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“Grammatical errors” or “grammar errors”?
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Can you say “higher the volume”? (I’m pretty sure you can’t, but my teacher doesn’t believe me.) What about “make the volume higher”?
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Is “A friend of mine’s dad…” grammatically correct? You could always change it to My friend’s dad, but is the former acceptable?
Grammatical.
Volume and size go together, not height. So, “greater the volume”.
A dad of a friend of mine… or My friend’s dad…
As a non-native speaker I have seen both, even on websites about “grammar errors”. Can you tell me whether “grammatical” is just preferred or “grammar errors” is plain wrong?
“Higher the volume” as you’re saying it (as an alternative to “make the volume higher”) appears to be attempting to use “higher” as a verb – and such a usage is colloquial verging on illiterate (not a putdown, the technical terms for “casual conversation” and “never used by educated speakers but occasional usage noted dialectally or in subcultures”). It sounds like it might be a holdover from an ethnic usage, like “Throw mama from the train a kiss.”
Obviously, it can be used in an English absolute construction as a comparative, as in “The higher the volume, the more your neighbors will complain.”
“A friend of mine’s dad…” is good colloquial English but the parallel usage (which wouldn’t use “dad” anyway) should be avoided in anything relatively formal. In that case, use “My friend’s father…” unless it’s essential to make it clear that you are speaking of the father of only one of an indefinite number of friends, in which case the drawn-out “The father of a friend of mine…” would be desirable – but it’s terribly wordy when the meaning is adequately conveyed by “My friends’ father.”
I think ‘grammar errors’ is wrong because ‘grammar’ is a noun, not an adjective. Of course, ubiquitous usage may make ‘grammar errors’ into an accepted noun phrase.
[QUOTE=agiantdwarf]
2) Can you say “higher the volume”? (I’m pretty sure you can’t, but my teacher doesn’t believe me.) What about “make the volume higher”?
[QUOTE]
Depends on whether we’re talking about volume as a measurement of space, or referring to the level of sound.
For space, it should be “the greater the volume”. But for sound “higher” would be fine.
If you’re looking for a verb about sound, the word you’re looking for is “raise.” You raise the volume on the radio.
BTW, that’s not grammar, it’s usage.
And for spatial volume, it’s “increase”. This works for sound levels as well.
There’s nothing wrong with “grammar errors.” A noun can be used to modify another noun. And it has nothing to do with ubiquitous usage.
Consider “a Tommy Hilfinger jacket.” “Tommy Hilfinger” modifies “jacket” and is a noun. If a new clothing manufacturer comes along and wants to name something a “Hungadunga shoe,” it doesn’t require any particular ubiquitious usage.
“Grammatical errors” is definitely right. “Grammar errors” would be OK for informal use, but I wouldn’t put it in print. “Errors in grammar” is a good choice.
“Higher” is not a verb. How about “raise the volume”?
No, this sounds bad even for colloquial use. “The dad of a friend of mine” would be OK for informal, colloquial use.
True. But there’s no adjectival version of Tommy Hilfinger. Given there is one, for grammar, I would think grammatical is preferred. Of course, English has no “Academie Anglaise” guarding the borders. Use whatever you want, as long as the point is accurately gotten across.
I beg to differ. “A friend of mine’s dad”-type constructions are regularly used 'round these parts. I would never use it in a formal context, but colloquially, sure, no problem. It makes perfect sense: the possessive is modifying the entire noun phrase [friend of mine]'s. We don’t generally do this in formal English (although you will see constructions like “Jim and Jane’s child,” which usually means the child belonging to Jim and Jane, not Jane’s child and Jim. This construction is correct in formal use, if it doesn’t lead to ambiguity.)
I just though that it was worth pointing out that there is no N in “Tommy Hilfiger”.
Gaudere’s Law never seems to lose any of its potency, does it?
But there is a ‘t’ at the end of thought.
(j/k)
Is a 400 pound woman smokes 1 cigarette/month, is she a heavy smoker?
please make the first word of my initial post if not is
Combining two examples from http://www.bartleby.com/64/C001/049.html how about a picture of mine’s frame? It can’t be rephrased as My picture’s frame as this is ambiguous (it could be a picture of me, or a picture of mine). An ‘noun phrase appostrophe s’ is apparently allowed, but too long a one is described as ‘cumbersome’ – but not described as wrong.
And Gaudere strikes again!
…and tried to strike at least twice more while I was typing this, but I was too smart. Just about. 
Although “higher the volume” is clearly wrong, it seems strange that the analogous phrase “lower the volume” seems perfectly OK. Apparently “lower” can be used as a verb (“lower the boom”), but higher can’t?