[internet tough guy]

Very pedantic of me, I came across this article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvicker...a_cynical.html), I couldn't help but wonder whether the first sentence is correct:

''When Pepe, Real Madrid's Brazil-born defender, steps on the hand of Barcelona's Lionel Messi, the blame is not his alone.''

Shouldn't it be 'stepped', not 'steps'? The incident already happened. Unless the subsequent wording of 'blame is not his alone' rather than 'blame was not his alone' cancels out the apparent tense error

[Good bloke]

(Original post by internet tough guy)
Very pedantic of me, I came across this article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvicker...a_cynical.html), I couldn't help but wonder whether the first sentence is correct:

''When Pepe, Real Madrid's Brazil-born defender, steps on the hand of Barcelona's Lionel Messi, the blame is not his alone.''

Shouldn't it be 'stepped', not 'steps'? The incident already happened. Unless the subsequent wording of 'blame is not his alone' rather than 'blame was not his alone' cancels out the apparent tense error

This is reporting, and it is perfectly valid to report in the historical present tense. It is used to convey a vivid and conversational atmosphere. See http://www.englishcafe.jp/englishcol...e2/e1-2-1.html

[kateslove]

Hiya,

I did put this in a thread of its own - I wasn't sure if it was meant to live in here or out there but I thought I'd put it here as well just to make sure...

I'm currently writing an essay on Wuthering Heights and writing about the proleptic irony within the story.

The only problem is, which paragraph should I put it into? I like to have a strict structure for my paragraphs but I have no idea where proleptic irony would go... Normally I have Language, Graphology, Themes, etc.

Do you have any ideas?

Thanks! (:

[Good bloke]

(Original post by kateslove)
Do you have any ideas?

You could always foreshadow it in your introduction and then discuss it fully in a later paragraph.

[Natalie21]

If I write a sentence saying:

"I am training for National swimming competitions."

Does national need a capital letter or not?

[tiana_tiara]

I'm writing an analysis of a transcript of a child reading aloud with their mother (first text) and a excerpt of the book they're reading (second text). The book is one of the magic key series (brings back so many memories xD), and I want to make the point that whenever a character speaks, it always goes as "<statement> SAID <character>" - 'said' is never changed for another word (eg: whispered, shouted, laughed). What I wanted to know is if there's a name for the words used to describe how a person has spoken - like a word class? Is it just an adjective, or is there a specific term? I'm semi-convinced that there is and I've forgotten it

[speedbird]

(Original post by Natalie21)
If I write a sentence saying:

"I am training for National swimming competitions."

Does national need a capital letter or not?

No, why would it need one?

[Chocca]

Compound sentences:

If we view compound sentences as a mathematical formula, i.e.

Subject + Verb + Conjunction + Subject + Verb + Phrase (occasionally)

Is it a strict rule that after the conjunction, the subject and verb must be in THAT order?

[calumsteele1]

would someone be kind enough to explain the difference [if any] between these two types of bracket '[ ]' and '( )'
and also the difference between ' and "

thank you

[venenecinema]

(Original post by calumsteele1)
would someone be kind enough to explain the difference [if any] between these two types of bracket '[ ]' and '( )'
and also the difference between ' and "

thank you

You would generally use "[]" or square brackets to include missing material in a quote.
"()" or parentheses "contain material that could be omitted without destroying or altering the meaning of a sentence."

The ' is an apostrophe and is used to denote a missing letter or possessiveness, it is never used to denote a plural, for example, "DVD's" is wrong, it should in fact be "DVDs".
You can find more information about the apostrophe here

[catastrophe]

When writing titles, is it considered 'bad' grammar to capitalise the first letter of every word?

Teachers seem to do it all the time and I have always wondered if it's grammatically correct?

[Bread Basket]

First of all, there is no single set of capitalisation rules in modern English for titles of books, films, songs and so on. Various editing styles have been developed over centuries, so this reference tries to explain the most established one with additional notes if necessary.


1. The first and the last word must be always capitalised. No matter whether they fall or not under the following rules except of 2.5.


2. Must not be capitalised:

2.1. articles: a, an, the;

2.2. coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet;

Often remembered as FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

2.3. short adpositions (3 and less letters long): at, by, for, in, of, off, on, out, to, up;

2.4. infinitive particle: to;

2.5. some Latin abbreviations (most common only): c./ca./cca. (circa), et al. (et alii), etc. (et cetera), e.g. (exempli gratia), i.e. (id est), lb. (libra), vs. (versus).

If such an abbreviation happens to be the last word, then the preceding one should be capitalised instead.


3. Preferred not to be capitalised:

3.1. medium adpositions (4 letters long): down, from, into, like, near, onto, over, than, with, upon.


4. May or may not be capitalised:

4.1. subordinating conjunctions (most common only): after, although, as, as if, as long as, as though, because, before, even if, even though, if, in case that, in order that, now that, once, only if, rather than, since, so that, than, that, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, while;

4.2. correlative conjunctions: as ... as, both ... and, not only ... but also, either ... or, neither ... nor, not ... but, whether ... or;

4.3. long adpositions (5 and more letters long; most common only): about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, despite, downstairs, during, except, in front of, inside, next to, outside, since, through, throughout, toward, under, underneath, upstairs, within, without.


