Ask Our Grammar "Experts" Showing 901-950 of 1,580

[Scribble]

Watching his mother walk down the four brick-and-concrete steps of their low-set suburban cottage, carrying her computer bag and satellite, Aimon Alexander shouted, "Look, there's a storm coming,", before tossing his scuba bag into the jet boat hitched to the back of the family 4WD.

Yes, I think that will sell.

Oh wait, I forgot the vodka.

[M]

Hold on, now! You have to keep in mind that if we knew how to write, we'd have publisher's deadlines to meet and wouldn't have time to hang around here.

My advice is that if you want sell it, write it the way it makes you happy. I don't mean that you should be easily contented (otherwise you'll wind up like me).

[Scribble]

M wrote: "Hold on, now!"

Yes well, I certainly spend more time laughing around here than I do lounging around with my MS!

And now, I'm curious. Wind up like you....meaning?

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

If you want to keep her striding , forget the steps....she's already done those two at a time (not very wise when carrying a laptop....how old is she?!!) and have her "striding down the front path"!!

[Scribble]

M wrote: "I have a file drawer full of story drafts. My wife suggested I try to become a writer. So here I am. "

Your wife sounds like an eminently sensible lady.

[M]

Thank you, G N. I appreciate the vote of confidence! There's some of that information I'm not sure I want to have posted, so I deleted it. I've been unduly lucky in life, but I'm not sure why.

I've always loved writing. When I'm working on a story, hours go by without my realizing it. I have to remind myself to eat!

[Scribble]

yes, know the feeling. but L&G is a devastating distraction...withdrawal symptoms set in if i don't post! and my output is plummeting!

changed my previous post to reflect your amendment :)

[M]

I noticed. Thanks, G N!

I gave up on trying to stick with an organized writing project and decided instead to see if I could produce steadily, regardless of what it might be. I knew that if ultimately I couldn't make myself write four or five hours a day whether I felt like it or not, it was time for me to go back to school and get a degree in architecture or psychology while I was still young enough to have another career.

There's hardly anything I like doing as much as writing, so I have a feeling that, if I just keep plugging at it in the way that's natural for me, I'll find myself going down unexpected roads that lead to the sort of places for which there no road maps.

[Scribble]

M wrote: "I noticed. Thanks, G N!

I gave up on trying to stick with an organized writing project and decided instead to see if I could produce steadily, regardless of what it might be. I knew that if ulti..."

we could really get into this topic but i'm just wondering if this is the right thread....?

[M]

Sorry to take so long to respond. By temperament, I'm the opposite of a hall monitor, so running afoul of moderators is what I do by nature.

[Scribble]

M wrote: "Sorry to take so long to respond. By temperament, I'm the opposite of a hall monitor, so running afoul of moderators is what I do by nature."

:)...hall monitor = stickler for the rules?

i need a toothpick with which to prop up my eyelids...i'll come back to this in the morning...but i must say, i've never conducted so much conversation for so long in the company of so many...

[Scout]

Here we go again.

[M]

Lower the rifle, Scout! It's just me.

[Jana]

I think I will just sit here.

[M]

I just hope she aims for my hat.

[Ken, Moderator]

Arthur A. Grammar

[M]

Gertrude

(I think I'm on the wrong thread. This isn't word association.)

[Ken, Moderator]

Yes, we are. I'll have to think of a grammar question. Or maybe someone else will.

Anyone? Bueller?

[Scout]

M., likening my comment "Here we go again" to aiming a rifle at you (even figuratively) makes me seem threatening, which was obviously not my intent. You're very clever.

[Scribble]

What is the grammatically correct use of the verb to get? Appropriate and not appropriate usage?

[Scout]

M., likening my comment "Here we go again" to aiming a rifle at you (even figuratively) makes me seem threatening, which was obviously not my intent. You're very clever.

[Stephen]

Now Scout... Atticus says it's a sin to kill an M ... or is that a Mockingbird?

[Ken, Moderator]

GN, I don't get your question. (How was that?)

[Scribble]

But I got you a question! "...I'll have to think of a grammar question."

