Posted on 08/29/2007 5:50:29 PM PDT by MrsEmmaPeel
I was in a *boring* meeting, absentmindedly doodling on a scratch pad. I was pretty amazed after the meeting when I noticed that I doodled the following:
After the meeting, I glanced at my notes and have a serious question: is these appropriate in this context? I mean, should the correct grammar be: "I so enjoy discussions like this", she said wielding a bloody axe in her hand. I mean, isn't discussions a collective and therefore implies a singular?
Please set me straight. I am longing for instruction.
This is the kind of statement that makes grammar Nazis tingle.
Only if there are several bloody corpses of socialist democrats before you, as you ponder the grammar, are you correct. If only one bloody corpse, then the singular would have been more appropriate.
The style book I consulted made a distinction between "this kind" and "these kinds."
If we reworded your sentence, it could be "these kinds of discussions" or "this kind of discussion." So it's clear that you've at least written in the appropriate sense (these discussions).
Whether you used it properly with regard to meaning is yet to be discovered.
It's somewhat context-sensitive. If your fictional(?) woman is rendered homicidal by particular discussion, you'd want to use "a discussion like this."
If, however, she were a situational murderer who was set off by examples of a general class of discussion, then I think "discussions like these" would be appropriate.
Alternatively, she may be set off by a repetition of the same discussion -- in which case "discussions like this (one)" would be fine.
So, really, it depends on you. Are you generally homicidal, or not?
LOL! Good to see you old friend.
Hey I just glanced at my meeting notes. I was most concerned about the possible grammar infraction I may have committed
I'll put that down under "situationally homicidal." And I'll be careful with my apostrophes, next time we share a thread....
And you as well!
Is the meeting one discussion? Or is it rather a tide of voices ebbing and flowing, discussions like wave caps.
Is it the first meeting of these people, or yet another in a series, in which case these discussions is apt.
I enjoy discussions like these sounds smooth.
RoboCop2 would say, "I enjoy discussions like these, wielding my minigun against simpering castrati."
You want to have your Gramma arrested? Why? What did she do?
LOL
lol :)
"I so enjoy discussions like these," she said, wielding a bloody axe in her hand.
OR
"I so enjoy discussions like these," she said while wielding a bloody axe in her hand.
"I so enjoy discussions like these," she said, wielding a bloody axe in her ready, twitching hand.
COPY EDITOR TO THE WORLD
"I so enjoy discussions like these," she said, wielding a bloody axe.
Have to admit, I do like the "ready, twitching" addition.
If you repeated the meeting it say two days later, it would be plural.
What did I win? LOL!
I think you’re right.
“In her hand” is probably not needed.
Good call!
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