grammar rules

The Return of the Most Winningest

Niall O'Donnell 6 Comments

I saw the following today, on the internet, on Reddit, while taking a brief pause from work:

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10-ish Things that Annoy Me about the Way People Use English (and 10 Things I’m Just Fine With)

Niall O'Donnell 24 Comments

Look at that, a list! Such clickbait. But I’m not sure how much of a list it’ll be: at the moment I can only think of three or four things to put on it, though perhaps I’ll think of more as I write. Because you see, I’m not sure there are so many things that really annoy me about the way native speakers use English. I’ve been thinking about this recently while looking round the internet to see what other people are writing about the English language. And there’s a lot of interesting stuff out there, but I noticed that a lot of people like to write about things that annoy them about the way people use English. Reading what they wrote, I realised that I don’t seem to get so annoyed about things like that. Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher so I’m used to understanding the reason behind a mistake. Maybe I’m just curious about why people say things the way they do.

I understood why these people got annoyed of course, and I know why we naturally don’t like when people say something differently from how we do. So I thought to myself: Are there things that annoy me? Let’s see what I can come up with…

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Can I Begin a Sentence with “And” or “But?”

Niall O'Donnell 18 Comments

But of course you can! I mean, not every sentence of course, and not in every context, but you probably know what situations you might use them in, and, basically, I say yes, you can use them then. But obviously this is a common question, and often the answer provided is no, so why might someone say that this practice is wrong. First, let’s have a look at what but and and actually are. Continue reading →

Hung or Hanged?

Niall O'Donnell 14 Comments

This is a common question for English speakers: which is correct.? As usual, the real answer is complex, and possibly even interesting. But first, the simple answer: we use hung to refer to hanging an inaminate object, and hanged to refer to hanging a person. And if you find that hard to remember, don’t worry!: there are plenty of people out there who will be more than happy to correct you if you get it wrong! But I wonder: would they be able to explain to you why you’re wrong?

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“I’d Been Being Watched!”

Niall O'Donnell 1 Comment

Back when I was writing about ablaut reduplication, I read this article on the BBC website, which mentions this unwritten rule, and other structures that we use unconsciously. It’s interesting and worth reading, but I was struck by one passage in particular:

There are so many tenses you can use without even thinking about it, and almost certainly without being able to name them. It depends how you count them, but there are about 20 that you deploy faultlessly. The pluperfect progressive passive for an extended state of action that happened to you prior to another action in the past is, when you put it like that, rather daunting. But then you’d happily say “I realised I’d been being watched” without breaking sweat or blinking.

Eh, not quite without breaking a sweat, I think! Certainly the sentence is grammatically correct, and an example of the passive voice. The active version would be I realised someone had been watching me. We then change that to passive by changing the verb to the past-participle form (watched) and using the appropriate form of to be (had been being – past perfect continuous). But is it really that easy for even a native speaker to say this, and how often would we really use this form?

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Hip Hop and the Big Bad Wolf

Niall O'Donnell 15 Comments

Earlier week I learned something new about the English language, which isn’t something I get to say often. It was this:

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What a Hot Verb!

Niall O'Donnell 17 Comments

How would you explain the meaning of the verb to get to someone? Would you say it means to receive, or to be given something, and perhaps give an example like I got a lot of nice presents for my birthday? If so, well done, that’s a pretty solid combination of definitions and examples. But…

What about: Continue reading →