Sunday, May 8, 2011

ADD is not an adjective, and other assorted grammar gripes

ADD is not an adjective.
Neither is OCD. Both are mental disorders, which constitutes status as a noun.

"You guys" is not grammatically necessary.
The word "you" in the English language can mean an individual, or a group. If it isn't obvious whether you are referring to the group or an individual, there are a multitude of creative ways to imply whom you are addressing, which can really spice up an otherwise dull conversation. And, no, that abomination that goes by the name of "y'all" doesn't count.

I and me.
"These are some pictures of Jan and I."

NO.

How many times have you said "These are some pictures of I?" That's what I thought. I distinctly remember having an argument with my first grade teacher (Mrs. Krosen, for the record) about how she was wrong that you always use "I" when mentioning two people in such a manner. They way to determine if you need to use "I" or "me", is take the other person out of the sentence and write it just like you normally would.

We suck at direct/indirect object stuff.
Let's face it: we suck at knowing when to use who, whom, that, which, etc., so we've come up with some pretty creative ways around this, most of which are more wordy and inconvenient than that which we were attempting to avoid in the first place.

Feminists are to blame for the improper use of "they"

Somewhere in the deepest, darkest depths of the 80's, conspiring women decided than the gender-neutral "he" was responsible for the disparity in wages between men and women, and the way to combat this was to force the world to use the tongue-twisting phrase "his or her" when referring to an individual of indefinite gender. Seeing as this was both impractical and just plain stupid, people decided to use the word "they" for the gender-neutral pronoun:

"I don't know who was on the phone but they said to call them back"
Wait, wha? Were you talking to more than one person? Because last time I checked, "they" referred to more than one person. Thanks, ladies.

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