March 4: There’s a National Grammar Day? So, three pronouns walk into a bar . . .

“National Grammar Day is Wednesday,” I told my eleven year old daughter.

She looked up and said with deadpan delivery, “Every day is grammar day.”

I winced. I chuckled.  She’s poking fun at ME, but she’s doing more than poking; she’s taking a jab at me. She’s the same daughter who gave me this T-shirt for Christmas.

Grammar T

What can I say? I’m misunderstood.

When you home school your children and teach English, OK LOVE English, they mistake you for a grammarian. My daughter has lumped me in with that lot. I do find the occasional sign or bureaucratic memo or punctuation error amusing.  But I’m forgiving and understanding generally, because it’s easy to make a mistake or typo.

I’m not as forgiving with my own children, because frankly who else will teach them?

I love language and words and syntax and diction and what makes sentences work or not work.  University of Iowa Professor Brooks Landon describes it this way.  Grammar deals with the rules underlying our understanding of language, the machinery of a sentence.  Rhetoric or style deals with how sentences actually work, or what makes a sentence effective. Effectiveness and elegance in writing are both rhetorical issues and grammar alone can lead to neither. (Link to Elegant Sentences and the Difference Between Grammar and Rhetoric)

Hemingway wrote:

My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements.  (Selected Letters)

Humor helps with learning.  Grammar jokes help  my children recognize mistakes in usage, punctuation, and effectiveness. So here are several.

“Let’s eat Grandma!”  “Let’s eat, Grandma!”  Commas save lives.

The past, the present, and the future walked into a bar.  It was tense.

Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar.  They sit. They drink. They leave.  (Grammarly.com)

A gerund and an infinitive walked into a bar, drinking to drink.  (Grammarly.com)

When I shared these with my family, I often got blank looks.  So I came up with a couple of my own and they listened. They even smiled.

Three pronouns walked into a bar and got into a fight.  She let him have it.

An interjection walked into a bar.  Ouch!

This week, my son made up this joke at the table. “Mom, four demonstrative pronouns walked into a bar.  They ordered this and that and these and those.”

How’s that for progress?

In the words of the late Richard Mitchell:

“If you cannot be the master of your language, you must be its slave. If you cannot examine your thoughts, you have no choice but to think them, however silly they may be.”  (Less Than Words Can Say link)

Mar 4, 2015

0 Comments

About the Author

Mylinh Shattan is a writer who has lived on three continents, served in the Army, worked in corporate America, and taught in college. She loves adventures, in the world and in the mind. Literature is relevant and learning is a lifelong pursuit, so you might as well have a bit of fun along the way.

Stay Up to Date

Rise above the tedium with the TreeHouseLetter. Always learning with a bit of fun.

Latest Posts

Munger on Learning and the Art of Swearing

In memory of Charles T. Munger, who passed away at the age of 99, I am sharing a TreeHouseLetter from last year. Munger was a man who believed in always learning. In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the...

Giving Thanks for a Man I Never Met

4 Min read On love and Thanksgiving Three rules for life AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY * I did not know the deceased. Garrett gave the eulogy on Friday* which was hard to listen to, hard to hear his voice quaver, to see him fight for composure. Death is a surprise....

On Flesh-Eating Beetles and Sins of the Mother

7 Min read Sense writing: traditional five plus two more 2 Reading recs: historical novel and story 1 Writing guide Improve writing immediately Toolbox, ages 9 to 99 AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify * Writing Through the Seven Senses When I'm working on an aspect of my...

In the Company of Heroes*

4 Min read Operation Gothic Serpent / "Black Hawk Down" 30-Year Anniversary 160th SOAR(A), Night Stalkers Panel Discussion: Mike Durant (Pilot & POW), Dan Jollota (Pilot), Lee Van Arsdale (Ground commander) Veterans Day AVAILABLE ON PODCAST Spotify * This Veterans...

Spooky Hour with Spirits of the Dead

6 min read Word Work 2 Lexicons: Webster's NID 2nd Ed and Shorter OED 1 Book rec Halloween, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day Fall mocktail, easy and delicious AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY Lakeview Cemetery next to my father's grave * No pressure but what are you doing...

What’s in Your Trunk?

5 Min read New England's largest flea market* Poetry for Emergencies--on the folly of fame, legacy, empire Sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley Book rec on writing song lyrics Toolbox, use 7 senses to improve writing** Texan king in a cow pasture AVAILABLE ON PODCAST...

Why Do I Run?

7 min read 4 book recs: two on running and two on living Running gear for mid-life and the mid-packer Training, injury-free and effortless The Army Ten-Miler * AVAILABLE ON PODCAST SPOTIFY * Why do I run? I'm not sure I like running, even when I was fit and fast....

Topics

Inoculate yourself against the absurdity of life with a dose of the best ideas and writing. Always learning with a bit of fun.

TreeHouseLetter

Always learning with a bit of fun

 

 

Readers receive one to two letters a week, with 2 to 10 minute read time. Includes regular features:

 

The Music in Prose
Poetry for Emergencies
Toolbox

 

 

Be inspired by the best writing and ideas, and become better readers and writers in the process.

Thank you for joining! Please check your email for a confirmation.