User talk:Shard/English

L. M. A. O.
Thank you for that. Raine - talk 05:24, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Dunno [sic] if it's yet another difference between American English and English English, but...

• I'm bringing chips, salsa and coke to the party."
• ...................yes↑........↑NO........↑no

Never a comma before "and" over here ;) --snograt 05:43, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

The final comma in a list is subject to debate, with both styles being "correct" depending on who you ask. I've had English professors tell me both ways, in the same school year... :\ Vili 点 05:45, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm Euro English, and I've always put a comma before the last and of a listing. It clears things up when you've got listings with other "and"s; try making the guest list for a couples' party or something like that. :/

"Jason and Holly, Mike and Sarah, and Sean and Rebeccah." Raine - talk 05:49, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

I've also been told both ways are correct, but I give more merit to the way I have it outlined. Commas indicate a pause, and you'd only really exclude one if you're listing two items together as a single item (hopefully not salsa and coke). I don't know how they talk in Europe, but if they slur their words together in a messy slob of meaningless nonsense, then your way is better ;)

Yeah, like what Raine did. ~Shard 05:57, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Sigh - I left school over thirty years ago, they've probably changed all the rules by now :( I'm shit hot on apostrophe usage though ^_^ --snograt 06:09, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Wow. And here I thought I was the only person on the interbutz to get irritated by bad ingloosh. I lol'd the whole way through. --Jette 08:32, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

If I had a copper Zaishen coin for every time I've been tempted to rant to someone for poor english, I'd be able to get at least 3 everlasting fireworks a day. That being said, this was absolutely hysterical. ~ Ryuu Desu[ Talk|Contributions ] 23:47, 13 June 2009 (UTC)

Why is English not capitalized? Bloody hypocrite, tbh. Raine - talk 06:16, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

"English" is what those blokes across the Pond speak. Vili 点 06:56, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

(Reset indent) I was always taught that, if you have 3 items in the list, then you can leave the last "normal" comma out, or leave it in, as both are acceptable. But, if you have more than 3 items in the list, the last comma should be in there. Of couse, this is American English I'm talking about. I agree with Vili, though...it depends on who you ask. --tero 15:08, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

For the record, the explanation I heard for the lack of a comma before the last conjunction in a list was, in short, that it was a ploy by book companies to save money. After all, if you print 5 million books and you save one drop of ink on each comma you don't include, then you're going to save a rather large number of drops; who knows: you might even save a dollar or three total. Anyway, as inaccurate as that is likely to be, that's the explanation I heard. I, personally, use all the commas I can :-P except where they make a splice (and sometimes where they, make a,[sic] splice, anyway :-P) -- Timeoffire45 09:34, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Srs topic

We're in a dire position. Certain people don't know how to use who/whom properly, and IT IS OH SO SIMPLE!
"Who" is nominative, and as such you can take a sentence with "who" in it and replace it with "s/he".

• "Who did it?" "He did it."

"Whom" is objective, and as such you can take a sentence with "whom" in and replace it with "him" or "her". Whom also comes after any preposition.

• "For Whom the Bell Tolls" "It tolls for him"

Another offender is people tacking prepositions at the end of phrases. Major no-no.

• "Who does the bell toll for?""For whom does the bell toll?"
  

--Riddle 06:08, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Whomru?--Gah_ 23:56, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I couldn't resist. --Gah_ 23:56, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

I think whom is becoming archaic. I never see anyone use it except in cover letters. ~Shard 01:25, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

It may be archaic, but that doesn't necessarily make it incorrect. -- Armond Warblade{{Bacon}} 02:33, 18 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes it doth. ~Shard 02:55, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

Except for the part where my English class last semester discussed whom and no English class has discussed doth for the past few centuries. -- Armond Warblade{{Bacon}} 18:58, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

not a fragment

Technically, "They're hard to make up, so I'm going to look for some later." is not a fragment (the sentences are grammatically complete), but "they" and "some" require antecedents to be properly decodable. "Broad head arrow, all their skills to interrupt" is a fragment. --mendel 14:05, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

LOL Raine - talk 18:08, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

All their base? --tero 15:10, 26 June 2009 (UTC)

/wrists for people being too literal on the interbuttz xD -- Timeoffire45 09:29, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

I love this.

Thank you so much for writing this. :D--Unendingfear 00:34, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

Have I told you I love you lately?

And this quote is why: "Could you feel the difference? The second one was so well-written that you almost forget how bad his reasoning is." --*Yasmin Parvaneh* 17:04, 7 September 2009 (UTC)

More so, I actually had to re-read the flawed paragraph again, I didn't recall reading all that in there. I could've sworn the Broad Head Arrow said: "Broad Head Arrow. All their skills are interrupts." Instead of making all their attacks interrupts. I suggest we put a link to this page on the Main Page, or as a free link in a welcome message. The second could be seen as insulting and I sort of forgot where I was going with this. Meh. Harrier 19:28, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

error ? :D

"They might have a slight upper-hand against an elementalist, but that's the only thing I see a Mesmer as being useful for" why is mesmer capitalised, but not elementalist ? :P 129.11.58.4 15:53, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Because the OP is biased towards Mesmers, obviously. Vili 点 18:16, 9 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks

I really have to express gratitude to you for writing this. I've made such good use of it, namely in the last few hours, it really pisses people off. -- Tha Reckoning 21:22, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

It's like Strunk & White, only not sucky. –Jette 22:07, 23 August 2011 (UTC)

You are trying to teach people how to speak English in... English? InfestedHydralisk 22:24, 14 September 2011 (UTC)

Grammar mistake

I realise that I'm resurrecting an old page, but please take a look at this: "If a sentence ends with quotes, put the period, question mark, or exclamation point inside the quote marks. I personally disagree with this because it's a stupid rule that makes no sense, but it's how you get A's when you get to high school." Now I'm on a mobile device so I cannot do the fancy quotes, but when correcting grammar please use it correctly. "It's how you get As when you get to high school" is the correct reading --The preceding unsigned comment was added by User:Flexi (talk).

Can o' worms, Flexi. I am in total agreement, but sadly common usage disagrees. Non-possessive apostrophes pluralising abbreviations are acceptable now, apparently. I hate them. Oh, and the sentence two before this one is awful, but I like it, so it stays ^_^ --snograt 18:24, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

ALSO, the actual point Shard is making in that paragraph is another trans-Atlantic thing, is it not? Punctuation before closing quotes is the way I was taught, but I'm almost certain that it's ass-backwards in the States. --snograt 18:24, 27 May 2012 (UTC)

No, the punctuation always occurs before quotes except in instances where it matters (e.g. programming and times you have to say "not including quotes"). Regarding the apostrophe's use to mark words as plural: yes, it's stupid, but it's one of the many little features the English language lacks. We get a cyclopean, brobdignagian, behemothic monstrosity of a vocabulary (no, I didn't have to look those up, I avoid using them to avoid looking like a douche), and in exchange, we give up on little luxuries like singular gender-neutral pronouns (except 'it,' but people get offended by that for some reason) and a simple way to pluralize things without needing to spew a mouthful of words.
Both methods are ugly. A's looks like "belonging to A" while As looks like you can't control the shift key. A-s also looks stupid, but it's less ambiguous. –Jette 00:10, 28 May 2012 (UTC)