Grammar Question - pluralizing nouns

willseeyalater said:
Try reading the log entries of the Lewis and Clark Corp. Meriwether Lewis must have sat staring out the window during those parts of his schooling and look how that turned out for him. Bad spelling did not keep them from their duty to record each day's entry.
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You are quite correct about Lewis and Clark. A good book on spelling idiosyncrasies and variations is "Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary" (2004) by Vivian Cook, an Englishman. He devotes a whole page to Lewis and Clark. I find that my spelling is usually good, except that typing on a @##*$$$$!!! computer keyboard introduces spelling errors and trying to correct them on a computer adds even more errors. Put me down on the side of the Luddites.

Faiaoga, amateur knife enthusiast and professional bookworm
:cool:
 
Mongo said:
This one has always bothered me:

goose. plural = geese.

moose. WHY IS THE PLURAL NOT MEESE? ;):D
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If a pool is DEEP, the measure is DEPTH.
If the hillside is STEEP, why isn't the measure STEPTH?
I hate the word "steepness", so awkward.
 
willseeyalater said:
Try reading the log entries of the Lewis and Clark Corp. Meriwether Lewis must have sat staring out the window during those parts of his schooling and look how that turned out for him. Bad spelling did not keep them from their duty to record each day's entry.
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I hope my opening post was not interpreted as a criticism. I don't think that intelligent people can always be judged by their grammar and spelling capability.

I was in fact asking if the apostophe + s is being taught in schools as the new way for pluralizing nouns. No one who has posted here has answered that particular question. Any teachers here who can answer that with authority? Thanks.
 
Just in my lifetime:

Advertisement ("ad ver' tiss ment") has become "ad ver tiz' ment."

"Bedroom suits" = furniture, not clothing

The middle "e" in judgement disappeared in common usage, contrary to the "rules."

People no longer say. Instead they "go." (And he goes, Hi." And I go, "Hi yourself.")

But then "ain't" was once the language of the English upper class, then a sign of lack of education, and now "It's baaaaaaaaaack!" (Or its back, if that suits better.)
 
digdeep said:
I hope my opening post was not interpreted as a criticism. I don't think that intelligent people can always be judged by their grammar and spelling capability.

I was in fact asking if the apostophe + s is being taught in schools as the new way for pluralizing nouns. No one who has posted here has answered that particular question. Any teachers here who can answer that with authority? Thanks.
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No your point was quite well taken. I think what is common in education here in the USA is to encourage our young students to write much and figure out the rules later as they go. The idea being to get them used to expressing themselves in written word as an early habit and later by pixie dust or proper pedantics they will catch on to the rules of English grammar. If we taught them to drive a car by that method we would be in a state of crisis on the roads. The use of simple things such as the apostrophe is low on the list of things many "writers" worry about if they do understand the correct usage on some level. So there is a catastrophe of apostrophe.
 
To learn to spell well, read a lot. The spelling errors that remain will be minor and relatively unimportant as grammar and vocabulary learned by the same reading will make your writing clear. Capitalization and punctuation will also help.
 
willseeyalater said:
No your point was quite well taken. I think what is common in education here in the USA is to encourage our young students to write much and figure out the rules later as they go. The idea being to get them used to expressing themselves in written word as an early habit and later by pixie dust or proper pedantics they will catch on to the rules of English grammar. If we taught them to drive a car by that method we would be in a state of crisis on the roads. The use of simple things such as the apostrophe is low on the list of things many "writers" worry about if they do understand the correct usage on some level. So there is a catastrophe of apostrophe.
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Well said my friend.
 
So Lewis couldn't spell well but still wrote in his journal. What if he misspelled things that are now inaccurate due to his mistakes? Names of people, places, etc. Would it have been ok if the Declaration of Independence and Constitution had a few boo boos too? Might have a little bit of a repercussion.
One example of a guy who used poor grammer but became a historic figure does not excuse the use of the poor grammer.
 
Lewis would have been judged according to his station in life which was a military campaign leader. He would have been considered more than adequate for that position. They would not have invited him to help write the Declaration or Constitution since he was not educated at that level. Society then had much more defined levels and you were held to the standard for where you were. Today we don't have that as strongly defined as the case was then. I don't know if it is an apples to apples standard to compare Lewis to bad spellers and punctuators of our time. He was for sure an educated and able leader with skills up the ying yang.
 
The alternative offer made to him by President Jefferson was to be Jefferson's personal secretary. Instead, he elected to be the co-leader of the corps of discovery. Some of his misspellings may have been a form of short-hand.

Better darned than left ragged.
 
It's the "waist - waste, steal - steel, break - brake" combos that drive me nuts. The "gifted" is the new evolution of usage that is creeping into acceptance.
 
Gifted - adjective or verb?

Classes For Gifted Children: An experimental study of method and instruction, Whipple, G. M. (1919); Classroom Problems in the Education of Gifted Children, Henry, T.S. (1920)

"Gift" has been used as a verb since the 17th century, although more commonly lately.

Try "plated" for putting food on a plate. "The chicken was plated." Yeech! But "a run" "plating" is A OK. Good 1960's BB usage. ^___^
 
Wait you guys are going too fast. How am I going to pass this test when you are going too fast?
 
I blame it on the ubiquitous use of text messaging or SMS (short message service). Today's generation don't value the art of writing and correct composition of sentences anymore.
 
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