I love checking in on PDXRadio - except when I cringe looking at simple grammatical errors.

Since I've painted most of my house already this year, perhaps a constructive crib sheet is in order for those who might benefit. Anyway, it will keep me busy for a minute.

They're The contraction of the words "They" and "are" as in "They're the biggest bunch of cheapskates in the world". That apostrophe is important.


Their Possessive pronoun. Like his, hers, ours. e.g. "Their playlist is stale."


There I know what you're saying: "For crying out loud Tom, there can be an adverb, a pronoun, a noun, and a verb! I'm just a disc jockey!" I hear you, sister or brother. But, just for the sake burning up some of my excess free time, let's say you care. Remember there has here buried in it to remind you that it refers to a place. e.g. "There they go again with their relentless cost-cutting. They're determined to squeeze every dime out of that place! Next thing you know, they're on life support, their credit is ruined and,when you get there, their station is padlocked."

Not satisfied to stop there, I offer:


You're That pesky contraction thing again, this time starring "you" and "are". e.g. "Tom, you're the biggest horse's patoot that posts on this board!"


Your Enough of my definitions, let's check Webster's: "1. of, belonging to, made by, or done by you: also used before some formal titles Your Honor, Your Majesty 2. Informal the: used to designate a typical member of a group or class: often followed by average" e.g."Tom, I've had enough of your unsolicited help. You're no longer welcome here."

Must run, I think I hear Benjamin Moore calling my name!

I think your just being picky.

Their! I said it!
Someone had too.

Just like "it's" and its.
"It's" is a contraction for "it is."
"Its" is used in places where the former isn't.

Another one I almost caught myself doing:
"Than" is used to describe something in comparison to something else; i.e., "Grammar discussions are better than senseless insulting of newbies."
"Then" is used to describe time, or to explain that one thing implies another; such as "If voicetracking and automation are the norm, then those who disagree simply don't follow the business."

I was always taught to remember use of contractions and apostrophes by thinking of what the sentence would sound like using both words. If "living in this part of town at it is best" doesn't sound right, then don't use the apostrophe.

I know, all the training to write things orally and how they sound and such... If I could work in customer no-service for a total of 6 years and still manage to write decent call notes with proper spelling and grammar while the caller is in a screaming tirade at the top of their lungs because they don't like their internet service or loan servicing or whatever, then anyone can!

Dear Tom Parker,
I've been craving Salt Water Taffy lately and I was wondering if You could bring me back some Taffy. Since YOU'RE at the beach I thought You wouldn't mind.
Thanks so much Tom,
Love,
Buns Of Steel

Dear Buns,

To clarify, I am on the beach, not at the beach.

When I get off the beach, I will gladly buy you a little bag of salt water taffy. Do you like the kind with peanut butter in the middle? They're the best!

Tom

nothing like some quality time at the beach

Have you ever considered putting the "Big" back in YOUR name?

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. I left "Big" there. I think it's in a humidor at Dunhill's on Union Square.

One thing I see occasionally that I'd like to add to Tom's original post:

Thier is not a word at all.

Where's djfresh now that the Grammar Police is here?

Commas are important too.

Consider these two sentences. The same verbiage, one has a comma and one does not!

I helped my uncle Jack off the horse.

I helped my uncle Jack, off the horse.

Then there is the Southerneese School of linguistics;

Y'all; Singular.

All Y'all; Plural.

All y’all’s; Plural possessive!

Tom may be on the beach but he's just visiting. I OWN THE BEACH!

Another of My personal pet peeves:
The past tense of forecast is:

wait for it

FORECAST, NOT FORECASTED!!!

You've got my ear, regardless.

Thank you, thank you, Tom.

The errors that irk me the most are the usage of "I" in the object of a sentence or preposition and "me" in the subject.
Examples: "Me and Peggy Sue went to the dance."
Ruth's Chris served a delicious steak dinner to my wife and I.

In the line of work that many of us were, are, or hope to be engaged in, the ability to create a sentence is a mandatory, fundamental skill. Thanks for blowing the whistle, Tom and everyone else. It's gotten pretty bad.

This Thread should not be under Portland Radio.
It SHOULD be under Politics and Other Things. Let's please make note of this, since this has NOTHING to do with Portland radio.

This is just not like Big Tom Parker, he would NEVER put a topic in the wrong thread.
Its apparent that Tom Parker has been 'Throwing a few back" while on the beach. That or someone needs to remind him to wear sunscreen while on the beach.

Now, let's have a discussion of the correct pronunciation of the word, "Beijing".

Me and the little lady are heading to the patio now.

