Warrigal
SF VIP
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
I don't know why it shouldn't continue to bother you.
By the way, I now want to know the story behind that sentence.You can't just leave it hanging there (not to be confused with dangling participles).
Thank you. What a nice thing to say. I never worry about Nora Roberts' grammar because she is published by professionals. My disillusionment has been brought on by the self-published authors. Actually, most of them are not bad writers and tell a tale that usually keeps my attention, but the mistakes!!! Gender and name mix-ups, dropped words, the infamous "who" vs. "whom"and "whoever vs. whomever" and finally "for Roger and I!" If they only got themselves at least a proof reader!Thank you for posting that. I've never been a fan of romance novels, but I consider Nora Roberts a cut above most of those. In any case, I don't think that's anything to be ashamed of. That's kind of sweet really.
Re. your last paragraph, OneEyedDiva. Exactly. For as long as I can remember everyone stuck to that rule. Nowadays, farther, farthest seems to have been dropped in favour of further and furthest. Or maybe it is something else I could blame self-published authors for. If I were a stickler I would censor myself for not correcting my previous sentence. Off to bed. And my thanks to everyone who made my day fuller than it has been!We Americans make grammatical errors all the time. Some because it's the slang of the region or we lazily forget to add this or that. Sometimes I'm the grammar police...but I'm not perfect either. You are absolutely right about the Roger and I. The sentence dictates that it be Roger and me for the reason you stated. I hate it when people leave the apostrophe S off of something that shows ownership.. (eg: my mother house) NO! It's my mother's house!
I have heard farther and further used interchangeably. Except one would not say "she wants to farther her career but she wants to further her career. This is the explanation of usage from the Thesaurus:
"farther, farthest; further, furthestTraditionally, farther and farthest were used in referring to physical distance: the falls were still two or three miles farther up the path. Further and furthest were restricted to figurative or abstract senses: we decided to consider the matter further. Although farther and farthest are still restricted to measurable distances, further and furthest are now common in both senses: those plants should be furthest from the window."
So.....when did people start answering a question with "so?