This was delightful. I haven’t had this much fun contemplating verbs in some time. The first time I encountered the help/holp thing was (if memory serves) in my Book of Common Prayer, where it was “holpen.” I asked my dad, an English teacher, about it. He affirmed its use, said it was usually pronounced as “heppen,” and mentioned that our elderly relatives in Iowa and East Tennessee used it—at least they did when he was a young adult. It’s a big world out there.
Great question! I'll discuss this more next Thursday, but the short answer is that I would talk to grammar teachers about the importance of making sure grammar students:
1) are able to identify subjects and verbs,
2) are clear on the actor and action in a sentence (which may or may not match up with the subject and verb,
3) understand the value of getting through the subject-verb nexus as quickly as possible,
4) can identify modifiers and the words they modify, and
5) understand the value of keeping modifiers close to the words they modify.
I have two quick qu'ns. I often see these two phrases written: "try and (do something)" instead of "try to (do something)", and "Most all of the (something)" instead of "Almost all of the (something)." Are these phrases that I am seeing correct? I have always thought that the alternative phrases (written second in each example) were correct. Tnanks!
Oh, I have questions - though I don't know if they are actually grammar or formatting issues.
I'd love some guidance about paragraphing and spacing when writing fiction to be read online. (For example: when posting the Habit class exercises or being published on a fiction website.)
The only rules I know are back from the old typewriter days where we tabbed to begin a paragraph and left two spaces after the full stop at the end of a sentence. But when posting anything online I've become accustomed to adding much more frequent paragraph breaks and a lot more white space to make online reading easier.
Are there any conventions or advice regarding this?
This was delightful. I haven’t had this much fun contemplating verbs in some time. The first time I encountered the help/holp thing was (if memory serves) in my Book of Common Prayer, where it was “holpen.” I asked my dad, an English teacher, about it. He affirmed its use, said it was usually pronounced as “heppen,” and mentioned that our elderly relatives in Iowa and East Tennessee used it—at least they did when he was a young adult. It’s a big world out there.
Methinks I might start using Holp or Holpen…
If you had one hour to instruct grammar teachers, what aspects of grammar would you consider to be most important to include?
Great question! I'll discuss this more next Thursday, but the short answer is that I would talk to grammar teachers about the importance of making sure grammar students:
1) are able to identify subjects and verbs,
2) are clear on the actor and action in a sentence (which may or may not match up with the subject and verb,
3) understand the value of getting through the subject-verb nexus as quickly as possible,
4) can identify modifiers and the words they modify, and
5) understand the value of keeping modifiers close to the words they modify.
I have two quick qu'ns. I often see these two phrases written: "try and (do something)" instead of "try to (do something)", and "Most all of the (something)" instead of "Almost all of the (something)." Are these phrases that I am seeing correct? I have always thought that the alternative phrases (written second in each example) were correct. Tnanks!
Oh, I have questions - though I don't know if they are actually grammar or formatting issues.
I'd love some guidance about paragraphing and spacing when writing fiction to be read online. (For example: when posting the Habit class exercises or being published on a fiction website.)
The only rules I know are back from the old typewriter days where we tabbed to begin a paragraph and left two spaces after the full stop at the end of a sentence. But when posting anything online I've become accustomed to adding much more frequent paragraph breaks and a lot more white space to make online reading easier.
Are there any conventions or advice regarding this?
I know Spanish speakers learning English really struggle with the anomalous "s" on the end of 3rd person singular verbs.
Will there be a recording of the grammar lecture and the C. S. Lewis lecture, Dr. Rogers?
There will be a recording of the grammar discussion. Not the lecture at the CSL Writer's Conference.
Okay, thank you!