Dr. Shades's Grammar Lesson of the Day

The Off-Topic forum for anything non-LDS related, such as sports or politics. Rated PG through PG-13.
Post Reply
_Doctor Steuss
_Emeritus
Posts: 4597
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:57 pm

Post by _Doctor Steuss »

asbestosman wrote:It's a great suggestion, but I'm partial to the Deseret Alphabet myself. See my sig line.


I remember when you first introduced me to it (if I remember correctly, your sig line is Satan's comment in Genesis about becoming gods[?])
"Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead." ~Charles Bukowski
_Lucretia MacEvil
_Emeritus
Posts: 1558
Joined: Mon Dec 18, 2006 7:01 am

Post by _Lucretia MacEvil »

lose ... loose ... they're not interchangeable.
_asbestosman
_Emeritus
Posts: 6215
Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2006 10:32 pm

Post by _asbestosman »

Lucretia MacEvil wrote:lose ... loose ... they're not interchangeable.

People with a screw loose often lose.
Those with loose morals shall be numbered amoung the losers.
That's General Leo. He could be my friend if he weren't my enemy.
eritis sicut dii
I support NCMO
_Dr. Shades
_Emeritus
Posts: 14117
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:07 pm

Post by _Dr. Shades »

Miss Taken wrote:Well, I forget my possessive s's.


Then let's remedy that situation. The lessons will now follow in order of request.

GRAMMAR LESSON #3: PLURAL vs. POSSESSIVE "S"

-S: Plural, i.e. when there's more than one of something. EXAMPLES: "The MA&D moderators are irrationally paranoid." "The moderation at MA&D is the worst out of all the message boards I've visited." "Please keep your dogs from barking."

-'S: Singular possessive. I.e., something belongs to one person or thing. EXAMPLES: "It's Juliann's message board, make no mistake." "I'm listening to the President's address." "That's Tom's bike."

-S': Plural possessive. I.e., something belongs to more than one person or thing. EXAMPLES: "I passed out the students' report cards." "You must tiptoe delicately around the MA&D moderators' biases." "Have a look at these engineers' collaborative project.

-S'S: Singular possessive (i.e., something belongs to one person or thing) when the name or word ends with a natural "s." EXAMPLES: "I gain a lot of insight from Dr. Shades's posts." "I think FARMS's arguments are biased to the point of unreliability." "Do not insult the princess's hair style."

I forget the darn rules, who made the rules anyway, wasn't it some French bloke? Get me the gun! (Shade's* maybe you could enlighten)


*This brings us to the last installment:

-S: Non-plural, non-possessive when the name or word ends with a natural "s." Note that this construction is the exact same as Plural, above, and that there is no need for an apostrophe. Therefore, Miss Taken's sentence should've been written, "(Shades maybe you could enlighten.)" EXAMPLES: "Hercules descended to Hades before completing his task." "Chuck Norris is skilled at the Martial Arts." "Juliann always tries to derail threads in which her apologist buddies are losing."

But to answer your original question (". . . who made the rules anyway, wasn't it some French bloke?"), you're closer than you think. When the Normans conquered Britain, they brought (Medieval) French with them. French then became the language of the aristocracy and had a trickle-down effect on the residents of the British Isles after that.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"

--Louis Midgley
_Bond...James Bond
_Emeritus
Posts: 4627
Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:49 am

Post by _Bond...James Bond »

What about:

to, too, and two?

accept and except?
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
_Dr. Shades
_Emeritus
Posts: 14117
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:07 pm

Post by _Dr. Shades »

Well, the requests keep on coming, so I suppose I can break my own rules by giving more than one lesson per day.

GRAMMAR LESSON #4: "TO," "TOO," and "TWO"

TO: (usage A) A part of speech indicating an indirect object or a direction. EXAMPLES: "I'm going to complain to the mods about Juliann's derailments." "I've been to two Mormonism-related message boards this week." "The MA&D moderators are really going to town on the bannings, aren't they?"

