[The Great Fumar]

I become frustrated with folks who say fustrated...

But I still think YOU'SE guys are picky,picky,picky.

FUMAR

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by Muncle

it may be of interest that the original county name was "sumpter", from the seminole word for "no gambling." around 1884, a local redneck named bubba dupre johnson was hired to paint signs delineating the borders of the county. before starting ob his job, bubba walked around to the privy behind the courthouse to relieve himself. unfortunately, the outhouse was in use, so bubba just started to go on the side of the bldg. 'bout that time, the sheriff came around the corner, saw what was happening and yelled "hey bubba, ain't no peein' here!"

well, bubba kinda misunderstood the comment and he wasn't one to argue, so the county got renamed that day.

and, no i do not think i'm ee cummings. i'm just typing with 2 or 3 fingers and it's easier noy using shift. and i'm using some ,.;'/?!

And another thing Munc, in addendum to my above post. . .

Not only do I really like your Legend of Sumter (sic) County, and not only do I really like rednecks, and not only do I really like their music, more so I really, really, really like their music when it has bad grammar in it.

So thanks again for the little story.

And now, goodnight, for real this time, maybe.

Boomer, Lover of the Vernacular

[graciegirl]

Correct or incorrect, I love the fact that people talk to people here, open up to others and really say what they are thinking.

I like the camaraderie and even the confrontations on here. It is a real place peopled with real people with real life experience who have something interesting to say.

Many times I have read my posts and noticed that I wasn't very clear, or misspelled something or really didn't write it right. I feel that most folks here really don't mind.

Or if they do, the seem to allow me to continue and feign an interest in what I say.

So nice to be HERE. The Villages, Florida (Even if I am not physically..did I spell that right?)

[Talk Host]

Actually, there is no rule in grammar that forbids ending a sentence with a preposition. That is a fallacy. If anybody can find one, I will stand corrected.

[Russ_Boston]

You might be right TH, I found this on this site:

http://www.usingenglish.com/forum/as...eposition.html

___________


The idea that you should never end a sentence with a preposition is a sort of early urban myth. It took hold in the 18th century and was formulated by a man called Robert Lowth. He wasn't a professional linguist or grammarian (in fact, he was a bishop), but he wrote a book called Short Introduction to English Grammar. It actually wasn't a very good grammar book, but one rule he invented has been insisted on by some people ever since.

Lowth said that we should avoid ending a sentence with a presposition if we could decently avoid it. Lots of people misunderstood this to mean we should never end a sentence with a preposition, but that's not quite what Lowth said. But even what Lowth said was wrong: sentences ending with a preposition have always been a feature of English.

What happened next was that educated people read Lowth's book and tried to keep to his rules, while other people, who were not so well educated, continued speaking the way they had always spoken. As a result, only the uneducated people ended sentences with prepositions, and so it came to be seen as "uneducated" and therefore "wrong".

Today, this (and other) points of grammar are being reassessed, and there is a growing feeling among educated writers that it's OK to end sentences with prepositions, as long as you don't overdo it. Text books for non-native learners of English are now more likely to teach the preposition-at-end-of-sentence construction.

Still, some people still object to this construction, so in very formal writing (such as a job application) it is perhaps wise to stick to the alternative ("...of which many businesses are not aware"). That construction is not wrong, although to many speakers it sounds a bit pompous.

[Boomer]

I think it was the warden in Cool Hand Luke who said, "What we got here is a failure to communicate."

Well, here on TOTV, we ain't got no failure to communicate.

While it is one thing to do a little run at those grammar and spelling and usage mistakes, in general, that we may individually find a little irritating or whatever, I hope we never disintegrate into taking a red pen to somebody personally. That just ain't right.

True story. . .

One of my good friends is (was?) an English teacher, now retired. When she was young and single and would meet guys at parties or in meet markets or wherever and the subject of, "And what do you do?" came up, she would lie. Yep, she would lie. She would always tell those guys that she worked for the phone company. (I never understood why she picked the phone company, but it was her lie of choice, for some reason.)

You see, if my friend told those guys that she was an English teacher, they would just move down another barstool or whatever because they would not want to talk to her anymore.

Or maybe even a few of those guys might hang around just to try to catch her in a mistake, thus resolving some old issue with some English teacher from the past. Either way, my friend knew, that for some, if they knew she was an English teacher, there could be "a failure to communicate." So she lied. True story.

Now granted, some of those guys, my friend the English teacher did not want to talk to anyway. But she was a wise woman who knew better than to slam the door on communication.

So while it is fine to have a little fun with those errors in grammar and spelling and usage, I hope those red pens never show up here for individual correction.

So anyway, I will say again what I said last night. This place sure looks good to me.

ButwhatdoIknow?

Boomer

[nitehawk]

Benjamin Franklin. "There can't be good living where there is not good drinking. .... "I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. ...

[renielarson]

I am guilty of ending sentences with prepositions and am aware when I do. Many times I will even tell you I know but pointing it out within parenthesis following the preposition. However, to correct the sentence structure would result in writing that sounds very formal. Take Russ's earlier phrase "of which businesses are not aware." If you know me, you'd know that's not the way I talk. I would simply say "businesses are not aware of." Yep, I know that wouldn't be correct (or maybe it would thanks to TH) but ooooooooooh welllllllllll.

Another thing...I have never been a good writer although my English grammar, most often, is to be commended. So for me to just get my thoughts down in print that is understandable (I hope) is an accomplishment for me.

Now...here are two struggles of mine....knowing when to use "affect" vs. "effect", and knowing where to put quotation marks. Should the comma have come before or after the " following the word effect?

[chelsea24]

Aren't you glad you asked the question now, Russ? 1rnfl

In advertising we learned to throw our grammar books out the window!

[sschuler1]

My mother was an english major in college, so she was forever correcting us if we made any error in our writing or speaking. It used to bug the crap out of me. And to this day it continues to bug the crap out of me, because if someone makes an error I am mentally correcting it in my head. I make a conscious effort to quell my thoughts, but the errors still bug me somehow. I have never turned into my mother (regardless of what my husband says) and corrected others, but I continue to do so in my own head.

[Russ_Boston]

I really just wanted people to stop using SumPter :dontknow:

Touchy subject I guess.

[EdV]

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail

18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?

One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend. If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? Is it an odd, or an end?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people and not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

P.S. Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

[nONIE]

In the vast realm of things, does it really matter? :dontknow:


So "proper" spelling and punctuation was determined and put forth by who? :dontknow:

So where is it carved in stone that this must be done only one way? :dontknow:

forgetaboutit!!!

[JohnN]

Russ, here in the south here are a couple other words you'd appreciate: LOL

chimley
a napple

[swrinfla]

I am entranced with Ed V's entry!

There's an old, old story ascribed to Sir Winston Churchill. He was, as is well known, a stickler for proper English (note that that's English, not American!). When told that he shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition, he reportedly said, "That is an imposition up with which I will not put!" Or, words to that effect!

My late wife taught English to 6th to 9th graders (junior high schoolers). It used to frustrate her excessively when trying to get them to write correctly, let alone speak correctly! She passed away without really knowing about today's penchant for texting, wherein grammar and spelling have long since gone the way of the dodo!

;D

SWR