I Love Grammar AMA

B'Syata D'Shmya

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 2:07 am

amother OP wrote:

Ooh, too many to count!

Probably the worst is misplaced apostrophes.

I cringe all the way through Purim opening mishloach manos from the Rosenberg's, Stein's and Weiss'!

Also, when my children come home with glaring grammar mistakes from their teachers. It's awful!

Do you correct the teachers' mistakes? To your children?

amother

Grape

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 2:26 am

amother Offwhite wrote:

Could you explain the lie lied lay laid lays rules? I knew it in school but it never really went into my head and I keep forgetting.

I lie down now, I lay down yesterday, I have lain down (past perfect), I will lie down. This is the verb "to lie."

I lay down the fork now, I laid down the fork yesterday, I have laid down the fork (past perfect), I will lay down the fork. This is the verb "to lay." It is a transitive verb, meaning that I do it to something.

The confusion arises because the past tense of the verb "to lie" is "lay," which is the present tense of the verb "to lay."

I am a grammar nerd and a professional editor. Smile

Amelia Bedelia

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 10:11 am

amother OP wrote:

When I logged on now I was going to start with this disclaimer, but then got carried away responding to individual posts. So I'll write it now.
Disclaimer: I do not claim to be an expert in grammar. I make mistakes, too.
My title was "I love grammar", not "I'm perfect in grammar", or "I hate bad grammar".
In fact, one of the first questions was "What's your pet peeve", and while it was a fun one to answer, it actually surprised me, because I did not start this thread to discuss my pet peeves in grammar!
Yes, certain things irk me, a lot.
But mostly, I just like grammar!
I like to write properly, I like to learn proper grammar and perfect my writing, I remember my 13th grade grammar class with such fondness! (There's the same kind of mistake as I wrote above - I either need semi-colons or the word and before the last clause, but for some reason I prefer to write it like that!)
So why did I start this thread? No particular reason. Do AMA threads need to have a reason? Very Happy

What's 13th grade?

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Oct 02 2023, 11:43 am

amother Aubergine wrote:

Professional hazard. I'm a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. When I'm not working at my full-time publishing job.
Grammar and punctuation are obviously not the same thing, but they do need to work together.

Oops. The bolded is a sentence fragment. Wink

Signed,
Former copyeditor / proofreader as well, I worked full-time for a book publisher (comma in lieu of semicolon intentional).

See? There's no winning this game!