If your never sure about all thing's grammatical...

January 8, 2002 3:56 AM

If your never sure about all thing's grammatical... then this may help you. hyphens, apostrophes and split infinitives are all covered, along side many and various spellings, rules and regulations.
posted by Spoon (21 comments total)

It was intriguing to observe that one of the world's most famous split infinitives - "to boldleee go where no man has gone before" was corrected on last night's first airing on UK TV of Star Trek: Enterprise. I can't recall whether "no man" has become "no person" but that is a different matter.

Oddly enough, the 'boldleeeeee go' version has more of the adventurist's swagger to it, to my ear anyway, and grammer be damned.
posted by RichLyon at 4:11 AM on January 8, 2002

That's Grammar...
:)
posted by Spoon at 4:27 AM on January 8, 2002

The Guardian, popularly known as The Grauniad in deference to their spectacular lapses in spelling and grammar, has published a style guide. This is like The Morning Star publishing a guide to share dealing.
posted by vbfg at 4:32 AM on January 8, 2002

That's just one paper's style guide. You could also try, for example, The Times. And other papers and press organizations sell their guides, so you won't find them free on the Internet.
posted by pracowity at 4:36 AM on January 8, 2002

To not split infinitives (not to split infinititves) is to split hairs.
posted by Postroad at 4:59 AM on January 8, 2002

If your never sure about all thing's grammatical

Shouldn't that be all things grammatical?
posted by ferris at 5:16 AM on January 8, 2002

If your never sure about all thing's grammatical

Shouldn't that be all things grammatical?
posted by ferris at 5:16 AM on January 8, 2002

thanks spoon - as a dyslexic I miss the spell check, particularly in spelling/grammar threads...
;)
posted by RichLyon at 5:24 AM on January 8, 2002

Shouldn't that be "If you're never sure . . ." as in "you are"? Normally, I wouldn't post a correction of this sort--even though I am an English teacher--but this is, after all, a post about grammar.
posted by barkingterrier at 5:32 AM on January 8, 2002

Hrm...officially speaking, one wasn't supposed to split infinitives. Then back in October...98? 97? Hrm... the OED announced that modern usage dictated the removal of that rule. Hence, for the past few years, it's been okay to split your infinitives.

I never knew the OED were the lords of english grammer, but hey, who else could do it?
posted by taumeson at 5:42 AM on January 8, 2002

The OED doesn't give a hoot about dictating grammar rules. Their job is passive; they merely observe and record usage trends.
posted by RavinDave at 5:48 AM on January 8, 2002

The Economist's style guide is fun to read and sound, imo. One of the Guardian guidelines seems dubious -- upper-and-lower casing acronyms that are pronounced as words, like Nato, Aids, and Nasa.
posted by bmckenzie at 5:54 AM on January 8, 2002

ahhhhhhh barkingterrier & ferris.... therein lies the irony of the link text, because do you see....
posted by Spoon at 6:03 AM on January 8, 2002

Shouldn't that be all things grammatical?

Shouldn't that be "If you're never sure . . ." as in "you are"?

Shouldn't that be "people who can't recognise tongue-in-cheek usages"?
posted by rory at 6:04 AM on January 8, 2002

Spoon: "We don't cotton much to irony 'round these parts..."
posted by ColdChef at 6:39 AM on January 8, 2002

irony : like, or made of iron.
posted by Spoon at 6:42 AM on January 8, 2002

Spoon - wouldn't that word be "ferris"?
posted by starvingartist at 7:01 AM on January 8, 2002

irony: like, or made of ferris?
posted by ook at 8:03 AM on January 8, 2002

ferrous or ferric
posted by normy at 8:09 AM on January 8, 2002

Save Ferrous!
posted by allaboutgeorge at 8:40 AM on January 8, 2002

Okay, no semi-colon in this style guide. Who can trust a guide that can tell you how to split (or unsplit?) your infinitives but doesn't tell you where to plug in the often misused semi-colon?
posted by readymade at 12:12 PM on January 8, 2002