I never really had much grammar in school, but since marrying the son of an English professor, I’ve often felt a bit self-conscious about it, especially more obscure things like:
Use “which” to add qualifying information to something and “that” to distinguish between two or more items.
Ex. “I went to my house which is white with green shutters.” vs. “I went to the house that is white (not the house that is red).”
Use “who” as a subject and “whom” as an object – i.e. use “who” where you would use “I” and “whom” where you would use “me”.
Ex. “Who spoke to whom about whom?”
Are those examples correct? Anybody know any other crazy grammar rules?
The predicate nominative, which I believe is the result of trying to graft a Latin grammar rule onto English. ‘It is I’ may be good Latin, but in English, it just makes you sound like a comic-book superhero.
When a telemarketer asks for me, I answer with the grammatically correct, “This is he.” That really throws them off.
I think the a/an rule is weird, especially since some words starting with “H” can be pronounce with or without the “H” sound, depending on your accent. “An hospital” is one example.
Hmm. Never heard that one. The rule for ‘that’ and ‘which’ is to use ‘that’ in essential clauses and ‘which’ in nonessential clauses. Ex: I like the pen that is red (essential).
This pen, which is red, is my favorite. (nonessential because you have already indicated which pen you mean.)
A quick rule of thumb is: If the clause is set off by commas, use ‘which.’ If no commas, use ‘that.’
“Now you pissed me off. You and I? We’re NEVER gonna be friends.”
The question presupposes the existence of a grammar floating out there somewhere, available for determining correct and incorrect usage.
It’s a useful fiction, but a fiction nonetheless. If you feel like saying “It’s me.” and your friends all say “It’s me.” there is no one out there to arrest you for saying it. Nor for saying “It is I.”
If you want to sound like a particular group of people you can learn their usage and try to imitate it. If you want to avoid sounding like a comic-book hero there are some constructions you should avoid. If you want to deliberately break a common rule of grammar to irritate people you can. (Where are we wenting?)
Granted, there are some “rules” that are so pervasive that to ignore them makes communication almost impossible. Others are so rarely broken that they stand out like a sore thumb (“Verbs has to agree with their subjects.”) but they don’t really interfere with understanding. And some, like the rare ones listed above, are fine details of usage that are either used so infrequently that we don’t remember what the rule is, or the usage varies so widely that we can’t agree on a rule.
The point being that just because someone states a “rule of grammar” no one is obliged to follow it, or emend their speech because of it. At best the rule-maker is pointing out common usage, perhaps from people that are desirable to imitate – the best writers, the upper class, English professors, whatever. But it’s only a rule in your own mind.
“Cheddar?”
“We don’t get much call for that around here, Sir.”
AFAIK the rule is applied to the correct pronunciation of a word but Monty Python used it in the sketch Eric the Half A Bee to poke at clipped British intonation.