General Chat

Whoaaa budgie...who's attacking you? lol

I do not care why you chose the book.

You may not end the sentence with "for"

You may say...

For what reason did you choose that book for your reading?

Or

For what reason did you choose the book from which you are reading?

Oh botheration I have to go!!

Ooooh, now then, the way I read Huia's sentence was that the book chooser isn't going to read it for themselves, but someone will read it to them.
K

Perhaps 'Why do you want me to read that book to you?' Would that fit it?

One thing that annoys me is when people say something is different to another. I believe it should be different from, as they are apart whereas to means close together, if you know what I mean.

Huia.

That was another one I was going to mention, the lovely 'of' replacing the proper 'have'. When did that happen? It doesn't even make sense.

But I could go on forever about all the little foibles appearing in general written English. Perhaps it's best that I don't lol

WMSL at Karen.... my apostrophes have a life all their own..... in fact, I think they come from a rule-less society, no holds barred, sit where you like, once they generate from my pen... or keyboard, or whatever.

I have been told the rules, time and time again... but it is the fault of those two braincells of mine... it just doesn't gel.

Like when to write *yours sincerely* and when to write *yours faithfully*

You can tell me until you are blue in the face... but it still does not sink in!!

Wonder if the bank manager would prefer *Love Daff xxxx* or should I miss out the *xxxx*??

Love

Daff xxxx

Oh no Daff, I think Bank Managers should always be given some xxx's at the end of a letter. Sweetens them up, especially if asking for a loan!

As for the apostrophes, well, I guess you're not a member of Keith Waterhouse's AAAA
LOL :-)


Here's a part of Victoria Moore's article, Daily Mail, 2008.

Apostrophe catastrophe! The rogue apostrophe is spreading like measles. It's time to fight back...

"........For decades the nation's pedants have sighed and tutted over the so-called greengrocer's apostrophe - the one you find on piles of fruit and vegetables advertising the fact that apple's and banana's are for sale by the pound or kilo when no apostrophe is required to complete the plural.
If only apostrophe errors were confined to market stalls! Instead they have spread like a contagion, infecting public signs and notices, literature from reputable institutions, menus and shop signs - not to mention press releases, letters and emails.
According to a new study, the apostrophe causes more problems than any other punctuation mark. Almost half of 2,000 adults who sat a simple test were unable to use it properly.
But is anyone really bothered? On Newsnight last week even the great interrogator Jeremy Paxman seemed prepared to shrug off the apostrophe problem, saying: 'Maybe it's redundant now.' Or if Paxo had his way, 'maybe its redundant now'.
Nonsense! It may be under threat, but we should stand up for the simple apostrophe.
We should defend its honour - as the Daily Mail's own Keith Waterhouse has done for some time, with his organisation the AAAA ( Association for the Annihilation of the Aberrant Apostrophe)."

K

Wmsl, Karen.... I am sure that I used to be ok with the apostrophe mostly in the correct place.... but these days I struggle to remember. I do know the Plurals not Plural's... unless we are talking about something belonging to someone called Plural, lolol..... but in practice, I tend to use Plural's as default when it might just be Plurals'.

Clear as mud, that, I expect, lolol!!

I shall take your advice, and use lots of XXXXXX when I write to my bank manager... how much of a loan do you reckon that might be worth?????

Love

Daff xxxx

Hi Daff,
Yes, I THINK i get your Plurals explanation, ta very much!!! LOL
And I know you know your apostrophes really! ;-)

All those big kisses to the bank manager? Loadsa money, Daff.

K x

:¬)) Begging letter on the way, lolol

Love

Daff xxxx

Back and forth, Janey?

Rather modern for me - I tend to dash hither and yon.

There used to be a pet shop on one of the main business streets here called HOUSE OF PUPPY'S. I had to close my eyes when I passed.

Karen in the desert -- plainly when you moved north to south and east to west, you moved up and down and back and forth!

And Jen thinks "back and forth" is "modern" ... no wonder you people can't elect a government; you can't agree on anything!

The abominations "could of / would of / should of" ... maybe if we all just say "coulda / woulda / shoulda" ...

"What did you choose that book to be read to from for?"

Looks good to me. I have no problem with ending sentences with prepositions, myself! Good olde Englishe with German and even Latin roots (where the preposition is part of the verb), it is. ;)

Grrrrrr.

The question asked by the sentence should start with "Why"

What did you choose that book for?

Why did you choose that book?

For what reason did you choose that book. Do you wish me to read to you from it.

What is the reason for choosing the book you wish to be read to from.

For what reason did you choose that book to be read to you.

I noticed you have selected a book and would like me to read it to you. Is there any reason for choosing that particular book? Is it just a ploy necessitating my wasting time in an attempt to phrase this question with grammatical correctness?


So. I have just googled "ending a sentence with preposition's. It appear's that it i's quite acceptable to end sentence's with preposition's these day's. I was however taught otherwise and will probably continue to live by my hard learn't grammatical rule's.

We will discus's apostrophe's at another date!!!
Starting with it is, its and it's.

Another one that I don't like is 'I am bored of doing that.'
I always say 'I am bored with doing that.'

But which is correct.

I usually don't have a problem with apostrophes or your Sincerely/Faithfully though.
Daff I think I remember which is Sincerely and which is faithfully by using an 'opposite' rule.

If it is Dear Sir it is faithfully (doesn't begin with 'S') by knowing that you can work out the other one. But it is a clumsy way of remembering, just works for my twisted mind!
If it is Dear Mr Jones it is sincerely

'Would of' probably came about because a lot of people abreviated 'would have' to 'would've' and then others changed it to 'would of'. But it is not what I would say. (I was tempted to say 'would of' just there!)

Huia.

I detest this "bored of" business too.

Also "membership of" (it's "membership in"!!). And a few others.

I might blame the EU. The French "de" is used for any old thing, and it may be leaking in.

No one in Canada would ever sign a letter "faithfully", or make any odd distinction like that.

"Sincerely yours" is it. Except for us lawyer types, who said "Yours truly" when I was in practice. That probably hasn't survived ...

I used to have an old booklet...'How to correspond' or some such lol

'Yours faithfully' if you did not know the surname of recipient

'Yours Sincerely' if addressed by name

'Yours Truly' if you had a more personal connection.

Hey Janey, Did you see Canada's Governor General Michaelle Jean has topped the Hottest Heads of State list. Our PM comes in at around 127 Gordon Brown ranked a little better at 114 and Barack Obama listed at 14.

http://hottestheadsofstate.wordpress.com/list/

Gordon Brown isn't a head of state, tsk. Neither is Jean. The Queen is head of state here, and there too, I do believe.

Well now I guess the vile Stephen Harper has all the more reason to fire her. Having a hot woman of colour head of state isn't playing to his right-wing, misogynist, racist, fundamentalist base, I wouldn't think! He is firing her. Her first term is up shortly and word is she's out. Look for a white male hack ex-politician, coming up.

Think I am going to be an Honorary Canadia.... do you fancy adopting me as a twiglet on your tree, Janey? Very pretty please?

Then I can use *Yours Truly* without any guilt, lol

Problem solved ;¬))

Love

Daff xxxxx

ps... I found myself adding *lol* and :¬)) to an official letter a couple of weeks ago... now how embarrassing would that have been! xxxx