Ta Ta.

Hard J. No question.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sports/253004

One mistake that burns my butt is the use of apostrophes in plural nouns or singular verbs:

The Hillsboro Goodwill has many TV's for sale.

Jim ate a lot of burrito's at the Cinco De Mayo festival.

Edward R. Murrow smoked a lot of Camel's.

Jennifer pedal's hard to go up the hill.

The KGO signal pack's quite a punch.



No, no, no!

I used to have a sister in law who from the first time I ever knew her always said :

" We seen "....THAT drove me CRAZY from about age 15 or so...I never did correct her out of respect for my step brother mostly...

And I had an elementary teacher about 5th grade who always taught us that if you get confused over whether or not to use " I " or " Me " in a sentence just take away the addtional name and say the sentence with the I or Me by itself. If it sounds correct it is, if doesnt sound right it isnt ! Like...Edna and me or Me and Edna went to the fair....So does "Me went to the fair " sound right??

Edward R. Murrow smoked a lot of Camel's what?

>>This Thread should not be under Portland Radio.

But people working in a communications medium should, well, uh, you know, um...

Rick Emerson umm's and ahh's a lot.

Murrow smoked about 60 Camel's every day!

I have a bad feeling in my finger's from typing these grammatically incorrect sentences!

My personal pet peeve:

Outside, we HAVE GOT 74 degrees......

HAVE GOT?

Beijing pronuciation...... PEE--KING! :-D

PEE KING is a pronunciation version that is over 20 years old now. I havent heard that for a very long time.

On the subject of pronunciation, check out this site.

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/mispron.html

"In the line of work that many of us were, are, or hope to be engaged in, . . ."
You failed "fundamental skill."

Actually, no, but I can see how you would think so. It's a pretty complex sentence utilizing past, present, and future forms of the verb "to be." My apologies for going over your head.

> Edward R. Murrow smoked a lot of Camel's what?

I guess he smoked the smokable part of the Camel. He did most of his puffing in an era before filtered cigarettes, so it wouldn't matter which end he lit!

"Podunk Area Weather CALLS FOR _____"

Hey who called for this crappy weather? I sure didn't. I ordered the Beijing duck!

And here's one for Roger. "Yunz" (true spelling unknown), short for "you ones". See "all y'all" above. Or "yunzes", same as ""all y'all's" Really big in Penna.

I believe(and this is subject to interpretation)that the "comma" after "are" is unnecessary because it's followed by "or", the place of which it was taking.

When I moved to Altoona, PA in 1986, I heard "yunz" for the first time. I wondered what the correct spelling for this mystery word might be: "yunce?" I remember classmates getting annoyed when I asked them, "how do you spell that?" In Altoona, I also had a teacher who pronounced the word color "keller" and motorcycle "motorsickle."

There is a supervisor at my workplace who, when encountering a word beginning with a vowel, will drop the vowel and say the word! It's about halfway between the "Name Game" and a Monty Python sketch!

Pappy Mirthday Smooshie!

According to a woman who works for me, my Chimbley need repairing

An interesting usage change (at least to me) happened in the early '90's when "anyway" suddenly became "anyways." I'm not annoyed by it, just interested. For annoyance I'd have to pick my least favorite expression of the past decade or so...."my bad." Yikes!

I think you're right, Semoochie...I intentionally break some comma rules to make a sentence scan better, though usually by omitting them. My bad.

I once saw a note from a niece to here uncle. It read "ant sue called."

I will concede that your comment was "over my head" if you can tell me why the sentence fragment I quoted begins and ends with "in."

Ah..so that's the problem. You're right. Your original post was vague.

"In" is perfectly fine to begin a sentence as in, "In the beginning...", "In the course of human events..." or "In" is perfectly fine to begin a sentence as in...

No, Rick's right. The sentence in question includes a redundant use of "in." While that's admittedly more subtle than the more egregious examples of bad writing cited elsewhere, Tom's purpose in starting this thread was to provide constructive suggestions for improvement, which we can all use. Lord knows I can.

Another weird useage of the word All. Which is
" Alls "...As in Alls you have to do....or Alls he has is a knife and fork....I suppose it started as a contraction of "All that"

Also, anyways is a variant that has been around awhile. If you ever watched the HBO series Deadwood, they used 'Anyways' quite a bit. It was an idiom used in the late 19th century in the Midwest.

I almost screwed up when I wrote a post on this forum that referenced the communities of St. Helens and St. Johns. I had thought that both of these names had apostrophes in them, as in St. John's being short for "St. John's city." There are other places named after St. John that do use apostrophes, but the North Portland suburb is not one of them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Johns

Apparently, there is no rhyme or reason in play here.

