Daily Dose of English
Feel free to submit, and ask us anything!
*This blog is operated by two busy people who don't always get to update as often as we would like.
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unevienonvecue Je suis en vie. -
tastewithyourfingers the lonely hero
I (Caitlin) thought it might be interesting to do a few posts on grammar differences between English and other languages. Would you all be interested in this? Let us know by responding to this post of leaving messages in our ask.
-DDOE
- Amanda: Knock knock
- Nico: Who's there?
- Amanda: To
- Nico: To who?
- Amanda: It's to WHOM!
LOL
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
—James D. NicollHa!
so true.
(via foulmouthedliberty)
Here’s some Schoolhouse Rock! to help you remember prepositions.
We here at DDOE feel pretty bad when we see such glaring grammatical errors, but not THIS bad!
Hello, readers! The Doctor here.
Lately, I’ve been asked about how to properly punctuate titles that occur in the body of a written work. This is especially useful for students who need to learn how to cite other papers or books in their own essays; most formatting styles take these rules into account.
Luckily, there are a few simple steps.
- Italicize titles of long works that have been published separately, such as To Kill a Mockingbird (book), Long Day’s Journey into Night (play), or Beowulf (epic poem). Also italicize magazine, movie, and TV show titles. If you want to refer to an anthology, such as a collection of poems, italicize that as well. Finally, italicize the names of ships, but not their beginning letters. For example: H.M.S. Pinafore.
- Place quotation marks (“) around the titles of book chapters, television episodes, magazine/newspaper articles, and short stories/poems.
- Underlining used to be used in place of italics when people had to write by hand or on a typewriter and couldn’t use italics. Outside of where it is required by MLA or ALA formatting, you don’t need to use underlines.
Happy holidays, readers!
Warmly,
Nico, the Doctor
When to use lie and lay can be a challenging concept o master, but never fear DDOE is here.
Lie is in transitive and will never have an object.
Lay is transitive and can have an object.
Also “to lie” is done with one’s whole body, and “to lay” is done with the hand to something else.
Hello, readers. The Doctor here.
An analogy is a comparison of two ideas in order to explain the first idea. Two major types of analogies are similes and metaphors, which are both individually featured in upcoming lessons. Using analogies can be a good strategy for when you must explain an abstract concept to stupid people. Always remember that an analogy’s proper use is to clarify, not persuade.
