The Cellar - View Single Post

Urbane Guerrilla · 08-07-2008, 04:35 AM

Try to ____ is a single-verb construction. Try and _____ is two separate verbs, two separate actions, and quite a possible logical construction. True mastery of your native tongue is knowing which of the two you are using and to what end.

True mastery may also be shown in mastering archaic present tense -- in case thou dost not protest too much, or something.

A pet peeve I've taken to scratching behind the ears of is the use of subject forms of the pronoun when the objective is called for: the object of the verb or the preposition is not "I," blast it, it is "me." Sleeping through elementary-school grammar isn't how to do well in life. Would you say (a particular offender) "between . . . I?" "To . . . I?" No, you wouldn't. And you aren't supposed to, no matter who's in company with you in the predicate clause.

08-07-2008, 04:35 AM	#40
Urbane Guerrilla Person who doesn't update the user title Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Southern California Posts: 6,674	Try to ____ is a single-verb construction. Try and _____ is two separate verbs, two separate actions, and quite a possible logical construction. True mastery of your native tongue is knowing which of the two you are using and to what end. True mastery may also be shown in mastering archaic present tense -- in case thou dost not protest too much, or something. A pet peeve I've taken to scratching behind the ears of is the use of subject forms of the pronoun when the objective is called for: the object of the verb or the preposition is not "I," blast it, it is "me." Sleeping through elementary-school grammar isn't how to do well in life. Would you say (a particular offender) "between . . . I?" "To . . . I?" No, you wouldn't. And you aren't supposed to, no matter who's in company with you in the predicate clause. __________________ Wanna stop school shootings? End Gun-Free Zones, of course. Last edited by Urbane Guerrilla; 08-07-2008 at 04:41 AM.