Misadventures of the 10lees

It's your mother's fault that you don't know the diff between her and me and all that - b'c I DON'T KNOW IT EITHER. But Glenn told me that if you take each pronoun out and put it at the back of the sentence minus the "and" then you will HEAR that it's right ...
I'm curious what the parade was about? Oops - there's a preposition at the end of that sentence. And me thinking I was pretty good at this! :) Well I never knew about the preposition rule until just recently - and I did only get a 'D' in 8th Grade English! :) Ah - I rattle on! and on and on. ... oops there I go again - oh yeah - this is not MY BLOG! sEE YA!
Love,
Mommers

Yoda says: Much intelligence you have....... a long parade you have wished of...... trust the card you must.......

and I'm spent

R

Your mom is right about "hearing" the me/I distinction. :) That rule is my one pet peeve and, other than that, I am embarrassed to admit that I have some of the worst grammar around. Shame I married someone who can't help but notice! :)

PS It does sound like a nice parade!

This is what I learned about Me/I:

CORRECT:
Joe went to the store with me.
Joe went to the store with Jane and me.

CORRECT:
I went to the store.
Joe and I went to the store.

WRONG:
Joe and me went to the store.
Joe went to the store with Jane and I.

Someone corrected my misuse of the phrase "try to" and it surprised me. Apparently I have been saying it incorrectly for years:

CORRECT:
I will try to finish by tonight.

WRONG:
I will try and finish by tonight.

As much as I wish it did not bother me, I get annoyed by people saying "good" instead of "well."

I personally suffer from CS grammar by putting conditional clauses (is that the correct term?) at the beginning of sentences:

If you give me twenty dollars, I will be happy.
I will be happy if you give me twenty dollars.

Other comments:

Advertising grammar is starting to annoy me. Punctuation is suddenly everywhere in ads! Periods in the middle of sentences do not give clever emphasis anymore. That stopped being effective in the nineties.

Well Babada - I WILL be HAPPY if you give me 20$. So there! :) Thanks for the grammar lessons!
So glad that Roland is still channelling the Yoda spirit! :)
Love,
Mom

Living in Chi town would drive you crazy then. I don't even know what the hell a preposition is but I know we like to end sentences with them a lot. I'm no grammar expert, but the people I work with drive me nuts. I don't even know what the hell they are saying most the time. My favorite is when they ask questions like "why you gotta treat me?" Can't tell you how long it took me to figure that one out.

if you write an entry about being a grammar snob, you may want to go over your grammar in the entry before posting it. ;o) just a suggestion... you know, i'm so helpful and whatnot.

Well, see what I miss by being on my deathbed for several days? Babada used the entry that I was going to use to explain when to use which pronoun.

I will back you up by saying that the sentence in question is a poorly-written example of everything that is wrong with greeting cards in general. I'm guessing the author was trying to make a clever little rhyme, and "of" was the best they could do.

Technically speaking, however, there are varying opinions on whether or not to use a preposition at the end of a sentence. I know because I asked some of the professors in my department this very question. Some old-school professors will side with you and say that it is never ever acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition.

Now, according to the "Bible" of grammar and proofreading, The Chicago Manual of Style (title should be underlined, but I am too sick to look up the html neccessary to do so), "The 'rule' prohibiting terminal prepositions was an ill-founded superstition." They precede this quote by saying that "a sentence that ends in a preposition may sound more natural than a sentence carefully constructed to avoid a final preoposition." They use the example made famous by Winston Churchill, "That is the type of arrant pedantry up with which I shall not put." (5.169, pg. 188-189)

They also say that prepositions can end relative clauses and sentneces. I can't remember what a relative clause is, and I am too sick to look it up. I believe it is anything that follows a relative pronoun (this, that, etc.) "And a preposition used with the relative pronoun that (or with that understood) always follows the object." They go on to say that it sometimes does or does not follow which or whom. (5.162) (pg. 187)

So, the bottom line is that it is now usually ok to end a sentence with a preposition, especially if it would sound pretentious not to. (ahaha)

In the case of your sample sentence, I would say that the reverse is true. It appears to have been artificially altered to make the sentence end with a preposition on purpose, and that was a poor decision, even in the interest of a greeting card rhyme.

one time when I was really paying attention - I noticed that C.S. Lewis ended a sentence w/a prop. I was SHOCKED! So I agree with Lo on this one. :)
My mom used to correct my english - I used to say, "Linda, she went to school and ..." She used to correct me INCESSANTLY on the use of the proper name and pronoun together and told me it was redundant - funny - it's not a mistake that either of my children ever made - that I can remember anyway. ;)

Dr G - you don't pay for my blog, so technically I can write how I want - right?? See I said 'spend money on'... I don't much mind if I am reading a friend's blog.

Hmmmm, well I was raised with old school grammer rules. And old school penmanship, but that example of Churchill was hilarious!

Perhaps I am just more annoyed the ending 'of' than anything else... greeting cards are atrocious!

Now we NEED to give Marcus A PARADE - I hope you are planning HOW we're going to do that!? Maybe just take him to his Dad's parade at 6 am - no wait that'll just make him CRANKY all day! :) Love Mom