An Interesting Case for Capitalization
We all know you capitalize the first word in a sentence, peoples’ names, dates, states, and countries. Here’s a new rule:
One of those three surprises involves an anomalous form of creature, a whole category of life, previously unsuspected and now known as the archaea. (Their name gets uppercased when used as a formal taxonomic category: Archaea.)
From Delancy Place. I think this link will go to the article: https://us5.campaign-archive.com/?e=80764d0508&u=6557fc90400ccd10e100a13f4&id=eaf81963d2
So I guess, when you want (or should I say need?) to be formal, you can capitalize, eh? Well, in scientific lists, anyway…
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Spell Correctly!
Not that you can tell someone’s spelling in a spoken conversation…
Hmm. I think I’ve mentioned “alright” before. The kid is correct, even though it might be a losing battle.
Two Things Most People Get Wrong
But he got them both right! Good for him. I’ll tell you what they are after the comic. See if you can tell what they are.
- First panel—Most people would say “…wish I was.” The rule is that when you state something contrary to fact, you should use the subjunctive, which he does.
- Second panel—He correctly used lying (progressive of “lie”) instead of the incorrect “laying.”
An Interesting Quora Q&A
Edited a bit to shorten it.
What grammar rules does your native language have that make no sense?
J Beckwith, B.M. Opera & Linguistics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2011). I teach English to non-native speakers. In English there are some rules that even when I explain them, I recognize that they are completely illogical.
- Quantities of “0” are plural. When you have 1 of something it’s singular. “It’s one degree Celsius”
But when you have 0 of something, it’s plural. “It’s 0 degrees outside.” “I have zero questions for you.”
2. Another number rule. When we use measurements before a noun, they remain singular, even when plural. I understand the logic behind this, but it still seems like it doesn’t make too much sense.
“The trip is two hours long.” But “It’s a two-hour-long trip.”
[I have to disagree with this one. Unlike many languages, the rule in English is that adjectives just don’t show number, period. Or gender, for that matter.]
A New Word I’ve Been Seeing Recently
The usage is probably older than I know. The word is “compute” used as a noun. Mostly I’ve heard it in the depths of IT departments, but here’s a usage in an article intended for us normal geeks. “AV “stands for “autonomous vehicle.”
You’ll need a load of on-board compute, too. Future AVs could run on up to 500 million lines of code and produce terabytes of data daily.
https://www.morningbrew.com/emerging-tech/s/your-guide-to-autonomous-vehicles
Well, it is shorter than something like “computing power.”
The word is even in the diagram:
