Now pay attention! “Irregardless” is not a word; the word is “regardless.” “Preventative” and “attentative” are not words; the words are “preventive” and “attentive” without the extra “ta” syllable. You go to an “orientation” session to become “oriented,” not “orientated.”
You are not “laying” in bed. If you were, there would be a pile of eggs there. Today you “lie” there, yesterday you “lay” there, and in the past you “have lain” there. However, if you are talking about something you put in the bed, then today you “lay” it there, yesterday you “laid” it there, and in the past you also “have laid” it there.
The words are not pronounced “comPARable” and “irrePARable,” they are pronounced “COMparable” and “irREParable.” And at least until recently when the lexicographers finally gave up and put it in as an allowed pronunciation, the word was correctly pronounced “off-en” without the T, rather than “off-ten” with the T. At least know that the pronunciation of the word “often” has been corrupted, please.
“Hopefully the weather will clear up” is an impossibility. The weather cannot do anything hopefully, and that is the word being modified in that sentence. What you mean to say is, “I hope the weather will clear up.” “Hopefully” used at the beginning of a sentence is almost always wrong.
You cannot “bring” something to a place you are not at; you TAKE it there. When you feel ill, you feel “nauseated.” When you are “nauseous,” you are causing nausea in others, although my dictionary tells me that it has been used wrong for so long that they have created a second definition for it.
You know what is so aggravating about all of this? I am not a grammarian. I did not have a grammar class after ninth grade. The English classes after that were all literature and writing. Any real grammar scholar could find fault with me. I was, in fact, re-reading an old devotional the other day and found a split infinitive in it. I am just an ordinarily educated person when it comes to grammar. So if I know all these things, what in the world happened? I see and hear them in what purports to be professional speech and writing all the time. It’s one thing for us common folks to be less than careful about how we speak, but shouldn’t the pros have standards?
Before you start on me for being too picky and fussy, let me remind you that I am in good company. Paul and Jesus both made arguments based on word choice and grammar.
In Galatians 3:16 Paul uses the number of the noun “seed” to prove that Jesus was the fulfillment to the promise to Abraham. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He said not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. In the first major controversy in the new kingdom, when Jewish Christians were attempting to force Judaism on Gentile Christians as necessary to salvation, that was important. Pretty picky of Paul, wasn’t it?
Jesus proved to the Sadducees the resurrection of the dead when he quoted God as He spoke to Moses on Mt Sinai from the burning bush, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At that point, those men had been long dead, yet God spoke of them in the present tense. Jesus said, But as regarding the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matt 22:31,32, an argument based solely on the tense of a verb. Good thing it had nothing to do with “laying!”
We have a tendency to think of those people in “Bible times” as primitive, ignorant folks. Jesus made a claim of Divinity to them using two words, which of necessity were in the present tense. Before Abraham was, I AM, John 8:58. Did they catch something so fussy and nitpicky? I think so. They took up stones therefore to cast at him. I wonder if today’s generation would have just shrugged their shoulders and walked on.
It is permissible to be picky with the Scriptures. We are in good company when we are. Be careful however, that your pickiness is not about pettiness. “Picky” and “petty” are not the same. Jesus and the apostles were one, but not the other. Study the difference, study your scriptures. God did choose words to communicate with us, not subjective feelings. Aren’t we glad? There can be no mistake if you have it down in black and white.
Truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law till all things are accomplished. Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven, Matt 5:18,19.
Dene Ward
You are not “laying” in bed. If you were, there would be a pile of eggs there. Today you “lie” there, yesterday you “lay” there, and in the past you “have lain” there. However, if you are talking about something you put in the bed, then today you “lay” it there, yesterday you “laid” it there, and in the past you also “have laid” it there.
The words are not pronounced “comPARable” and “irrePARable,” they are pronounced “COMparable” and “irREParable.” And at least until recently when the lexicographers finally gave up and put it in as an allowed pronunciation, the word was correctly pronounced “off-en” without the T, rather than “off-ten” with the T. At least know that the pronunciation of the word “often” has been corrupted, please.
“Hopefully the weather will clear up” is an impossibility. The weather cannot do anything hopefully, and that is the word being modified in that sentence. What you mean to say is, “I hope the weather will clear up.” “Hopefully” used at the beginning of a sentence is almost always wrong.
You cannot “bring” something to a place you are not at; you TAKE it there. When you feel ill, you feel “nauseated.” When you are “nauseous,” you are causing nausea in others, although my dictionary tells me that it has been used wrong for so long that they have created a second definition for it.
You know what is so aggravating about all of this? I am not a grammarian. I did not have a grammar class after ninth grade. The English classes after that were all literature and writing. Any real grammar scholar could find fault with me. I was, in fact, re-reading an old devotional the other day and found a split infinitive in it. I am just an ordinarily educated person when it comes to grammar. So if I know all these things, what in the world happened? I see and hear them in what purports to be professional speech and writing all the time. It’s one thing for us common folks to be less than careful about how we speak, but shouldn’t the pros have standards?
Before you start on me for being too picky and fussy, let me remind you that I am in good company. Paul and Jesus both made arguments based on word choice and grammar.
In Galatians 3:16 Paul uses the number of the noun “seed” to prove that Jesus was the fulfillment to the promise to Abraham. Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He said not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. In the first major controversy in the new kingdom, when Jewish Christians were attempting to force Judaism on Gentile Christians as necessary to salvation, that was important. Pretty picky of Paul, wasn’t it?
Jesus proved to the Sadducees the resurrection of the dead when he quoted God as He spoke to Moses on Mt Sinai from the burning bush, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At that point, those men had been long dead, yet God spoke of them in the present tense. Jesus said, But as regarding the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, Matt 22:31,32, an argument based solely on the tense of a verb. Good thing it had nothing to do with “laying!”
We have a tendency to think of those people in “Bible times” as primitive, ignorant folks. Jesus made a claim of Divinity to them using two words, which of necessity were in the present tense. Before Abraham was, I AM, John 8:58. Did they catch something so fussy and nitpicky? I think so. They took up stones therefore to cast at him. I wonder if today’s generation would have just shrugged their shoulders and walked on.
It is permissible to be picky with the Scriptures. We are in good company when we are. Be careful however, that your pickiness is not about pettiness. “Picky” and “petty” are not the same. Jesus and the apostles were one, but not the other. Study the difference, study your scriptures. God did choose words to communicate with us, not subjective feelings. Aren’t we glad? There can be no mistake if you have it down in black and white.
Truly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the law till all things are accomplished. Whoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven, Matt 5:18,19.
Dene Ward
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