A Mother's Thank You

Conjunctions

As a Child, I used to always love watching the Saturday Morning cartoons. My favorite part of the whole thing was ABC airing the "School House a Rock" series. I would sing along with those, and believe it or not, they taught me. 

Because of them, and this "Blog" I wish to do an entry that I wish to dedicate to their happy memories, "Conjuction Junction what's your function?" (If you're familiar with this series, you sang that didn't you? AND if you have an imagination, or memory (whatever the case is, you see the "Conjunction Junction Train!)

Let me start off by introducing you to a conjunction: a word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause. 

Now allow me to show you words that are conjunctions:

But, or, nor, and, yet so

Now let's see how they work:

I went to the store, but I didn't want to. This easily could've been two sentences, but because of my conjunction, it's now one. Saving me a capital letter and a period, throwing in a coma, and a conjunction. It also sounds better. 

Let's try another: I don't know if I want to go yet, I'm going to think about it. Again, this could've easily been two sentences, but instead, I felt a conjunction was better. 

Are you seeing how this works yet?

Let me try to explain this, so maybe you can understand it better. Here I am using the word so, and I did it casually, to see if I catch you off guard to make it easier on you. Did it help?

Personally, I find conjunctions fun. I think it's kind of "School House a rocks" fault, but oh well. I think you need to get on "Netflix" or Rent it, borrow it, or something, and watch it yourself, 1973 was a great year. TV was educational back then. 

Now of days you watch what's on TV, or you don't watch TV at all. Conjunction the word or. And one more thing to watch for, often before the conjunction, you can find a coma. Watch for it. It's a breather in the sentence when you're reading it. Just putting that out there.....

I hope I've educated someone. If anything; I've had fun, I guess that's what counts. 

Regardless of the Dictionary:

Oh snap! I just witnessed a professional person say "Irregardless." Instantly this is what I thought:

Don't get me wrong, I am well aware that Merriam~Webster added it to the a Dictionary. What choice did they have? The word now flies out of more peoples mouths probably more so then the slang word "ain't" now of days, which was also added to the dictionary!

The proper word is "Regardless" no matter what the dictionary says, which technically, pay close attention to exactly what the dictionary 'does' say!

Irregardless defined:"Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead."

My thoughts are as follows, if you want to look and sound professional, you won't use the word irregardless. Dress for success, strive for success, and speak, talk and think it, and you will get there. "Regardless" of what gets in your way!

Think before you speak, and always choose your words wisely. After all, they represent you. 

The Difference between I and Me!

Learning the English language as a Child is hard, no matter what you're doing~something is wrong. But once you're an adult, it doesn't seem to get any easier. 

I remember my Grandmother continually fixing my "I and me" errors. I was so angry once that I back talked, and told her: "Shut up! I'm not I, I'm not me, I'm Deneale. Leave me alone I wasn't even talking to you anyway!" Which the end result was a backhand, which didn't help anyway. 

To this day, there are times where there happens to be someone in the back ground correcting me.  "You mean I. Not me." And I grit my teeth. So badly I want to say, "But you understood me, didn't you ?!" And; deep breath, I control myself because I want people to learn and use "Proper English!" 

"I" is a subject pronoun, being that it means the first person singular. It means it will refer to the person performing the action of a verb. 

Examples:

I see what you're doing!

I stopped by your house the other day!

I want to go to the Store!

The word "Me" is an object of a pronoun, it refers to the person that the action of a verb is done to, or to whom the preposition refers. 

Examples:

Drema told me to leave.

Just between you and me, I don't want to go.

It's not up to me.

The real confusion between me and I really happens when you say things like this:

"Johnny and me are ready!" You're not sure if you should say "Johnny and I" or "Johnny and me" so more often then not, this where most of us land our mistakes. Myself, especially.... Wait.... Me especially?!? Oh boy.....

If you're like me, and not good with grammar concepts like subject and objects; there is still an easier way to decide to use "I or me!" Try out the sentence with just I or me, or if you need a plural; we or us. But always remember never to use a subject pronoun and object pronoun together ! And yes, sometimes; the sentences don't sound right. For example: "She told him and me the truth." This sentence is correct, although it sounds and even looks wrong, it is in fact: correct. 

The English language is one of the hardest languages to learn, fact. There are so many ways, to say and word things, to make a simple phrase come across differently. This is why The English language can have words taken out of context. Always, always check your spelling, and think before you speak!

"A Lot" of Spelling Problems....

Another problem I have in the topic of spelling. This happens to be two words, but for most of you, you seem to think it is one word. And the issue lands in not just any age group, but many. The words to which I am referencing are:

             "A lot."

Allow me to use it in a sentence for you, "There are a lot of people in the line for rest room right now!" Meaning, there are a bunch, quite a few, a large sum of, etc. 

More often then not you see people using it as one word, (not sure if I can force misspelling on my iPad or not) allot (which in the terminology you are using it in isn't proper; because spelled this way it is something completely different! Or as one word, compiling a+lot (my iPad will not allow me to do it.))

When spelling allot as this-you are saying: to give or apportion (something) to someone as a share task.  It's a verb, and here is the proper wording when using the word this way: "Proper time was allotted to each individual." 

For those of you still compiling the words a lot into one word, you're disgracing yourself in regards to the English language. There are people coming to America daily who strive to learn our language to perfection, and yet still you shame yourself by making the smallest of errors. Get with the program! 

Today is a new day, it is never too late to better yourself and your ways, and to start simple. And this is one of the simplest tasks you can do, fix a simple spelling error. 

Always remember that a lot is two words and not one, because it represents a lot. Think of it that way! 

I hope this helps someone!

Homonyms!

One of my biggest pet peeves happens to be spelling errors. The one I would like to touch base on at this very moment happens to be:

                  Homonyms. 

You may not recall what homonyms are, or were when you learned about them in School, so allow me to refresh your memory. They are words that have the same pronounuation, but are spelled differently, and have different meanings. For example: There, Their and They're. And these also are something many people use, and put in the wrong places.

They're: two words combined meaning they are. "Look; they're coming!" 

Their: Their is a third person plural possessive adjective, used to describe something as belonging to them. It is also usually followed by a noun. "This is their room, and this one is our room!"

There: this one has several different uses, and is very common. So people tend to just throw it around. For example, a Noun, which means: that place; also as an adjective which means which person; as well as a pronoun which introduces a noun or clause, and even an adverb that means the opposite of here. I technically could give you examples of each, but I'm not wanting to truly give you a boring English lesson here. "That there was not my intent."

The best thing to know with the words : there they're and their is always remember this: if the word means "belonging to them" use their, if you can replace the word with they are, you can use they're, after that, the only correct answer: there! 

Now then; some other recognizable homonyms: 

I hope this has educated you, and maybe even helped you. If so, please pass it along so that maybe it can help someone else. 

Also, thank you so much for dropping by!!!