grammar_nazis (original) (raw)
December 10th, 2013
From Facebook: Two for the price of one.
...one lady looks like she has a blind see and eye cat.
The lady appeared to be the one who was blind, since she was wearing sunglasses. The cat looked all right. I nearly fell out of my chair laughing at the last part. He was commenting on a picture of a line of women who each had a black cat on a leash.
July 29th, 2013
"The legacy that this has left for society"
Is that phrase tautology? If so, what might be more appropriate wording?
November 6th, 2012
My company is having a "Turkey Feast" next week to celebrate Thanksgiving. Our department secretary sent out an email requesting volunteers for various services. The following is a line from that email:
Need 6 Carvers (and your carving knives from home) – email Alex/Ron if you can help CARVE, this will go hand/hand with Birds that come in from outside, being Deep Fried;
Normally I can tell what this lady means to say, but this one is far trickier than most. Hand/hand? What? And why are the "Birds" outside? Are we chasing down wild turkeys? What the heck is she trying to communicate?
Trust me, you have as much context as I do. And yes, I'm tremendously bothered by her random capitalization.
(Not looking for answers, btw, just sharing the hilarity.)
October 23rd, 2012
Okay, fellow grammarians, I've encountered a question and can't seem to find the right answer. Can anybody lead me in the right direction?
I'm taking an online copyediting course and one of the sentences I'm supposed to correct reads as follows:
Anywhere from one to ten suggestions was used when compiling the week six agenda.
(I've corrected other errors that were introduced for the assignment.)
My question revolves around the verb: should it be singular or plural? My textbook (and the style guides I can currently reference) give a lot of information about spelling out numerals and the like, but very little instruction on when composite numbers take plural verbs. I'm finding lots of "one in ten" references, but no "one to ten" ones. I'm fairly ambivalent about this. My gut is telling me it's the plural, but I'd like to have that confirmed.
Before you worry that I'm cheating on homework, I assure you this would, at best, lose me half a point on a 140-point assignment. I'm more curious about the correct word and less worried about my grade.
TIA!
October 22nd, 2012
What's the most expensive item that you've ever boughten yourself?
I don't know, but I think this poster should invest in a dictionary.
Yet another thing I found posted to facebook.
September 12th, 2012
I got the math answer wrong (you're supposed to do the multiplication first), but all the "nerds" talking about how bad people are at math in the comments seem to have not proofread the second sentance.
August 30th, 2012
I was aware of the existence of batshit crazy wingnuts, but I didn't know Jesus Christ is from Hell. Never stop learning, eh!
A friend posted this to facebook.
August 25th, 2012
(Of COURSE I hope she's found and okay. I haven't seen much in the local news (this is in my area) about her, so I'm assuming the police think this is more a chance that she ran off with someone, not an abduction.)
That being said, grammar yikes. Still wrapping my head around "She doesn't have a lot of her same friend, don't know any new ones."