I love grammar!

[ashling]

[Glorfindel]

1. Or try to inveigle your heifer ...

[krispos42]

2. Grammar Nazi here!

[SheilaT]

3. Oh, that's wonderful.

There's no reason why grammar can't be taught, and cartoons like these would be perfect!

On a boring and serious note, I'm one of the grammar mavens out there, and I would dearly love to find a college level English grammar class. Yeah, I'm strange that way. Every so often I find myself puzzling over some one of the finer points of English grammar, and I long to have a very rigorous class in that stuff.

[Jenoch]

7. Not to sound like a stalker,

but I seem to recall that you used to live in Cambridge (please correct me if I am wrong). You're lucky you were not there last week when they got about 20" of snow. (Slap me if you already knew this.)

[krispos42]

9. Yup, that was me

Now I'm freezing my ass off in Connecticut.

[Leith]

36. Grammar Nazi Knows

Knowing grammar is the difference between "knowing your shit" and "knowing you're shit."

[Jenoch]

4. "Neighbour"?

I don't know if this is about grammar, but I have been puzzled for years about a commonly used set of words. My confusion involves the word 'consecutive' as in 'second consecutive' or 'third consecutive' championship, usually about athletics.

I can understand if the words were 'second, consecutive championship'. But winning two championships in a row are not two consecutive championships. The first one cannot be a consecutive. After the second championship, it can be referred to as conse utive championships, but not TWO or SECOND conse utive championships.

I feel like I have been put into a round room and told to piss in the corner.

[Treant]

5. Good one.

I've always taken "second consecutive" to mean "second in a row."

And I've always taken it to be kind of silly as well, if grammatically accurate. Two things in a row are not particularly unusual. Call me when it's three and we'll talk.

[Jenoch]

6. I've considered consecutive to mean at least two things in a row.

I consider 'second' to mean something after first, or something happening for a second time. To me second consecutive has to be at least three events and not two. A single event is not, by definition, consecutive. Thus an event happening for a second AND consecutive time has to have occurred more than twice without interruption.

[bvf]

12. Thinking of "consecutive"

as referring strictly to a *sequence* of things might help here, since its meaning is "occurring in a row."

As you say, no single instance of anything can be referred to as "consecutive," so rather than say "second consecutive championship," say "two consecutive championships." The adjective modifies neither championship by itself, but only the two (or more) taken together.

To say "second (or third, fourth, etc.) consecutive . . . " is to misuse the word.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

24. I prefer "third consecutive" ...

to the newish sports term "three-peat".

Although, as a Lions fan, I'd settle for "one consecutive", or "one-peat".

[Jenoch]

25. I understand your pain.

However "third consecutive" means at least four in a row and that is a tall order.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

26. Hey, I'm a Chicago Cubs fan

It's not just that the last time the Cubbies won the World Series was 1908. The last time the Cubs were even in the World Series was 1945.

[Jenoch]

34. I'm a Twins fan and we're likely going to have a "4th consecutive" 90+ losses season this year.

[demigoddess]

17. they really should say

two consecutive or three consecutive not second or third. makes all the difference. I also am a grammar nazi.

[Flying Squirrel]

8. It goes "consecutive, conthirdative, confourthative..." and so forth.

[awoke_in_2003]

19. DUzy. nt

[RebelOne]

14. Neighbor vs. neighbour

http://grammarist.com/spelling/neighbor-neighbour/

Neighbor vs. neighbour

Neighbor is preferred in American English, and neighbour is preferred in all the other main varieties of English. The words are the same in every other respect. The spelling difference extends to derivative words such as neighborhood/neighbourhood, neighborly/neighbourly, neighbored/neighboured, and neighboring/neighbouring.

Examples
U.S.

It’s neighbor vs. neighbor on rural Ritchie Highway [Baltimore Sun]

In summer, the rink area is a sprawling lawn, neighbored by restaurants and chess players. [LA Times]

The two neighborhoods have begun organizing a Marco Polo Day and an East Meets West Christmas Parade. [NY Times]

Outside the U.S.

Revitalizing historic neighbourhoods reduces the need to develop new land and costly new municipal infrastructure, a key objective of smart growth. [The Star Phoenix (Canada)]

A military crane parked in an Oxford street has attracted a barrage of criticism from angry neighbours. [Oxford Mail]

After helping ferry his neighbour’s children to safety, he returned to find a group of teenagers inside another house. [Brisbane Times]

[MADem]

16. Spelling wars with the superflous U....Honor/honour...color/colour...labor/labour!!!!

Don't forget the Z v. S battles:

Apologize/apologise, analyze/analyse, organize, organise!

And then there's the -er v. -re crowd:

Centre/center, litre/liter, and my favorite, theatre/theater!

I still mix it up on occasion owing to an education that spanned the globe.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

27. Except for proper names, I tend to go with the spelling of the audience I am writing for

I have written for British audiences, so I use British spelling there. For an American audience, American spelling.

I use the appropriate spelling for proper names, no matter what the audience. Thus, the main opposition party in the British Parliament is the Labour Party. In December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.

Incidentally, if you want to blame anyone for English spelling, blame Dr Samuel Johnson. If you wanted to use his dictionary, you had to use his spelling. Before then, you could spell things as you wished. (When I was an undergraduate, I was doing some research in 16th century Anglo-Scots relations. As part of that, I had to read a number of documents written by an official in Scotland who clearly spelt things the way he said them. The only way I could decipher them was to read them aloud in a Scots accent.)

My father used to say that there are no rules in English spelling or grammar, merely conventions.

[MADem]

32. Smart move! I never could figure out why Honor Blackman didn't avail herself of her Home Town "U!"

http://www.honorblackman.co.uk/

[A Simple Game]

33. I checked two dictionaries and neither agree with you about consecutive. n/t

[needledriver]

10. Meme fail

I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A, as in neighbor and weigh.

If you are going to post about words that break the I before E rule, don't use one of the examples in the rule!!!

[awoke_in_2003]

20. and weird words like "weird"

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

28. Or science

[Doc_Technical]

11. I before E except after C,

what a weird society.

[Brainstormy]

13. That rule is just WIERD n/t

[Callmecrazy]

15. Neither financier seized either species of weird leisure...

There are always exceptions to the rule, and they are usually republican. Because they are so special.

[demigoddess]

18. what really drives me nuts

is when they use less when they should be saying fewer
should be : fewer days, less time, fewer votes, less support.
fewer is for numbers, separate things, less is for a quantity not defined by numbers.

they are now doing it on the news, commercials and in writing. That can't be a slip of the tongue!

[ashling]

21. You would JUST LUV the essay papers I get ! ! !

DRIVES ME NUTS!

[Boom Sound 416]

22. That weighs very heavy on me

[rickyhall]

23. What about who and that?

Like "Those people that talk funny" or "Those people who talk funny." I thought "that" was for inanimate objects whereas "who" was for people and other animate things. Buy less and fewer bugs me, too.

[JEFF9K]

29. If I'm not mistaken ...

... "E" comes before "I" more often than "I" comes before "E."

[JEFF9K]

30. A REAL Grammar Nazi might point out ...

... that this thread is about SPELLING rather than grammar. Just checked my PRESCRIPTIVE dictionary and find no indication that spelling is part of grammar.

[ashling]

31. My love of grammar and the fact that this is about spelling

are not mutually exclusive.

[geardaddy]

35. Ha!

That was my first thought!

Sincerely,
A Grammar Nazi

[tavernier]

38. Me too. Loved him as Fraser.

But my favorite was Niles. He could make me laugh just by raising an eyebrow.