Today I was shown a news article that drew my attention to a grammatical error that is very common, but few people actually know that it’s incorrect. This error is the use of ‘comprised of’. Now, it’s a much debated topic. Many people think that it could be correct, but after reading an opinion page on Wikipedia, I believe that ‘comprised of’ is incorrect. A man who calls himself Giraffedata is making an incredible effort to eradicate ‘comprised of’ from Wikipedia, and I found his reasons why fascinating. He’s been doing for about seven years, I think.

Now, before I refer you to the page, I’ll quickly explain the confusion about ‘comprised of’. ‘Comprised of’ is often used instead of ‘comprises’ or ‘comprising’. For example:

The Old Quarter is comprised of a chaotic web of 36 streets; each named after traditional artisan’s guild.

What this really should say is this:

The Old Quarter comprises a chaotic web of 36 streets; each named after traditional artisan’s guild.

Now, I did copy that phrase off the internet, so some people actually do believe that ‘comprised of’ is correct. Feel free to do some research of your own on the matter, if you’re interested, and tell me what you think after reading this: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Giraffedata/comprised_of

Right, the poll has been up for a while now, and the winner is Missing in Action the Grammar General’s verb, puwulf, with 14 votes. The second is screwdafali, Zombie Tanks From Outer Space’s suggestion, with 4 votes. Great job Missing in Action the Grammar General!

Greetings, Fanatics! I’m reading a book on grammar called Mind the Stop at the moment, which is quite good. I’m learning tonnes of stuff from it. It was first published in 1939, then revised in 1958, so the style and language are a bit old, but it’s really informative. I’m discovering that my writing contains quite a few unnecessary commas, and I’m only 20 or so pages in. The guy who wrote it is at least as passionate about grammar as I am, if not more.

Greetings, Fanatics! I am launching the Synonym Competition! The object of the competition is simple – come up with as many synonyms for a word of your choice as possible.

For example: (don’t use this one) My word: Journey. Synonyms:  Voyage, trip etc.

Please do not Google them, for the sake of fair play. It wouldn’t be much fun if you searched them up, would it? This isn’t the ‘Who Can Google Synonyms Competition’ for a reason.

Only about two months and we’ve had over 200 visitors! 😀 Thank you for your dedication, Fanatics! I hope you like the Grammar Fanatics, and that it’s helped you with your grammar!

 

There’ll be more coming soon, I plan to put up a page on semicolons (;) and dashes (-). I also plan to add ironic statements and metaphors to Cool Types of Words and Sentences, and continue Talking Words. So tell me what else do you want added?

 

Heres another gramar qiuz! Good luk!

Jona waz walking his cat who was called andrew. jona loved Andrew but he had to sell him soon as his family didnt have enof money to feed andrew. “I’m sorry, Andrew” he said tearfuly. andrew hissed at him angrily. “Hurry up” jonas mum said “get rid of that cat jona!” “whatever” jona snapped tears drying up quickly. andrew had to go and jona new it. Andrew scratched and clawwed at jona. He was a smart cat He knew what was happening. They pulled andrew outside-he was not a happy cat.

We’ve had some brilliant suggestions by everyone and it’s been great to see people getting right into the Word Creating Competition! I would love to say that it was really hard to choose the words to go on the poll, but some of your suggestions were bizarre – ChuppChupps, that’s you. I have picked out the words that I like the most, and now you guys get to choose your favourite word 😀 !

May the best word win!

P.S. Over one hundred visits 😀 ! Thanks for your dedication, Fanatics!

Great work on the Word Creation Competition, Fanatics! I’m loving some of the words suggested and am now considering words for the poll, which means that very soon the poll will be up! You have until the first of August to get your suggestions in. I will only put up words that are possible to pronounce, like miscelloccullar. So remember – is my word harder to pronounce than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? If it is, don’t put it up.

By the way, some of these meanings are great, I mean trying to screw a nail but failing to because there’s no nail?! I love it! Keep the suggestions coming in and good luck 😀 !

Here I shal post a qiuz of bad gramar! Pik out the bad gramar in this post and tell me the mistakes in the coments or at least some of it. so here is some random sentences!

the dog enjoys walking with gary his owner. They both like each other alot and go for walks to the park and in the forest and to the milkbar and to the supermarket! Do you think you know how much they like each other. They sleep together, they eat with each other, and they even go shoping with each other! One day gary and dog who’s name is Justin went for a swim down at the local see. they walked all day until they were very very tired and went home.

At the suggestion of Missing In Action, I am posting a word making up competition! The rules are simple: come up with a word, as long as you like, so long as one can pronounce it, and post it and it’s definition in the comments. I will then post the best (in my opinion) in a poll and you can vote for your favourite. The winning word shall be announced and I will treat it as a real word – which, of course, it will be. Although I am fine with long words, please, don’t post any longer than thirty characters.