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I worked for a physician who wrote this spelling, "kernel," for an Air Force "colonel." When I told her this was incorrect, she gave me a bewildered look and asked, "What's wrong with it?"
Unbelievable. That's as surprising as my co-worker w/ a PhD who insists on saying, "He felt badly."
An instructor in a proofreading class drummed into us in the class about using "badly," and how many people misuse that word.
Another time at my job, which included heavy proofreading, I had a major with a Masters degree challenge me because I had sent a report back for correction with the past tense of read spelled as
"r-e-d." I thought it was just a typo. I pointed this out in the dictionary and he still didn't believe me. He said "Well, the past tense of lead is l-e-d, isn't it?!" I really thought he was kidding, but no--
I finally gave up and let him send the report on to the general's secretary with the misspelling, after I made a copy.
Either is correct, since it refers to an impossible situation. Hitler is dead now, but he was alive in the past.
Like saying, "If I were a billionaire ... "
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rubi3
Received a rep by someone correcting my English. How about helping me? "No one cared if I were embarrassed," is what I wrote. The correction says it should be "... if I was embarrassed."
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzy_q2010
The test of when to use the subjunctive mood is whether the event is possible or not.
If you were in a situation that actually caused you embarrassment, but no one who observed it cared, you would use was, not were.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jtur88
I'm a little late finding this one.
If you said "no one cared", you're already committed to the indicative. You are saying they might have had a reason to care, but didn't, and therefore "I was embarrassed, and no one cared."
If you want to go with subjunctive, and throw the whole thing into an unreality world, then you would say "No one would have cared if I were embarrassed". Meaning you were not embarrassed, and even if you were, no one would have cared.
"If" in this case is not being used in a conditional sense, but rather as an idiomatic replacement for "that". "No one cared that I was embarrassed".
Quote:
Originally Posted by old_cold
The mention of erudite reminds me of something I was thinking of yesterday.
That is the incorrect but very common use of plural were instead of the singular was.
"If I were to do that.....", just sounds 'classier'. Or maybe snobbier is the better word
Use were if it is something you would not do (subjunctive mood) and was if you would do it (indicative mood).
If I were to ride that bull, I probably would get thrown off.
If I was to ride that old gray mare, I probably would enjoy the trail ride.
Just read a post on another forum where the following two "words" were consistently used:
Gunna = gonna
Wat = what
I did not finish reading the post.
I really hope you realize that, "gonna", is not a word, just as, "gunna", is not a word.
Truthfully, I don't see, "gunna", as being any worse a corruption of the English language than, "gonna", is.
In case you are confused by what I just stated, "gonna", is a corruption of, "going to".
Years ago, when my students used the non-word, "gonna", in their speech, I would tell them that the only, "gonna", with which I was familiar was, "gonnorhea", and that nobody wants that disease. That bit of word play did help, and most of my students ceased slaughtering the English language with, "gonna", after that little reminder.
I really hope you realize that, "gonna", is not a word, just as, "gunna", is not a word.
Truthfully, I don't see, "gunna", as being any worse a corruption of the English language than, "gonna", is.
In case you are confused by what I just stated, "gonna", is a corruption of, "going to".
Years ago, when my students used the non-word, "gonna", in their speech, I would tell them that the only, "gonna", with which I was familiar was, "gonnorhea", and that nobody wants that disease. That bit of word play did help, and most of my students ceased slaughtering the English language with, "gonna", after that little reminder.
"Gonna" is by far the more common, widespread corruption of "going to". It's in the titles of songs and movies. Google gets 279 million hits on "gonna". "Gunna" gets fewer than 9 million, and many of those are proper names. Even the spellcheck as I write this post flags "gunna" as incorrect but leaves "gonna" alone (interesting - it also flags "spellcheck").
It seems that a large portion of the English-speaking world has accepted "gonna" as correct, albeit informal. It may not suit you and others who like the old standards, but as some of your New Jersey neighbors might say, "whaddaya gonna do?"
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^^^
