http://www.bspcn.com/2008/03/08/top-ten-grammar-myths/ Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:25:47 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 http://www.bspcn.com/2008/03/08/top-ten-grammar-myths/comment-page-1/#comment-33000 balkaster Sat, 30 May 2009 15:45:50 +0000 http://www.bspcn.com/2008/03/08/top-ten-grammar-myths/#comment-33000 "Never begin a sentence with 'however'"? Since when? Sticking a comma after anything doesn't automatically make it acceptable if it's not normally otherwise. It's perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with "however" AS LONG AS IT IS ACTUALLY A SENTENCE. Simply beginning an orphaned phrase with "however" does not make it a sentence, which is the actual "rule" (i.e. a common error among early school students) that I think you meant. "Irregardless" is NOT a word; I've no doubt many ignorant people use it, but that doesn't make it acceptable. It's a double negative, and it means "without without regard to". The proper way of saying this would be "regarding" or "in regard to", but "irregardless" is universally used in place of "regardless", and never at any other time. So, not only is it not a real word, it's NEVER used CORRECTLY. Please don't encourage people to continue using it. "Phrasal verbs"? I think you mean idiomatic verb usage, unless they've recently changed the terminology. Yes, it's fine to end a sentence with an idiom that ends with a preposition, but it's lazy and ungrammatical to end with a preposition at any other time. There is always a better way to restate a sentence without ending with a preposition, and it's only "stuffy" or "stilted" to people who can't be bothered with the mental effort. I suspect you are an adherent of this new movement to take English back to a pre-Industrial age before the advent of dictionaries, in which spelling and grammar were random, and language was hopelessly imprecise. “Never begin a sentence with ‘however’”? Since when? Sticking a comma after anything doesn’t automatically make it acceptable if it’s not normally otherwise. It’s perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with “however” AS LONG AS IT IS ACTUALLY A SENTENCE. Simply beginning an orphaned phrase with “however” does not make it a sentence, which is the actual “rule” (i.e. a common error among early school students) that I think you meant. “Irregardless” is NOT a word; I’ve no doubt many ignorant people use it, but that doesn’t make it acceptable. It’s a double negative, and it means “without without regard to”. The proper way of saying this would be “regarding” or “in regard to”, but “irregardless” is universally used in place of “regardless”, and never at any other time. So, not only is it not a real word, it’s NEVER used CORRECTLY. Please don’t encourage people to continue using it. “Phrasal verbs”? I think you mean idiomatic verb usage, unless they’ve recently changed the terminology. Yes, it’s fine to end a sentence with an idiom that ends with a preposition, but it’s lazy and ungrammatical to end with a preposition at any other time. There is always a better way to restate a sentence without ending with a preposition, and it’s only “stuffy” or “stilted” to people who can’t be bothered with the mental effort. I suspect you are an adherent of this new movement to take English back to a pre-Industrial age before the advent of dictionaries, in which spelling and grammar were random, and language was hopelessly imprecise.

]]>