Easy grammar question

[pX]

This is not for an assignment or anything like that. I am well out of school (Masters in EE). I have just been thinking more and more about high school and college subjects I didn't care about at the time. Grammar being number one on my list.

I know a little of this, but let's act like I don't. Someone tell me what the parts of this sentence, just an example, are:

Men and women often have very different goals in the workplace.

OK, men and women are nouns obviously. Have is the verb. Often is an adverb (?). Goals is the direct object (or is it "different goals"?). Is "in the workplace" a preposition? I have no idea!

Anyone recommend a nice book on this subject or website?


Edit: I swear grammer was a typo!!!

 

[trmiv]

Easy grammer question

LOL

 

[Legendary]

Masters in EE...thread title makes sense.

"in the" is a preposition, "workplace" is a noun, "different" is an adjective for "goals"

 

[Miklebud]

Easy Spelling Question?
Grammar?

 

[pX]

Originally posted by: trmiv

Easy grammer question

LOL

Crap. Irony. I'll change it.

 

[pX]

OK, I remember something like "prepositions shouldn't go at end of sentence". So should this sentence really be:
In the workplace, men and women often have very different goals.

or does it not matter...

Also, I figured different was an adj for goals, but, for some reason I had in my head that you could strip out all adverbs/adj and the sentence would still mean pretty much the same thing. But "men and women have goals" is the opposite of what the sentence means here, meh.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

"In the workplace" isn't a preposition though. "In" is a preposition, "the" is a definite article, "workplace" is a noun. The dangling participle (a preposition at the end of a sentence) refers to sentences like "Where is my shirt at?" In this sentence, at is a preposition and should not be used to end the sentence as it is gramatically incorrect; it is also completely unnecessary, as the sentence is understandable as simply "Where is my shirt?" The rule gets trickier with sentences like "I don't remember what drugs I was on," or "He loves jacking off."

 

[pX]

Fascinating. Thanks AP.
I always made it a point to defiantly powernap through my 12th grade English class.

 

[Anubis]

i cant help you i was never tought that shit, had to learn it through madlibs, public school FTL

and i LOL at your masters in EE and fail at orig thread title

<- BS in physics will prob go back to school at some point

 

[pX]

I swear it was a typo! Hell, I'm using Firefox and I'm guessing it even had the red squiggle line under it.

I remember the class that taught this sort of stuff (public school too). I just remember not doing it, faking it, or cheating all the way through that class to earn my C. There were a few total losers in there who got it and made A's so it can't be THAT hard.

I'll tackle spelling after grammar.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
"In the workplace" isn't a preposition though. "In" is a preposition, "the" is a definite article, "workplace" is a noun. The dangling participle (a preposition at the end of a sentence) refers to sentences like "Where is my shirt at?" In this sentence, at is a preposition and should not be used to end the sentence as it is gramatically incorrect; it is also completely unnecessary, as the sentence is understandable as simply "Where is my shirt?" The rule gets trickier with sentences like "I don't remember what drugs I was on," or "He loves jacking off."

Agent Bork: Chief! Ya know that guy whose camper they were whackin' off in?
Agent Fleming: Bork, you're a federal agent! You represent the United States Government! Never end a sentence with a preposition.
Agent Bork: Oh, uh... Ya know that guy in whose camper they... I... I mean, that guy off in whose camper they were whacking?

 

[BeauJangles]

My understanding of the English language improved dramatically when I studied Spanish in grade school and high school. In college, my English benefited even more from studying German. I used to have trouble identifying the parts of speech in English until my German classes.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
"In the workplace" isn't a preposition though. "In" is a preposition, "the" is a definite article, "workplace" is a noun. The dangling participle (a preposition at the end of a sentence) refers to sentences like "Where is my shirt at?" In this sentence, at is a preposition and should not be used to end the sentence as it is gramatically incorrect; it is also completely unnecessary, as the sentence is understandable as simply "Where is my shirt?" The rule gets trickier with sentences like "I don't remember what drugs I was on," or "He loves jacking off."

You should also mention that "in the workplace" is a prepositional phrase. Meaning it's the phrase that starts with the preposition and contains the noun that is being referred to. Such as described here:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/prepositional_phrase

OP, you are also right that often is an adverb.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber
My understanding of the English language improved dramatically when I studied Spanish in grade school and high school. In college, my English benefited even more from studying German. I used to have trouble identifying the parts of speech in English until my German classes.

That's odd, because my biggest problem with Spanish was that the rules of grammar were completely different from English; more sensible, perhaps, but still different. German just seems like an unwieldy wolverine of a language, judging by my former roommate's complaints about her German classes. What kind of language lets you run words together all willy-nilly to create one giant word that no one can spell or pronounce?

 

[daveshel]

And it's OK to end a sentence with a prepositional phrase.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber
My understanding of the English language improved dramatically when I studied Spanish in grade school and high school. In college, my English benefited even more from studying German. I used to have trouble identifying the parts of speech in English until my German classes.

