Grammar Corner

GimmeTheBall!

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You Yanks and Yankettes mangle the Queen's English so frequently that I have decided to begin a gramnar go-to place.
Have a question on grammar? Usage? Punctuation? Awful trends in the language?

Try me, blokes!

Each day or so I will highlight a facet of English that we tend to mangle.

Let's begin with the common mistake of noun verb usage:
"Each one of you have a mission in life."
It should be thus:
"Each one of you HAS a mission in life."
Each is called a determiner. And it's a pronoun. But it can mimic a noun that affects the verb has/have.

Each is singular, thus, has.
 

Runwildboys

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People seem to get insulted and angry when anyone tries to correct them.

That said, I would've begun by mentioning that "of" should never follow "would", "could", "should", or "might".
I believe the sound of the contraction is what causes the confusion, but "would have" or "would've" is the correct phrasing, not "would of".

That just irritates me.
 

Londonboy

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People seem to get insulted and angry when anyone tries to correct them.

That said, I would've begun by mentioning that "of" should never follow "would", "could", "should", or "might".
I believe the sound of the contraction is what causes the confusion, but "would have" or "would've" is the correct phrasing, not "would of".

That just irritates me.
Allot of People make that mistake.
The might of Rome was it's Legions BTW:p
 

Montanalo

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You Yanks and Yankettes mangle the Queen's English so frequently that I have decided to begin a gramnar go-to place.
Have a question on grammar? Usage? Punctuation? Awful trends in the language?.

I like the idea of a grammar thread and, at the least, it will be fun.

So, explain this use of the Queen's English: very recently, I heard a BBC newsreader state, "... the government are blah, blah, blah". Why is government considered plural in this sentence? This isn't the first time I have heard the "pluralization" of what most Americans would consider a singular noun.

By the way, I lived in the UK for a number of years and am an avid reader of the London Times as well as the BBC
 
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