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Grammar Addendum

Well, this is embarrassing. A little bird has told me quietly that I’ve made some recent errors regarding use of the words “past” (indicating former time) and “passed” (past tense of the verb “to pass”) in more than a couple of posts here. <Insert choice language here>!

So, time to own up. We are nothing in the Grand Duchy of Stollen if not brutally honest and forthcoming about our faults. Let me assure those of you Stollen regulars who notice such things that I do know the difference between these two words. Even worse, this is a point I hammer into my writing students during the school year!

I figure that one of three things has happened in each case. Either I have been too hasty in typing my posts and have typed one when I meant the other, or I’ve depended too heavily on spell-check, which will sometimes change a misspelled word to another one that’s close to it, not necessarily the one you intended. Or, three, I need to beef up my editing skills before “pasting” (not “passeding”) an entry into the blog. Grumble, grumble, grumble. . .

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program

Comments

David Morfitt said…
Hi Stokes,

I confess I had noticed that but didn't want to say anything - indeed, I wasn't sure if it was just yet another oddity of American English (compared with English English, that is). :-)

It's the sort of thing that easily happens when dashing off another blog post, though, so hopefully you don't feel too despondent about it.

All the best,

David.
2:57 PM
Fitz-Badger said…
Yeah, I noticed, too, but we all make mistakes like that even when we know better. To err is human... :-)

(drives me crazy when people write "could of" when they mean "could've" or "I could care less" (I think it should be "I couldn't care less") or mix up words like "your" and "you're" or "there" and "their" - but I know as soon as I start trying to correct them I'll commit a typo or error in grammar or something! Probably did one here somewhere! lol)
7:44 PM
CWT said…
I hadn't noticed, if that makes you feel better.

Just claim it's some 'authentic' period grammar, from the years before Dr Johnson wrote the dictionary. That way, how can you possibly be wrong?
2:01 AM
Martin said…
Hello Stokes,

Editing youself are hard! (Ha, ha.) Of course we all want to communicate clearly and put our best foot forward, but on the other hand, as long as your intent was clear, this is a pretty forgiving bunch. So lighten up on yourself Professor.

Yours,

Martin
11:54 AM
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