All-Star Grammar Thread - Have At It

[mamabear]

I worked in restaurants for years and I was shocked at how little servers were protected. Many years ago, I got hurt on the job and had to get worker's comp for a month. I was shocked to find that the WC amount was based on $2.11 an hour and not the minimum amount that we were expected to claim of our hourly and tips. I think I got something around $62 a week for missing my full time job!

 

[SoAena]

My dad has always told us that if you go out to eat, you leave a 20% tip, unless they were horrible. And extra if it's a special day like Christmas Eve. Tipping is part of eating out. If you can't afford to tip then you can't afford to eat out. Plain and simple.

Do you often find that there is a certain demographic of people who don't tip? I ask because I have friends from other countries who don't understand the concept of tipping, so they don't. One of my friends is from Panama and it took him two years to understand that you are supposed to tip at restaurants. (whenever we went out to eat with him, we'd always have to cover his portion of the tip since he would not pay it. I'm glad he finally understands it now.) Apparently it's not something they do in their country. I know that NYC and the surrounding areas are extremely diverse and abundant in immigrants, so this is why I ask.

Also, am I the only one, when tipping, I have to round to the nearest whole dollar? Say the total, with tip, comes to $13.38 - it has to be 14. I just like seeing whole numbers on my credit card statement, I'm sorry.

French people are notoriously bad tippers. It's probably because, in France, service is included in the price of the meal you order. I've been a waitress several summers and without tips, I made a decent salary (and I wasn't a professionnal waitress, those who were and worked there all year long earned more). Tips were a bonus, a little extra cash we divided among ourselves every week, but our livelyhood didn't depend on it.

Once, American clients asked me if service was included and I said yes. One of my colleagues heard and started telling me I was insane to say that, because they certainly wouldn't give us any tip knowing that. As it turns out, they were so pleased that I was honest with them that they gave a very generous tip :p.

 

[Jennie]

"Of" instead of "have." When I see "could of" I want to scream. That is hands down the one that gets me most, especially because even some of my most intelligent friends do it! I don't understand.

I am terrible for this. Cannot seem to wrap my head around the correct way of doing it!

 

[Jennie]

Question - is grammar heavily taught in US/Canadian schools? It is taught over here but since it does not particularly matter for our exams it is pretty much forgotten about by the time we get to 3rd year onwards (I believe the US equivalent of 8th grade).

That is what I hate most about the UK exam system - things like correct grammar and numeracy are things you would most likely use every day for the rest of your life, however we spend 4 years discussing how the dark blue lampshade shows the deep depression of the central character since that is what our exams are based on.

 

[Hodiestoe]

Question - is grammar heavily taught in US/Canadian schools? It is taught over here but since it does not particularly matter for our exams it is pretty much forgotten about by the time we get to 3rd year onwards (I believe the US equivalent of 8th grade).

That is what I hate most about the UK exam system - things like correct grammar and numeracy are things you would most likely use every day for the rest of your life, however we spend 4 years discussing how the dark blue lampshade shows the deep depression of the central character since that is what our exams are based on.

Nope, probably one of the only good things Gove (spit) did was bring back proper SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) in examinations. So I teach music, and as part of the GCSE music written exam, students are marked on how well their use of SPaG is, poor SPaG gets marks deducted even if the overall answer is correct. Literacy and numeracy as cross-subject components, have been on the rise for the past 5 years and now has to be embedded in every subject at every key stage, including A-Level!


Eta: our school is an inner city school with extremely bad spoken grammar and shocking use of colloquialisms! The school building is plastered in grammar posters for exams, explaining correct use age of words and phrases and alternatives for the ones the students use every day.

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[Jennie]

Nope, probably one of the only good things Gove (spit) did was bring back proper SPaG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) in examinations. So I teach music, and as part of the GCSE music written exam, students are marked on how well their use of SPaG is, poor SPaG gets marks deducted even if the overall answer is correct. Literacy and numeracy as cross-subject components, have been on the rise for the past 5 years and now has to be embedded in every subject at every key stage, including A-Level!


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How long before that idea comes to Scotland!?! Spelling they sometimes mark down for, can't say I've ever seen someone be marked down for poor grammar.

