Bad Grammar - Page 2

[deceptikon]

And no tutorials on here, James? :)

I just added one yesterday, O ye of little faith. ;)

[nitin1]

Yes sir. But still, I want to improve systematically. What is included in "practice"? Seriously, the day when I will be able to write in the way you write, that day will be the happiest day in my life. how should i do and what should I do ? some techniques which I can do on regular basis or something else in your mind ? Thanks.

[Reverend Jim]

I read a book recently that I found very useful without being preachy or boring. The book is English Grammar For Dummies by Wendy M. Anderson.

[nitin1]

what ? I think that book is for dummies as the name suggets. Am i right ?

[Ancient Dragon]

No -- it's just a catchy title, don't take it personally. Just like anything else, practice is the key to success. Read lots of English-written novels, magazines, and newspapers. If you have a nearby library, then visit it often to read. Don't start with Shakespear -- read stuff written in the past one hundred years. Anything earlier (with very few exceptions) will most likely contain obsolete words and phrases, or words whose meaning have changed. And keep a good dictionary handy -- Marian Webster and the British Oxford Dictionary are the most authoritarian dictionaries in the world. Which to use depends on which dialect of English you want to learn -- there are quite a few differences between American and British English.

[jaymista]

Also try to learn the parts of speech as written in a sentence. It might be difficult but you seem to write your messages ok.

Seriously, the day when I will be able to write in the way you write, that day will be the happiest day in my life.

WTF? Seriously seriously? Man, you need to get out more. If you do, buy any collection of poetry by e.e. cummings. Heh.

[Assembly Guy]

how should i do and what should I do ?

What others have said: get some grammar books, read through them. As with any language, you basically have to eat and breathe it for a significant amount of time to become proficient. Practice makes perfect, so get reading and writing :)
I'm pretty sure there are some English learner's forums where you can post something and get feedback and corrections on your writing, so these may be of use.

[mike_2000_17]

Marian Webster and the British Oxford Dictionary are the most authoritarian dictionaries in the world.

Lol, I didn't know a dictionary could be "authoritarian". I think you could benefit from consulting them too ;) They are the most authoritative dictionaries.

Oh come on Mike, that's as petty as splitting infinities.

[mike_2000_17]

I was just teasing.

[jaymista]

Your allowed to split infinities now and I do it the odd time. If the reader doesn't understand, he still won't understand if you switch the words around.

[Ancient Dragon]

Besides, I ain't no authority on nuthin :).

[GrimJack]

nitin1:The book "30 days to a better vocabulary" is about 50+ years old but it is exceptional.

diafol: I didn't see a smiley but I have to ask "are those aleph null or aleph 1 infinities being split"

[GrimJack]

Ah, but there are fewer numbers in 1 to ∞ than there are between 0 and 1.

[nitin1]

Can you suggest me some good forums where i can post my doubts related to this and get feedback which Assembly guy has mentioned?

Can you suggest me 2-3 good grammer books which can make improve my vocab part and my grammer?

P.S I read newspaper daily and sometimes novel also.I just want to polish my skills, It's not like that I don't know anything about English. Some middle-level books, which are not written in the way e.e cummings write and not for the 10 years old student. Still, all suggestions are really great. thanks.

[jwenting]

"ain't" is no word, it's a coloquilised version of a contraction.

diafol: I didn't see a smiley but I have to ask "are those aleph null or aleph 1 infinities being split"

I though a smiley would have been too obvious :) :)

I was ribbing Mike while baiting him with my own malaprop. He didn't see it or decided not to bite :

Then huck finn is hard only because of the dialects twain uses

[Ancient Dragon]

I don't think they teach huck finn in American schools any more becuse it is rather racist.

That's a shame as I always assumed that Twain was highlighting the way things were for a slave like Jim. One of the first 'big' books I read as a child and I'll always have a soft spot for it. As for the dialect, I can't recall struggling with it, even though I'd only been speaking English for about 5 years with limited local exposure.

[mike_2000_17]

I was ribbing Mike while baiting him with my own malaprop. He didn't see it or decided not to bite :

I didn't understand the thing about "splitting infinities". I still don't get it. Is that an expression or something? Or is it some clever joke that I'm too stupid to understand?

[deceptikon]

I didn't understand the thing about "splitting infinities". I still don't get it. Is that an expression or something? Or is it some clever joke that I'm too stupid to understand?

An example would be "to not be" instead of "not to be". "to be" is the infinitive, and the faux rule is that you shouldn't have descriptive words in the middle that "split" the infinitive. But consider Star Trek's "to boldly go", which hits harder than "boldly to go" or "to go boldly". English offers the flexibility of splitting infinitives in an effective manner, and avoiding that flexibility is silly when it works well.

[vegaseat]

Let's all take a selfie as we park in the driveway and drive on the parkway.

Mike, you picked up on a grammatical error, so I put in a malaprop, and as you were discussing 'split infinitives' previously, I thought I'd use 'split infinities', to see if you'd rise to the bait and correct me. I wish I hadn't bothered now. Heh heh. Still giggling to myself. Private jokes are the funniest, but unfortunately, lost on everybody else.

jaymista didn't pick up on it either, he just went ahead and used it. heh heh heh:

Your allowed to split infinities now and I do it the odd time. If the reader doesn't understand, he still won't understand if you switch the words around.

[GrimJack]

Diafol - when I was first responding, I missed pun and started with the smiley thingy then realized where it was going, deleted my rant but did not delete back far enough. I thought your malapropism/pun was pretty spot on (I had a bit part in our college adaptation of "The Rivals" where Mrs. Malaprop first appears (1775))

The arrogance of the 'literate' class was that Latin was the ultimate language thus gave us the 'split infinitive' rule and they even took a fine Anglo-Saxon word 'det' and latinized it as 'debt' (a silent 'B' even for craps sake).

Heh heh, I noticed that you noticed GJ ;)

[deceptikon]

Hah, I read too fast and didn't even see that, diafol.

[mike_2000_17]

The arrogance of the 'literate' class was that Latin was the ultimate language thus gave us the 'split infinitive' rule and they even took a fine Anglo-Saxon word 'det' and latinized it as 'debt' (a silent 'B' even for craps sake).

Well, that's a bait I'm willing to take. As a native French speaker, I find it very hard to believe that "debt" comes from an Anglo-Saxon root. And obviously, it isn't. It's part of the "debit" latin family of words. And, when it came into English from French, it was just "dette" like it is in French. I guess some British twit decided to add a "b" in there. By the way, the Anglo-Saxon counter-part for "debt" is "guilt", as it is used in most other Germanic / Scandinavian languages today.

You can't taunt me with this stuff, as a French-Swedish native speaker, I'm unbeatable on Anglo-Saxon vs. Latin roots in English.

as you were discussing 'split infinitives' previously, I thought I'd use 'split infinities', to see if you'd rise to the bait and correct me.

When was I discussing "split infinitives"? I just learned about them in this thread, I've never heard that term before. I guess my English teachers managed to completely omit the splitting of infinitives.

but there are fewer numbers in 1 to ∞ than there are between 0 and 1.

The only thing that stands between 0 and 1 is not. ;)

[jaymista]

You not only can split infinitives these days but you can also end sentences with a preposition so some "experts" say. Of course, the well-educated person will avoid these situations if possible. To only know one way of writing English is not what Shakespeare wanted.