spelling

[Ickisrulz]

You aren't old enough to have experienced diagraming sentences in English class are you?

That reminds me of a Greek class I took. The professor said the greatest hindrance students had to learning Greek was they did not know English well enough.

[Bullet Caster]

Okay snuffy.

I'll try

to

do

better in the

future. BC

[rockrat]

I just HATED diagramming sentences. Barely passed that part of English.

[1Shirt]

I just go along with Lloyd! Common senst thread!
1Shirt!

[kappy]

Ummm ..... just out of interest - I have no idea what any of that means!

But I can see that language could be quite fun to study. People with language skills can do amazing things with the written or spoken word. I wish I had a better command of the English language.

Split infinitive: An infinitive is a type of verb, made up of the word "to" and the verb... like "To go" or "To cast (boolits)." Splitting the infinitive means to add a word between "to" and the verb. Like... "to quickly cast boolits." You aren't supposed to have ("to have is another infinitive" a word between "to" and the verb. Why? I'm sure there's some reason... but it's enough to know that it isn't grammatically correct.

Misspellings: I think we all know this one.

Homophone errors: Words which sound alike, like "which" and "witch" are sometimes used in place of each other. As an example, "Witch boolits do you cast?" should be "Which boolits do you cast?"

Subject/verb agreements: The subject (who/what is doing something in a sentence) and the verb (what they are doing) must "agree." As an example, "He casts boolits." and "They cast boolits" would be correct versus "He cast boolits" and "They casts boolits."

Dangling prepositions: Try not to end a sentence with anything called a preposition. An example would be "That is something I've never heard of." "Of" is the preposition. The correct order would be "That is something of which I've never heard."

Dangling modifiers: This is a bit more difficult to explain... but...
"I was in too much of a hurry. Working too too quickly, my boolits came out frosty." While we all know the boolits weren't "working too quickly," grammatically, that is what is technically being said.

Using adjectives instead of adverbs
This is becoming more common. "You did real good casting those boolits, Bobby!" Since you're talking about how he cast the boolits, not commenting on the quality of the boolits themselves. It should be either "You did really well casting those boolits, Bobby!" or "You cast really good boolits, Bobby!"

Not all of these are important, and some of them are becoming increasingly more common. I see a day before I die in which adjectives and adverbs are used interchangeably without fear of judgment.

You aren't old enough to have experienced diagraming sentences in English class are you?

Heh... experienced? I blasted my freshmen with it this year! There is no reason why sentence diagramming has to be horrible. If you treat it like... a video game, for instance. See... you start out just dividing the subject and predicate. Next lesson, you teach them a new ability: dangling the adjectives. Then you teach them dangling adverbs. They actually get kind of into it and want to diagram them on the board. It's all in how you sell it. You HAVE to sell something which takes brains.

[Haggway]

I admit it. I am a very poor speller, and my puncation is not the best either.

[TJF1]

I agree with 1shirt
terry

[oneokie]

Heh... experienced? I blasted my freshmen with it this year! There is no reason why sentence diagramming has to be horrible. If you treat it like... a video game, for instance. See... you start out just dividing the subject and predicate. Next lesson, you teach them a new ability: dangling the adjectives. Then you teach them dangling adverbs. They actually get kind of into it and want to diagram them on the board. It's all in how you sell it. You HAVE to sell something which takes brains.

Kudos to you, Sir.

[geargnasher]

That reminds me of a Greek class I took. The professor said the greatest hindrance students had to learning Greek was they did not know English well enough.

High school anc college Spanish teachers both said the same thing. I'ts tough to teach a foreign language to people who don't know the parts of speech or any of the terms in their OWN freakin' language.

Gear

[kappy]

High school anc college Spanish teachers both said the same thing. I'ts tough to teach a foreign language to people who don't know the parts of speech or any of the terms in their OWN freakin' language.

Gear

I'd reverse that. I didn't really learn English grammar until I learned Latin. It's difficult to learn something if you have nothing to which you can compare it. Just goes to show that people who are against learning any language other than English are short-sighted.

[303Guy]

Thanks, kappy. While I sort of know how to construct a sentence I don't know the names or rules.

Language evolves - we gonna be speaking different soon. A lot to do with technology (engineering, science and communication gadgets). An example of language evolution is American and communication is its influence on UK English. Pronunciation changes and influences how we speak too.

... diagraming sentences in English class ...