I say this now but they did just implement an entirely new exam system in Scotland the year after I left school (which means my grades will mean nothing to employers soon, yay -_-) so they might be more focussed on it now.

 

[Hodiestoe]

How long before that idea comes to Scotland!?! Spelling they sometimes mark down for, can't say I've ever seen someone be marked down for poor grammar.

I say this now but they did just implement an entirely new exam system in Scotland the year after I left school (which means my grades will mean nothing to employers soon, yay -_-) so they might be more focussed on it now.

Our system won't come up to you, you have your own education system as part of the devolution package. I suspect it will emerge in one way or another as something needs to be done about this 'disease'!


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[Jennie]

Our system won't come up to you, you have your own education system as part of the devolution package. I suspect it will emerge in one way or another as something needs to be done about this 'disease'!


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Funnily enough that was one of the funnier arguments I saw when all the referendum shenanigans was going on .
"Scotland is allowed to run their own education system and look at the mess that's in, how are they going to run a country themselves!!"

All in good fun, but actually quite true ;)

 

[Hodiestoe]

Funnily enough that was one of the funnier arguments I saw when all the referendum shenanigans was going on .
"Scotland is allowed to run their own education system and look at the mess that's in, how are they going to run a country themselves!!"

All in good fun, but actually quite true ;)

I have purposely stayed out of commenting on the referendum, for a non-Scot I feel I'd be damned either way. However, our education system is so f!cked up right not after that tw@t Gove butchered it to smithereens, you're better off with what you've got. We're trying to prepare for OFSTED right now, due in the next 1-4 weeks and since Gove did away with national curriculum levels and then replaced them with......nothing! We have no scale with which to assess and level the progress of our students. So we stayed with the old level system until the new one will be finally unveiled sometime in the next decade or two! Our authority advisor told us yesterday that OFSTED will slate us for using the old NC levels, but couldn't tell us what to use in their place!!! Stick with what you've got if it's working!


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[dawgshow]

"I" vs "me"
Misuse = nails on the chalkboard

 

[emma_tuttle]

"Of" instead of "have." When I see "could of" I want to scream. That is hands down the one that gets me most, especially because even some of my most intelligent friends do it! I don't understand.

These things:

: colon
; semicolon
, comma
' apostrophe

What is so complicated about them? Why don't people know how to use any of them correctly?

And for the love of God, it's ETC. It's an abbreviation for "et cetera" - it's not ect. Ever.

This is my favorite because I have something to say about every one of these :P
1) have vs. of drives me insane when I'm reading things. That's all I have to say but I agree with you 125%
2) the worst is:: when people use multiple in a row ;; like,, especially if their'''' unnecessary;;
3) I wouldn't say it's NEVER ect. They could be talking about me... ;)

ETA: the second one made me think of this. Has anyone seen this? I thought it was really cool. My English teacher showed this to my class a week or two ago

 

[Mamarazzi]

Misuse of:

Irony
Myriad

Mispronunciation of:

Nuclear (not nookyular)
February (not Febyooary)
Often (the T is silent)
Anyway (there is no "s," which really isn't a mispronunciation, but anywaY)

 

[Ashley]

Misuse of:

Irony
Myriad

Mispronunciation of:

Nuclear (not nookyular)
February (not Febyooary)
Often (the T is silent)
Anyway (there is no "s," which really isn't a mispronunciation, but anywaY)

Yes! It's not "a myriad of", it's just "myriad" - for example, "he was given myriad warnings."

Also I get peeved with alumni/alumnus. Alumni is plural. You are not an alumni, you are an alumnus. You and your friends together are alumni

 

[Emily]

Misuse of:

Irony
Myriad

Mispronunciation of:

Nuclear (not nookyular)
February (not Febyooary)
Often (the T is silent)
Anyway (there is no "s," which really isn't a mispronunciation, but anywaY)

The pronounciation of "Febyooary" is actually correct according to Merriam-Webster.

 

[SarahS]

Misuse of:

Irony
Myriad

Mispronunciation of:

Nuclear (not nookyular)
February (not Febyooary)
Often (the T is silent)
Anyway (there is no "s," which really isn't a mispronunciation, but anywaY)

As a former nuclear engineer, yaaaaaaaas to this. Drives me bananas. People, "CLEAR" is right there in the word, with only two letters before it. The word isn't that difficult!