The finer subtleties of grammar and language
Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:14 am
written grammar dictates that you use an in front of heretic, like with most h words, but i personally say a, in the dumb canadian accent way like eh.
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Herald: I think you mean to say,first letter of the following word was a vowal
Just adding my two-cents worth.written grammar dictates that you use an
Thanks for the correction. In Spanish the word is "vocales", so I just assumed it would be something like that. My bad.Istvan wrote:Wow. Two consecutive grammar-related posts, both of which have spelling errors (I wouldn't bother pointing these out, but they're grammar-related posts, so it seems appropriate).
Rolos: I'm pretty sure you meant,Herald: I think you mean to say,first letter of the following word was a vowalJust adding my two-cents worth.written grammar dictates that you use an
That's redundant considering the ellipsis already denotes the end of a sentence.hbi2k wrote:Speaking of grammar (or, more specifically, punctuation), Istvan, when using ellipses (...) you must follow them with a period when ending a sentence. So three dots when used within a sentence, four when used at the end:
"I like grammar... don't you?"
"Yeah, me too...."
This was one of the first rules I learned when I was beginning to write novel style stories when I was young, and it's a wierd one. To begin, you have two problems here in English. The first being that colons are only used when directly quoting someone, like in a first person narrative, and in a common third person narrative it would be: Roger said, "I left my jacket at home." The period always comes before the quotation if that is the end of the sentance. Now, if it isn't then that's okay, like this one: Roger said, "I left my jacket at home," and rubbed his arms. Then the comma is before the quotation. A time when the period is after a quotation at the end of the sentance is if one character is quoting another in a narrative: Steve said, "Roger said, 'I left my jacket at home'." This works because this sentance essentially belongs to Steve, so the period exists when his talking quote is done. This last bit can be argued, I've seen both in texts.War Machine wrote:I'll be damned, you're right. In Spanish we only differentiate the end of a sentence when using ellipsis by capitalizing the first letter of the next word, so if if the letter is not capitalized, then it's still the same sentence, so no fourth period is ever needed.
Another small difference that doesn't sit well with me is the use of a period before closing a quotation, for example:
Roger said: "I left my jacket at home."
Instead of...
Roger said: "I left my jacket at home".
It just doesn't make any sense to put it there. We really need a regulating authority for the English language to at least bring some consistency.
Nah. Languages by their very nature change, adapt and evolve. When the rules of a language become perfectly fixed, and everyone agrees on what the rules are, what is correct or incorect, it is a clear sign that said language is dead and no one really speaks it anymore.It just doesn't make any sense to put it there. We really need a regulating authority for the English language to at least bring some consistency.
By your definition Spanish should be about to die. Granted no language is perfect, but bringing a regulating authority can make new words have consistency and coherence. Even words borrowed from other languages can be subjected to some rules. For example, the word "Wachar", in Spanish, comes from the English "To Watch", same exact meaning. And this word is a relatively new word in the mexican Spanish vernacular (I can't speak for all Spanish speaking countries), but it is still subjected to the same rules of orthography: Verbs can only end in "ar", "er", "ir"; the emphasized syllable is the last one, so the tilde doesn't need to be written; and the "T" is dropped because the "T" sound in the middle would interrupt the spelling and it would not be close to how the original word sounds.Istvan wrote:Nah. Languages by their very nature change, adapt and evolve. When the rules of a language become perfectly fixed, and everyone agrees on what the rules are, what is correct or incorect, it is a clear sign that said language is dead and no one really speaks it anymore.It just doesn't make any sense to put it there. We really need a regulating authority for the English language to at least bring some consistency.
War Machine wrote:By your definition Spanish should be about to die. Granted no language is perfect, but bringing a regulating authority can make new words have consistency and coherence. Even words borrowed from other languages can be subjected to some rules. For example, the word "Wachar", in Spanish, comes from the English "To Watch", same exact meaning. And this word is a relatively new word in the mexican Spanish vernacular (I can't speak for all Spanish speaking countries), but it is still subjected to the same rules of orthography: Verbs can only end in "ar", "er", "ir"; the emphazised syllable is the last one, so the tilde doesn't need to be written; and the "T" is dropped because the "T" sound in the middle would interrupt the spelling and it would not be close to how the original word sounds.Istvan wrote:Nah. Languages by their very nature change, adapt and evolve. When the rules of a language become perfectly fixed, and everyone agrees on what the rules are, what is correct or incorect, it is a clear sign that said language is dead and no one really speaks it anymore.It just doesn't make any sense to put it there. We really need a regulating authority for the English language to at least bring some consistency.
Having an authority dictating some rules does not mean those rules can't be changed or be expanded upon, it only means that the people have reached some concensus on the spelling and meaning of existing words and words to be added. You don't have a problem with dictionaries, do you?
Simply put, it would exist to prevent aberrations such as the words "knight", "night" and "nite" which sound the eact same way (not the best exmaple of an "aberration", but you get the idea) Or at least prevent them from becoming too common so that people are not confused about the spelling of similar words.