I HAD always assumed that I had a grasp of basic grammar until my son's young Polish wife, who is a trained linguist, made it clear that I am, in fact, quite ignorant. However, I remain cheerfully pedantic about the English language and still wince when I hear "I seen it", "I done it" and "Are youse ready to order?", all of which now seem to be accepted. "Like I said" for "as I said". Shakespeare didnae write "Like You Like It", but what did he know?
I'm really honing in on my subject now when I should be homing in. A common mistake. If you claim that it's impossible to underestimate my knowledge of grammar, you insult me. Impossible to over overestimate would be a compliment, but the two are often confused.
I heard on radio recently that Sir Alec Douglas Home was to be seen shooting grouse in plus fours, which would certainly slow them down a bit. On "Robin Hall remembered" on Youtube there was "tribute to Robin Hall who partnered Jimmie Macgregor who sadly passed away in September". If I did, nobody told me.
Back to Star Trek which initiated this exchange of views ("To actually split an infinitive on increase", The Herald, September 25, and Letters, September 26-October 3). "To boldly g"' has a natural rhythm and trips off the tongue as a strong statement, whereas "to go boldly" sounds like an afterthought or an apology, so in this case I am quite happy with the faulty grammar. Now I'll go and do something useful while I wait for this wee piece to be demolished by real grammarians.
Jimmie Macgregor,
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