Free grammar lessons!

[nate mdance]

. , ' " ; : ) ( - ! A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.These are always so under-used,if you dont spell right the grammer fairy will come and kill you in your sleep.


Cheerz-

Nate

[Relambrien]

Originally Posted by nate mdance

. , ' " ; : ) ( - ! A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.These are always so under-used,if you dont spell right the grammer fairy will come and kill you in your sleep.


Cheerz-

Nate

Congratulations! The grammar fairy will now come kill you in your sleep!

Oh, and I might as well make that block on "versus" now:

A lot of people misuse the word "versus." People will say things like "I want to verse you in this game," which is wrong. "Versus" is derived from the past participle of the Latin word "vertere," which means "to turn."

"Versus" is NOT a verb. People seem to think it's the third-person singular conjugation of the imaginary and incorrect verb, "to verse." Why is this? Take the verb "to box." The third-person singular conjugation of that is "boxes," which sounds similar to "versus" in its ending. This is true for all verbs ending in an "s" or "z" sound (which "to box" does). To conjugate into the third-person singular, most of the time a syllable sounding like the word "is" is added. "Boxes," "crashes," "raises," etc. Thus, people mistakenly believe that "versus" is a third-person conjugation of "to verse," because the second syllable sounds like the word "is," leading people to believe it is a third-person conjugation of a verb. It is not.

"Verse" is a noun, and refers to a part of a song or poem.

"Versus" is not a verb, so stop using it like one. "I wanna verse you in FFR" is grammatically incorrect. "I want to face you in FFR" is grammatically correct.

[RubiedCross]

Originally Posted by nate mdance

. , ' " ; : ) ( - ! A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.These are always so under-used,if you dont spell right the grammer fairy will come and kill you in your sleep.


Cheerz-

Nate

Congrats to just screwing yourself over. Hope to see that happen more often in the near future.

And don't try and copy Synth. That's a one person thing. IMO. Just letting you know, in case someone comes a long and starts flaming you for it. Which (hopefully) nobody will.

[Squeek]

Originally Posted by Relambrien

Congratulations! The grammar fairy will now come kill you in your sleep!

Oh, and I might as well make that block on "versus" now:

I very rarely edit the original post, but I'll pop this in.

[x_Dragun_x]

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
i can use proper grammer im just to lazy when im typing to think about grammer and people can read it just fine so to me grammer dosent matter unless it is something like for a job or something >.<

[Squeek]

Originally Posted by x_Dragun_x

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
i can use proper grammer im just to lazy when im typing to think about grammer and people can read it just fine so to me grammer dosent matter unless it is something like for a job or something >.<

I can't read this while taking anything you say seriously.

Personally, I read sentences as if they're speaking to me. Your sentence didn't have much to say about you.

[GuidoHunter]

Originally Posted by x_Dragun_x

people can read it just fine

Wrong.

Bad grammar means I have to reread sentences to locate improperly placed antecedents, identify misplaced modifiers, identify when sentences should have stopped, and do lots of other things to decipher the intended meaning of the sentences. Good grammar means your ideas are conveyed effectively, the paramount intention of language with respect to communication.

Go pick up the latest bestseller. Are you ever confused by what the author says? Likely not, because good grammar leads to good understanding. Now read a paragraph by someone with horrible grammar. Chances are you'll have to reread sentences over and over to understand what is being said. Why would you actively choose to contribute to that?

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
i can use proper grammer im just to lazy when im typing to think about grammer and people can read it just fine so to me grammer dosent matter unless it is something like for a job or something >.<

You know what this sounds like? My three-year-old nephew whose brain works faster than his mouth. He tries to start a new thought even before he finishes speaking the first one, and as such, his sentences turn into garbled messes with no distinction. Do you really want to sound like that to other people?

And what about when you go to apply for a job, or work when you have a job, and you can't use the grammar you never practiced when given every opportunity online? Years of never using the shift key, apostrophes, or good spelling or sentence construction. What then? You look like a damn fool, is what. Think you can suddenly recall all of that grammar you might have been tested on in seventh grade but never used after that? Think again.

