How to Write Proper

[EPelle]

Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Always avoid alliteration.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Contractions aren’t necessary and shouldn’t be used.

Avoid clichés like the plague – they’re old hat.

Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place, do’nt put it in the wrong place, and omit it where its not needed.

Don’t use two words where one is sufficient enough.

DON’T use too much emphasis at once.

If you’re writing web pages, never underline anything that’s not a link.

Long sentences without any punctuation are hard to read so break them up into shorter sentences and punctuate where appropriate so that everyone can read them and understand what they say.

Also, don’t write run-on sentences, break them up just the same.

As I’ve told you a million times, don’t exaggerate.

Eliminate quotations, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

Don’t make generalisations – they’re bound to be false.

Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Watch out for the many irregular verbs that have creeped into our language.

That a clause can be the subject of another is wrong.

And finally, never begin or end a sentence with and.


Source here

[tafnut]

You done good, EPelle!

I urge everyone to commit these rules to mammary, bekase you can never learn them too good.

[Vern]

You done good, EPelle!

I urge everyone to commit these rules to mammary, bekase you can never learn them too good.

I think there's a guy working for Berlitz in Japan who's done just that

[EPelle]

The one we have hardest here is: Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

In Swedish, everyone and everything "has" the same verb, unlike English where you use different verb forms depending on the subject.

Literally, we state:

I (am) having/has
You (am) having/has
He, she, it (am) having/has
They (am) having/has
You (am) having/has
We (am) having/has

Not an easy one for us from which to come away.

[Vern]

The one we have hardest here is: Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

In Swedish, everyone and everything "has" the same verb, unlike English where you use different verb forms depending on the subject.

Literally, we state:

I (am) having/has
You (am) having/has
He, she, it (am) having/has
They (am) having/has
You (am) having/has
We (am) having/has

Not an easy one for us from which to come away.

It's the Scandinavian prepositions that I struggle mightily with!

The last thing one needs to hear when learning a new language is "there's absolutely no logic to this system, you'll just have to memorise this. And the same with noun gender"

[EPelle]

Which is the most difficult language to learn (for foreigners who have no relation similarity to the language in question)?

I would cast my vote for Chinese, followed by Finnish, and a close third-place finish for Hungarian.

[bad hammy]

You done good, EPelle!

I urge everyone to commit these rules to mammary, bekase you can never learn them too good.

I think there's a guy working for Berlitz in Japan who's done just that

That was my first thought, although I did not notice any misspellings in EPelle’s rules.

[wineturtle]

Jest fallo mi eggzamples ann jew woent hab a probalum ate awl.Hokey da speeling kneads sum imp roovein eye no butt hiam gatting bitter.
Taffy is welping me berry berry mooch to speek Floor-ridee-uhm two!

[tafnut]

Taffy is welping me berry berry mooch to speek Floor-ridee-uhm two!

Yew betchum! Between this thread and the Educationalist's thread, I feel we must be in an End-of-Days scenario, where my job has become obsolete. This is similar to what it must have felt like in New Orleans just before the dikes collapsed - there wasn't anything to do but find high ground and await the inevitable. Tower of Babel, here we come!

[kuha]

Apparently good old Noah Webster (back in the 1810s/20s?) tried briefly to get Americans to spell words like they were pronounced [because = bekuz, or something like that). Mercifully, it didn't take...

[bad hammy]

Yew betchum! Between this thread and the Educationalist's thread, I feel we must be in an End-of-Days scenario, where my job has become obsolete.

And the Juliet Cuthbert interview on the Merlene Ottey thread.

The Berlitz Flu is heading for pandemic status.

[Vern]

Apparently good old Noah Webster (back in the 1810s/20s?) tried briefly to get Americans to spell words like they were pronounced [because = bekuz, or something like that). Mercifully, it didn't take...

Some of Webster's best include:
Groop
Croud
Tuf
Bilt
Wimmen

And I love this contemporary review of "Dissertations on the English Language" -

A fascinating farrago of the soundest linguistic common sense and the most egregious poppycock.

Sounds like our pal at Berlitz again

[MJD]

Been there, done that.

[wineturtle]

i jsut raed a ltilte atclire taht siad ifn you lavee the frsit
lteter ipalnce and aslo palce the lsat ltteer in crercot pacle manenig
lsat, amsolt any iiodt can raed jsut as fsat as tehy can wtih pfrceelty
selelpd wrods. Are you an iodit asol?
-------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
Spirialing down or is it circling the drain?

[MJD]

That's what my typing looks like before spellcheck gets a hold of it. Getting pretty good at the hunt and peck except for that.

[tlb747]

Je n'aime pas d'ecrire parce que je suis tres parasseux.

[utkvol80]

The title of this thread is written improperly! It should be How to Write Properly. I did not read through the entire thread to see if anyone caught this mistake.

[EPelle]

The title of this thread is written improperly! It should be How to Write Properly. I did not read through the entire thread to see if anyone caught this mistake.

Mr. Vol - not sure you got the jist of the opening post.

[utkvol80]

The title of this thread is written improperly! It should be How to Write Properly. I did not read through the entire thread to see if anyone caught this mistake.

Mr. Vol - not sure you got the jist of the opening post.

As I indicated, Mr. Pelle, I did not read the entire post. Now that I have, I understand its jist. Besides, it seems that much of society has abandoned altogether the use of adverbs. I hope you are an English teacher and are doing what you can to correct this problem, and the others you brought up, through the education system.

[utkvol80]

The title of this thread is written improperly! It should be How to Write Properly. I did not read through the entire thread to see if anyone caught this mistake.

Mr. Vol - not sure you got the jist of the opening post.

As I indicated, Mr. Pelle, I did not read the entire post. Now that I have, I understand its jist. Besides, it seems that much of society has abandoned altogether the use of adverbs. I hope you are an English teacher and are doing what you can to correct this problem, and the others you brought up, through the education system.

[EPelle]

As I indicated, Mr. Pelle, I did not read the entire post. Now that I have, I understand its jist. Besides, it seems that much of society has abandoned altogether the use of adverbs. I hope you are an English teacher and are doing what you can to correct this problem, and the others you brought up, through the education system.

No English-teaching for me... but, that is why we have tafnut-- he is reaching students throughout Florida, and saving the core of American English one word at a time

[tafnut]

No English-teaching for me... but, that is why we have tafnut-- he is reaching students throughout Florida, and saving the core of American English one word at a time

absofreakinlutely - I learn um so good, they don't need no other edjumacation to be smarter than all them other peoples.

[bad hammy]

absofreakinlutely - I learn um so good, they don't need no other edjumacation to be smarter than all them other peoples.

I seem to recall that you work at a private school, but I missed the part about it being Berlitz . . .