[Ken, Moderator]

Yes, but what is difficult about the verb "get"? I get, you get, he/she/it gets. Yesterday we got. We have gotten.

I have got to tell you that I've no patience for the British (and friends) impatience with the past participle gotten. I have gotten sick before. So mote it be.

[Scribble]

Newengland wrote: "Yes, but what is difficult about the verb "get"? I get, you get, he/she/it gets. Yesterday we got. We have gotten.

I have got to tell you that I've got no patience for the British (and friends) impatience with the past participle gotten. I have gotten sick before. So mote it be."

ah...that's my problem. Apart from ancestry, I keep confusing the verb 'to get' with the verb 'to be'. I have been sick before.

[M]

Scout, it takes one to know one!

Okay, NE. Here's an easy grammar question: Do you ever have trouble distinguishing an accusative-with-infinitive construction from an objective complement?

[Ken, Moderator]

Only on Sundays.

[M]

I was hoping you'd say something like that.

[L.A.]

I always consider myself well read and with a huge vocabulary, but I feel puny in contrast to these posts. I am learned many, many new words. Keep up the good work, I may get there yet. :-)

[Carol]

I know I find them all daunting . They have expanded my knowledge.

[M]

Flattery will get you everywhere, Leslie! You should come around more often. No one out here in the sticks has heard of pavlova, but if you're a coffee drinker, I know where I can buy some Tiramisu to go with it!

[L.A.]

And I thought I was in the sticks, there must be a million sticks. Tiramisu sounds great for breakfast, maybe a bit sweet but hey with coffee,OK.
Idaho Panhandle here, but grew up with only 382 souls in the sticks where I lived. Probably why I am an avid reader. Had to have someone to talk to, and the characters in books had lots of fun. I love the new words I get reading all of the wonderful messages. Thanks for sharing them, especially with the meanings.

[Ken, Moderator]

Hi, Leslie. I saw Lewiston on your profile and immediately thought of Maine. Not quite. Idaho, eh? I think of Ketchum, thanks to Hemingway, who chose to write "the end" there....

[L.A.]

Ah Yes a wonderfull writer, and another small town, but beautiful.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

NE wrote: I have got to tell you that I've got no patience for the British (and friends) impatience with the past participle gotten. I have gotten sick before. So mote it be."

Gotten! GOTTEN!!! Aaaaargggh!!!!! No such word!

[Scribble]

as bad as Dutch

[M]

That means there's no such thing as ill-gotten gains. Thank heavens!

[Carol]

How about filthy lucre. Isn't that dirty laundry money.

It seems redundant doesn't it.

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I will give you ill-gotten, but that is IT!!

[Scribble]

awww...come on, M. Nowt wrong wi' a bit o' ill got riches?

[M]

Ill-gotten is all I ask for. This is all I ask. This is all I need. Beautiful girls, walk a little slower when you walk by me . . .

[Stephen]

Debbie wrote: "I will give you ill-gotten, but that is IT!!"

Ellis Peters would be upset. After all as we learn in Virgin in the Ice: The Sixth Chronicle of Brother Cadfael Cadfael has a son who was gotten between peoples and faiths and yet is son any father could be proud of...

[M]

Watch out, Stephen! I see a bolt of lightning coming your way.

[Ken, Moderator]

Gotten is legal tender. But alright remains all wrong.

[Ruth]

Newengland wrote: "Gotten is legal tender. But alright remains all wrong."

As does alot.

[Savvy]

G N wrote: "Your eye skips to the important words, so less words means absorbing the picture faster...

GN...my Language pet peeve!

Less-an amount not countable...like a liquid or unmeasurable entity
less fat...

Fewer-something that has a numerical value!
Fewer words
Fewer calories

http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/...

[Scribble]

Huh! in flagrante delicto. Hook, line and sinker!

...fewer words...

I won't edit the post, for the edification of the many at the embarassment of the individual. (slinks red-faced out of the room)

[Debbie, sardonic princess of cheerfulness]

I will concede ill'gotten, misbegotten and begotten, but not gotten all by itself...it is just wrong! And alright is definitely alright!!

[Scribble]

ain't it begat?