5. Preferred to be capitalised:

5.1. adpositions if they take part in so called "phrasal verbs" such as Go On, Piss Off, Chill Out, Get Over, etc.


6. Must be capitalised:

6.1. nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, adjectives and interjections;

6.2. an article, conjunction or adposition which follows colon (, semicolon ( or dash (—).

6.3. English and non-English abbreviations which are upper case normally (a few common only): B.C. (Before Christ), A.D. (Anno Domini), Ph.D. (Philosophiae Doctor), R.I.P. (requiescat in pace).


7. Common non-capitalisation mistakes:

7.1. some short words:

7.1.1. be (was, were, been, will, shall), do (did, done), have (has, had), can, may, must;

7.1.2. yes, no, not;

7.1.3. then, there, thus;

7.2. if not a conjunction: when, where.


Note that the old publishing style dominant up to about 1980's required all articles, conjunctions and adpositions regardless of their length never to be capitalised. This style is still of some use due to obvious simplicity.

The U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual only insits on non-capitalisation of the following articles, conjunctions and adpositions: a, an, the; and, but, for, nor, or; as, at, by, in, of, on, to, up.

The final suggestion: whatever style you follow, be consistent.

Source

[GrandHustle]

Hey, just wondering if anyone could help with this quick question.

I'm writing about Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and am trying to find a word to describe the readers at the time when he was writing it. I keep wanting to say 'contemporary readers', but I've realised that this really means the 'modern reader'? Is this right, and is there a term to describe the readers that were around in the 1300/1400s compared to readers reading the stories now?

[joeclarke3]

I'm fairly sure that contemporary means 'modern' relative to the time period being discussed. The sentence "Chaucer's contemporaries would have felt..." should be correct, as you wouldn't say "Chaucer's contemporaries at the time would have felt..."

edit: To fit more to your question; the sentence "Contemporary readers of Chaucer would have felt..." should be correct.

[_becca]

(Original post by GrandHustle)
Hey, just wondering if anyone could help with this quick question.

I'm writing about Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and am trying to find a word to describe the readers at the time when he was writing it. I keep wanting to say 'contemporary readers', but I've realised that this really means the 'modern reader'? Is this right, and is there a term to describe the readers that were around in the 1300/1400s compared to readers reading the stories now?

contemporary is fine, or '14th century readership'

[Thatstudentdude]

Hey, just a quick question.

What is the terminology for words in technology that's shortened down or non-standard. E.g 'u' - You. '2morrow' - Tomorrow.

Racking my brains, I can't think what it's called. At first I thought abbreviation, but I don't think that's right. Is there a specific word for this type of language use?

[MedicalMayhem]

Hey, got a quick question. I've been writing my covering letter, and what's the phrase for "thinking outside the box" is. As I wasn't sure whether it was lateral thinking, or whether something to do with thinking in an abstract manner - but wasn't sure if this made sense.

[spiritofsussex]

(Original post by Thatstudentdude)
Hey, just a quick question.

What is the terminology for words in technology that's shortened down or non-standard. E.g 'u' - You. '2morrow' - Tomorrow.

Racking my brains, I can't think what it's called. At first I thought abbreviation, but I don't think that's right. Is there a specific word for this type of language use?

Well both are examples of abbreviation, especially 'u' from 'you' where it is abbreivated down to one salient sound ('u').

The second example is also technically an abbreviation, but is also a letter-number homophone or a alpha-numeric combination (depending on who you ask, different people use different terminology - I prefer 'letter-number homophone'). Not sure if any of these were the word you were trying to think of.

(Original post by MedicalMayhem)
Hey, got a quick question. I've been writing my covering letter, and what's the phrase for "thinking outside the box" is. As I wasn't sure whether it was lateral thinking, or whether something to do with thinking in an abstract manner - but wasn't sure if this made sense.

I would interpret "thinking outside of the box" as thinking in an abstract manner - it's a way of saying you can approach things from a point of view that others may not think of, or in a manner that others would think a bit too extreme etc.

[Thatstudentdude]

(Original post by spiritofsussex)
Well both are examples of abbreviation, especially 'u' from 'you' where it is abbreivated down to one salient sound ('u').

The second example is also technically an abbreviation, but is also a letter-number homophone or a alpha-numeric combination (depending on who you ask, different people use different terminology - I prefer 'letter-number homophone'). Not sure if any of these were the word you were trying to think of.

Thanks! Ah I was right thinking abbreviation first of all! I think what was confusing me was that I always think abbreviations are things like "U.S.A" which represent actual words. But then again, I suppose that is an abbreviation too, really... Gah, it's the simply things that confuse me, you know?

Heard of 'letter-number homophone' before, so I'll stick with that one! Thank you for the help!

[KythingToWrite]

(Original post by tiana_tiara)
What I wanted to know is if there's a name for the words used to describe how a person has spoken - like a word class? Is it just an adjective, or is there a specific term? I'm semi-convinced that there is and I've forgotten it

If it describes how a person has spoken, it's generally called a speech tag. Is there a different term you were looking for?