Grammar Discussions

[medhead]

Sentence structuring isn't that bl00dy difficult. "In" should never be together twice....try:

Neighbour David Casey, who lives across the street, said he didn't know the man who died but said in recent months, new tenants had moved in, the Brisbane Times reports.

Journalists and editors who should know better....

"Moved in recently" :?:

 

[QF WP]

I did a 'to to' today. Too busy to try to restructure the sentence to change it.

Add "in order" between??

 

[QF WP]

Nope - both 'have' instead of 'of' in the example.

Double words is rather odd - I've seen 'that that' and 'had had', but not 'in in' before.

That's what I meant

 

[Foreigner]

It's obvious colloquial language has sneaked into the written, formal form.

 

[Pushka]

My partner writes books and training materials.

I was going to say he's an author but that sounds a bit wanky. Funny how that particular occupation rubs off on the way (or is that ways?) in which I write. Although I was always a spelling naz_, grammar - not so much.

 

[dcm]

Apologies if these have already appeared:

Compliment v complement
discrete v discreet
confectionary v confectionery (a more subtle difference, I think, than between stationary and stationery)

 

[anat0l]

Apologies if these have already appeared:

Compliment v complement
discrete v discreet

I see these two pairs confused many times.

confectionary v confectionery (a more subtle difference, I think, than between stationary and stationery)

It's a very subtle difference! I had to read the dictionary definitions a few times to make sure I understood the difference.

 

[dcm]

lying and laying

 

[medhead]

I often see "now" in a sentence and think that the only word that makes sense is "know". Another example that I attribute to autocorrect, in most cases.

 

[TonyHancock]

Pedantry and Pedentry.

 

[ALH]

Bought and Brought. Then and than. Your and you're. Their, there and they're. Argh!

 

[robd]

loan and borrow.

 

[Pushka]

Loaned and lent.

 

[anat0l]

One noticed on another thread: queue and cue. Odd to get this wrong considering one is easier to spell than the other.

 

[Pushka]

One noticed on another thread: queue and cue. Odd to get this wrong considering one is easier to spell than the other.

And completely different meanings.

 

[Anna]

Pedantry and Pedentry.

Your a looser

 

[anat0l]

And completely different meanings.

And yet here is one sentence that will mess with your mind:

The queue here is for people that want popcorn.

You could replace the word in question with its other one, and yes the meaning completely changes, but it actually makes sense.

 

[JohnK]

Where's macgret when you need him?

.... actually im abit lazy to fine this part out. When exactly is 24hours before departer? i travel 2nd of may at 718AM so whats 24hours? what time is the start check online which of course would be a thursday but at what time on thursday?

im abit lost with the military time unfortunaly

Quality entertainment. ...

 

[Katie]

Re: The totally off-topic thread

It is now accepted to start a sentence with a conjunction, and even to occasionally split an infinitive.

More than occasionally.

This is a pseudo rule that derived from languages where the infinitive was a single word, so it could not be split. This "rule" has then been applied by some grammarians on English because of a belief that imposing such rules will make English better or as good as the language whose rules they are imposing.

 

[Pushka]

Split infinitives. Something I was never taught. Or tort. Or, something.