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The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns. The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: No smocking guns.

08-07-2017 , 11:35 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWookie
New York, Oklahoma, and then?
He may get New York wrong. You may be getting it wrong rn.
08-07-2017 , 11:36 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
Side note, but grammar nittery over less/fewer probably rustles my jimmies more than actual poor grammar. Real OG grammar nits know that the less/fewer rule is completely made up, some grammarian just decided it should be a thing in the 18th century. Also, nobody actually follows the rule in all circumstances because it results in some truly horrendous sounding sentences. Anyone think any of these sound right?

"Netflix costs fewer than 10 dollars a month!"
"Usain Bolt can run 100 metres in fewer than 10 seconds"
"Well, that's one fewer thing to worry about!"
I mean, I know all this, but aren't literally all grammar rules something someone completely made up a while ago?
08-07-2017 , 11:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by AllTheCheese
The capital of New York is Albany.
I'd say its only 80% trump knows this.
08-07-2017 , 11:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWookie
I mean, I know all this, but aren't literally all grammar rules something someone completely made up a while ago?
Not somebody, everybody.
08-07-2017 , 11:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by AllTheCheese
He may get New York wrong. You may be getting it wrong rn.
Heh, I see what you are getting at, but I lived in NY for 7 years, and I am not a dumbass. Perhaps I gave him too much credit for living there, but it is pretty common to blame things on Albany specifically for people in NY.
08-07-2017 , 11:45 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clovis8
Not somebody, everybody.
Not true. Unless you want to revise your statement to be "something that someone made up and then lots of people adopted" which fails to distinguish less/fewer in any way.
08-07-2017 , 11:59 PM
I recently learned NY and WA both are run by republicans because for some ****ing reason there's rogue democrats that let that happen. maybe this is more lol dem thread worthy tho.

Trumps on fauxnews saying nobody works harder than the president, because he works so hard he has plenty of time for a **** ton of tweets about something he's watching on television. He's so godlike he can do 5 tasks at once and is totally, totally not just golfing or watching TV all day.
08-08-2017 , 12:18 AM
Yeah, it's weird here; State Senate has 32 D's and 31 R's, but a breakaway coalition of 8 D's who don't support the Democratic Party screws it.

Meanwhile, the Assembly, the lower House, is 108 D, 42 R.
08-08-2017 , 12:52 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ymmv
yo. yo.

"lemme throw 3 hypotheticals at you guys to invalidate proper grammar!"

cmon man.

Anyone think this sounds right?

"i have made less than 5 intelligent posts on 2p2"
It's not proper grammar:

Quote:
The Cambridge Guide to English Usage notes that the "pressure to substitute fewer for less seems to have developed out of all proportion to the ambiguity it may provide in noun phrases like less promising results". It describes conformance with this pressure as a shibboleth and the choice "between the more formal fewer and the more spontaneous less" as a stylistic choice.
Quote:
Less has always been used in English with counting nouns. Indeed, the application of the distinction between less and fewer as a rule is a phenomenon originating in the 18th century. On this, Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage notes:

As far as we have been able to discover, the received rule originated in 1770 as a comment on 'less': This Word is most commonly used in speaking of a Number; where I should think Fewer would do better. "No Fewer than a Hundred" appears to me, not only more elegant than "No less than a Hundred," but more strictly proper. (Baker 1770). Baker's remarks about 'fewer' express clearly and modestly – 'I should think,' 'appears to me' – his own taste and preference....Notice how Baker's preference has been generalized and elevated to an absolute status and his notice of contrary usage has been omitted."
Quote:
Originally Posted by AllTheCheese
They don't sound right because they are all wrong according to the stuffy rules of proper grammar. Money and measurements do not use "fewer."
But that's just a rule reverse-engineered from actual usage. If I ask "why?" then the only answer is "because that's how people speak English". But that goes equally well as an answer for why less is an OK substitution for fewer in many other situations.

I'm not saying this as a general prescriptive v descriptive grammar thing as I tend to come down more on the prescriptive side. Fewer v less is kind of unique among prescriptive rules in having just been made up by some guy and not ever having reflected how the language was properly used.

Quote:
The last example seems like it is obviously "less" since "thing" is singular.
So? It's still countable.
08-08-2017 , 01:12 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrWookie
I mean, I know all this, but aren't literally all grammar rules something someone completely made up a while ago?
Usually the rules either represent a consensus at some point on how the language should be spoken, or there are semantic reasons (like, it's not just a prescriptive rule that "your welcome" is wrong, it also doesn't make sense). I'm not aware of other rules like Less v Fewer where it was both never actually consensus and does not reflect any semantic reality. The idea that "less" can't be used with countable nouns is just made up from nothing. This is actually pretty obvious because there is no antonym for fewer other than more. So "more" is just fine but "less" isn't?

I know this is derailing this thread and I ain't even care. I'm dropping truth bombs here.
08-08-2017 , 01:16 AM
I guess actually another rule like that is the prohibition on split infinitives, which everyone appears to have given up on now.
08-08-2017 , 01:19 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
So? It's still countable.
Irrelevant. That is not the current rule.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/less-or-fewer

All of your "wrong sounding" sentences are grammatically wrong.
08-08-2017 , 01:19 AM
Took me a little while to recognize A) in those map outlines. South American geography isn't your strong suit when you grow up in Straya.
08-08-2017 , 01:21 AM
I think Mueller's team is going to short circuit from the number of crimes and counts they stumble across.
08-08-2017 , 01:29 AM
The reason the money and measurement exceptions make sense, at least to me, is because these represent amounts that can be thought of as one whole. They can be unit changed to singular. So you would say "I have less than $4 in my wallet," but "I have fewer than four dollar bills." The amount of $4 is one whole total, while the bills are separate items.

The rule is really just a singular versus plural rule. Pretty common in English.

Last edited by AllTheCheese; 08-08-2017 at 01:36 AM.
08-08-2017 , 01:35 AM
"I have fewer than four dollar bills in my wallet" sounds super awkward to me, "less" would sound a lot more natural. I could give a ton of other examples of awkward sounding stuff, for instance "Australia has fewer than 25 million residents".

Guess we'll agree to disagree, I'll counter your Oxford link with one from Grammarist:

Quote:
The less/fewer distinction is not always borne out in real-world usage, though. In fact, the rule has been widely broken for centuries, and there is much controversy among people who follow these things over whether it is worth preserving. We won’t explore that controversy here, but it is safe to say that mixing up less and fewer in informal speech or writing is never a serious error. When it comes to more formal contexts, it is worth at least considering that many people strongly believe in the old rule and think that breaking it is a serious error. Whether to pay this any heed is a choice one must make for oneself.
Pretty much.
08-08-2017 , 02:17 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
"I have fewer than four dollar bills in my wallet" sounds super awkward to me, "less" would sound a lot more natural. I could give a ton of other examples of awkward sounding stuff, for instance "Australia has fewer than 25 million residents".
Both of these sound correct to me. The first one sounds odd to you because only a total weirdo would make such a proclamation. Instead, you'd hear "I have less than four dollars in my wallet," which is correct, if only to allow for the possibility of said weirdo holding coins in the wallet. $3.50, as it were.
08-08-2017 , 02:39 AM
More pushback against Trump lies. That whole story about the 21 Club in NYC? Pure BS.

https://twitter.com/thehill/status/894790551416983553
08-08-2017 , 02:58 AM
INSIDE A TRUMPIST'S MIND

Over the weekend on Fox, Greg Gutfeld showed their version of the Miller/Acosta confrontation. The audience ate it up when he said "Miller didn't believe a word he was saying, and look how he destroyed CNN. We know how to win!"

So next time you wonder why the incessant lying doesn't bother them, it's because Fox is now openly cheering government disinformation against the public.
08-08-2017 , 03:13 AM
Pretty big climate change extreme weather leak today. Apparently, this new report makes an incredible case for human climate change extreme weather, and it got leaked out of deep concern that Trump/EPA would try to bury the science.

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/sta...17551686627330
08-08-2017 , 04:20 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by m_reed05
Yea I know he won't, but the high road hasn't been too kind to the democrats.

'I misrepresented my service, and for that I have apologized in the past. President Trump on the other hand has never served. Instead using student and medical deferments to avoid service.'
I'd prefer to go with something relevant to now...

"Mr. President, witness tampering will get you nowhere. Our committee keeps investigating Russian evidence & money, no matter how much you guys obstruct justice."

Last edited by Our House; 08-08-2017 at 04:25 AM.
08-08-2017 , 06:08 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
"I have fewer than four dollar bills in my wallet" sounds super awkward to me, "less" would sound a lot more natural. I could give a ton of other examples of awkward sounding stuff, for instance "Australia has fewer than 25 million residents".
To me, it's where you put the subject. If the subject comes first, fewer sounds less awkward (to me). Australia has fewer than 25 million residents seems fine. But I would also say there are less than 25 million residents in Australia.

Ditto for wallet. My wallet has fewer than $4 in it. I have less than $4 in my wallet.

Bringing the thread back to topic, it would be incorrect to say Trump has fewer intelligence and knowledge of governing than any other president. Of course, it is absolutely correct to say he has less. Much less!
08-08-2017 , 07:18 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisV
"I have fewer than four dollar bills in my wallet" sounds super awkward to me, "less" would sound a lot more natural. I could give a ton of other examples of awkward sounding stuff, for instance "Australia has fewer than 25 million residents".

Guess we'll agree to disagree, I'll counter your Oxford link with one from Grammarist:



Pretty much.


You can make the same case for irregardless. And that sounds dumb as well.
08-08-2017 , 07:21 AM


https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...78812063846400
08-08-2017 , 08:05 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by eyebooger


https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/...78812063846400
I'd like to go to this. I assume they're giving out free samples.

      
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