Posted on 11/05/2005 10:27:14 PM PST by SmithL
"Your invited to the reception."
This was the wording on an invitation someone showed me. Unfortunately, we too often see "your" used where the contraction "you're" is required, as it was on the invitation.
Handbooks say "your" and "you're" are commonly confused, as are the contractions "they're" for "their" and "it's" for "its."
The Gregg Reference Manual says as a test for the correct form, try to substitute "you are," "they are" or "it is" or "it has," respectively.
"If the substitution does not make sense, use the corresponding possessive form," Gregg says.
He said that that "that" that that man used was wrong.
What about that pirate prayer, the arrrr Father? (s/b "Our")
If James where John had had had had had had had, he would have had it right.
Oops, forgot the punctuation:
If James, where John had had "had", had had "had had", he would have had it right.
American English almost invariably uses a construction such as 'Boston has 11 hits through 5 innings', wherein the team is treated as a single entity, even though various members of the team have actually done the hitting.
Listen to Canadiens' and Maple Leafs' broadcasts sometime; Canadian announcers go both ways on this. Older announcers tend to use the English style, and younger ones the American style.
Jane where John had had has had had had had had had had had had the teacher's approval
(Good luck, it's rather tricky)
Dat dar is enuff.
Jane, where John had had "has had", had had "had had", had "had had" had the teacher's approval.
One of my all time-faves:
that that is is that that is not is not that that is is not that that is not that that is not is not that that is
that that is is that that is not is not that that is is not that that is not that that is not is not that that is
''That that is, is. That that is not, is not. That that is, is not that that is not. That that is not, is not that that is.''
No way to make just one sentence out of it, though. Serial semicolons, except for stylistic treatments by professional authors, are out of bounds in ordinary usage.
Your bad.
Caught me.
Now that you mention it, I can't recall using or seeing semi-colons in a while.
The advanced answer is that if you mean the team as one unit, "is" is correct. If you mean the team as a set of individuals, "are" is correct.
Quite often, I write "The data is," and the editor will correct it to "The data are."
One of my favorite statistical aphorisms, though, is,
"If you torture the data enough, it will confess to anything." Somehow, "If you torture the data enough, they will confess to anything" doesn't have quite as much impact.
The use of apostrophe's to indicate plural's really grates on my nerve's.
Have you noticed how "disinterested," which means impartial, seems to be replacing "uninterested," which means not caring? Just today, I heard a sports analyst on TV say that a certain team had lost its game because "they were disinterested in playing a football game." Can't anyone speak correctly anymore? I'm beginning to think Henry Higgins was right!
And "loose" for lose. Did they lose because they were too loose?
Is she being naturalized? :)
Seriously, "I have a family member that is a grammarian, she has not a friend in the world and cannot understand why" is a run-on sentence. It should be two sentences, thus:
"I have a family member that is a grammarian. She has not a friend in the world and cannot understand why."
A family member WHO is a grammarian. Who is proper when referring to people, that when referring to things.
Similarly, less is an amount (less money), fewer is a number (50 percent fewer dollars.)
Does it make the hair on the back of yure neck stand up? Its like that for me too. LOL
Top that and you're sure of your prowess with words.
OK, you forgot to put a comma after "there." LOL
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