Squeek and I are trying to get you to realize the stupidity of your ways, and even provide this thread as a resource for you. Start using good grammar now. The more people who use good grammar, the better communication gets done, and the more the world gets done. Using good grammar is better for everybody, especially yourself.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[Squeek]

^ - Word.

I constantly hear the argument "this isnt scool" or something stupid like that. Your argument is the same. You attest that you can differentiate between academic and social grammar. I attest that the less you use the former and the more you use the latter will eventually lead to a degradation of your skills.

What Guido said about comprehension is exactly right. What you thought to put in text and what was put in text are two completely different things. I do agree that what you type online is totally different from what you write for class. That's only because a classroom setting is to be professional. You aren't expected to document your sources or quote some writer every other sentence when you're typing on a forum. All we expect is that you type the way you think.

I HIGHLY doubt your brain is thinking in that garbled mess of a run-on sentence. It's YOU who translates what your brain is thinking into a less-comprehendable pile of mush, and it is we who must take our time translating it back.

Think of it this way. Let's say you think in English, but you write in Spanish. In order for our brains to realize what you've written, we have to translate from Spanish to English. Now, replace "Spanish" with what you've done and you see what it's like for us.

You can save yourself and those who read your posts a lot of time and effort if you write the way your brain thinks to write instead of making it "faster" to write like a child. There's a benefit to this too! You know the phrase "practice makes perfect"? I'm sure you do! If you don't practice typing, how can you expect to get better at it? If you concede to yourself and say "oh well i cant type fast enuf" then you will never be able to type fast enough. The more you get used to typing normally, the faster and better you will get at writing words out and using punctuation. The way your brain wants you to write.

Instead of wasting time translating your thoughts into text, make it flow easier by removing the middleman! Just write the way you think!

[Relambrien]

Originally Posted by Squeek

I very rarely edit the original post, but I'll pop this in.

Thanks for that. Hopefully people will start using "versus" the way it's meant to be used, though my hopes aren't high.

[RubiedCross]

I have a question. I more thoroughly read through some of your sections on grammar, and found the difficult misconceptions of the words carat, caret, carrot, and karat. When I read this, I remembered way back when, that somebody told me that <'s and >'s were also called "Carets". (Spelling was not given.) I just wanted to know if this was true or not, and if my usage of parentheses just a second ago is correctly set up or not.

Por favor y mucho gracias.

[NarutoFoxDemon]

Grammar with an "A", the end.

[GuidoHunter]

That is very much untrue. < and > are considered brackets.

Regarding your parenthetical aside, I would suggest that you try to insert it at the end of a sentence, in between the direct text and the punctuation mark. It is okay to have an aside as its own sentence (with the punctuation inside, as you've done), but you might as well not have the parentheses at all and just leave it on its own.

It's always preferable to put them inside sentences, though.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[devonin]

The confusion here is that ^ (as opposed to < or >) -is- in fact called a caret.

It is a diacritical that is used as a proofreading mark that indicates that there is a missing piece of punctuation in the document being proofread.

"Caret" comes from the latin caret "It lacks" from carēre (To lack, to be free from)

[RubiedCross]

Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I knew what those where called in case somebody asks me. I just don't want to give anybody a wrong answer.

As for the parentheses, thanks, also. I knew that most of the time the sentence (or phrase) inside the parentheses should stay within the main sentence, but it seemed more or less to be a sentence of it's own, that wasn't really necessary in order to obtain an answer. Therefore, I thought that I should put it into parentheses, but thought that it might need to be stated after the last sentence. This thread has really helped me quite a bit so far on my grammar, even though, I'm sure, I have a lot more to learn.


Anything in parentheses can (not) be ignored.

[DivynE]

Why does i should learn english? Mine english is goodesterish then you'res

[Nightfirecat]

Originally Posted by DivynE

Why does i should learn english? Mine english is goodesterish then you'res

AAH MY EYES!

[justaguy]

Originally Posted by GuidoHunter

You know what this sound like?

lol

[GuidoHunter]

Originally Posted by justaguy

lol

Eh, it was originally "what you sound like", but I changed it.

Or, I can blame Amanda for that, since she edited the post and never told me about it...

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[TO_Leader]

i want grammer lessons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Squeek]

...

Then read the first page?