Yo, Grammar!

Thanks, Barry!

The 8th Grade Grammar Test

A friend sent this along, much to our delight. The style of the questions is a bit stodgy and we object to capitalization for emphasis, but we're all in favor of ensuring today's eighth-graders are as competent in their language skills.

8th Grade Test
Remember when our grandparents, great-grandparents, and such stated thatthey only had an eighth-grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the eight grade in 1895? This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, KS, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.

EIGHTH-GRADE FINAL EXAM
Grammar (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of Capital Letters. [SPOGG: For starters, don't insert them randomly into sentences. It scares us.]
2. Name the Parts of Speech and define those that have no Modifications.
3. Define Verse, Stanza and Paragraph.
4. What are the Principal Parts of a verb?
Give Principal Parts of lie, lay and run.
5. Define Case, Illustrate each Case. [SPOGG: Oops! Use a semicolon or "and' to join two independent clauses.]
6. What is Punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of Punctuation.
7. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practice and use of the rules of grammar.

The Checklist of Common Errors

This checklist, compiled by a writer and editor, lists 74 common errors in prose. How many have you made? We're confident we've screwed up in all of these ways, which is why we love a good copy editor.

http://www.wilbers.com/ErrorChecklist.htm

Something We Like

We've subscribed to quite a few language and grammar newsletters. We particularly like Brian Garner's daily e-mails from the Oxford English Dictionary.

Today's entry:

-fy.. Most verbs ending in "-fy" -- from the French "-fier" or Latin "-ficare" "to do or make" -- are preceded by an "-i-" {classify}. But a few aren't {liquefy} {putrefy} {stupefy} because the corresponding infinitives in French and Latin are spelled with an "-e-" ("liquefier," etc.), and the words were borrowed directly from those forms. It's common to misspell them "-ify." The same switch occurs in the corresponding nouns, too ("liquefaction," etc.).

gabardine; gaberdine. "Gabardine" is the modern fabric having a hard finish and diagonal ribs. "Gaberdine" is the outer garment traditionally associated with Jews of the Middle Ages.

Gaelic; Gallic. "Gaelic" /GAY-lik/ means "Scottish" or "Irish"; "Gallic" /GAL-ik/ means "French." As a noun, "Gaelic" denotes the language spoken by the Celts of the Scottish Highlands -- or, more broadly, by the Celts of Ireland and the Isle of Man as well. "Gallic," though formerly denoting a Frenchman, is not used as a noun in modern English.

gainsay; contradict. Originally "gainsay" [ME "to say against"] was the popular word and "contradict" the erudite one. Today just the opposite is true: "This is an interesting example of the substitution of a learned word for a popular word.'Withsay' [or, later, 'gainsay'] is pure Anglo-Saxon, and 'contradict' is a 'learned' borrowing [from Latin]." James B. Greenough & George L. Kittredge, Words and Their Ways in English Speech 215 (1902). "Gainsay" is now a formal word more common in British English than American.
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Quotation of the Day: "Murdering English is common on both sides of the
Atlantic." S.P.B. Mais, The Writing of English 198 (1935).

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Grammar: in Vogue

Please pardon our lack of posts lately. Blogger's beta is unfriendly to our template and has been giving us the temper fits.

And now back to our irregularly scheduled updates, minus the pictures, which we can't make work at all.

Teaching grammar, apparently, is back in vogue. Or so says the Washington Post, and also the author of this column.

As with all trends, SPOGG is on the cutting edge. We just celebrated our second birthday, and have more than 3,000 members worldwide.

If you don't have your SPOGG membership card yet, what are you waiting for? You can download your very own print-and-clip card here.

Love,

SPOGG