#grammar
These are public posts tagged with #grammar. You can interact with them if you have an account anywhere in the fediverse.
@silmeth@mstdn.socialIs there a Firefox add-on that could help me learn proper use of commas?
I think commas are used differently in German and English but I'm always unsure. A little add-on making suggestions would be great.
#Firefox #Addon #Browser #Extension #Grammar #Punctuation #English #German #Language #Spelling #AskFedi
@paulhellyer@mastodon.nzIf there are any grammar nerds, especially lovers of punctation, out there, you will enjoy this 1' 11" YouTube video by Elle Cordova as the Oxford comma. Very clever, witty, and funny.
Originally via Metafilter.
You've probably been told you should write in active voice, but do you know why? And do you know how to identify it?
Active voice puts the person or thing doing something front and center — and that actually improves reading comprehension. If you want people to understand what you're writing (and who doesn't?), active voice helps!
A great trick for testing if a sentence is in passive voice is to see if you can add "by zombies" to the end ... 
Just heard a "grammar expert" interviewed on CBC suggest that "fewer than 53 pounds" was preferred, because 53 is countable.
Noooo...
Weight is a measurement, with uncertainty, that is not restricted to natural numbers. That pig might be 53.13±0.05 pounds. "Less than" should be the correct usage.
Tagging @grammargirl! What do you think? Do some measurements fall into a grey area because we often express them in nice, round umbers (like our weight)?
Eloquent proofreading assistant 1.1 is out with improved language detection and support for running LanguageTool server in the background 
This allows 3rd parties such as LibreOffice and Firefox to connect to a local and offline instance of the LanguageTool server. 
As a grammar prescriptivist, I take writing and proper use of words very seriously. I recently saw a post about ending text messages with full stops. Apparently, some think this is a bad idea. No. It's called using punctuation correctly! Perhaps, they should read a few grammars instead of playing their silly video games! The same is true of netspeak, textspeak, corporate spaek, and abbreviating everything. Likewise, I have no use for political correctness. I refuse to use words such as visually-challenged, vertically-challenged, etc. I will say blind (or visually impaired if the person has some vision), short, fat, etc. Unless I'm writing poetry and am seeking flowery words for things, I call them what they are. Neither do I see any difference between saying "a blind person" and "a person who is blind", for example. I also have no time for so-called gender-neutral words, unless they honestly make sense and are actually descriptive, such as firefighter or police officer. But I'm just as likely to say fireman, policeman, waiter, steward, actor, chairman, etc. and change the gender when necessary. I refuse to use the singular they. There are two sexes (gender is for grammar). You're either one or the other. This absolutely doesn't mean that you can't change your sex. If, for example, I meet you as a woman and you change to a man or are a drag king/queen, I will certainly change my use of pronouns when discussing you or talking about you, either permenantly or temporarily, as the case requires. But unless you literally have multiple personalities or are a machine or an inanimate object, you are neither a they nor an it, and you're certainly not some made-up pronoun such as xe. I would never cause harm to those who use such words. I would just consider them to be silly or confused. If the sex is unknown, or if a sentence can apply to both sexes, I use the masculine, simply because it's grammatically correct to do so.
#English #gender #grammar #language #prescriptivism #properEnglish #sex #texting #writing
Also, an early trend in my follows due to my bio, I think: I attract oddball #leftist techies. A lot of fellow #nix #greybeards who #homebrew in that list. Good stuff.
Oh and #grammar nerds.
I'm pleased to say the University of Toronto does not do commas. https://xkcd.com/2995/
You’d think people would have better things to worry about than how to use an apostrophe, but grammmar nerds do get in a twist about this sort of thing. As the article says, it doesn’t really matter.
#Grammar #Apostrophe
Harris’ or Harris’s? Apostrophe row divides grammar nerds https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/aug/14/kamala-harris-or-harriss-apostrophe-row-grammar-nerds
The Harris campaign has yet to put a full stop to the…
The GuardianUsing the present subjunctive correctly is important. Boston.com says, "In scathing letter, Mayor Wu insists Steward site remains used for health care." The headline says that Wu insists the site absolutely is still used for health care.
The article actually says she's opposed to changing its use. The headline should say she insists the site "remain used for health care." https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/08/04/in-scathing-letter-mayor-wu-insists-steward-site-remains-used-for-health-care/ #journalism #grammar
Wu said her administration would vehemently oppose…
Boston.comIt would have been a good thing to remember the hyphen: first-hand. #spelling #grammar #oops #headlines #blooper