That's odd, because my biggest problem with Spanish was that the rules of grammar were completely different from English; more sensible, perhaps, but still different. German just seems like an unwieldy wolverine of a language, judging by my former roommate's complaints about her German classes. What kind of language lets you run words together all willy-nilly to create one giant word that no one can spell or pronounce?

Haha

I think I misrepresented what I meant. When you study a foreign language, you examine what prepositional phrases are, what adjective clauses are, what nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc are. I took that as an opportunity (particularly with Spanish) to draw parallels between it and English. Hence, it helped my understanding of English grammar too.

German is a bit of a different story. English is basically German Lite. A lot of the structure is basically the same, with a few big exceptions, so studying it helped cement grammar in my head.

- No adjective endings in English (thank god) [ex: In German the word "good" in the following two sentences has a different ending - (1)The good boy goes to the store. (2) I give the book to the good boy.
- No verbs are pushed to the end of sentences. (ex: Can we the bill have?)
- No adjective clauses (the devil!). Luckily we cannot insert sentences as adjectives in english (ex: the good who buys his mother milk ever day at the store boy went to school at nine o'clock).

Other than those minor annoyances, and being able to construct super-words, German and English are pretty similar

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: BigJ

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
"In the workplace" isn't a preposition though. "In" is a preposition, "the" is a definite article, "workplace" is a noun. The dangling participle (a preposition at the end of a sentence) refers to sentences like "Where is my shirt at?" In this sentence, at is a preposition and should not be used to end the sentence as it is gramatically incorrect; it is also completely unnecessary, as the sentence is understandable as simply "Where is my shirt?" The rule gets trickier with sentences like "I don't remember what drugs I was on," or "He loves jacking off."

Agent Bork: Chief! Ya know that guy whose camper they were whackin' off in?
Agent Fleming: Bork, you're a federal agent! You represent the United States Government! Never end a sentence with a preposition.
Agent Bork: Oh, uh... Ya know that guy in whose camper they... I... I mean, that guy off in whose camper they were whacking?

This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.

-W. Churchill (maybe)

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy

Originally posted by: BlinderBomber
My understanding of the English language improved dramatically when I studied Spanish in grade school and high school. In college, my English benefited even more from studying German. I used to have trouble identifying the parts of speech in English until my German classes.

That's odd, because my biggest problem with Spanish was that the rules of grammar were completely different from English; more sensible, perhaps, but still different. German just seems like an unwieldy wolverine of a language, judging by my former roommate's complaints about her German classes. What kind of language lets you run words together all willy-nilly to create one giant word that no one can spell or pronounce?

Haha

I think I misrepresented what I meant. When you study a foreign language, you examine what prepositional phrases are, what adjective clauses are, what nouns, verbs, adverbs, etc are. I took that as an opportunity (particularly with Spanish) to draw parallels between it and English. Hence, it helped my understanding of English grammar too.

German is a bit of a different story. English is basically German Lite. A lot of the structure is basically the same, with a few big exceptions, so studying it helped cement grammar in my head.

- No adjective endings in English (thank god) [ex: In German the word "good" in the following two sentences has a different ending - (1)The good boy goes to the store. (2) I give the book to the good boy.
- No verbs are pushed to the end of sentences. (ex: Can we the bill have?)
- No adjective clauses (the devil!). Luckily we cannot insert sentences as adjectives in english (ex: the good who buys his mother milk ever day at the store boy went to school at nine o'clock).

Other than those minor annoyances, and being able to construct super-words, German and English are pretty similar

To be fair, we can construct superwords in English, both through tmesis (such as ri-goddamn-diculous), or good old-fashioned American ingenuity (words like clusterfuck or technoincesturbation).

 

[allisolm]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
"In the workplace" isn't a preposition though. "In" is a preposition, "the" is a definite article, "workplace" is a noun. The dangling participle (a preposition at the end of a sentence) refers to sentences like "Where is my shirt at?" In this sentence, at is a preposition and should not be used to end the sentence as it is gramatically incorrect; it is also completely unnecessary, as the sentence is understandable as simply "Where is my shirt?" The rule gets trickier with sentences like "I don't remember what drugs I was on," or "He loves jacking off."

:laugh: Dangling participles have nothing to do with prepositions at the end of senrtences.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: allisolm

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
"In the workplace" isn't a preposition though. "In" is a preposition, "the" is a definite article, "workplace" is a noun. The dangling participle (a preposition at the end of a sentence) refers to sentences like "Where is my shirt at?" In this sentence, at is a preposition and should not be used to end the sentence as it is gramatically incorrect; it is also completely unnecessary, as the sentence is understandable as simply "Where is my shirt?" The rule gets trickier with sentences like "I don't remember what drugs I was on," or "He loves jacking off."

:laugh: Dangling participles have nothing to do with prepositions at the end of senrtences.

Hey, you're right. Apparently my high school English teacher was retarded, because that's what she told us a dangling participle was. Are there any requirements to becoming a teacher (like, I don't know, actually knowing the subject matter)?