Words about Words

[Bramblethorn]

Neat collection of linguistic terms here: https://glossary.sil.org/term/all

 

[AG31]

Neat collection of linguistic terms here: https://glossary.sil.org/term/all

Thanks, I think. It does make my brain hurt, though.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

My nightmares tonight will be filled with Miss Hardacre lecturing on the ablative case. I hope you are satisfied.

 

[MillieDynamite]

That's a whole lot of grammar going on there!

 

[Trionyx]

I did not find the section which dealt with when to use ‘I’ and when to use ‘me’, perhaps the most common grammatical error one sees here.

 

[THBGato]

I did not find the section which dealt with when to use ‘I’ and when to use ‘me’, perhaps the most common grammatical error one sees here.

True, but seeing as it is an error common in the speech of many, if not all, native speakers, you kind of need to use it in order for your dialogue to sound realistic.

Personal bugbear is people who say "I was sat" instead of "I was sitting". I mean, the continuous aspect is the one part of English with no irregular verbs - all of them form it by adding -ing to the infinitive - so why do some native speakers feel the need to create some?! My wife says I need to let this go and stop correcting the English teachers at my kids' school (one of them is from Liverpool - he's teaching the students to say "youse" for goodness sake!)

 

[SimonDoom]

I did not find the section which dealt with when to use ‘I’ and when to use ‘me’, perhaps the most common grammatical error one sees here.

That would be under the "case" heading. "I" is subjective, or nominative case. "Me" is objective case, also known as accusative or dative. But the glossary isn't very useful for explaining what this means in the context of a sentence of when you use which version.

Here's a decent quick guide to the use of "me" and "I": https://www.grammarly.com/blog/grammar/me-vs-i/#:~:text=The difference between me and I is how,the sentence or the receiver of the action.?msockid=1a81d1d402b26e143f83c4cc03ec6f3e

 

[XerXesXu]

True, but seeing as it is an error common in the speech of many, if not all, native speakers, you kind of need to use it in order for your dialogue to sound realistic.

Personal bugbear is people who say "I was sat" instead of "I was sitting". I mean, the continuous aspect is the one part of English with no irregular verbs - all of them form it by adding -ing to the infinitive - so why do some native speakers feel the need to create some?! My wife says I need to let this go and stop correcting the English teachers at my kids' school (one of them is from Liverpool - he's teaching the students to say "youse" for goodness sake!)

In practice, in English, pronouns are used primarily to establish education and status. One learns which to use by ear and need to know which to use when giving characters a voice - education, status and location.

The same applies to tense and mood of verbs.

 

[SimonDoom]

For some reason, that link isn't working for me right now. Anybody else having difficulty with it? It worked yesterday.

 

[StillStunned]

For some reason, that link isn't working for me right now. Anybody else having difficulty with it? It worked yesterday.

It was working fine about an hour ago, but now it's gone down.

 

[AG31]

For some reason, that link isn't working for me right now. Anybody else having difficulty with it? It worked yesterday.

It's working for me now. I never did see it down, but I just got up.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's working for me now. I never did see it down, but I just got up.

It's working for me again, now.

 

[Trionyx]

True, but seeing as it is an error common in the speech of many, if not all, native speakers, you kind of need to use it in order for your dialogue to sound realistic.

I agree with this but use the correct word with simple narratives. Interestingly enough, one time I was berated for using the wrong word when it was in a quote from a teenager.

 

[SimonDoom]

My nightmares tonight will be filled with Miss Hardacre lecturing on the ablative case. I hope you are satisfied.

But what if Miss Hardacre is wearing a black leather minidress and boots, and carrying a crop, and says, "Today, students, you will learn the ablative case. And you will like it."

That might work for me.

Just saying.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Randomizer working overtime. Spin the wheel again, see where you end up.

For some reason, that link isn't working for me right now. Anybody else having difficulty with it? It worked yesterday.

It was working fine about an hour ago, but now it's gone down.

It's working for me again, now.

 

[SimonDoom]

Randomizer working overtime. Spin the wheel again, see where you end up.

I just figured it was my tech overlords messing around with me because they know they can.

 

[THBGato]

But what if Miss Hardacre is wearing a black leather minidress and boots, and carrying a crop, and says, "Today, students, you will learn the ablative case. And you will like it."

All together now:

Bellum
Bellum
Bellum
Belli
Bello
Bello


Bella
Bella
Bella
Bellorum
Bellis
Bellis


*tumbleweed*

Oh, just me then.

 

[MillieDynamite]

It's AI fucking with your brain!

I just figured it was my tech overlords messing around with me because they know they can.

 

[StillStunned]

All together now:

Bellum
Bellum
Bellum
Belli
Bello
Bello


Bella
Bella
Bella
Bellorum
Bellis
Bellis


*tumbleweed*

Oh, just me then.

I dumped Latin the first chance. The only problem was that I had to take Greek for the rest of school.

 

[SimonDoom]

All together now:

Bellum
Bellum
Bellum
Belli
Bello
Bello


Bella
Bella
Bella
Bellorum
Bellis
Bellis


*tumbleweed*

Oh, just me then.

In coitus veritas.

 

[StillStunned]

It's AI fucking with your brain!

I've been saying for years that the Rise of the Machines began decades ago. Every time the computer won't connect to the printer, or your wifi randomly goes down, or your computer simply freezes and then restarts of its own accord in the middle of the working day - those things are slowly killing us all.

They've probably worked it out, like that countdown in Independence Day, so that every human on the planet has a stroke at exactly the same time.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If you write it, they will read it.

I've been saying for years that the Rise of the Machines began decades ago. Every time the computer won't connect to the printer, or your wifi randomly goes down, or your computer simply freezes and then restarts of its own accord in the middle of the working day - those things are slowly killing us all.

They've probably worked it out, like that countdown in Independence Day, so that every human on the planet has a stroke at exactly the same time.

 

[StillStunned]

If you write it, they will read it.

I already have an AI-as-the-Big-Bad story, so I'll leave this one for someone else.

 

[oneagainst]

True, but seeing as it is an error common in the speech of many, if not all, native speakers, you kind of need to use it in order for your dialogue to sound realistic.

Personal bugbear is people who say "I was sat" instead of "I was sitting". I mean, the continuous aspect is the one part of English with no irregular verbs - all of them form it by adding -ing to the infinitive - so why do some native speakers feel the need to create some?! My wife says I need to let this go and stop correcting the English teachers at my kids' school (one of them is from Liverpool - he's teaching the students to say "youse" for goodness sake!)

Funny thing is that I write carefully (who vs whom, I vs me, etc) and try to make sure the grammar and stylistics are spot on.

Then I open my mouth and that spoken grammar is completely different. I was sat in the pub the other day....

 

[AG31]

Funny thing is that I write carefully (who vs whom, I vs me, etc) and try to make sure the grammar and stylistics are spot on.

Then I open my mouth and that spoken grammar is completely different. I was sat in the pub the other day....

I have sort of the opposite problem. I'm very sensitive to the maxim "just imagine saying it in the singular." You'd never say "him will go to the store." And that just floats through my head until I come up with some work around that will allow me to avoid "him and me will go to the store," without using the stilted "he and I will go to the store." I do this in my spoken language as well as my written. This isn't such a great example as "we'll go to the store" is the obvious work around. But you get my point.