Grammar

Butterfly said:
YES, because "ladie" is not even a word; "lady" is singular and "ladies" is plural. So if it is special pricing night for all people of the female persuasion, it should properly be "ladies' night."

It just seems to me that people should make the effort, if they are going to put up a big outdoor sign, to get the grammar correct.
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I think sign makers can't spell. They are great painters though. Very creative. Eye catching. Now I'm thinking. On purpose to get attention?
 

Butterfly said:
YES, because "ladie" is not even a word; "lady" is singular and "ladies" is plural. So if it is special pricing night for all people of the female persuasion, it should properly be "ladies' night."

It just seems to me that people should make the effort, if they are going to put up a big outdoor sign, to get the grammar correct.
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I used to pass a large billboard and laugh every time. It said: "Welcome to Kissimmee/St. Cloud. We're glad your here!" Now, those billboards cost somewhere between $5,000-$7,000 to rent. Wouldn't you think that considering all the people who had to sign off on the copy for that billboard, that someone would have caught the "your"?
 

Camper6 said:
I think sign makers can't spell. They are great painters though. Very creative. Eye catching. Now I'm thinking. On purpose to get attention?
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I doubt it. Misspellings to get attention tend to be punny or emphatic. Only rarely would those call for misplaced apostrophes and improper plurals, and when they did the intent would/should be obvious. "Ladie's Night" would qualify if the owner or bartender goes by "Ladie" (Adelaide, perhaps?), and offered specials one night a week. Then it would be punny and clever. Otherwise it's just irritatingly poor grammar.

Several years ago I was selling my mother's house. There were still some large pieces of furniture remaining (including a pool table) and the closing date was nearly upon me. I ran a couple of Craigslist ads under the "Free" category, and within 20 minutes had to remove the listing, such was the barrage of emails from people who wanted them.

How to decide between all those "I would love to have this and can pick it up anytime you say!" offers?

For each item I'd received only a single reply that included the information I'd requested (a name and cell number), plus all the words were spelled correctly and there were no glaring grammatical errors. The way the respondents presented themselves made my decision easy.
 
Sad ....

iu
 
We don't have the "Grammar Police". Nor is there a Supreme Grammar Court to decide cases. What we have is usage. If enough people use a particular way to express themselves, then that way becomes the norm. Our language, and how we express it are always in flux.
 
Butterfly said:
Maybe so. But we need those arcane rules to keep the language together. Besides, what's "arcane" about proper spelling and use of apostrophes. "Arcane" is maybe something like the Oxford comma controversy.
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I love the Oxford comma and use it whenever the opportunity presents itself.

One thing I'm a bit of a rebel about is sentence punctuation within quotation marks. British rules are less restrictive than American, in that they say to use one's judgment based on the context. So I go with that.
 
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world


we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
and death i think is no parenthesis

E. E. Cummings
 
In the dime stores and bus stations
People talk of situations
Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future
My love, she speaks softly
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.

Bob Dylan
 
Olivia said:
since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world


we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life’s not a paragraph
and death i think is no parenthesis

E. E. Cummings
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Yes. In spite of, or because of my excellent education, I choose to embrace a more lateral form of communication. In my job,
I deal In peeling back the superficial layers of a person’s mask in order to reach the person within. As a child I had elocution lessons, my grammar was constantly corrected by my mother, our resident grammar Nazi and high school English teacher. Yikes, was I made fun of by my peers. Lol. Funny, when I am angry, that clipped, formal, polysyllabic speech pattern returns, as does proper punctuation in any written missive. Perhaps being a poet also affects my perception around certain things.
 
Little Johnny's teacher comes to visit to discuss his progress in school with his parents.

Johnny answers the door. "Good evening, Johnny," says the teacher. "Is your mother in?"

"She ain't here, Teacher."

"Well, what about your father? Is he home?"

"He ain't not here, either."

"Johnny! Where is your grammar?"

"She done gone to bingo."
 

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