I learned English as a second language (native is Finnish). The emphasis in school was on vocabulary and very basic grammar; we did not to my recollection deal with stuff like passive voice etc. So in terms of writing in English, much of my "voice" has developed simply from what sounds right inside my head. However, I've been told that the way I write is overly complicated. Is this so?
[more inside]
posted by Unhyper
on May 22, 2013 -
48 answers
Is there a board game that relies on building sentences for game play, but not in a "teach people how to construct sentences" way and is not Mad Libs?
[more inside]
posted by Brandon Blatcher
on Jun 4, 2010 -
12 answers
I know this is a silly question, but I've never been able to figure this out. If my sister and I have a favorite song, how would I describe that fact in a sentence? "That's my sister and I's favorite song", "that's my and my sister's favorite song", "that's my sister's and my favorite song?", or some other permutation I may not be seeing?
[more inside]
posted by Buddy-Rey
on May 28, 2010 -
31 answers
Where should the apostrophe go in the sentence "In Memory of Great Loves Lost"? Loves is plural (referring to all the loving in the world), but does it possess "lost"? Should it be loves'?
[more inside]
posted by niccolo
on Nov 22, 2009 -
14 answers
Vagaries of the English Language, part
n: I need to tell my boss why the contraction "I'm" cannot stand alone as a sentence. For example, "Yes, I am" is okay. "Yes, I'm" is not. I haven't been able to find any good logic for this case or that works for the different contractions in general ("don't" can also stand alone, "I'd" and "I've" cannot). Given this is about languages, and particularly English, "just because" is, alas, potentially the best answer.
posted by whatzit
on May 15, 2008 -
36 answers
Where does the sentence structure 'Something, something and something, oh my!' come from? I'm seeing this everywhere and it's been bugging me.
[more inside]
posted by Happy Dave
on May 1, 2007 -
52 answers
I'm confused by the sentence structure of "The more I chew, the sorer my jaw gets" and "the heavier the atom, the less it rotates." Do these "The more..the less..." sentences have understood omitted verbs or something? They seem to not have all the prescribed elements of a sentence.
posted by eighth_excerpt
on Jan 1, 2006 -
12 answers
When (and where, and maybe why) did people start doing
this ? Is it mostly a UK/Europe
thing ? Is it only occasional or a valid trend
now ?(Another question about a grammar anomaly, but I'm not complaining this time, only curious. This one only occurs in informal [Internet] communication and for some reason I enjoy it: a space between sentence end and final punctuation, when punctuation is a '!' or '?' Mostly UK- and Ireland-ers do it, like sgt serenity [a mad Scotsman] here.)
posted by Shane
on Mar 27, 2004 -
22 answers
