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It's National Grammar Day (Not "Its National Grammar Day")

by Jordan Yerman | March 4, 2009 at 08:14 am

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It's National Grammar Day, so celebrate by writing well, speaking accurately, and giving the greengrocer's apostrophe a wedgie.

Today (and every day, really), keep an eye out for synonyms (your/you're, read/red, dye/die), transpositions (thier, flim, intuitoin), and run-on sentences( sentences that should end once the thought is done but do not even though you've now moved on to a different subject such as monkeys that live in tropical forests and crack open gourds with their opposable thumbs, the result of millions of years of evolution, which should be a separate sentence unless you're going for humor, which I am, but notice that I still don't mess up "you're").

My grammar media picks:
Music: Magnetic Fields: 69 Love Songs (Stephin Merritt is the Neo of songwriting)
Movie: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. are a stellar action/comedy/grammar team)
Television: Deadwood (Al Swearengen drops lots of F-bombs, but can really put a complex sentence together)

What do you do on National Grammar Day? According to the SPOGG website, "Speak well! Write well! And on March 4, march forth and spread the word. We want people to think about language and how it can be used best." If that isn't enough to capture your interest you can also make a Grammartini (the recipe is on the website) and laugh at the winner of the SPOGG Award for the Worst Grammar in the United States (the city of Columbia, South Carolina).

The winner of the hotly-contested Worst Grammar Award is President George Bush.

National Grammar Day's website has more detail (though you probably get the idea), including recipes, though the Grammartini looks a lot like the bog-standard martini... not that there's anything wrong with that.

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Uwe Paschen

at 08:20 on March 4th, 2009

Oh, My! I had no idea that such day even existed.

Jordan Yerman

at 11:39 on March 4th, 2009

I also had no idea, until today...

Fred Miller

at 09:23 on March 4th, 2009

Hooray ! I'm going out to celebrate, but should I ? Is this the voice of one crying in the wilderness ?

dowdinsk

at 10:38 on March 4th, 2009

transpositions (thier, flim, intuitoin), and run-on sentences( sentences that should

A transpostions never a grammatical error innit. But a typo's always a typo ;^)

Jordan Yerman

at 11:42 on March 4th, 2009

You're right, actually, but, since transpositions are a pet peeve of mine, I felt compelled to include them.

Shouldn't it be "A transposition's never a grammatical error, innit?"? Then again, when using "innit", all bets are off. Same with "dunnit", naturally.

(* I transpose nearly every time I type)

Rhonda J Mangus

at 11:41 on March 4th, 2009

Thanks for this, Jordan! Two of my pet peeves are people who use, for example, "your" for "you are or you're" and an additional "'s" on the end of a word or surname that ends in "s", for example Mangus's pet peeves instead of Mangus' pet peeves:)!

Mary Richard

at 12:28 on March 4th, 2009

Great post! I'm a nitpicker, but only in my head ... we have to remember that people whose/who's first language is NOT English write too.

I think the word I have the most trouble with is complement and compliment.

Surf _ Girl (not verified)

at 15:47 on March 4th, 2009

Interesting article, but I have to point out that your/you're, read/red, and dye/die are NOT synonyms. They are homophones, words that sound the same. Synonyms are words that mean the same such as sincere and genuine.

I am vaguely shocked that no one yet has picked up on this.

Fripouille

at 17:51 on March 4th, 2009

Correct.

A. Tran

at 18:13 on March 4th, 2009

Nice piece, Jordan.

Maireid Sullivan

at 00:35 on March 6th, 2009

Yes, English is an evolving language, so that tempers my immediate reaction to American expressions, such as "I'm doing good". But, when I see "separate" spelled "seperate" I know the person simply wasn't paying attention in grammar school.

Re. And, or But, – I thought the film Finding Forester dealt with that beautifully.

Of course, the BBC History of the English Language series was fantastic.

Variations in English and American punctuation are awkward to follow too.

I excuse myself for using dashes– because James Joyce did it all the time, and I like the sense of flow they give to a sentence.

I enjoyed this discussion.

Thanks for posting, Jordan.