Comments on: Three grammar rules that are okay to break.

By: grammar rule - StartTags.com

grammar rule - StartTags.com — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:27:04 +0000

[...] for simple plurals, not possessive, makes me unhappy. I hate sloppy spelling. I react to…Three grammar rules that are okay to break.Just remember that grammar is supposed to add clarity to your communication. Not confusion. So if it [...]

By: Tales to Tide You Over » Blog Archive » Friday’s Interesting Links

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:15:34 +0000

[...] Three breakable grammar rules, along with why. And yes, I agree with all of them .http://3000messagesblog.com/2009/09/14/three-grammar-rules-that-are-okay-to-break/ [...]

By: C.B.Osborne

C.B.Osborne — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:40:41 +0000

Perhaps you should look at this site. Or even attend ? I am not involved and have posted this for yr evident interest in grammar.

http://www.plainenglishfoundation.com/tabid/3273/Default.aspx.

By: maggie

maggie — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:41:02 +0000

The example you use in the second rule is really a phrasal verb–a verb and prep (or adverb) used as a verb … not a prep in the true sense. Stop by=visit (vs. stop up, stop off, stop in …) better to give an example of a true prep not married to a verb. … just my ex-ESL teaching days coming back to haunt!

By: Victoria Hart

Victoria Hart — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:02:37 +0000

Love this; “where did you get this information at?”…ha! Thanks so much for sharing.

By: John Barnes

John Barnes — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:17:24 +0000

All three of these “rules” are consequences of the early grammarians borrowing Latin grammar (among the most inflected Indo-European grammars) and applying it to English (among the most distributed). And the first two really derive from a simple rule for English syntax: put words next to things they modify. The verb stem in an English infinitive is very often the thing modified, so the infinitive particle “to” should be pushed away to make room. The preposition is an integral part of an English verbal, and so the preposition should be kept next to the verb it is making into a verbal.

As for the third rule, bravo again. The Romans thought of sentences as something like equations, which had a minimum set of elements, because (as far as we can tell from analytically reading their philosophy), they had the idea that every thought needed to be complete (sententia means sentence in their grammar and thought in their philosophy, and they had what we would regard as only a minimal philosophy of language). Thoughts can be fragmentary in our culture — heck, talk to people, they USUALLY are — and therefore thoughts can and should be fragmentary in our grammar.

Though I think the third self-referential title would have been better as: “Sentence fragments? Cool! No problem. Especially in titles. Or for emphasis.”

By: Rachel Bateman

Rachel Bateman — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:01:15 +0000

Also, good blog colors. I approve. ;)

By: Rachel Bateman

Rachel Bateman — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:57:22 +0000

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

I am linking to this on my blog; I will forever send the grammatical nit-pickers to read this.

I am a grammar Nazi myself, but there are just some rules that don’t apply anymore.

By: Jewell Hershey

Jewell Hershey — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:52:48 +0000

Oh! Whew! This will be such good news to my worried, self-editing friends. I, myself, am feeling faint with relief, my knees giving way, tears in my eyes as I clutch the furniture for support….OK…I’ve pulled myself together….Good blog! Thanks!

By: Tweets that mention Three grammar rules that are okay to break. -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Three grammar rules that are okay to break. -- Topsy.com — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:09:05 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by John Reed and keli scrapchansky. keli scrapchansky said: Finally, rules we can break #writechat http://bit.ly/1gIxqZ [...]