Grammar quirks

[starry diadem]

Quote tree snipped, because it was getting ridiculously long

I agree with this Brit.  What I read is that the USA does theater and most other places do theatre.  I'm in the US but prefer theatre.  I just like the way it looks.  I notice that this spell check doesn't recognize theatre, but does theater.

British English tends to retain the spelling of the language from which we stole the word -  theatre, centre, litre, metre for example all retain their original French letter order.  In the US, spelling became more standardised and simplified.  And of course, the story goes that Noah Webster had a political point to make about trying to separate US and British English to underscore your break from colonial rule and deliberately changed the spellings of many words to reflect that. 

[GreenHall]

Heard this on the radio this morning (NPR of all places).  I know it was a case of the first part of the first word getting dropped, I translated, and yet still, I heard...

'snot ('snot likely to matter...blah blah blah politics/Sandy)

I've seen this in books, dialog for young or uneducated characters, if I never hear it again in real life, it's still too much.

[jmarvellous]

More gems from my latest project:

Everyone "turned and (did the next thing)." Why can't they just DO something once, rather than turning first? No one, in a quote, asks a question that ends with a question mark.

Something torn apart (metaphorically) was "rent."

Anything that's not concrete or obvious is "some kind of" something.

Every heart "beats very hard inside of his chest," everyone "stares deeply into (someone's) eyes silently," every pain is "deep inside of (his) gut." Every thought is "thought silently." Memories are always "flashing like photographs through (his) mind."

I don't actually hate cliche, but this is incredible.

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

Just curious, what is wrong with describing something torn apart (even metaphorically) as having been rent? That’s one definition of that word / is the past and past participle of "rend".

[Giggity]

Once every so often is okay, but every time?

[Bijou]

My husband dislikes the term, "Me, too!"   He thinks the proper phrase is, "As do I."
I think the 'As do I." sounds kind of aloof and formal, but I appreciate him for knowing about 'lay' and 'lie', which leave me stymied every time.

I think I have a handle on who/whom, neither/either and affect/effect, though.

[Diane AKA Traska]

My husband dislikes the term, "Me, too!"   He thinks the proper phrase is, "As do I."
I think the 'As do I." sounds kind of aloof and formal, but I appreciate him for knowing about 'lay' and 'lie', which leave me stymied every time.

I think I have a handle on who/whom, neither/either and affect/effect, though.

I'm with you.  "As do I" sounds (to be honest, to my ears) like one is putting on airs.  It would be like insisting during scrabble for your partner to tell you "inform me as to your paternal parental identity!"

[jmarvellous]

Just curious, what is wrong with describing something torn apart (even metaphorically) as having been rent? That’s one definition of that word / is the past and past participle of "rend".

Sorry, woke up way too early this morning. It was actually a wreck (not wrack) vs. rack issue! Guess I should cut the writer some slack, too!

Most of the phrases are OK once or seven times, but "said simply" and "thought silently" were used about 100 times each.

[Diane AKA Traska]

Just curious, what is wrong with describing something torn apart (even metaphorically) as having been rent? That’s one definition of that word / is the past and past participle of "rend".

Sorry, woke up way too early this morning. It was actually a wreck (not wrack) vs. rack issue! Guess I should cut the writer some slack, too!

Most of the phrases are OK once or seven times, but "said simply" and "thought silently" were used about 100 times each.

How do you think noisily?  Hum Amazing Grace as loud as you can while trying to decide what to have at the fast food counter?

[lady_disdain]

My husband dislikes the term, "Me, too!"   He thinks the proper phrase is, "As do I."
I think the 'As do I." sounds kind of aloof and formal, but I appreciate him for knowing about 'lay' and 'lie', which leave me stymied every time.

I think I have a handle on who/whom, neither/either and affect/effect, though.

To me, "me, too" sounds lazy and grammatically incorrect. "I do, too", "So do I", "I am too" are all grammatically correct, short and direct.

[jmarvellous]

Just curious, what is wrong with describing something torn apart (even metaphorically) as having been rent? That’s one definition of that word / is the past and past participle of "rend".

Sorry, woke up way too early this morning. It was actually a wreck (not wrack) vs. rack issue! Guess I should cut the writer some slack, too!

Most of the phrases are OK once or seven times, but "said simply" and "thought silently" were used about 100 times each.

How do you think noisily?  Hum Amazing Grace as loud as you can while trying to decide what to have at the fast food counter?

I can only guess, but I think it was supposed to indicate a distinction between expressed and unexpressed thoughts.

"This writer doesn't know the difference between a Cossack and a cassock," Jmarvellous thought, muttering under her breath.
"Oh, dang, did I say that out loud?" she thought silently.

[Elfmama]

Just curious, what is wrong with describing something torn apart (even metaphorically) as having been rent? That’s one definition of that word / is the past and past participle of "rend".

Sorry, woke up way too early this morning. It was actually a wreck (not wrack) vs. rack issue! Guess I should cut the writer some slack, too!

Most of the phrases are OK once or seven times, but "said simply" and "thought silently" were used about 100 times each.

How do you think noisily?  Hum Amazing Grace as loud as you can while trying to decide what to have at the fast food counter?

I can only guess, but I think it was supposed to indicate a distinction between expressed and unexpressed thoughts.

"This writer doesn't know the difference between a Cossack and a cassock," Jmarvellous thought, muttering under her breath.
"Oh, dang, did I say that out loud?" she thought silently.

Do they know the difference between customer and costumer?

[jmarvellous]

It didn't come up, but there was a lot of "make up that was applied," passively of course. "As" stood in for the far more appropriate "because" on every possible occasion. "And," half of the sentences began with "and" or "but" and a comma.

Four to six dots in lieu of ordinary ellipses? Great! Misspelling your own characters' names half the time? Thrilling!

[cabbageweevil]

I don't know if this is a grammar quirk, but I've noticed that some phrases come out not at all like the words, but still people know what they mean...
"Imuhna eat then go to the show."  ("I'm going to (or I'm gonna) eat then go to the show."
"Wuhduhyuh think?"  ("What do you think?")
There are others I've noticed, but can't recall off the top of my head.  I oways think it's kyna of fascinating,  doenchu?

Going off at a bit of a tangent, as I tend to: this post made me think of something raised by Bill Bryson on his book on the English language.  At one point in the book, the author opines that this is actually the way in which people do generally and commonly speak: rapidly, with much slurring and swallowing of words -- "Jeetjet?" meaning "did you eat yet?", and other instances given. Bryson gives the impression here, that this is the common and usual way of speaking and conversing, for most people throughout the English-speaking world. My reaction was, "perhaps that's true of the USA, Bill; but it's not the way the large majority of folk usually speak in my part of the Anglosphere". Taking it that you, Bijou, are in the States; this generalisation as in respect of the US, would seem open to doubt too.

I feel ambivalently about Bryson.  He can often make one laugh, sidesplittingly; and can often be shrewdly "on the money" about a large variety of matters.  Also, though, he not infrequently spouts the most arrant nonsense; sometimes, it seems, in attempts to be funny -- sometimes, because he would appear genuinely to harbour some very odd notions.

[cabbageweevil]

Since we're on the subject I hate when people pronounce that "thee-AY-tur."  It sounds so uneducated.

Well, Hilaire Belloc, in one of his comic-verse "Cautionary Tales", does indicate that pronunciation:

"It happened, though, a short time later,
 Her aunt went off to the theatre
 To see that interesting play
 'The Second Mrs. Tanqueray'."

Poetic licence, of course, in which the author gets a special pass: it has to be pronounced thus, in order to rhyme and scan!