Modern Vespa

It's nice to see this confined to one thread for a change. Does this mean we've been granted a reprieve on the other threads?

cough, cough,

you mean e. e. cummings


right

No peace for the wicked.

Regarding pleaded and plead/pled:
There are a number of verbs with both a strong and a weak conjugation. The irregular form is often used in the original sense and the weak form is used in figurative meaning. Verbs become irregular when they are used frequently. The best example is "to be", which has the most diverse conjugations.

Today, "to plea" is no longer a word in everyday use. I think it's alright if people, who make it through the week with less than 500 different words, used the regular form of such a verb. I still prefer the strong conjugations, though.

I am a 4th Grade teacher in CA and I take the time to teach penmanship and cursive, albeit toward the end of the school year. Call me picky, but I see the importance of being able to actually read what the kids have written in their assignments. We use computers in every subject as well.

The following is NOT an rant:
Last year, our grade team calculated the time that we would need to "properly" teach each of the CA State Standards, combining some that naturally would go together in a lesson for the most efficient use of lesson time. The standards include PE, Math, Language Arts (Writing, Spelling, Grammar, Reading Skills, Comprehension), Social Studies/History, and Science. Currently, our school day averages 5 hours of instructional time, but by our rough estimate, we would need at least 8 hours, and ideally 10 instructional hours in a day to properly cover what the state says we need to. The five hours do not include library time, music, art, assemblies, recess or fire/earthquake drills, field trips or actual emergencies, which we still need to attend or participate in. All of our lesson prep and meetings take place before or after the school bell.

I love my job and can't imagine doing anything else, even with all my "bosses" - parents, tax payers, politicians (yuck), administrators, and general know-it-alls - examining and critiquing my job (not that I feel that way at all here).

I often feel the same way as you, regarding the "progressive" nature of education here in CA.

You raise a good question. In my complaint about misusing "an" it's usually applied the way you described your usage. If the word starts with a vowel, it should be preceded by "an". There is some doubt in my mind, though, that somewhere in this fickle language of ours there lies an exception to this rule (much like the i-before-e rules) and sometimes it's correct to use "a".

As the walking contradiction that I am, I always use "an" because I'm too lazy to educate myself on what's correct. Funny, though, that there's some imaginary line that I hold as the minimum acceptable laziness.

Know, I cant' think of any write now.

I could care less about a lot of these mistakes, but I don't want to

The usage of the term "cock-ups" instead of 'errors'!!!

true. i don't cap anything. it slows down my typing too much. it took me 3 seconds to write this message

thank you genie, i thought maybe i was alone in my lazyness

it's not laziness mate, it's 'efficiency'.

I think as long as the effort has been made to to spell things correctly, construct sentences in a logical manner and use punctuation to the best of the authors ability, then all is well.

I'm lucky, i'm not dyslexic, some other folks (some friends included) aren't so blessed but still deserve to take part and often have valuable input 8)

Remind me never to share a tent with Maver......

You guy's are prolly right but I dont even give a care,

Zwerski-

Can you offer what it is that you are required to teach to 4th graders that is significantly more time consuming than what was taught in 1951 when I was in 4th grade? Not being snarky, just wondering.

I spend 8 years on the faculty of a state university from '76 to '84. 25% of the incoming freshmen required one or more semesters of remediation in English before they could enroll in Freshman English. And they held high school diplomas. There was no correlation between HS grades in English and performance on the simple screening tests we administered. No matter how much time was allotted for the teaching of English in their high schools, the standards applied in order to pass were pathetic.

Al

damn and testicles, realised the ambiguity of my comment but it was pounced on before i could hit the send button on my edited version......

i'm a very giving person

Interesting story. I had a grandmother who succumbed to the evils of alcohol and tobacco. At 94 years of age, she was crossing the street to buy cigarettes and vodka and was hit by a bus.

When people use literally incorrectly.


"I literally died laughing"

really? so you're speaking to me from beyond the grave?

