Grammar is a writer's worst enemy.

[subtletylost]

Am I the only one who thinks that?

I have three characters and they were having a conversation.

“I have confidence in this girl.”

Glinda looked at Elphaba who had just finished her bacon. “Hunter, do you want to learn how to read and write?”

“If I do, can I help you with your homework?” Elphaba asked.

“Yeah. If you let me and Fiyero-“

“Fiyero and I,” Fiyero said, “If we are going to teach her, it might as well be with proper grammar.”

“Fiyero and I,” Glinda said, “If you let Fiyero and I teach you how to read and write and do math, the things you need to know to pass the tests to get into school. I’ll let you help me with my homework.”


But I am pretty sure 'Fiyero and I' wouldn't be correct in this situation. Am I wrong? I feel like I've had this conversation with every English teacher I've ever had and never really learned the answer well enough to remember it. I think this is going to end up like my AP English 3 teacher telling my class about 'neither is'.

 

[Abernovo]

By my understanding of it (perhaps a tenuous understanding, though), 'me and Fiyero' is correct in this instance. I'm willing to accept I could be wrong.

Think about how you would say the sentence if Fiyero wasn't in it.
'If you let me teach/help her'.

You're adding Fiyero in to the sentence. The alternate 'Fiyero and I could help her, if you would let us' would also be correct but is more formal.

I don't know the technical terms. My schooling was poor on those, but that's what I picked up along the way. Me and X / X and I are not always interchangeable, but they each have correct usages in English.

That's my understanding of it.

 

[AMB]

The rule here is to ditch the other person. If it makes sense, it's right.

In this case it would be Fiyero and me, because without Fiyero it's "if you let me teach you".

Aber got there first, although I'm pretty sure you're supposed to put the other person before me/I in both cases.

 

[chrispenycate]

The test for this one is simple: leave out the "Fiyero and", and does "“If you let I teach you how to read and write…" sound right to you? I could go into objects and subjects of different verbs, but the result is "If you let Fiyero and me teach you…", unless you're trying to point out that Glinda is not all that good at grammar either and is showing off.

I have three character's and they were having a conversation.

No apostrophe (characters is plural not possessive, and the change from present (I have) to past (they were) is not over effective.

“If I do, can I help you with your homework?”

I've had this conversation with every English teacher I've ever had

What? You didn't bother about details in the thread because it's not for publication? You're communicating, and it's never too early to install good habits

The Pedant.

 

[subtletylost]

I honestly didn't even notice the little mistakes in typing up the post. I'll check these more thoroughly now though. Thanks for pointing them out, I don't think I would have ever noticed the mistakes.

I thought Fiyero and I sounded bad in this case. I just wasn't quite sure if it was just me, or if it was genuinely wrong.

 

[subtletylost]

I hate grammar. I have a new problem now. Numbers. I know numbers greater than 100 get digits not words, but what about smaller ones?

Glinda and Fiyero looked through the shelves of the children’s books. They glanced at the titles and pulled about 20 different books of the shelves.

Should I leave it 20 or write out twenty? Does it really matter? Does it ever matter? When does it matter? Ages are always numbers, right?

 

[Tywin]

I hate grammar. I have a new problem now. Numbers. I know numbers greater than 100 get digits not words, but what about smaller ones?

Glinda and Fiyero looked through the shelves of the children’s books. They glanced at the titles and pulled about 20 different books of the shelves.

Should I leave it 20 or write out twenty? Does it really matter? Does it ever matter? When does it matter? Ages are always numbers, right?

Some professions set specific standards for this (in the US Army we spell out numbers from zero to ten, but then use digits for 11 and above), but I think that otherwise it's largely a question of style.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Write it out in full, Fishii, as far as I know. And definitely always in dialogue cos one person says twenty and another two-oh.

 

[subtletylost]

I'm really worried about the last question though. Ages are always digits, right? I know in my journalism class we write out numbers less than 10 but not numbers over 10, and ages are never written out, but is that always the case, or does it just depend?

 

[mosaix]

Ages are always digits, right? I know in my journalism class we write out numbers less than 10 but not numbers over 10, and ages are never written out,

That's what I was always taught.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think journalism may be different than prose. I don't know for sure, but when I asked the question here a few years ago, the concensus was that they got written out in full. For instance, you'd never see: on day 1 in prose. And I've only ever seen eg. my eight-year-old sister. I had a quick look at a random book just then (Water for Elephants) and it has in four and a half hours.... so I think write them out in full and you can't go wrong, unless it's a year or something.

But, also, I think consistency is the key and if someone really loves your book they're not going to reject it on the basis of you not writing your numbers exactly the way they want it.

 

[chrispenycate]

Above about ten, it does just depend, on you, yes. If you wanted to make a number look more impressive – 'he had reached the ripe age of a hundred and fifteen', or 'they were now travelling more than sixty-eight thousand kilometres per second' – you might write out some quite long numbers (wouldn't help much in the seventy-five word challenge, though), while if it was throwaway information – '12 years later' – use figures for some reasonably short ones.

I agree with the dialogue "always spell it out", but a lot of people don't see it that way, and I would never correct it as a fault.

 

[subtletylost]

I looked back through the story, I've been spelling numbers out so I'll keep that up for numbers less than 100.

Grammar is awful. What is wrong with this sentence, and please don't say nothing, I know something is wrong. I just don't know what.

Glinda shook her head, this girl whoever she was led a sad life.

 

[Warren_Paul]

You spell out numbers in dialogue, but you can get away with using the digits in narrative -- I'd still spell them out in both though, but that's just personal preference.

I wouldn't join it with a comma. I'd make it two sentences:

Glinda shook her head. This girl, whoever she was, led a sad life.

I put the "whoever she was" in commas because to me it is a subclause and merely extra details to the rest of the sentence.

 

[chrispenycate]

Firstly, you've got a comma splice (both "Glinda shook her head", and "this girl whoever she was led a sad life." are complete sentences, so need to be split off with something heavier than a comma: a period or a semicolon, perchance), then "whoever she was" is a subordinate clause; it's generally better to make a short pause before and after, to make it clear that the thing works even without this little bit of extra description , thus:-
Glinda shook her head; this girl, whoever she was, led a sad life.


Well, I might be slow at typing, but I agree with people – except for the two sentences .

 

[subtletylost]

I wish I would notice things like that when I type them, instead of a week later. Both suggestions make perfect sense, but I like the semicolon better; it's fancier.

 

[Warren_Paul]

Either way works just fine.

 

[sknox]

Grammar may be a writer's worst enemy, but it's a reader's best friend.

 

[subtletylost]

That it is. But it makes my head hurt, trying to figure out how I am using it wrong.

 

[subtletylost]

Who's is who is right? So this:

“Why don’t you write stories?”

“Because reading them is more fun than writing them, now who’s taking you to school today?”

is correct isn't it. Word says it should be whose, but that possessive isn't it?