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Calling All Grammar Nazi's

mikedt said:
The correct plural form of galaxy is galaxies. So what about if it's a proper noun or a trademark, as in Samsung Galaxy. Is that Samsung Galaxys or Samsung Galaxies?
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I think it should be Galaxies because there is the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" and Joneses isn't spelled "Joness" because instead it has the standard spelling rule for a plural of a noun ending with "s" applied.
 
davoid said:
"Antennae" is a nice word. It makes me think of ants.
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:laugh:

In my case, I think of something more like this:

king-antenna-array-existing.jpg


The people up there kinda look like ants... ;)
 
Speed Daemon said:
Although the word "data" is plural, it is singular in construction.

English are hard. :D
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It's really hard not to say "an agenda", but I'm not sure about the inclusion of spaghetti in that list. I wouldn't call a spaghetto "a spaghetti", I would call it "a piece of spaghetti", or "a strand of spaghetti". I'm definitely going to use "spaghetto" though from now on. :)

Similarly, I wouldn't say "a graffiti", but "some graffiti" or "a work of graffiti". BUT... I guess I would say "that graffiti", and not "those graffiti", so...
 
I blame Swype for all of my mistakes.:)

I have noticed a strange trend lately of people who are trying to "sell" something instead saying they want to "sale" it. I've seen numerous posts on Craigslist saying things like "I really need to sale this car". Weird.
 
tommo47 said:
grammar Nazi - Wiktionary

That just about sums it up in my opinion.

I'm certainly not a grammar Nazi, because I don't criticise others for errors in their grammar or spelling.

What I am guilty of is taking care to try and ensure that my grammar and spelling are without error. If anybody takes exception to that......tough shit, I couldn't care less !!:)
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I'm sure that nobody on here is a grammar nazi as defined by that definition. That kind of behaviour is deplorable. The only time I would ever correct someone's grammar in conversation is if they have asked me to.

I have a couple of foreign friends who have asked me in the past to correct their English so that they could improve. One, an Italian, now speaks like a native Brit, and he appreciates the help I gave. It is actually hard to stay focused on grammatical errors when listening to a conversation, because you lose track of the content when you do that.

It's an indicator that if someone corrects your grammar when you are talking to them, that they aren't actually listening to what you are saying... only the form. :mad:
 
davoid said:
I think it should be Galaxies because there is the phrase "keeping up with the Joneses" and Joneses isn't spelled "Joness" because instead it has the standard spelling rule for a plural of a noun ending with "s" applied.
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Should have the qualifier phones plural
Are those Samsung Galaxy phones?

I had a sewing machine that is called a Galaxie in England. Ford had a Galaxy model. They can bring back that model name if they so choose. (I saw Fiesta the other day) Others can also use the name.

Andromeda (M31) is the queen of galaxies seen from the earth. (You can see naked eye)

As for antennae - I don't think people know how to pronounce it. If you use the correct pronunciation, people think you are nuts.

It's common for birders. Area wants all dead Corvidae reported. (West Nile, I think) You should hear the broadcasters have fun with that! You HAVE to use Corvidae to include the whole family - If you just say crows, that leaves out ravens, magpies and jays.

I use Mustilidae. Ferrets belong here. They are NOT rodents.
 
This is the only place where I don't say, "the data are..." because I grew weary of people who don't make and use data for a living telling me what the accepted term ought to be.

And the proper singular form for data is dataset - "the sample data are complete," or "the sample dataset is complete." Therefore multiple groups of data (plural of plural) is datasets. "I've collected all of the datasets."

The wiki link on this is simply indicating a surrender to slang by grammaticists who didn't have a foundation in knowing all of the words, as far as I'm concerned.

And it's taken me forever on this forum to not regularly type antennae and then correct it so people know what I mean.

:rofl:
 
Ok... I'll play:D

Lay and Lie

You lie down or you are lying in bed.
A chicken will lay an egg
If you are laying in bed , you are either laying an egg or....:rolleyes:


You can lay said egg ( as in place it) on top of the bed! And yes I know.. Fragments and run on abound but I'm on a haunted keyboard and it is quite literally painful and annoying to use right now!

Okey dokey then..:)
 
davoid said:
I'm sure that nobody on here is a grammar nazi as defined by that definition. That kind of behaviour is deplorable. The only time I would ever correct someone's grammar in conversation is if they have asked me to.
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If you think general forums are bad, try any number of writer's forums. Terrible abuse to be sure. I only correct people I cannot understand and never the general public.

Most do not conside grammer important in a rather informal place like the Great AF.
 
Re data, I quite agree that it was plural however, language is a living thing and these days, data is .. a strange hybrid.

The word's used every day in IT, but I don't think I've seen it used as a plural in a decade - even by people as old as me. On the other hand, it's clearly not singular as I don't ever recall it being pluralised, as in 'these datas'.

Even I might draw the line there :)
 
Frisco said:
Grammar Snob page: 20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes | LitReactor :D
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I definitely use "anxious" incorrectly as well as "envy" and "jealousy".

I may have used bring and take incorrectly, but I am not sure. I cannot recall the details of instances where I have used these words. I will be sure to keep this in mine the next time it happens.

The most famous misuse of irony and coincidence that I know of is by Alanis Morissette in her single Ironic. It wasn't until her misuse of irony was publicised before I actually understood what irony is.
 
Stuntman said:
It wasn't until her misuse of irony was publicised before I actually understood what irony is.
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How ironic :)

Re the common grammar mistakes, these I did not know about:

Which and That
Whether and If
Since and Because
Different Than and Different From (tend to use 'different to' which is probably also incorrect :))
 
I didn't read the grammar snob list so it may have already been discussed but ...:D
Can and May. Can I....? means are you physically able to do something.
May I....? is asking permission to do something.

I pride myself on personally drilling this into hundreds of our younger generation! When I was a teacher, surprisingly 99.9 % of my students would misuse the terms and ask, "Can I get a drink...Can I use the bathroom..Can I etc....".

My answer would ALWAYS be, " I don't know, CAN you?";) and they would say oh Yeah, !! I mean MAY I?
To this day, I often run into past students who still joke about that!.. oh and also say that I was their favorite teacher of all time! ;)
 
Another grammatical error I see is the misuse of "because" when answering a question of why. For example, someone asks, "Why is the sky blue?" The proper way is to respond, "The reason is that the nitrogen in the atmosphere scatters blue light." I see many people incorrectly write, "The reason is because the nitrogen in the atmosphere scatters blue light."
 
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