Comments on: Malapropisms http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/ Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:41:25 +0000 hourly 1 By: Bernie http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/comment-page-1/#comment-392502 Bernie Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:41:31 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/#comment-392502 Following up on the Bowery Boys, Ann reminded me, (and made me giggle to myself), of Sach's line in an episode....."we can't go out now guys, it participating out, and we'd get soaked". Following up on the Bowery Boys, Ann reminded me, (and made me giggle to myself), of Sach’s line in an episode…..”we can’t go out now guys, it participating out, and we’d get soaked”.

]]> By: Ann http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/comment-page-1/#comment-388519 Ann Fri, 24 Jun 2011 19:05:52 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/#comment-388519 As fans of THE BOWERY BOYS and "Slip" Mahoney, long before we read Sheridan's THE RIVALS, my high school friends and I came up with our own malapropism: when we were planning to meet for lunch, for after school activities, etc., we would "scrutinize" our watches rather than "synchronize" them! We thought we were sooooo clever! As fans of THE BOWERY BOYS and “Slip” Mahoney, long before we read Sheridan’s THE RIVALS, my high school friends and I came up with our own malapropism: when we were planning to meet for lunch, for after school activities, etc., we would “scrutinize” our watches rather than
“synchronize” them! We thought we were sooooo clever!

]]> By: George Craig http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/comment-page-1/#comment-283666 George Craig Thu, 27 May 2010 04:10:39 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/#comment-283666 Sarah, p.s. The use of the plural "phenomena" as a singular noun is not necessary as "phenomenon" has no gender. p.p.s. I really enjoy this site. Sarah,
p.s. The use of the plural “phenomena” as a singular noun is not necessary as “phenomenon” has no gender.

p.p.s. I really enjoy this site.

]]> By: George Craig http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/comment-page-1/#comment-283664 George Craig Thu, 27 May 2010 04:05:32 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/#comment-283664 Sarah, When it comes to using plural pronouns in the place of singular, I choose to side with Jon. I too cringe at this abuse finding it annoying, particularly since I rarely heard it before the feminist movement of the 70's. The accepted usage before that time was the masculine form of the pronoun when the gender of its antecedent was unknown. This was not a disrespectful usage, but only a way to avoid saying "him or her" or "his or her". The growth of the use of "they", "their", or "them" seems to correspond with the growth of the paranoid fear of offending (later known as "political correctness). By the way, Latin was a dead language even when this old duffer took 4 years of it. I do not recall any example either in the teaching or in the literature where a plural pronoun (or the equivalent verb form) was used to mean a single person of unknown gender. Have you an example? Sarah,
When it comes to using plural pronouns in the place of singular, I choose to side with Jon. I too cringe at this abuse finding it annoying, particularly since I rarely heard it before the feminist movement of the 70′s. The accepted usage before that time was the masculine form of the pronoun when the gender of its antecedent was unknown. This was not a disrespectful usage, but only a way to avoid saying “him or her” or “his or her”. The growth of the use of “they”, “their”, or “them” seems to correspond with the growth of the paranoid fear of offending (later known as “political correctness). By the way, Latin was a dead language even when this old duffer took 4 years of it. I do not recall any example either in the teaching or in the literature where a plural pronoun (or the equivalent verb form) was used to mean a single person of unknown gender. Have you an example?

]]> By: Sarah http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/comment-page-1/#comment-50289 Sarah Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:14:14 +0000 http://www.dailywritingtips.com/malapropisms/#comment-50289 Karl, The first sentence uses a non-essential clause, the second an essential clause. Both are grammatically correct but the emphasis does change slightly. I possibly prefer your revision but you can't state which is wrong or right as I'm stating an opinion, so the importance of the sub clause to the first part of the sentence is really up to me. Anyway, it really isn't worth worrying about... '[P]eople are confused about which and that... This isn’t surprising, as there has been a shift in usage over the past century or so and older guides give different advice from newer ones... If you wish to write naturally, don’t fuss too much about the usage of that versus which. Obsessive correction (sarcastically called a which hunt) is best avoided' (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/which.htm) Karl,

The first sentence uses a non-essential clause, the second an essential clause. Both are grammatically correct but the emphasis does change slightly.

I possibly prefer your revision but you can’t state which is wrong or right as I’m stating an opinion, so the importance of the sub clause to the first part of the sentence is really up to me.

Anyway, it really isn’t worth worrying about…

‘[P]eople are confused about which and that… This isn’t surprising, as there has been a shift in usage over the past century or so and older guides give different advice from newer ones… If you wish to write naturally, don’t fuss too much about the usage of that versus which. Obsessive correction (sarcastically called a which hunt) is best avoided’ (http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/which.htm)

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