"well no, not LITERALLY."

but you just said.... oh never mind.

My father was an English professor.
I will tolerate spelling errors on things such as postings, so long as the writer's intent is conveyed accurately. That also applies to grammar and punctuation.
If the person is writing a resume or paper, that is another story altogether.
Yes, it is annoying, and yes, standards have sadly fallen in the days of text messaging shortcuts, emoticons and the like. But, we need to let the participles dangle once in awhile, and just go with the discourse. Participles need a good airing once in awhile else they get stale anyway.

I just thought of another one!!

People who bitch about people bitching about their shitty grammar.

When did "you knew what I meant" become the correct defense?

It's not about understanding you. It's about common courtesy. Have enough respect for your listener to make an effort to use the correct words. The indignation is baffling to me. You clearly don't care enough about the people you're speaking to, or your message for that matter, so why should anyone feel compelled to decipher your nonsense?

Also, if you don't actually know what it means, don't use that word just because you heard someone else use it. Don't go around perpetuating stupid!

If you want to be taken seriously, act like it. Nobody's making you sound like an idiot.

I'm not saying you have to be perfect. Just show a little effort, for the love of Jebus!


Well, now. Kind of built myself a little rant there.

too to two tutu

jimc jim c

Just jackin' ya

common gimme a brake! Their is definately more important things to talk about! I can think of an infinate amount of more interesting things. Is this a spelling/grammar class or wot?

"don't you remember?"

"er....no i don't, that's why we're having this conversation, if I did remember we'd have moved onto another subject by now......"

"Once in a while", right? And scratch the commas.
Please don't hate me for this. English is my other hobby apart from my Vespa. This is easy for me. Unlike in most English dialects, we give full value to vowels in unstressed positions, so a quick reference to the German counterpart usually clarifies any uncertainty. I wonder if it helps to refer to French or Spanish or whatever second language you guys speak.

This is where I throw up my hands and surrender to the nit-pickers!

Try grading undergraduate business students' papers for a weekend!!!!!

Early in my teaching I actually went back to our department head to make sure that ending a sentence with a proposition was still 'bad grammar'. it was so common that I thought I'd missed a change in the rules somewhere!

...and that is something up with which I will not put!


(done at work on Explorer, not at home on Firefox so there may be spelling errors)

'preposition'

[ducks and runs..... ]

Coulda uncapped Moderatrix and London UK, it woulda saved you, like, 5/100 of a second. Valuable time

Holy crap! I cannot count how many times per week I tell that to my lovely wife. The exact same wording (except the "mate" part)!

To shame myself but 'alot' and 'a lot' I'm still confused on this one as the first one looks ok should there be a double l?

Actually, ending a sentence with a proposition is bad, if you're a teacher. That's sexual harassment here! [ducks and runs past Genie ]

I like proposition better

'alot' is not a word. it's two words rammed together to make a pseudo-word. do the right thing and stick a space in there

??? not a word? I'm sure I've seen it used alot

Not taken as such, and sorry if it sounds like a "woe is me" pity post. We joke that so often, we (at least the teachers who share my cultural references) feel like Tank in The Matrix, shoveling facts and knowledge into the brains of our students at what feel like a furious rate. I suppose it was no different in 1951, or 1982 for that matter. It's a lot different on the other side of the desk than I remember in 4th Grade.

God if it bothas you that much a spelcheque shudd be aded to the toollbar

Someone may have already cited the common mistake of misspelling " a lot". It is NEVER spelled as one word "alot". Drives me nut!
Also , as mentioned by a previous poster, adding the letter "s" to the end of the word "anyway", is just wrong. Anyway you cut it, "anyways" is not a word.
Even if not applied to your everyday conversations, having the ability to speak and use proper grammar is rather essential and I certainly wish it would be better taught and emphasized in society.

drives it where

You need a comma after "essential"... compound sentence.

Gawd, I love this thread!