Posted on 05/18/2019 5:30:39 AM PDT by Moonman62
If you watch House of Cards, you might remember this scene from season one. (Warning: it contains the C-bomb, so don’t watch it if you’ll be offended by that!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=28&v=vaDoaCsgj_s
The joke is based on an entirely false grammar rule: “Thou shalt not end a sentence with a preposition.” Prepositions, remember, are words that describe the position of one thing in relation to another: at, to, in, of, about, from, above, etc. So you’ll hear people trying to obey this “rule” by saying things like this:
To what are you referring? (instead of What are you referring to?)
There is the person about whom I was speaking (instead of There is the person I was speaking about)
From where did he get his temper? (instead of Where did he get his temper from?)
But they needn’t bother, because every modern-day authority agrees there’s nothing wrong with ending a sentence with a preposition. The “rule” was dreamed up by John Dryden in a petty attempt to prove that he was a better poet than Ben Jonson. He invented some hogwash about how English should abide by the same preposition rules as Latin, which made no sense, since they’re different languages with, for the most part, very different rules.
So if anyone scolds you for saying “What are you looking at?” instead of “At what are you looking?”, you can shame them with your superior knowledge of both grammar and 17th-century poetry – or just send them the link to that YouTube clip above.
Thank you! I didn’t know that was referred to as the use of the Oxford comma, but I was dismayed when the rule was dropped a few decades ago. I still use it, and will continue to do so. I’m no grammar expert, but I’m annoyed when the rules of grammar decay due to common useage.
I am from Ill-Annoy - and "Where are you at?" is part of the parlance in all quarters and in all strata of Ill-Annoy society.
HOWEVER, I believe it’s still bad English and bad grammar to say, “Where were you at?” It’s too “red neckish”....has nothing to do with ending the sentence with a preposition..
“It was her THAT........” No - “It was her WHO........”
I saw a greeting card that contained an astute grammar lesson.
On the cover, two women are artfully drawn conversing, and there are two dialog bubbles displaying their dialogue.
One woman says- Where you at?
The other woman corrects the first woman and says- You don’t end a sentence with a preposition.
I opened up the card to find the first woman’s retort, wherein she replied correctly- Where you at bitch?
Thus endeth your grammar lesson for today.
Grammar experts are a pain, of which I wish I were. An expert, that is -— not a pain. Of course, one cannot have one, without the other. I, also, tend to overuse, commas. At least I know how to use semi-colons; most people do not.
Sometimes it's more fitting to end the sentence with "@sshole": What are you up to, @sshole?!
What are you up to, @sshole?!
If it makes you feel better, I always use an Oxford comma.
I should amend that to, “I always use an Oxford comma, where appropriate.” I don’t run into a lot of situations where I need to treat multiple people as a single party, but I know how to use commas properly when I do.
Oh, and as an aside, though not a grammar text but rather a guide on pronunciation, and although out of print (but still available at online swap shops, etc.) Charles Harrington Ellster's "There Is No 'Zoo' in 'Zoology'" is sure to make one a real PITA in social circles. Check it out.
Cheers!
The Cheers writers essentially stole the line from Winston Churchill.
No, Churchill said something similar, but he did so to mock an advisor for nitpicking him ending a sentence with a preposition only a moment before.
There’s nothing I hate more than “I could have went...” Ugh!
There’s nothing I hate more than “I could have went...” Ugh!
Since I don’t have access to the social circle that would even GRASP my complaints, (except my family and those here on FR) rather than a PITA, they just figure I’m “a sorta oddball”, “She sure do talk funny!”, and ignore it. Even the doctors and lawyers around here, are “just plain folks”, but their wives are pretty snooty, so I don’t suppose they’d even let me join the local Women’s Club, or even the Book Club. I could be a real PITA THERE, given my irritating habit of taking (and meaning) things literally. Sounds like fun, to me!
people using their pronouns in the wrong order (”Me and my friend.”
The baker gave her and I a piece of cake.
‘Me’ is to be avoided at all costs, to the uncertain. They think it sounds ignorant.
Or, “I seen him the other day”.
I think you’re right...I wasn’t thinking...
Maybe. As I recall, she said it to Sam, and was making a point about her level of education. The only characters I can think of that would have called her on its ‘ originality are Frasier or Cliff,, who might have attributed it to Emily Dickenson.
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