I've no recollection of it. I remember my older sister saying that she had to learn the alphabet inside out and in her sleep while I didn't. The outcome? She can find things in the dictionary or phone book far quicker than I can. I still have to 'say the alphabet' to get by.

I passed English fairly well. I generally didn't excel at school but college was great. I earned a few distinctions for engineering and math. I was older then.

P.S. Google Chrome spell checker flagged 'diagraming'. It's 'diagramming'.
Hee hee. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

[Sasquatch-1]

"Witch boolits do you cast?" should be "Which boolits do you cast?"

Witch bullets? Do they cast a spell on everyone around you so that they think you are scoring nothing but bullseyes?

[Rockchucker]

It really doesn't matter tor me if you can spell or use proper grammar in these threads, as long as you and I can understand each other. To me Cast Boolits is about lead and casting proper boolits, learning and making friends.

yuor frend, ruokchcukre

[oneokie]

P.S. Google Chrome spell checker flagged 'diagraming'. It's 'diagramming'.
Hee hee. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

Intentional misspelling to see if anyone would pick up on it.

[snuffy]

I just HATED diagramming sentences. Barely passed that part of English.

I was a fifth year student in HS. That meant I took 9th grade twice. One reason was english class. Being forced to memorize a speech in the "merchant of venice" "The quality of mercy is not strained", I just couldn't get it! It brought me a failing grade for the entire year! Math was another thorn in my side, but I loved science class and did well in Gym.

That diagramming sentences was never part of any english class I took. THANK GOD! High school locally in that time was set up with requirements for english 1, 2, and 3. You HAD to take and pass english 1 and 2, but 3 was an elective. I suspect the diagramming took place there.

I only needed 2 credits to pass my senior year. Instead of english 3, I took all the shop classes I could, including machine shop 3, which included a lot of welding. Enough training to get me an entry level welding job after my stint in the air force. English 3 would not have done that! If I had a nickel for every bead I've run, I'd have a very nice retirement now.

[Char-Gar]

I am a Geezer and learned to read and spell by the old "sight reading" method. No phonics for us. The result is, I can't spell worth a darn. I hated to memorize rules, so grammer was a sore trial for me as well. I did very well with literature, but grammer was my Waterloo. I passed College grammer thanks to the good favor of a tall lovely 40 something professor took pity on me.
But that was of course, after some activities of a personal nature that would get her fired these days. Well, it probably would have gotton her fired back then, if it came to light.

Still, I muddle on....

[Char-Gar]

High school anc college Spanish teachers both said the same thing. I'ts tough to teach a foreign language to people who don't know the parts of speech or any of the terms in their OWN freakin' language.

Gear

I spent a full year, at age 35, in Costa Rica learning to speek Spanish. I was fighting with Spanish grammer because of my very poor foundation in English grammer as stated above.

I had to hire a tutor who was a Spanish grammer whiz and a fine teacher to boot. She translated some of the Spanish grammer terms into English, thinking that would help me understand. I had to tell her I didn't understand them in English, so I could not understand them in Spanish either.

She looked me in the eye and said (in Spanish of course), "Mr. Graff, you may not know English grammer, but before I am through with you, you WILL know Spanish grammer. She was true to her word and I have a very good grasp of Spanish grammer. Most of the English grammer I now know is through working back from Spanish to English. English grammer proved to be quite easy, once I had a foundation in another language.

I now teach Legal Writing to students who have very poor grammer foundations, so it must be still working.

Her name was Elizabeth Alfaro and is one of the top two or three teachers I have had in my very long educational experience. There are people who collect pay for teaching, and then there are teachers, who are gifted to do just that very thing.

[jcwit]

With all of the above said,,,,,,,Is it a clip or a magazine?????????????????????????









After all we would all know what we're talking about.

[Lloyd Smale]

I grew up in a town that is about half finish/american. They sure didnt bring it over to the states from finland! We must have gotten all the duds here

Thank you, I'm glad to hear it.

There is two main reasons why Finns usually are quite good in English. First the school system is teaching the basic skills and the ability to write in English. Secondly there is the "Hollywood-effect". We watch a LOT of American (and English, also some Canadian and Australian) movies and TV-series. With subtitles. So we are constantly bombarded with spoken English. After couple of years vocabulary has grown big enough and the subtitles start becoming unnecessary..

[Lloyd Smale]

some dont like swearing either!


(Especially Moderators That Have edited this post...Please watch the Language !)