Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with grammer

it depends on how you use matters and depends.

Doctor Suarez — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:37:14 -0800

Help explain why my writing partner constantly uses a word in a way I find weird and incorrect. A question that anyone can answer. Okay, I want to start this question off without biasing anything. So, take a look at the following sentences:

"Are you going to stop deleting my MetaFilter posts?" "That _______: Are you going to stop asking questions about cat declawing?"

Okay, what word did you place into the blank? I would put the word "depends" there. My writing partner uses "matters". Is it just me, or is that utterly, totally bizarre? Bizarre to the point where I want him to stop doing it because people reading our scripts might find it bizarre, and I don't want to do anything to take them out of what we're writing. If the reader is anything like me, it looks as weird as if he used the word watermelon.

So, all I can tell you about the guy that is relevant is that we both went to the same college, but I grew up in LA raised by a New Yorker and a San Franciscan, and he was raised in Sarasota FL by a New Jerseyite and a South African. He's a very literate, educated guy. Could it be some weird regional thing?

I want to be smart so I can write clever Askme Headlines

Bageena — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:45:34 -0800

What are some easy, relatively quick ways to learn to write better, think clearer, and express myself better? There are a thousand reasons that I'd like to learn more about everything, not that anyone should need a reason to want that. Basically, when I'm writing on Mefi or on my blog, I keep finding myself grasping for words to express myself and coming up short. I know my grammer stinks as well. I want books, movies, and other means and mediums by which I can raise my intelligence quota a little. I'm interested in not just learning to write better, but learning to think clearer, argue my beliefs and values better, and feel more enlightened all-around. Extra points for pointing the way to free and/or 'fun' (ie: Nintendo DS games) paths to enlightenment.

Looking for writing software which can parse my stories..

ceberon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:39:06 -0800

When I was in high school, we had a writing lab with some type of mainframe-ish type terminals setup, where there was writing software available which would list frequently repeated words, point out large paragraphs, spelling errors, document complexity, punctuation errors, etc. This was awhile ago, is this type of thing freely available anywhere these days? I did find one piece of software online which had some of the functionality I remember, but it didn't list them all. I was hoping since this software must be well over 15-20 years old, that it must have been open sourced by now?

So I'm preferring free, love open source (would like to be able to tweak, put online, etc), etc. Suggestions?

Punctuation Puzzle

l33tpolicywonk — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:48:13 -0800

Is this good use of punctuation? The adept poster: one of nobility, wisdom and wit, is the superior MeFite. If this formulation doesn't work (a colon, followed by a list of qualities, followed by the predicate of the sentence), is there any way to form the same idea in a succinct way?

"There is" or "There are"

syzygy — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:53:41 -0800

English Grammar: "There is" vs. "There are". There is a banana. There are two oranges. There (is / are) a banana and an orange? How about:
There (is / are) a banana and two oranges?
There (is / are) two oranges and a banana?

I've searched on google for a definitive answer to this question. Most of the ESL lessons I've come across avoid this kind of construction, altogether. I've also stumbled on some discussions of the topic which seem pretty contradictory.

For the example sentences I provided, I think the following answers are correct: "is", "is" and "are".

I understand that the subjects of all of the sentences are plural, but I think that an ellipsis allows for the "is", as in: There is a banana and (there is) an orange.

Can someone point me to a definitive answer?

Proper noun problem:

serazin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:45:06 -0800

You capitalize "The Civil War", right? And you capitalize "The Civil Rights Movement", right? Do you capitalize "The Women's Movement"? Do you capitalize "The Anti-Globalization Movement"? What about the "Spay and Neuter 'Movement'"? Is every specific movement or event in history considered a proper noun – and if not, why not? Do I get to just arbitrarily decide what to capitalize in these sorts of examples, or is there some 'rule' that only applies to historic events that hold a certain level of significance – and who decides what is significant enough? This isn't just idle curiosity – I'm transcribing an interview where the subject talks about a number of movements - American Civil Rights Movement, Gay Rights Movement, etc, and I don't know what to capitalize!

What do you call a group of ninjas?

qbxk — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:43:14 -0800

What do you call a group of ninjas? You know, like gaggle of geese, murder of crows, school of fish, all that. Does a group of ninjas have some sort of descriptor? We're talking many people in halloween costumes, how to address them together. The { blank }

HELF with Grammer

ewkpates — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 08:07:39 -0800

Grammer emergency. "I am unavailable to answer your call." Stop the madness. The phrase "unavailable to" must be grammatically incorrect... but is it really?

Why don't we "play bowling"?

keep it tight — Tue, 27 Sep 2005 19:46:19 -0800

Why is it that we say that we "play football", "play baseball", "play hockey", etc... But we "go bowling", or "go biking"?

"Inconceivable!"

Invoke — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 23:58:35 -0800

What words do people use that consistently make you cringe and wonder if they understand what they are saying? The spelling peeve question a couple days ago was very interesting and got me thinking about advanced word usage. I'm particularly interested in words which may enjoy some common usage, but which people just don't seem to understand. Perhaps they are just wrongly used in general, or are foolishly chosen by people trying to look intelligent.

What's wrong with my fortune cookie's grammar?

bakerwc1369 — Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:31:55 -0800

FortuneCookieFilter - I recently ate at a Chinese buffet and my fortune cookie following the meal was slightly confusing grammatically. "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" I know what they are trying to say, but is this technically the correct way to say it?