Grammar Comic

Okay, teachers, post this on your classroom wall! In fact, if you have trouble with this word, post it on your own wall!

The only things missing here are pointing out that the simple past of “to lie” is “lay,” and the simple past of “to lay” is “laid.” And the simple past of telling a falsehood is “lied.”

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A caesura is when you have insert a pause in a poem to make the meter work. Every panel except the last two has a caesura between the first and second lines. You can get the feel by inserting “and” or another one-syllable word where the caesura goes.

Okay, reader challenge: Write a four-line verse (called a quatrain, by the way) with a caesura in it. Put it in the comments.

I’m not sure myself what the difference is, but here’s something to think about…

I guess there’s something to be said for both answers.

Without looking in a dictionary, how would you define wisdom?

Notwithstanding, the grammar geek is correct—about the grammar. Linguistic change happens, so I can’t entirely agree about the decline of western civilization.

Not only is he correct, but I saw this the same day:

Maybe the geeks are winning!

Use “this” to refer to things that are generally within arm’s reach, and use “that” to refer to things far enough away to have to point to them. This guy gets it backwards and kind of ruins the joke.