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Old September 26th, 2013 #1
Alex Linder
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Default Is this wrong?

For someone with great grammatical knowledge: is this (first) sentence I contrived, which says exactly and precisely what I intend, grammatically wrong?

(tweet)

Like every other fortysomething, I feel I music was better 20 years ago. <---------------the sentence in question


This is not proof. This is a Divinyls video.

Last edited by Alex Linder; September 26th, 2013 at 12:53 AM.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #2
Donnie in Ohio
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Dude, music was better 40 years ago. Someone hand me my cane. I don't have any grammatical knowledge, but I'm a giver none the less.
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Old September 26th, 2013 #3
Alex Linder
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Donnie in Ohio View Post
Dude, music was better 40 years ago. Someone hand me my cane. I don't have any grammatical knowledge, but I'm a giver none the less.
That's my point. EVERYONE thinks music was best in his coming of age years, roughly 12-25. And they think that because THEY were better then. Which is what I tried to express concisely elegantly, without falling into poetry. So you stumble over what I said, but it's written to cause that. It appears to be a typo or a missed edit, but it's not, and you see that when you read it the second time. That's the idea anyway.

Last edited by Alex Linder; September 27th, 2013 at 12:42 AM.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #4
Donnie in Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Alex Linder View Post
That's my point. EVERYONE thinks music was best in his coming of age years, roughly 12-25. And they think that because THEY were better then.
That's approaching profound, Alex.
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Old September 26th, 2013 #5
M.N. Dalvez
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Why do you ask, Alex? Did someone, elsewhere, 'take issue' with that sentence on grammatical grounds?

Quote:
Like every other fortysomething, I feel I music was better 20 years ago.
Quote:
I would have added 'that' before 'music', to indicate that 'music was better...' is a subordinate clause, dependent upon the main clause in that sentence - that you are stating your opinion, not an absolute fact.
Don't agree, it's self evident and irrelevant that it's an opinion. It's a statement of feeling as you can tell from 'feel.' Generally there unless rhythm requires it that is like a comma, better discarded. Get me to the thing I'm saying, discard the clothes and let's fuck. I don't need thats hanging around peeping on my main point like perverts of slat.

Quote:
Whether you genuinely feel that music was better 20 years ago or not is not relevant, because you're obviously stating your opinion, not making an effort to prove that music was objectively better 20 years ago. After all, it's just a short sentence in which you state your opinion.

Main clause: 'I feel'.
Subordinate clause: 'music was better 20 years ago'.
My question is whether the 'I music' part is ungrammatical (1), and if not then (2) what is the name for that double object, I guess it would be.


Other than that, I don't see any grammatical problems with that sentence.

I also would have hyphenated 'forty-something', [/quote]

If you're using it as a noun, as I was, it's better not to hyphenate it. I would hyphenate it as an adjective. The term originated with the show Thirtysomething, which I don't think was hyphenated.

Quote:
but that's not really a grammatical issue. And I am assuming that the 'I' that you wrote before music was a typo.
It's not. That's the whole point of this whole question!

I SAID: the sentence reads exactly the way I want it. My question is whether the 'I music' part is ungrammatical. I don't think so. And if not, if legitimate, what the term is for two nouns together like that.

OOPS MY APOLOGIES I EDITED THIS POST RATHER THAN RESPONDED TO IT, SORRY MN DALVEZ.

Last edited by Alex Linder; September 27th, 2013 at 01:08 AM.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #6
Donnie in Ohio
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I tend to over-hyphenate.

There. I said it.
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Old September 26th, 2013 #7
M.N. Dalvez
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My biggest problem is that I use parentheses (or brackets) far too much. At least, I do that when I'm writing here.

I'm also ashamed of my utterly pitiful grasp of the Dutch language, considering that it's my ancestral language and considering that Dutch is so, so similar to English in so many ways.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #8
Donnie in Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez View Post
My biggest problem is that I use parentheses (or brackets) far too much. At least, I do that when I'm writing here.
I'm not being flippant when I say I've learned more about the English language heer than I ever did in school. I used to capitalize the seasons until someone gently.... almost tenderly, pointed out the error.

Which is the VNN way after all.
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Old September 26th, 2013 #9
M.N. Dalvez
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Quote:
I used to capitalize the seasons until someone gently.... almost tenderly, pointed out the error.
I assume that 'with a rubber truncheon across the back of your head' is what you mean by 'gently, almost tenderly'?

Mind you, there are times when capitalising the seasons is the correct thing to do.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #10
Donnie in Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez View Post
I assume that 'with a rubber truncheon across the back of your head' is what you mean by 'gently, almost tenderly'?
The School of Hard Knocks, it was. This place is tame compared to those hoary days. I've seen things, man.

Quote:
Mind you, there are times when capitalising the seasons is the correct thing to do.
Oh fuck me. When?
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Old September 26th, 2013 #11
M.N. Dalvez
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At the beginning of a sentence.

Or as part of a proper name.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #12
Donnie in Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez View Post
At the beginning of a sentence.

Or as part of a proper name.
Wheh. I thought there was some super-obscure time when it was appropriate to capitalize them. lol.

I'm a perfectionist at heart. I did the hyphen thing again, didn't I?
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Old September 26th, 2013 #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez View Post
My biggest problem is that I use parentheses (or brackets) far too much. At least, I do that when I'm writing here.
I probably infected you with that.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #14
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Old September 26th, 2013 #15
Donnie in Ohio
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Quote:
Originally Posted by varg View Post
I probably infected you with that.
Well, you are a gypsy. Wait.. Should 'gypsy' be capitalized?
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Old September 26th, 2013 #16
M.N. Dalvez
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Hey, SUNOFSPARTA, you take that back! Grammar is not boring!

(Well, okay, maybe it is a little bit boring ... )

Quote:
I probably infected you with that.
Perhaps. And it's just too easy to use parentheses when you're writing on a Net forum. On paper, it looks like shit; which is enough to discourage me from doing it excessively in that medium.
 
Old September 26th, 2013 #17
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Thumbs up

Heer at VNNf I've learned the utility of italicization.
(thanks, Donnie. I owe you one, man.)
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Old September 26th, 2013 #18
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I agree with the structure proposed by MND.


I am guilty of overuse of the en dash.
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Old September 26th, 2013 #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M.N. Dalvez View Post
At the beginning of a sentence.

Or as part of a proper name.
Or when they are part of a proper noun.



Have they really spent £30bn on the 2014 Winter Olympics?
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Old September 27th, 2013 #20
M.N. Dalvez
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Yeah, OK, 'proper noun' was a better way to say it, but that's what 'proper name' means.
 
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