English 101 with Trihan sometimes!

[emilygamemaker]

can anybody helpe me please?my question is in the first topic

[Atelier]

Malapropisms come from Mrs Malaprop, a character in the play "The Rivals", written by playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Bet you didn't know that. Or did you?

[Trihan]

I was aware of that, yes.

*looks up emily's question*

Edit: Oh, I thought you meant you'd posted a question in here. I don't really know much technically about AGS. I'm sure someone else will be able to help you though.

[Snarky]

Something I wish people would get right:

It's a phenomenon, multiple phenomena, and a criterion, multiple criteria. Yesterday, my boss was going on about how "our top criteria is" this and that, and how "all the criterias need to be fulfilled", and I had to grit my teeth not to interrupt.

[Trihan]

Snarky: Likewise, a medium, multiple media. That gets on my tits too.

[Anian]

@Trihan:
Isn't "medium" like a surrounding matter (like water, air etc.) or is it both the same word?
By multiple media, do you mean like sensory (touch and taste) or like a digital term (like movies have sound and vision)?

(I'm not arguing with you, simply qurious) 

[Trihan]

In modern English media is used as a singular, but it derives originally from the singular medium. I was referring mainly to the digital term. It's sort of similar to the datum/data thing.

[Andail]

My pet peeve is the it's/its confusion. Even acclaimed writers tend to write things like "the cat waved it's tail".

So, to remind everyone: There is no possessive apostrophe for personal pronouns, like its, hers, and theirs.
Whenever you use apostrophe for "it", it indicates a contraction for  it is or it has.

[Ghost]

Okay...

Since this was her work, he accepted her showing them off as not breaking the pact.

I am pretty sure that I got the grammar right here (A woman is proudly presenting some photos to her husband). A friend of mine, however, insists that it should be

"Since this was her work, he accepted that she showed them off not breaking the pact."

and that my grammar wouldn't make it clear that there was a "pact" that both people agree to keep. I disagree- help from some native speakers?

[Intense Degree]

To be honest, I would say:

Since this was her work, he accepted that her showing them off was not breaking the pact.

or even better (dependant on emphasis):

Since this was her work, he accepted that she was not breaking the pact by showing them off.

[Ghost]

I agree both your edits read better, but is there actually something wrong with my grammar in the bold sentence? I'd really like to know- wrong use of passive voice or something, or is it just bad style?

[Intense Degree]

Your example in bold reads better than your friends example to me.

"He accepted that she showed them off not breaking the pact" implies that the pact was to show them off (or for him to accept the showing off). I would stick a comma in after "off".

You do have mixed tenses "was her work" and "as not breaking the pact", but I think this is more of a stylistic than a grammatical thing. Your grammar makes it clear to me that there was a pact that the two people made and which her showing off of the photos did not break.

Unless I have misunderstood the intention of the sentence...

[Andail]

Your example is grammatically wrong, I would say.

her showing them off is in this case an inflectional action nominal, and should be treated as a noun.
"...as not breaking the pact", implies that whatever it refers to is a verb.

If you persist in using your original construction (although Intense Degree's suggestions are better), you would have to use a noun as an object compliment, resulting in this awkward construction:

Since this was her work, he accepted her showing them off as a non-pact-breaker

or with an adjective:
Since this was her work, he accepted her showing them off as pact-safe

Just to make them grammatically correct. Obviously, the solutions aren't very elegant

[Ghost]

Thanks Andail, that really cleared it up. Really makes no sense then to force grammar over my original then... that sounds really clumsy. But good to see that I'm actually *able* to create inflectional action nominals   I'll go with Intense's edit then.

[Snarky]

Andail is using technical terms and stuff, which makes me thinks he knows what he's talking about, but my intuition disagrees with his conclusion.

I don't necessarily see anything wrong with combining a noun (or noun-like clause) with an "as X-ing" construction. In fact, I'm having a hard time coming up with examples where you would use anything but a noun there.

Googling brings up examples like: "Encyclical seen as breaking new ground on social concerns." That doesn't look wrong to me.

I think your friend's version is much more unambiguously wrong. That said, Intense Degree's rewrites are better than what you had.

[SSH]

Mondegreens - misheard song lyrics. (for example, "she's got a chicken to ride")

Awesome example: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E16B78DAB5EAC98E

And Ghost's phrase works better if you swap the parts round:

He accepted her showing them off as not breaking the pact, since this was her work (after all).

Or add a therefore:

This was her work, therefore he accepted her showing them off as not breaking the pact.

[Intense Degree]

Just to make them grammatically correct. Obviously, the solutions aren't very elegant

That's the problem with the rules of grammar, sometimes you end up with a ridiculous result!

I like to think of it as similar to music. For certain situations there are rules (like harmonising a Bach chorale) but ultimately the test is; Does it sound/look good/right?  That will (sometimes) over-ride the rules.

[Atelier]

What's the rule on apostrophes with "its"? Apart from the shortened form of it is, should they ever be used to show possession? One of the things that really annoys me is when I see shop signs with apostrophes in the wrong place. Do the makers not grammar check them?

[Trihan]

For possessive you use its. You only use an apostrophe when you're contracting it is or it has.

STEALTH EDIT

[TerranRich]

This was mentioned earlier by Andail.

Its = possessive
It's = contraction (it is, it has)