I love the grammar nerd posts (I'm not the grammar nerd). People are especially picky when the OP is an idiot or nasty. It doesn't get old. |
I appreciate the posters who report really bad stuff. I often just forget it’s an option to report. |
+1 |
Are there any other people who are fascinated with the history of the English language who don’t like grammar police? I feel like harping on prescriptive grammar rule violations on an informal anonymous forum shows that you think you’re superior when you really aren’t. (Same with taking issue with phrases like “I feel like.”) |
Glad I could get under your skin so easily, dear. |
I don't report misplaced threads but I sometimes comment that a particular topic might get more play in Diet and Exercise than Beauty and Fashion, for example. Up to the OP if they want to ask Jeff to move it. |
High five, fellow editor! |
+1 - making it at least three. |
^^This poster right here. |
In the less v fewer thread (that’s my least favorite prescriptive grammar rule; the only good thing about it was that I got the game of thrones jokes), did the history of the rule come up? From Wikipedia: Descriptive grammarians consider this to be a case of hypercorrection as explained in Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage.[7][3] A British supermarket chain replaced its "10 items or less" notices at checkouts with "up to 10 items" to avoid the issue.[8][9] It has also been noted that it is less common to favour "At fewest ten items" over "At least ten items" – a potential inconsistency in the "rule",[10] and a study of online usage seems to suggest that the distinction may, in fact, be semantic rather than grammatical.[3] Likewise, it would be very unusual to hear the unidiomatic "I have seen that film at fewest ten times." [11][failed verification] The Cambridge Guide to English Usage notes that the "pressure to substitute fewer for less seems to have developed out of all proportion to the ambiguity it may provide in noun phrases like less promising results". Less has always been used in English with countable nouns. Indeed, the application of the distinction between less and fewer as a rule is a phenomenon originating in the 18th century. On this, Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage notes:[2] As far as we have been able to discover, the received rule originated in 1770 as a comment on less: "This Word is most commonly used in speaking of a Number; where I should think Fewer would do better. 'No Fewer than a Hundred' appears to me, not only more elegant than 'No less than a Hundred', but more strictly proper." (Baker 1770).[13] Baker's remarks about 'fewer' express clearly and modestly – 'I should think,' 'appears to me' – his own taste and preference....Notice how Baker's preference has been generalized and elevated to an absolute status and his notice of contrary usage has been omitted." The oldest use that the Oxford English Dictionary gives for less with a countable noun is a quotation from 888 by Alfred the Great: Swa mid læs worda swa mid ma, swæðer we hit yereccan mayon. ("With less words or with more, whether we may prove it.") |
🤚🏽🤚🏽🤚🏽🤚🏽 |
well, you three will have to share the first prize |
Cabbage Lady in Diet & Exercise
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I hate the “You are a terrible person” posts. That happens to me a couple of times a year. I write some deep dark feeling, like pondering whether my sister’s mean personality is a result of unhappiness with her obesity, and people come out screaming at me and telling me I’m terrible. |
Did anyone mention mom of 5 with 5 brilliant military kids (or whatever they are)? |