Subject Verb Object, Right?

rogersgeorge on June 24th, 2024

But we English speakers are rather used to other orders of those parts of speech. Third panel:

For one thing, it’s not a sentence; no verb—all three words are nouns. So she read it as “Customers: do the appreciation today” or something like that. How would you re-word the sign?

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I Mentioned This a While Back

rogersgeorge on January 28th, 2023

This (verbing a noun) is a well-known linguistic feature of English. You can do a search in the box on the upper right for more.

https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2023/01/23

I still don’t like using “office” as a verb.

Anthimeria is the technical term for doing this, but nobody uses it.

You can Make About any Noun into a Verb

rogersgeorge on December 10th, 2021

For Example:

Scary Gary Comic Strip for October 26, 2021
https://www.gocomics.com/scarygary/2021/10/26

You don’t even need to put it between quotes.

Can you think of a noun that you can’t use as a verb?

Well and Good

rogersgeorge on May 12th, 2021

I don’t recall mentioning this grade-school point of grammar before. The difference between “well” and “good.”

  • Well—an adverb. Goes with verbs. Well done!
  • Good—an adjective. Goes with nouns. Good lesson!
  • Yes, both words can be nouns, but that’s a lesson for another day.

Okay, class, here’s a test. Did he get it correct or not? Last panel.

A Somewhat Bogus Rule

rogersgeorge on February 4th, 2021

The problem with the rule is that nouns can so often be turned into verbs…

Frank and Ernest Comic Strip for November 18, 2020
https://www.gocomics.com/frank-and-ernest/2020/11/18

…so when you’re a verb, this is okay. But you know that, right?