39 Comments

What we take for granted as an American English speaker is really complicated, no lie when it is lying there laid out in front of you.

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It's grammar like this that drives me to drink. ;-)

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Haha, I loved this, Bill. I was chuckling all the way through! (I thought about typing “threw” but thought better of it. I don’t need the Grammar Police on my tail!) 🤣

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Thanks, Justin. I'm glad you enjoyed The Grammar Police.

The way I figure grammar is like this: We were all sick for a day or few during English class. That's the lesson we missed; that's are grammar weakness. It's not the same for everyone, but we all have one.

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Haha! 🤣🤣 No doubt about it!

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Spaceswastetoomuchspace. Somanylanguagesgetalongjustfinewithoutthem.Prbblydntndsmnyvwlsthr!

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Iagreewithsavingspace.Itmakesalotofsense.

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Oh, if only that were true. My last poem would have been so much simpler. See below:

I would lay down my life to lie in a field of blue flowers, my soul laid bare by their beauty. My brain knows not if I had lain there before.

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You're brave, Cyn. I would not have walked through that terrifying, dark grammar forest.

I like your poem!

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Finally! Now I can stop groaning over the lay / lie errors in everyone else's writing! What a relief! Now I can just focus on different to / different than / different from.... Thanks for the clever "news", Bill

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Right? Me, too! (That's just one of my grammar weaknesses.)

I'm glad you enjoyed The Grammar Police, Sharron.

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Or do they?!

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The Grammar Police, friend of foe? I'm still wondering about that.

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The grammar police removing words to deal with resource issues will leai the groundwork for more deleted words in the future! Soon we won’t be able to say anything at all!

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The Grammar Police's ultimate objective remains unknown at present. (-@Д@)

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Don't you wish? My biggest pet peeve!!

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I sometimes need the Grammar Police by my side as I write.

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Finally, someone willing to leai down the law.

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I like the way you put that!

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You’re showing your grammar police to be two times too rigid. 🤣

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They're after me! I've locked the doors, but I may need to go into hiding. Or pretend I only speak Finnish and am not subject to their rules.

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Laughing out loud and loving this, Bill.

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Thanks, Joanne. I'm happy you enjoyed The Grammar Police.

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Bill, your story reminds me of something... ;-)

But, how do they know they know the best?

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I'm especially worried when the Grammar Police get AI. Then they will never know what they don't know.

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Terrifying prospect.

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Yes, definitely.

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The Grammar Police know best. They know best. They do. That's how we know. ;-)

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Excellent. Thank you.

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Thank you, Kathy. I'm happy you enjoyed The Grammar Police.

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Amazing how you can get a story to be an exact number of words long and make it sound completely natural.

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Thanks, Scott. Originally, I didn't plan for The Grammar Police to be a centina. But after the first draft it was close, so I decided to play with the story until I made it exactly 100 words.

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When we were - obvs

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It was lovely thank you. I especially liked when we taught about haiku in English and considereth Twitter a modern form of this poetic discipline much maligned that it is.

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I wonder if Twitter and other social media have accelerated changes in language.

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I’m sure they must have - it would be a very rewarding research project for the right person/team.

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