Oh dear really? The book is real. My post is a joke. I was 'in character', channeling Jesse, Skinny Pete et al from "Breaking Bad" which has outsanding script-writing. Did you check the link? OK delete the post #1437. Wouldn't want to despoil your thread or outrage your modesty which I assumed was made of sterner stuff. To be honest, I don't care about the edit limit. It's annoying, but my 'campaign' is a joke. I was playing an outraged campaigner. I would not insist on posting on IL. Walking out is always an option & the site is privately held. So, I really do not care about design issues, except very tangentially. My activity here is a diversion, that's all. Pity you made me break character. Well, it amused me while it lasted. Sigh!
Thanks, for the last sentence Still some doubt remains...... What tense does this 'could you do it' belongs to then? I mean, how do you decide the writer means it as an action to be performed in future or he referring to your past action? Unless you add the word 'please', of course. Adding it will definitely give the indication that a future act is expected.
Shreya, it's good to see you here, and I'm glad you found our thread! I have no objections... this thread is for anything (remotely, tangentially) related to the English language, as long as I retain my right to treat it as my personal soapbox, too. As for not using "doubt", I was often delighted with the unique and intriguing characteristics of Indian English while I was in India. I don't think I would want to stamp it all out - what would be more important is to be aware of your audience, and modify your language accordingly. So, if you wanted to still use "have a doubt" for "have a question", this would be okay if everyone you were talking to understood what you said. I don't want us to become known as the Word Nazis of IL! When I'm with my brother, sister, or best friend, we tend to talk in a melee of South African English, slang, inside jokes from 20 years ago, ridiculous lines from movies/songs ("Spaceballs" is a favorite), Afrikaans, and Zulu. I also swear a lot (huge effort to keep it clean when I type here on IL). I like dialects, creoles, pidgins, and other locally-flavored languages. I just know when and where to switch back to a pretence of "civilization". For me, it's more about paying attention to detail (a character flaw) than any notion of language purity. It might help to apply a simple principle here, which is to isolate the main noun in this phrase - "parent", which then makes it easier to see which word should take the plural "s". You can then convert any compound noun into the plural, with aplomb: sergeant-at-arms = sergeants-at-arms attorney-general = attorneys-general secretary of state = secretaries of state Of course, some compound nouns don't have a clear noun, like "has-been", "grown-up", or "good-for-nothing" (my favorite words from the Relationships forum) - which all then just easily get an "s" added to the end (grown-ups). As for the second, possessive form... whichever way you look at it, it's going to be awkward. My suggestion would be to re-phrase, like this: Instead of saying, "my parents'-in-laws house" (which I think is the correct form), you could just say "the house of my parents-in-law", or even better, "DH's parents' house" - it just seems to flow better in a sentence. Utts, you know you always manage to make my day (and then I can't get back out through the door on account of my newly-expanded head). I wasn't making an attempt at false modesty there - my "unedited puking up on the page" tends to be passable, I know. But if I did set out TO WRITE SOMETHING, I'd have to pay attention to sentence structure, paragraph structure, edit for flow, repetition, conciseness, and many other things that are beyond my capabilities right now. I'd spend hours, easily, trying to get the title just right, and so on. It comes from having edited the writing of others for work - I am now my own harshest critic. That's all. But thank you. Viji ma'am, it is great to see you here, and thank you for the nomination! How nice to hear you had a childhood friend named Ansuya. By the way, I heard a rumor, not sure how accurate, that convent-educated girls are by far the most mischievous of any in the country...
Thanks for making it clear . I liked the examples you gave as well. I wonder how you people manage to remember so many complicated words and use it in the writings.
"discursive" - off the point. Interesting to think a "cursor" points to the exact location while "discursive" goes totally off. :-D Sorry, just another discursive point.
Every time I listen to Rohit Sharma, cricketer commenting about play that just concluded, he referred to as "Me and Kohli" and "Me and Shikar". When I learned English in school, I was taught to use third party first before including me and therefore, I always used "Ramesh and I" and "Ravi and I". What is the correct way? When do we use "He and I" and when do we use "Him and me"? Viswa
This is courtesy and not generally a grammatical rule. In principle, it is correct to say "I and Ramesh ...", especially if some sort of priority is being established. In general, to my ear, "Ramesh and I ... " simply scans better (multi-syllable to one syllable, rather than the other way around). In this case the easiest test is to refer to just one person: "Him (or Me) was awarded the first prize" - obviously wrong. It ought to be "He" or "I" or "He and I were jointly awarded the first prize". "Me (or him) went to the cinema" would be wrong. It ought to be "He/I". "The prize was given to I (or he)" would be wrong - it ought to be "me/him". In colloquial speech, it's common to respond as follows: "May I speak to Mala please?" "That's me!" Grammatically speaking, one ought to say: "This is she", but for whatever reason this sounds pedantic. One option is to say "This is Mala here" or something like that. In the United States, it has become very common to say: "Him and I .." or "Me and her went to that restaurant you recommended". It is very jarring to my ear, but I fear that this battle is lost.
Viswa, it is truly wonderful to see you here! Thanks for joining in the conversation. To supplement Soka's response to your question, here is more information from earlier on in this thread: http://www.indusladies.com/forums/e...rowth/43682-english-matters-2.html#post511136 Once you understand the principles behind this aspect of grammar, it will all fall into place quite easily. Satchitananda, warmest of welcomes to you too, my friend. And well-spotted with "discursive", "cursive", and so on. "Curs" means "run" in Latin, and so provides a handy common root for many English words that tend to describe movement. While my friends were studying important things like Engineering and Law at university, I was in thrall to the marvels of the Classics Dept. Words and Ideas was my favourite course; it was all about Greek and Latin roots, suffixes, and prefixes. So, if you knew, for example, that pes/pedes was Latin for foot/feet, it suddenly made sense of pedestrian, pedal, and so on. Then, Greek ped (or paed) means child, which explains pederast, pediatrician, etc. It's addictive.
Ah! Thank you for that explanation, Satchitananda. A perfect illustration of how social "graces" influence language. I don't like it one bit. But then, I enjoy putting myself first from time to time
