Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

Username

goofy

Member Since

July 24, 2006

Total number of comments

186

Total number of votes received

648

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Latest Comments

He was sat

  • February 16, 2012, 7:26pm

It's a common British regionalism.

Actually I meant to write "Caesar's murder"

Apostrophe-s is used for things other than possession.

Caesar's murders - object genitive (ie, someone murdered Caesar)
men's shirts - genitive of purpose (shirts for men)
Terry Pratchett's latest book - genitive of origin (the latest book by Pratchett)
a year's wages - descriptive or classifying genitive

porsche, I agree that "writing books" functions as a noun. But "writing" is not a noun. Call it a gerund or "-ing" form or participle, but it's not a noun. But many usage guides say you must use a possessive in front a gerund, because a gerund is a noun. This is clearly mistaken. If they mean that when gerunds have objects, as in "writing books", that the entire "gerund phrase" functions as a noun, then that's what they should say.

“If I was” vs. “If I were”

  • November 12, 2011, 8:38pm

According to The American Heritage Book of English Usage, it is standard English.
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=3038

“If I was” vs. “If I were”

  • November 12, 2011, 2:42pm

I am not the same Goofy as the Goofy who posted those two links. When I say "evidence" I'm talking about how good writers actually write. Anyone can make a website stating their opinion. But how can any consideration of the situation ignore actual usage?

“If I was” vs. “If I were”

  • November 12, 2011, 12:27pm

Perfect Pedant:
Which evidence are you referring to? The evidence provided by MWDEU shows that both "was" and "were" are standard English. Lots of people here have stated their opinions, but I haven't seen much evidence that only "were" is standard.

“If I was” vs. “If I were”

  • November 9, 2011, 4:30am

willy wonka: I don't think you'll find any English usage book, no matter how prescriptive, that says "If I lived in Paris, I would visit the Eiffel Tower." is not correct.

“If I was” vs. “If I were”

  • November 8, 2011, 5:02pm

The MWDEU discusses the subjunctive in detail in the entry I linked to way back at the beginning of this thread:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&lpg=PA877&vq=subjunctive&dq=merriam%20websters%20dictionary%20of%20english%20usage&pg=PA876#v=onepage&q&f=false