Perfect for pedants' corner

Gerundives don't really figure in English grammar, I think, and I always explained gerunds by saying they were verbal nouns, using 'I enjoy running' as an example. 'A dripping tap' is a verbal adjective.
I grew up in the era of parsing and analysing and I loved it. I think I can still remember all the different types of adverbial clauses - no, I have never needed the knowledge, but I just enjoy it.

The school that I attended had compulsory Latin for the first year! At the time I couldn't see the point, but it's surprising how some of it can relate to other languages.

Although as our Latin teacher was Welsh, there are probably still a few of us around who quote Latin phrases with an accent that is pure Swansea!

I'm only saying that's how it came across when emails first started. Like most things, usage has evolved.

It wasn't' t used so much in a social context back then.

Horses for courses I guess.

I also enjoyed analysis of sentences at school. I like to see a pattern - so it's a bit puzzling that I had little use for maths.

Oh anno - I hated grammatical analysis. Fortunately, my English master (who had co-authored the text book 'An English Grammar of Function') recognised this, and told me that as I used the language well enough, I could write, while the others fiddled about with their seven columns of analysis!

Shocking favouritism, feetlebaum!

Anno - I am a bit unusual in that I love both maths and English, so I am equally happy doing a maths/logic puzzle or a crossword. I was told at college that I was a convergent/divergent thinker - I think the wires in my brain are crossed!

One wrong here - I knew that 'pride' was an abstract noun, but forgot its collective meaning!

I forgot to add that I wasn't taught any of that stuff in school English lessons - it has all come from learning French and Spanish.

MamaCaz - I'll come clean - I used to be an English teacher and I made the same mistake - just doing it too fast to think about it!

I got 13 out of 14 - hadn't spotted that "pride" can be a collective - as in a pride of lions.
But I object to the question that asked which sentence was grammatically correct. My contention is that they were*all*grammatically correct but some had spelling mistakes. Grammar is not the same as orthography.

I got 13 out of 14 - hadn't spotted that "pride" can be a collective - as in a pride of lions. But I objected to the question that asked which sentence was grammatically correct. My contention is that they were*all*grammatically correct but some had spelling mistakes. Grammar is not the same as orthography.