Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Wednesday is for Weird Grammar

Today's grammar lesson brought to you by "Weird Al" Yankovic:





Hey, whatever gets the word out. ;)

"What?" you're probably saying at this point. "No camel? But it's Hump Day!"

Okay, okay. Here's a grammar lesson that includes a camel, from Grammar.net. (Which I'm assuming is okay to share here, since the site helpfully included the embed code for it.) Anyway, it's a very handy site, because it includes a little box where you can enter your text for a quick grammar check. Tres cool, yes? 


Grammar.net [Infographic provided by Grammar.net]


So, do you have any grammar pet peeves? Do share!* 

*Unless I'm the guilty grammar party. Because all of my "mistakes" are, of course, merely stylistic choices. As are, I feel certain, yours. ;)

15 comments:

Patsy said...

I make plenty of stylistic choices!

I hate 'the reason why'. Why must people add the why? Why oh why do they do that?

Dianne K. Salerni said...

Argh ... the subjunctive always gets me.

Personally, I like it when ignorant, hateful people hold up protest signs full of errors. It's a perfect illustration of "consider the source."

Particularly funny was a recent send-up of "English First" protesters who were irate that Spanish signs were appearing more and more in their town. Their signs were full of the most grievous spelling and punctuation errors. It spoke volumes (gallons) about the people holding up the signs. (Loved their language? Not so much. Racist? Bingo!)

Linda G. said...

Patsy -- LOL! Surely there must be a reason...

Dianne -- Sorry about the subjecting you to the subjunctive. It was the only grammar lesson I could find with a camel tie-in. *grin*

Pearson Report said...

Hi Linda - great post. I'm with you, it's all about style - mine is of that 'if it works for me, it's good' ilk.

I liked the video. (true confessions… I learned something!) It's a good thing my days donating to the gene pool are over - though, my heir apparent is holding her own in the grammar portion of life, thank the gods, eh. (oh, that would be me! hahahaha)

I'm off to visit the link… maybe stop in on Oz while I'm on route. :)

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Great post! I confess to being a bit of a grammar (and spelling) Nazi who gets most upset when newspaper articles and textbooks are filled with errors.

There's one error that has become so prevalent, I'm beginning to wonder if the rules changed and nobody bothered to tell me: the agreement between noun and pronoun. Although the noun is clearly singular, the pronoun referring back to it is usually plural. (I.e "someone" followed by "their.") Nitpicky, I know, but it drives me nuts.

Linda G. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Linda G. said...

PR -- I'm beyond contributing any more to the gene pool, too. Thankfully, my kiddos surpass me in the grammar department.

Susan -- I know what you mean. I fear the plural pronoun is becoming accepted as the "neutral" singular pronoun.

Judy,Judy,Judy. said...

Stylistic choices. I like that. I'm going to use that, for sure.

Unknown said...

I'm terrible with grammar. I watched that video earlier and it's funny!

Carol Kilgore said...

"Stylistic choices." I can go with that, LOL. Love Weird Al - this one is no exception.

Patsy said...

I'm back again ... to say I've nominated you for the versatile blogger award. It comes with a virtual camel.

Anne Gallagher said...

I commit heinous grammar errors all the time. That's why I have a super duper crit partner.

Hope your summer is going well. We're at the beach until Aug. 19. Hoping to finish the novella I started but having too much fun.

LD Masterson said...

One nice thing about being as old as I am (besides having had a pet dinosaur) is I grew up when grammar was taken seriously in school and before everyone wrote in Textish. It makes a difference.

Crystal Collier said...

Lay, lie, laid. Ug. Seriously? Who can keep them straight--especially when you're supposed to use the present tense for a past tense situation? Drives me bonkers.

Dawn@Lighten Up! said...

My pet peeve, and idk if this is a grammar or spelling issue, is the rampant misuse of apostrophes! Or should I say apostrophe's!
Argghhhh!!