Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Grammar Check - Ken Howell, can I get an opinion?

u "spell'in/grammer police" crack me up...Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

Irregardles, until Ken Howell chimes up, it's all water under the bridge.

When Alejandrina Cabrera speaks English, it [referring to English] doesn't quite roll off of her tongue the way it [referring again to "English"] does when she speaks in her native Spanish. Well, of course English doesn't roll off her tongue when she speaks Spanish. I can't recall the grammar rule (indefinite something or other, probably).

In a published article in a national news forum about a woman who can barely speak English, the author screws up the first sentence.

Been a long, long time since I really knew these rules; I'd really like to hear what he has to say.

I think thats "regardless".

The sentence sounds fine to me. Could be a regional thing. Who cares...

Don't overlook the theme of the entire article. Undermine the law.

Use PC terms and verbiage to distort perceptions, give rise to emotional reactions, and favor a minority in order to accomplish the theme.

I couldn't care less if the entire community spoke Spanish only. Eliminate the left slant. Disallow journalistic deviousness. Warping minds, with word games or any other method, is evil.

I'll ask again, is the Spanish language, too, being twisted and used to brainwash?

You missed one.

...correct answer.

Surprisingly, you actually have a point this time!

Reading it a few times, I see the problem. The second "it" needs clarification.

Fkcunig azmanig!

Subordinate clause that began with subordinate conjunction (when) was correctly attached to the main clause....nitt pickin'

"When" leads are forbidden in a news reporting; that's Journalism 101. And starting a "when" lead with the word "when" is about as egregious as "when" lead can get.

Then again, contractions, run-on sentences, passive verbs and errors of fact also are frowned upon, but that didn't seem to hold him/her/it back either.

Depends on what the definition of the word "is", is.

Remove "the way", replace with "as".

What dat mean?

I don't think it's a case of irony. It's a case of nonsense because the writer has failed to make his antecedents clear. We know what he means, but he does not say what he means. (Yes, I know "he" is an assumption. Live with it.)

The sentence says: "When Alejandrina Cabrera speaks English, English doesn't quite roll off of her tongue the way English does when she speaks in her native Spanish." Obviously, that's nonsense. No one (not even a Pentecostal) can have English rolling off his tongue while speaking Spanish. There are lots of ways to correct it, but I don't care which way anyone chooses.

I don't know whether Ms. Cabrera's English is too poor for her to be a judge, but the person who wrote the news story has language skills too poor to be a journalist.

Steve.

When speaking English, the words don't roll off her tongue quite the same as they would when speaking in her native Spanish.