The Grammar Police are Upon You

[bobtodrick]

Will, I'm afraid it is attitudes like yours <E-writing does not demand the same standard that "real" writing does because it's more like speech than it is like textbook writing> that is one of the root causes of a sad and troubling percentage of high school students who cannot pass a basic literacy test. Justifying sloppy grammar in this manner is akin (IMHO) as saying "it's only the internet...we don't really need to be polite to one another". (my ancestors hail from England and Scotland...hence the period on the outside of the quote)

[james_kennedy2]

And where does "he graduated high school" come from as opposed to the correct "graduated from high school"? I suspect that this originates from the NYC area, where an omnipresent mass of immigrants has tended to create a dialect not of this Earth.

 

Jim Kennedy (from upstate NY where grammar and diction used to be taught and tested via the NY State Regents Examination).

[will_woodford1]

Bob T -

 

It's not an attitude that "e-writing" is more like speech than "real" writing, it's an empiric fact. If it weren't, this thread wouldn't have the life it has!

 

You expanded my statement to make one of your own about standards of politeness: those are your words, not mine.

 

That said, I agree with you but I think it's wider than the internet. People are ruder everywhere you go.

[bobtodrick]

In fact it's not 'empiric' fact Will. 60 years ago you could post a letter in London in the morning and have it delivered (in city) the same day. People wrote letters much like we talk, as the phone was not as common then as now. I have a stack of old correspondence between grandparents that ran much like this forum...they actually 'talked' to each other every day via the mail...and guess what...their grammar was nearly flawless. As you say rudeness is becoming commonplace because it is for some reason more accepted of late...but so is poor grammar. Just because we accept it more on a forum like this because of its spontaneous nature does not make it any less 'bad' grammar.

[preston_merchant]

James, the hyper-correct form is "he was graduated from high school"--in the passive. The active has become the norm, however.

[vic_.]

"The Grammar Police are Upon You"

 

Should it be "The Grammar Police IS Upon You." Or are both OK?

[grepmat]

The lack of even an attempt at proper capitalization and punctuation in this forum, as elsewhere on the internet, is appalling. People should understand that capitalization is necessary to be able to read paragraphs in comfort. To leave it out is to pronounce ones laziness, ignorance or arrogance to the world. Are you listening, "roger michel?"

[_________1]

Seperate for Separate.

[travis1]

ones laziness or one's laziness?

[ray .]

i believe roger michael has successfully captured his own style of disrespect for punctuation, and it probably saves him hours per year from the drudgery of the keyboard. you always know its roger, and i'm sure that's the way he wants it. a sort of signature if you will. of course, we could all copy him, but then the world would descend into chaos. ;)

[grepmat]

You are correct, travis, it's "one's laziness." I may not be perfect, but at least I'm not too lazy to try. Of course, "ones laziness or one's laziness?" is not even a complete sentence. Also, a moment saved reaching for the shift key comes at the expense of one's readers, which is selfish and disrespectful. Cheers.

[kevin m.]

I'm with you, Bob. If you're using WORDS to communicate, bad grammar makes for ineffective communication.

[andy_piper2]

Him, her, and it. His, hers, and its. It's (it is) simple to remember it that way.

 

To me, "lense" always comes across as a verb - a laser lazes; a lens lenses.

[vic_.]

Any errors are quite acceptable except if they are made by native speakers, who really should be shot.

[sprouty]

From linguistlist.org:

 

 

"The Standard West Saxon Old English ancestor of 'ask'

was 'axian', pronounced, of course, /ks/, and /aks/ can still be

heard in some accents from the South of England, as well as in

some US accents. But there has always been variation in the

ordering of the /s/ and the /k/ in this word, even before 1100 AD (in

Old English both 'axian' and 'ascian' are seen). So you certainly

can't argue that 'there is no valid linguistic tradition for the word

"aks" -- both pronunciations are very old indeed."

 

Strange but true...

[david_moreland]

For Al Kaplan

Re. Churchill quote

A memo from Churchill was returned with a note that he had

ended a sentance with a preposition. He wrote back to the

grammar police "This is the sort of pedantic nonsense up with

which I will not put."

Dave

[cd thacker]

Interesting etymology, Stephen - fascinating, really. We know, of course, that many Elizabethan and regional English dialect elements were maintained (to an extent) in the hollows and hills of the U.S. south - and then brought north after WWII. Sounds like "Aks" is one of those. (Parenthetically, it's really interesting to hear traces of the various British regionalisms in Australia and Canada, too - but those are more pronounced than in the US, and so less surprizing.)

[kristian dowling]

This thread is sickening...and I bet most contributors are Brits and Yanks.....no offense, but it kinda reflects your leaders' political standings. And my leader is following on a leash tied with economical chains.

[oliver_s.]

Just be nice to the contributors who aren't native speakers. For us (I'm one of them), incorrect syntax and/or grammar may make understanding you rather difficult.

[sprouty]

Kristian,

 

Forgive my ignorance but what is troubling about this thread, aside from it being woefully off-topic? If I understand the original post correctly Ray was lambasting native English speakers who are too lazy to take the time to check spelling or learn some fundamental grammar. As to how this could be offensive, I'm at a loss. Please explain and I will be the first to offer an apology.

 

Regards,

[chip l.]

Forgive me, but are we now on the same level as the NY Times or the Washington Post? But maybe Photo Net needs to have gammer and spelling checkers added?

[Robin Smith]

My pet peeve is "lense" and "Cannon" when it clearly is "Canon" and they are themselves Canon users so, one assumes, see the real word most days.

[travis1]

By the way (formerly btw), how do you pronounce Leica?

 

"lay ka" or "lie ka"?

[Rob F.]

I met an old man who said he gave his "Leaka" to his son, because it was to complicated for him. He couldn't even pronounce it, let alone use it.

 

I like to keep a list of words I run across that don't conform to the "I before E except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and weigh" rule. "Either," "neither," "height," and "their" are common exceptions, but there are many others, including leisure, seize, kaleidoscope, albeit, protein, farenheit, and stein.

[ray .]

A non-photog friend of mine pronounced it "Lee-I-ka".

 

Rob F., You just committed the unconscionable error of using "to" when it should be "too". I would normally send the grammar police out to knock on your door, but since I had to look up "unconscionable" to see how to spell it, I'll let it go for now. ;)