GrammarBlog

Mocking Poor Grammar
Since 2007

A noun that is formed from a verb and which describes an action. In English it ends in -ing, eg 'the baking of bread' and 'Smoking damages your health'.

Hide these tips

8 Comments »

1. I totally agree!

   Elizabeth

   Comment by Elizabeth — 11th May, 2009 @ 3:47 am

2. Perfect English certainly should be preserved and I bow to you for keeping up the fight!

   AND

   It would be impossible for me to write humor without breaking the rules. For instance, I write a series of “Wickedpedia” A guy from Southie explains everthin. Drives spell-checker crazy.

   Thanks for the effort to keep English in it’s rightful place.

   Comment by Chris Radant — 21st December, 2009 @ 6:44 am

3. For being a grammar web site, you really don’t know how to use commas. I see comma splices rife throughout your blog. They should be semicolons. Anyway, if this weren’t a grammar web site, I wouldn’t really care, but it was funny to see. Maybe, if you be so kind as to look over your comma/semicolon misusage, you can rectify the problem. It’s a word to the wise I suppose.

   Comment by Nick — 22nd January, 2010 @ 5:12 am

4. That line from Chris Radant should read, “Thanks for the effort to keep English in ITS rightful place.” It should not be IT’S. So much for keeping it in its rightful place! HAHAHA!

   Comment by Nick — 22nd January, 2010 @ 5:15 am

5. The kids scragged the teacher because — like most prescriptivists — he was forever breaking his own silly “rules”.

   Between you and I, guys, I have a variety of pet peeves that I’d like to conservate about with you. One is about all the people on the Net who have never cracked a linguistics textbook in their lives, but yet who go ahead, irregardless, and set themselves up as “grammar” experts.

   Of course alot of the time — nearly always, actually — they harp on endlessly about matters of no importance whatsoever. Misplaced apostrophes and other misspellings (that are often just typos anyway)are particularly popular for some reason.

   Another thing that brasses me off is those Americans (it’s an American obsession in particular) who keep complaining about “comma splices”. The finest writers have all used comma splices since the year dot, and will go on using them. It’s a non-rule that scarcely makes more sense than the non-rule about never ending sentences with prepositions.

   And did I see someone somewhere talk about “genitives” in English…

   Comment by Stephen — 9th January, 2011 @ 2:12 pm

6. Stephen, I hope your post was a joke: “Between you and I,” object pronouns always go after prepositions, so it should be: ‘between you and me,’ (me being the first person singular object). Irregardless, this ‘word’ contains both a suffix, and a prefix.

   Comment by Alexnander — 9th June, 2011 @ 8:28 pm

7. If you’re going to be snotty about someone’s grammar, at least have the decency to get your own right.

   For being a grammar web site (WHAT? SPEAK PLAIN ENGLISH, MAN), you really don’t know how to use commas. I see comma splices rife throughout your blog. They should be semicolons (SHOULD THEY? THE BEST WAY TO FIX A COMMA SPLICE IS TO START A NEW SENTENCE. SEMICOLONS ARE OVERUSED.) Anyway, if this weren’t a grammar web site, I wouldn’t really care, but it was funny to see (CHILDISH VERBAGE). Maybe, if you (WOULD!) be so kind as to look over your comma/semicolon misusage (< IS THAT A WORD), you can (COULD – CONDITIONAL!) rectify the problem. It’s a word to the wise I suppose.

   Comment by Grammar Monster — 15th July, 2011 @ 11:11 pm

8. this is some great stuff love it

   Comment by chris cross — 15th September, 2011 @ 6:54 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment