Grammar police, unite!

[+ Charlie]

E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma! (Tosca)

 

Ah! La maledizione! (Rigoletto)

 

È compiuta la vendetta! (Semiramide)

 

Gran Dio! Ed anch'io! (Great God! And I too!)

Not to mention: "Sola! Perduta! Abbandonata!"

[geminibear]

http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/ed/ed4a77ba5b4f8d6c5a47f562e39e449962ba7124ab9fc090e8ffcab4d2588520.jpg

[actor61]

Found on cnn.com this morning:

 

"Malia Obama, the oldest of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama's two daughters, will attend Harvard University.'

Other than my pure hatred of the word gifted, I try to be tolerant, but media these days need better proof-reading. And what is wrong with the phrases:

I

gave

her a book.

I was

given

a book.

In the passive voice, A book was gifted to me is just awkward.

 

Whilst I'm at it, Extra Points if anyone can tell me the difference between a gift and a present.

 

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate

I get your point and applaud you for bringing it up. Unrelated but pertinent, how many times have you heard someone reputed for intelligence say, "That's between he and I?" Or "She gave the book to him and I." And I have heard more than once people say, "My brother and I's parents".

[whipped guy]

Not to mention: "Sola! Perduta! Abbandonata!"

Or the other aria from Puccini's Manon Lescaut, "In quelle trine morbide"! That translates as "In that soft lace", but for some reason sounds (at least somewhat phonetically) as if it is referencing some morbid latrine!

[AdamSmith]

Or the other aria from Puccini's Manon Lescaut, "In quelle trine morbide"! That translates as "In that soft lace", but for some reason sounds (at least somewhat phonetically) as if it is referencing some morbid latrine!

...ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.

 

[whipped guy]

...ed elli avea del cul fatto trombetta.

 

I'm not sure from what most likely comic opera that might come, but the phrase certainly seems worthy of someone such as Dante... Or even better our illustrious Signor Smith!

 

In any event, one's butt certainly can be used in quite a musical fashion. In this case a trumpet!

 

http://www.anorak.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/who-farted.jpg

[+ Charlie]

I get your point and applaud you for bringing it up. Unrelated but pertinent, how many times have you heard someone reputed for intelligence say, "That's between he and I?" Or "She gave the book to him and I." And I have heard more than once people say, "My brother and I's parents".

Subject and object forms of pronouns, particularly in combinations, are hard for most speakers to master. One hears these errors all the time on live television commentary.

[whipped guy]

I get your point and applaud you for bringing it up. Unrelated but pertinent, how many times have you heard someone reputed for intelligence say, "That's between he and I?" Or "She gave the book to him and I." And I have heard more than once people say, "My brother and I's parents".

Subject and object forms of pronouns, particularly in combinations, are hard for most speakers to master. One hears these errors all the time on live television commentary.

This is indeed quite common and it can be viewed as correcting something that does not need to be corrected aka the "over correction"! As an example, and to use actor61's example, one might indeed hear, "That's between he and I." I can easily see how one might think that because it sounds "wrong" it must be correct! After all everybody says, "It's him" or "It's me" when they know that it should be "he" and "I" respectively! So a misplaced correction of sorts!

 

Still, as Charlie notes most of the errors occur in combining the subject and object form of pronouns. It not only plagues TV commentators, but by the politicians about whom they are commenting. Unfortunately, one must include presidents as well (including our current smart one, in addition to others from the past) not to mention those currently seeking the job!

[mike carey]

"My brother and I's" parents is an odd one. In a way it's a contrived construction. If you're just talking about the parents, 'my parents' would be enough, unless your brother and you have only one parent in common (or have natural and adoptive parents) and you want to include all of them. If you and your brother and your [natural] parents are both participants in whatever is described in the sentence you can usually phrase it as, 'My brother and I blah blah blah our parents...' It's quite difficult for me to think of a case, much less one where it is the more elegant construction, where you have to use the possessive case of the phrase 'my brother and I'.

[gallahadesquire]

"My dog's better than your dog ..."

[whipped guy]

"My dog's better than your dog ..."

I'm going to assume that this was posted because it is correct!

You're going to assume that...

He's going to assume that...

We're going to assume that...

They're going to assume that...

Therefore even my dog's going to assume that...

[whipped guy]

For the record I hate these threads as there are so many pedants who populate this place! OK! I said it! As such I did not heed the warning as posted above:

 

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate!!!!!!!!!

 

Of course there's probably a law against the over use of the exclamation point as well!

 

As such I am reminded of a certain passage in the score of Rossini's opera Otello. He deliberately used consecutive fifths in a trio in the second act. Of course that was considered a musical mortal sin at the time. Accordingly the composer wrote at that point in his manuscript stating that he did it purposefully to annoy the "stupid pedants". At least that's how the passage is usually translated into English. However, the word that he actually used to reference those annoying pedantic types was "coglioni" which is an Italian vulgarism for testicles! Gotta love the guy! (Incidentally when the critical edition of the score was published the phrase was rendered exactly as written in the original manuscript.)

[TruHart1]

For the record I hate these threads as there are so many pedants who populate this place! OK! I said it! As such I did not heed the warning as posted above:

 

Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate!!!!!!!!!

 

Of course there's probably a law against the over use of the exclamation point as well!

 

As such I am reminded of a certain passage in the score of Rossini's opera Otello. He deliberately used consecutive fifths in a trio in the second act. Of course that was considered a musical mortal sin at the time. Accordingly the composer wrote at that point in his manuscript stating that he did it purposefully to annoy the "stupid pedants". At least that's how the passage is usually translated into English. However, the word that he actually used to reference those annoying pedantic types was "coglioni" which is an Italian vulgarism for testicles! Gotta love the guy! (Incidentally when the critical edition of the score was published the phrase was rendered exactly as written in the original manuscript.)

Wait. There are only a few pedants on this thread so far. Where are all the other coglioni hiding right now?

 

BTW, Rossini's Otello premiered December 4, 1816, but Verdi's Otello did not premiere until February 5, 1887, 71 years later.

 

TruHart1

[+ purplekow]

The pedantic are frantic and are in romantic, enchantic Atlantic City, down by the old New Jersey shore. A mondegreen from my youth, as I believed the the lyrics to be: frantic, pedantic Atlantic City down by the old New Jersey Shore.

 

 

http://www.njarts.net/350-jersey-songs/350-jersey-songs-on-the-boardwalk-in-atlantic-city-dick-haymes/

[AdamSmith]

there are so many pedants who populate this place!

 

About whom...

 

Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create

se non etterne, e io etterno duro.

 

[swallows22]

Why don't you start your own Opera thread instead of stealing this one. Have a nice day.

[TruHart1]

Io son l’umile ancella del Genio creator:

 

TruHart1

[whipped guy]

Actually this is becoming almost more of a Dante hijack as well as an opera hijack and in that regard did not the OP start it all?!?! Along those lines and to expand on the Dante and opera hijack, it is interesting to note that in the opera Otello referenced above Rossini had his librettist insert the following quote from Dante's Inferno into the action.

 

"Nessun maggior dolore

Che ricordarsi del tempo felice

Nella miseria."

 

"There is no greater pain

Than for one to recall happy times

When in misery."

 

While Rossini was noted for his sly sardonic humor he was also considered to be a man of great refinement and culture.

[whipped guy]

Analysis of a so called hijack:

 

@gallahadesquire as OP quotes Dante in Italian sans translation

@whipped guy compares Italian pronoun usage and its evolution to issues with English grammar

@Charlie mentions how he speaks Italian in an operatic manner

@whipped guy responds giving some of his favorite operatic lines sans translation and includes one from Tosca

@TruHart1 give the date of the first performance of Puccini's Tosca

@whipped guy responds to that

@Charlie responds with one of his favorite quotes from Puccini's Manon Lescaut

@whipped guy responds with a quip from the same opera

@AdamSmith replies with an untranslated Italian quote from Dante

@whipped guy complains of pedants but does by referencing how operatic composer Rossini once referenced pedantic types in a vulgar manner

@purplekow gives an example of a non operatic Jersey Shore song about pedants

@AdamSmith again quotes Dante in Italian

@TruHart1 quotes an operatic phrase

A poster complains of an operatic hijack in the middle of this

@whipped guy (who wakes up reading all this in the middle of the night because he has the flu and is suffering from insomniac to boot) not to be intimidated gives a further Dante and operatic connection

 

Sorry if I left any other culprits out!

 

Just another "normal" day (and night) at the zoo! Now I really need to sleep all of this off........... So feel free to carry on in a pedantic or non pedantic manner as all ya'll see fit! (With any luck that's an acceptable usage of an apostrophe.)

[mike carey]

Analysis of a so called hijack:

Yay! My pedantic comments passed muster!

[LADoug1]

And from what I understand, schools will not be teaching cursive penmanship anymore. So sad.

[geminibear]

Much of this thread is long, dense and too pedantic to hold great appeal. plagiarized from Wikipedia

[actor61]

"My brother and I's" parents is an odd one. In a way it's a contrived construction. If you're just talking about the parents, 'my parents' would be enough, unless your brother and you have only one parent in common (or have natural and adoptive parents) and you want to include all of them. If you and your brother and your [natural] parents are both participants in whatever is described in the sentence you can usually phrase it as, 'My brother and I blah blah blah our parents...' It's quite difficult for me to think of a case, much less one where it is the more elegant construction, where you have to use the possessive case of the phrase 'my brother and I'.

My brother's and my parents.

[actor61]

[mike carey]

My brother's and my parents.

That works. There is still the possibility that the brother's and 'my' parents are not all the same people!