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I know this is petty but... it's BOUGHT not BROUGHT!
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My little boy used to drive me mad adding random n'ts to words. Two that stick in my memory are: I amn't and we'd bettern't. Thankfully he seems to have grown out of this now
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They were not random! No language is ever random (unless you are clinically insane). There is always a reason why people say things and what your little boy was doing may well have been what Noam Chomsky called 'virtuous errors' - proof of just how miraculous the infant brain is at understanding grammatical patterns, processing and producing language independently.My little boy used to drive me mad adding random n'ts to words. Two that stick in my memory are: I amn't and we'd bettern't. Thankfully he seems to have grown out of this now
For example...your little boy had noticed that people form negatives, e.g. I can't, I don't by adding the sound 'nt' to the positive form of the verb (I can, I do). So he applied the same 'rule' to I am and got 'I amnt', which is pretty amazing if you ask me. It's called a virtuous error because it was a logical one based on a rational premise - how was he to know that 'I'm not' is normally irregularly contracted to 'I'm not'? In his mind, he is trying to get the 'rule' correct. Buy the boy a jammy bun!0 -
Mind_the_Gap wrote: »I have an affection for ellipsis, personally...:)
Yes, the ellipsis is great...but often overused throughout sentences instead of full stops or commas...it's just easier to type...but makes it a hell of a lot more difficult to read...don't you think...? And then try reading that for sixteen lines in one paragraph.
One of my favourite episodes of The West Wing was where Toby listed the 14 punctuation marks of the English language. He also informed us of the only three English words to begin with the letters 'dw' and the only fruit to grow its seeds on the outside.
I love Toby.
KiKi' <-- See that? It's called an apostrophe. It does not mean "hey, look out, here comes an S".0 -
Mind_the_Gap wrote: »I have seen the error of my ways
...not a chance, i have a feeling this thread will be very homely for you :rotfl:My posts are my opinion which is neither right nor wrong.0 -
Mind_the_Gap wrote: »Buy the boy a jammy bun!
I love that you're a grammar pedant, and I love that you still believe a jammy bun is a special enough reward for a child's truly brilliant deduction.
Marry me.
KiKi' <-- See that? It's called an apostrophe. It does not mean "hey, look out, here comes an S".0 -
Yes, the ellipsis is great...but often overused throughout sentences instead of full stops or commas...it's just easier to type...but makes it a hell of a lot more difficult to read...don't you think...? And then try reading that for sixteen lines in one paragraph.
I have. I used to give Rodent (see above) counselling for his ellipsis issues, once. (Long ago and far away, in a land right over the ocean). He only regresses when he's drunk or very tired.0 -
DVardysShadow wrote: »Thanks for that. In under 20 minutes from when B&T posted you have established yourself as an expert in a question which many lesser minds would dismiss as a mere typo. Before you go, would you clarify for us the distinction between normal wisdom and Norman Wisdom?
Actually, I did mean normal French, honest guv. My error was the capital letter in "Normal".
Norman Wisdom? No idea....much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
Mind_the_Gap wrote: »I don't think you can have an advice, surely? Isn't it a non-countable noun? So, some advice.
You can have "an advice" in some circumstances. In my work, for example, I'm often briefed to produce an advice. "Counsel is kindly requested to draft an advice on the above points by a week next Monday....."
Edited to say - in case you think I'm spinning a line, the Bar Council says:
Barristers do not normally handle “transactions”, only individual pieces of work (eg an advice or a court hearing).
http://www.barcouncil.org.uk/about/instructingabarrister/shoppingforlegalservices-barristers/...much enquiry having been made concerning a gentleman, who had quitted a company where Johnson was, and no information being obtained; at last Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney'.0 -
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