To Alfredo:
I had never heard "you-uns", "we-uns", nor "us-uns" until I moved to Athens, Ohio in 1971 to attend Ohio U., but that is how they talk in the West Virginia panhandle and those parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania that abut it.

Recently, I was corrected (by Jack Elam's daughter, no less) for not saying "motorsickle".

I've noticed a lot of confusion between HISTORIC and HISTORICAL lately...

The story was a historical account of the events...

KISN 91 is HISTORIC.

It occurred to me that I dropped the word, "when" from my above example but it doesn't change things. Beginning a sentence with a preposition is perfectly acceptable. Ending one is not.

"Beginning a sentence with a preposition is perfectly acceptable.

In fact, its required if you're a wise and powerful Jedi Master.

I agree about the importance of comma placement. I always enjoy it when I have the opportunity to announce that the audience has just been listening to the classic Jazz tune, "What is this thing called, love?" (It sounds funnier if you say it with a lower-class, British accent; imagine John Lennon)

And then, there are all of the people who work at BOEINGS

And head downtown for lunch at Pike's Market....

"...there are all of the people who work at BOEINGS"

And at Fred MEYERS, too.

Add Nordstroms and Meier and Franks (at least in the old days)...

I'm having pork and bean for dinner.


(budget cut)

The first I heard the term "Boeing's" was in Seattle in the 1970's from some people who worked there, used ironically, to imply that it was a Mom and Pop operation...

The business of dropping the possessive from St. Johns and Sauvie's Island was, I read somewhere, a decision by the government board that oversees naming, and intended to avoid implying actual ownership of the town, island, mountain, or whatever.

Ending a sentence in a preposition is not against the rules, except in Latin. You wouldn't say, "In what did I just step?" You'd say, "What did I just step in," and you'd be OK, except that you'd stepped in something. "Where are you from?" is a whole lot better than "From where are you?"

A problem I'm hearing in newswriting locally is the failure to distinguish between lie and lay. You lay something down, people lie down by themselves, and both Clapton ("Lay Down Sally") and Dylan ("Lay Lady Lay") were grammatically incorrect. But they'd sound dorky if they got it right...almost as a dorky as local newspeople who write that "the body was found laying in the street."

Isn't it "Sauvie Island"? "Lay is also past tense as in, "I lay down yesterday and may lie down today". It never sounds right.

I had someone email me today and one of the sentences was.."I hope your not to disappointed".

How about "would of" and "could-of" ?

Also I see alot of people say use the word loose for "lose".

Check out Craigslist sometime for the cream of the crop as far as mispellings go. It's amazing.

Local newspeople would never say "the body was found laying in the street."

Some pin-headed consultant would make them say "the body IS found laying in the street."

Murdock IS right on! The use of present tense in news writing is an old trick to convey immediacy. I know it was part of the ABC stylebook in the late sixties...but you have to be sharp and careful in its use. Otherwise sounding dumb.

Semoochie, the Sauvie's possessive is a common way to refer to the island where many people go to, uh, hang out, and even some locals I know use it. The possessive is officially gone, but it lives on in many official references. But the technically correct name doesn't have the apostrophe "s".

This all reminds me of an OBIT I looked up on microfish once at the Tacoma Public Library of an ancestor of mine. He died in 1908 and at the very end of his Obit it said. " The body is at Mellinger's". ( Mellinger's being a funeral parlor of course ).

There is something resoundingly descriptive about how the printed word was used, particularly in yester-year, dont you think?

I find the Bob Dylan example a little bit ironic in that the intended meaning of the lyrics is communicated better by intentionally breaking the rules. If the lyric had been written "Lie, lady, lie...," many listeners would have probably thought that the song was about not telling the truth.

People may say Sauvie's or Sauvies Island but that is from years of misuse. When I was young growing up in that area, we never referred to it that way. It was always Sauvie Island. Look at the 1961 USGS map that Andy Brown linked to in the KBMS fined thread. It clearly states "Sauvie Island". A late 50's Pittman map of Portland shows it as Sauvie Island.

Scroll near the bottom of the following page for a brief name history of Sauvie Island:

http://h7ht.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

The island name officially became Sauvie Island in 1891. Prior to that, it had gone through many different names that included "Multnomah Island," Wapato Island," "Sauve Island," "Souvies Island," and "Sauvies Island."

Here are all the basic grammar rules on one long web page.

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/english-grammar-101-all-you-need-to-know/