Cato's Grammar Grumble

[Karl Henning]

I'll give you two.

The President of the US writes a letter of condolence to a war widow.  How many misspellings before it really matters?

Every week my mom-in-law writes me out a grocery list.  She wants to know if she happens to misspell words.  She is very conscious, if she were to misspell a word which a native speaker outside of the family should read, what that person will think poorly of her as an immigrant.  (Of course, no one outside the family reads these shopping lists;  she is a person of education and artistic achievement.)

[North Star]

Yeah, it's not such a big deal, or maybe it is.

[Karl Henning]

If there was no conception of "misspellings" then it would not matter.

How's that working out?

[aquablob]

This site cracks me up: http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

Probably my favorite on that site: http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/2008/06/youre-so-loving.html

[The Six]

People who are in favor of grammatical anarchy should realize that the rules actually make things easier. You may call them arbitrary, but it's a lot simpler for everyone to conform to one set of rules than to expect everyone to understand you. It's actually quite selfish to think you should be able to write however you want. Just learn the same rules everyone else did. They're not that hard.

[Karl Henning]

That first day you got mail meant for someone else (and he got yours) because the postman ruled that spelling doesn't really matter . . . .

[Karl Henning]

Ah, so spelling for email addresses doesn't really matter, either, eh?

[Karl Henning]

That is a fairly consistent failing of mine.

[Karl Henning]

Separately: We highly suggest ? ? ?

[Cato]

Separately: We highly suggest ? ? ?

How high were they when they made the suggestion?

Concerning the rules of English:

Thuh kaes for prahper spelling iz eezee tu maek.

[Karl Henning]

We're go-with-the-flow improvisatory . . . we'll eat when the bird is ready

Happy Thanksgiving, mate!

[kishnevi]

In my family--offspring of Russian Jewish immigrants who settled in Boston--the big meal of the day was served at about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, with snacks for us hungry kids beforehand, and usually no supper because we always ate at my aunt's, so it was always rather late by the time my parents and Igot home, usually still full from dinner.  When we moved to Florida,  my mother kept the basic early afternoon timing.  In both Boston and South Florida,  midday turkey seemed to be the norm--at least I don't remember anyone mentioning eating an evening dinner.

Of course, part of it may have been simply Karl's pragmatica:  when the bird's ready to come out of the oven, we'll be ready to go into the dining room!

[Cato]

Here in Ohio, Thanksgiving Dinner (most people would say) would be held in the evening only if relatives from out-of-town were arriving late.

Breakfast, lunch, and supper for the everyday terms: "dinner" is for something special (e.g. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter).

[kishnevi]

Here in Ohio, Thanksgiving Dinner (most people would say) would be held in the evening only if relatives from out-of-town were arriving late.

Breakfast, lunch, and supper for the everyday terms: "dinner" is for something special (e.g. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter).

In my family, dinner was always understood to mean the main meal of the day, the one where my parents and I would sit down at the same table and eat; and then after my parents divorced,  my mother and I together;  restaurant meals were always going out to dinner only if they were for the evening  never for the daytime--but over time my mother's usage changed, supper replacing dinner, which became reserved for going out to restaurants, while  for me the two terms were always interchangeable.   But this should be measured in the context of the fact that Thanksgiving was the only day of the year on which the major meal of the day was not eaten at approximately 6-7 PM, and on the other 364 days of the year, dinner was supper.

[Cato]

In my family, dinner was always understood to mean the main meal of the day, the one where my parents and I would sit down at the same table and eat; and then after my parents divorced,  my mother and I together;  restaurant meals were always going out to dinner only if they were for the evening  never for the daytime--but over time my mother's usage changed, supper replacing dinner, which became reserved for going out to restaurants, while  for me the two terms were always interchangeable.   But this should be measured in the context of the fact that Thanksgiving was the only day of the year on which the major meal of the day was not eaten at approximately 6-7 PM, and on the other 364 days of the year, dinner was supper.

Interesting: and you lived in Boston at that time?  Certainly you can also find people in the Midwest who use "supper" and "dinner" interchangeably.

[Cato]

In a story about a NASA scientist looking into warp drive, we find a monstrosity:

Dr. White told the New York Times that since nature can travel at warp speeds, there is a chance that humans can figure out how to do it too.

"Space has been expanding since the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago," Dr. White told the Times. "And we know that when you look at some of the cosmology models, there were early periods of the universe where there was explosive inflation, where two points would've went receding away from each other at very rapid speeds."

Whether or not such a grammatical monstrosity symbolizes the future failure of warp drive by "Dr. White" remains to be seen.

See:

http://rt.com/usa/nasa-warp-engine-light-488/

[North Star]

[Cato]

See the above, ye who say about spelling: "What difference does it make?"   

[Sean]

So I'm working at a university in southern China, I do American culture but also a range of English courses.

Here's one question-

Why can we say It's really good or It's very good, but we must say only I really like it, not I very like it.

I very much like it is okay, but what's going on here?

[Sean]

Any why must we say The big red bus not The red big bus?