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Author Topic: How would you react if your cat were gay, and used proper grammar?
AntiCool
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Would you congratulate him for getting subjunctive mood correct, or would you both just mock those that get it wrong?

[ February 22, 2005, 10:29 AM: Message edited by: AntiCool ]

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ketchupqueen
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I love that you edited your post. [Big Grin]
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Dagonee
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Do you get all tense about these things, AntiCool?
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AntiCool
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No. But sometimes I just enjoy a good-natured mock.

But seriously -- growing up, my father was crazy about correcting our grammar. If I had a nickel for ever time he said "subjunctive case, statement contrary to fact", I'd [insert pseudo-clever ending to overused phrase here]. [Smile]

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rivka
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*helpful* . . . have a large sockful of nickels that might be useful for beating people about the head with?
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Dagonee
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What's that?

It's the sound of a pun going right over AC's head. [Taunt]

Off to pun jail with you. If you're lucky, we'll let Bev make conjugate visits.

Dagonee

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AntiCool
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Being oblivious to puns around me has significantly increased my quality of life, so there. [Razz]
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Dagonee
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I've never heard such nounsense.
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ketchupqueen
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Amen! After growing up around my father, I'm inured-- mostly out of self-defense.
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AntiCool
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quote:
I've never heard such nonsense.
No, I'm serious.
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[Wink]

[ February 22, 2005, 10:50 AM: Message edited by: AntiCool ]

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Dagonee
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Word.
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AntiCool
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What did you just say about my mother? [Mad] [Mad]
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Megan
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In answer to the thread's title, well, I'd start making some money of my talking cat, for pete's sake! (of course, I'd also have to take out stock in Claritin, since I'm desperately allergic to cats)...but, then, I'd retire on Fluffy's earnings and live the good life...perhaps in Tahiti...
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Dagonee
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Ice ice baby.
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AntiCool
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In high school, my physics teacher had a cat named Fluffy. He would always give us word problems like "You shoot Fluffy out of a cannot with an initial velocity of 20 m/sec, at an angle of 30 degress. 100 meters away is a brick wall. How far will fluffy fall to the ground after hitting the brick wall?"
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Dagonee
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Assuming a spherical Fluffy...
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AntiCool
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I take my hat off to you, Dag. [Hat]
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soubrette27
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Dude, we are totally going to have to try that!!! Where's my cat?

Has anyone else ever put bread and butter on a cat's back to see which was true, bread always lands butter side down, or a cat always lands on its feet?

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Dagonee
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The results were disappointing. The cat landed on its feet, and promptly rolled over on its back.
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Noemon
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quote:
Off to pun jail with you. If you're lucky, we'll let Bev make conjugate visits.
When you put it that way, how can he decline?
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Dagonee
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Well, they might be to abbreviated to be worth it.
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ClaudiaTherese
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Don't leave him dangling, now. Spending time together is part and participle of married life.
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Noemon
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no con junction, no matter how abbreviated, would be "not worth it"! They live for those moments.
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Noemon
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In years to come, that last pun of mine will be looked back on as the single best pun of the 21st century. In the eyes of The Future: Perfect.
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Dagonee
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The wors thing about prison life is the food - low fiber diets are bad for the colon. That can put you in a comma, or make you have to dash off to the bathroom.
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Storm Saxon
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My grammar is terrible. I know this and I appreciate it when people point out when I make a mistake.

I am confused, though. My Macmillan's says that were is used in if clauses that suppose something contrary to fact for formal English, but was is common in informal and general English, except in the expression As it were.

[ February 22, 2005, 01:02 PM: Message edited by: Storm Saxon ]

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Ophelia
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Just because it's common doesn't make it prescriptively correct.

While your average linguist would accept it, a good English teacher wouldn't.

Actually, that's not completely true, since an ESL/EFL teacher would probably accept it.

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beverly
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Aw, look. All your punning has claused Porter to flee the thread.
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Telperion the Silver
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[Wink]
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Dagonee
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Do puns in gerund bother Porter?
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beverly
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No, just puns. Period.
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Dagonee
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That was supposed to be a play on "puns injure and."

The multiwork puns are tricky to pull off.

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Storm Saxon
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quote:

Just because it's common doesn't make it prescriptively correct.

Can you elaborate on how using were instead of was makes the meaning of what I said more clear.
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beverly
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If you are using the word "if", you shouldn't be using the word "was". It's called the subjunctive case.

Dag: I missed the pun, but I responded to the actual meaning of gerund.

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Dagonee
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I know. It was poor execution on my part. I guess I punted that one.
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AntiCool
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quote:
Can you elaborate on how using were instead of was makes the meaning of what I said more clear.
Here's my understanding. The subjunctive mood is used whenever you are making a statment that is not true, such as "I wish I were an elephant". If it is present tense, you use the word "were", but if it's past tense, you use the word "was".

So, the meanings are different between "I wish I were an elephant [now]." and "I wish I was an elephant [yesterday]."

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Storm Saxon
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Awesome, Porter. Thanks. It's clear to me now.
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mothertree
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Aw crud. I was two posts from baggin "I'm not in the mood for this."
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David Bowles
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There is an extraneous comma in this thread's title. It's not a compound sentence... it's a compound predicate, and as a result, it needs no comma before the "and."
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Mike
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quote:
Here's my understanding. The subjunctive mood is used whenever you are making a statment that is not true, such as "I wish I were an elephant". If it is present tense, you use the word "were", but if it's past tense, you use the word "was".
I don't think this is right. It should be "I wish I had been an elephant."
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rivka
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Pink or white?
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