TO: (usage B) The introductory half of an infinitive verb construction, an "infinitive verb" construction being "to (verb)." EXAMPLES: "The MA&D moderators are too petty to allow competing arguments to stand." "I'm going to complain to the mods about Juliann's derailments." "How long will that post last on MA&D before the moderators decide to delete it?"

TOO: (usage A) "Also" or "in addition." EXAMPLES: "You think Juliann is hyper-sensitive? Me too!" "The Mormons believe that way, too." "They too were banned from MA&D."

TOO: (usage B) "In excess" or "overly much." EXAMPLES: "MA&D moderators close too many treads just as they're getting interesting." "The MA&D moderators are too petty to allow competing arguments to stand." "I was only too happy to start posting here instead."

TWO: The number between one and three. EXAMPLES: "Juliann and Pahoran are two Mormons who give the rest a very bad name." "I've been to two Mormonism-related message boards this week." "I've seen two of the three Star Wars prequels."

accept and except?


That's better quantified as spelling issue, since they're two different words with different meanings. To whit:

ACCEPT: To come to terms with. "I accept the fact that the MA&D moderators are unFAIR." "Can you accept the fact that Joseph Smith married other men's wives?" "I'd accept that argument if it came from anyone except a FARMS scholar."

EXCEPT: An article meaning "not included," similar to "but" (occasionally, though, a transitive verb meaning "to leave out"). EXAMPLES: "I'd accept that argument if it came from anyone except a FARMS scholar." "MA&D moderators will ban anyone except for another Internet Mormon." "Everyone was invited except me."
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"

--Louis Midgley
_Bond...James Bond
_Emeritus
Posts: 4627
Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:49 am

Post by _Bond...James Bond »

Another:

Where, were, wear, we're.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
_Dr. Shades
_Emeritus
Posts: 14117
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:07 pm

Post by _Dr. Shades »

ajax18 wrote:Could you do a lesson on exactly how to use the quote feature. It never seems to work for me.


I'm on a roll, so this one's for you.

To set a bunch of text into a box, thus indicating that it's quoted material, place the following tag immediately before the text you wish to quote, but without the spaces:

[ quote ]

Likewise place the following tag immediately after the text you wish to quote, but, again, without the spaces:

[ /quote ]

As an example, let's take the following text:

Someone said that the MA&D moderators are wishy-washy about the application of their own rules. Is there any truth to this? Yep, there is! Whoever told you that obviously knows the way things work over there.

Let's say I want to quote the first two sentences. I'd place the tags (and two hard returns) in like this:

[ quote ]Someone said that the MA&D moderators are wishy-washy about the application of their own rules. Is there any truth to this?[ /quote ]

Yep, there is! Whoever told you that obviously knows the way things work over there.

The end result would be this:

Someone said that the MA&D moderators are wishy-washy about the application of their own rules. Is there any truth to this?

Yep, there is! Whoever told you that obviously knows the way things work over there.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"

--Louis Midgley
_Dr. Shades
_Emeritus
Posts: 14117
Joined: Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:07 pm

Post by _Dr. Shades »

Bond...James Bond wrote:Another:

Where, were, wear, we're.


Are you thinking these up off-the-cuff, or do you really not know?

I'd rather not take the time typing up stuff that everyone knows anyway.
"Finally, for your rather strange idea that miracles are somehow linked to the amount of gay sexual gratification that is taking place would require that primitive Christianity was launched by gay sex, would it not?"

--Louis Midgley
_Bond...James Bond
_Emeritus
Posts: 4627
Joined: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:49 am

Post by _Bond...James Bond »

Dr. Shades wrote:
Bond...James Bond wrote:Another:

Where, were, wear, we're.


Are you thinking these up off-the-cuff, or do you really not know?

I'd rather not take the time typing up stuff that everyone knows anyway.


I know them. Many don't. Feel free not to do them if you don't feel like it.
"Whatever appears to be against the Book of Mormon is going to be overturned at some time in the future. So we can be pretty open minded."-charity 3/7/07
Post Reply