The Agony of Poor Spelling

[VanimaEdhel]

My spelling skills match that of a anteater

How do you know anteater's are not good spellers? [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

The verb "to be" is a linking verb (copula) which requires a subject completion. The colon would separate incorrectly the successive, dependent units of clause structure. This is a very common error, seen very often. For a full explanation, see Quirk and Greenbaum, A University Grammar of English.

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*whimpers and starts to back away slowly* Im s-scared...

I know...I had to read that twice there to make sure she was really saying what she was saying...wowsers...ever think of becoming an English teacher, Bethberry?

And Kithréna, no worries, you will get better with time!

I use the colon out of context too much. I know I do. It's just easier to do so. As in, when I wrote

And Kithréna, no worries, you will get better with time!

I was tempted to say

And: Kithréna: no worries! You will get better with time!

but then I realized that would totally defeat the entire point of Bethberry's grammar lesson.

[ October 14, 2002: Message edited by: VanimaEdhel ]