Shannii's Grammar Thread

Lol :joy:
Thatā€™s actually really funny. I wish I could go to California. Iā€™m from VA.
My accent is nonexistent.

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Lol, I blame ā€˜Keeping up with the Kardashiansā€™ :joy:

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What is VA an abbreviation of?

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Virginia. Sorry for the late response.

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Ohhh I think Virginia sounds like such a pleasant place to live :grin:

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I heard latin people (me included) sound like people from Florida when they speak in English. Is this really accurate? - and no, not with strong accents like Sofia Vergara, more like Shakira or Gisele BĆ¼ndchen.

Donā€™t get too down! You definitely have an accent to us English people: an American one!

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Bumping!

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Thank you so much for this! You sound like my old ELA teacher! (Thatā€™s a very good thing, I loved her) I am so glad you decided to do this, as many people will benefit from this. :heart:

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Hello! Iā€™m glad you liked it! Iā€™ll be sure to update soon after much deliberation on what I should cover next. In the meantime, please feel free to check out my new blog post on exposition and how it can make or break a story!

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This has turned into something way more than just a grammar thread, but nowā€™s the time for a new update!

Itā€™s been a while and Iā€™m super sorry for that, but I thought we could discuss the use of pretentious vocabulary today.

It all started with a blog post about ā€œbig wordsā€ that seemed to do pretty well this month, so I thought Iā€™d take a few moments out to make a post about it on here too!

You have to be really careful when youā€™re adding in big words that are less frequently used. You can look like youā€™re doing one of the following:

  1. Patronising your audience, trying to make it seem like you know more than they do.
    Okay, I do this one in the occasional argument. Itā€™s a really easy trap to fall into. Avoid it like the plague if you can. All itā€™s going to to do is make it seem like you think youā€™re above your audience and, if they donā€™t understand what youā€™re saying, your writing will become less accessible (meaning that they wonā€™t be able to really understand and engage with it). Your message and storyline will be lost in a bombardment of big words!
  2. Looking like you have no clue what youā€™re saying yourself.
    This oneā€™s pretty common on Episode and seems to come from people thinking that using big words automatically makes their writing more sophisticated. Thatā€™s really not true, and you end up kinda looking silly.
  3. Losing the point of your work.
    If you try to bombard your reader with words that are difficult to understand, you might lose your point yourself, which would be even weirder than your audience simply not understanding it. This happens when you spend so much time wondering what synonym you should use for a specific word that you lose the tone of the work completely! Remember that different words have different connotations. ā€œSlenderā€ and ā€œskinnyā€ may be synonyms, but one sounds way more positive than the other!

But also be careful: it is important to make sure that you add words that arenā€™t necessarily easy to understand. Sometimes they make more sense and fit better into a sentence. Other times, your work sounds like a childrenā€™s book - which can be even more patronising to the audience - so adding in a complex word every now and then may add to the work in a very positive way. Plus, why not teach your readers a new word every now and then? You can do it very well if you know how!

If you want to find out how, please check out the blog post and help me grow! The more views I get, the more of an excuse I have to drop my hours at work and pursue giving you all free advice as a career :wink:

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Please give suggestions for the next post! Iā€™d love to know what grammar points you all struggle with!

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Of course! Haha use away :blush:

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Due to a complaint in the forums today, I feel like my next post should be addressing the infamous ā€œand meā€ vs ā€œand Iā€ā€¦ and I have to tell you that both are right. It completely depends on how you use them.

Before I get to the easier way to tell which one to use, Iā€™ll explain it in more grammatical terms.

Basically, you use ā€œmeā€ when you and the other person are the object in the sentence. And ā€œIā€ when youā€™re the subject.

Broadly, that means that ā€œIā€ does an action or a verb and ā€œmeā€ has the verb or action done to them.

Itā€™s the same principle as ā€œwhoā€ and ā€œwhomā€!

Now on to the easy way to tell.

When youā€™re talking about yourself only, would you say ā€œdid you do that for Iā€ or ā€œme am going to the shopā€?

Nope! Youā€™d say ā€œdid you do that for meā€ and ā€œI am going to the shopā€. The same applies even when you add another person. So the correct way to say those sentences when youā€™re taking about yourself and someone else would be exactly the same.

The correct way to say those two sentences with another person would be ā€œdid you make that for Anabelle and me?ā€ And ā€œTheo and I are going to the shopsā€.

I hope that makes sense!

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This is a super important thing to remember. Iā€™ve seen even the most well-written stories on here get confused with this little rule. Itā€™s probably because so many people are told itā€™s ā€œblah blah and Iā€ at school and were constantly corrected without an explanation!

I am also a lowkey grammar police looool. Spag is one of the best things Iā€™m good at

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The good old grammar police ā€“ international edition :wink:

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same lol

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Bumping this :smile:

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Bump :sunny:

Grammar is very important in stories ^^

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