has "and" (or any conjunction in it).
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posted by badstone
on Sep 3, 2004 -
35 answers
Grammar/StyleFilter: What is the accepted adjective form to describe something written in the style of Hemingway? Hemingway-
esque? Hemingway-
ian? Something else altogether? With a hyphen or without? And moving from the specific to the general, is there a hard and fast rule for when we use one of these particular endings (-ian, -ean, -esque,
etc.) to turn a proper noun into an adjective, or is the style dictated simply by what seems to sound right?
posted by .kobayashi.
on Jul 17, 2004 -
14 answers
Academical? While listening to NPR this afternoon, a UVa student giving a tour used the word "academical" in describing a portion of UVa's campus . The use of "academical" struck me as sounding very odd although it is arguably correct. Is it all
academic?
posted by Dick Paris
on Jul 3, 2004 -
10 answers
