Grumpy Grammar Grinch Grouses...

[SadieKate]

Regime used in place of regimen. I see / hear it WAY too frequently, and am afraid it is becoming generally accepted. Even on Masterpiece Theater last night, on PBS (it was "Emma", by Jane Austen, of all things - her father made a remark about his exercise regime). A regime is a government, a regimen is a system of training or treatment.

And how about all of the nouns that have become verbs, all of a sudden?

Voila! Perhaps she meant regiment.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/regiment.html

[SadieKate]

Actually, this is a very interesting site.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/index.html

You will find certain words or phrases criticized here listed in dictionaries. Note carefully labels like dial. (dialectical), nonstandard, and obsolete before assuming that the dictionary is endorsing them. The primary job of a dictionary is to track how people actually use language. Dictionaries differ among themselves on how much guidance to usage they provide; but the goal of a usage guide like this is substantially different: to protect you against patterns which are regarded by substantial numbers of well-educated people as nonstandard.

List of errors with a search engine
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

A particularly good one.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/poopoo.html

[kjay]

Note use of "which" as opposed to "that." Okay, I need to stop this. ;-)

[lph]

argh! I've been spelling "ad nauseam" wrong for years. Damn.

[kjay]

eeeeeeeeks! So have I. :-(

[SadieKate]

Arg! I've been spelling it wrong ad nauseam also.

[OakLeaf]

to protect you against patterns which are regarded

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah [running screaming out of room]!

kjay, I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who's bothered by that!

[SadieKate]

Hey, I didn't make that statement. Feel free to correct your quote . . .

And read the website author's statement about which/that.
http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/which.html

And more comments from the author of English language guide (and found through comments on Brians' site -- and notice the italics and a redundant indent to show that I am quoting someone else):
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch...ng/t.html#that

That versus Which.
According to the more quibbling self-styled grammar experts, that is restrictive, while which is not.

Many grammarians insist on a distinction without any historical justification. Many of the best writers in the language couldn't tell you the difference between them, while many of the worst think they know. If the subtle difference between the two confuses you, use whatever sounds right. Other matters are more worthy of your attention.

For the curious, however, the relative pronoun that is restrictive, which means it tells you a necessary piece of information about its antecedent: for example, "The word processor that is used most often is WordPerfect." Here the that phrase answers an important question: which of the many word processors are we talking about? And the answer is the one that is used most often.

Which is non-restrictive: it does not limit the word it refers to. An example is "Penn's ID center, which is called CUPID, has been successful so far." Here that is unnecessary: the which does not tell us which of Penn's many ID centers we're considering; it simply provides an extra piece of information about the plan we're already discussing. "Penn's ID Center" tells us all we really need to know to identify it.

It boils down to this: if you can tell which thing is being discussed without the which or that clause, use which; if you can't, use that.

There are two rules of thumb you can keep in mind. First, if the phrase needs a comma, you probably mean which. Since "Penn's ID center" calls for a comma, we would not say "Penn's ID Center, that is called CUPID."

Another way to keep them straight is to imagine by the way following every which: "Penn's ID center, which (by the way) is called CUPID. . . ." The which adds a useful, but not grammatically necessary, piece of information. On the other hand, we wouldn't say "The word processor which (by the way) is used most often is WordPerfect," because the word processor on its own isn't enough information — which word processor?

A paradoxical mnemonic: use that to tell which, and which to tell that.

This opinion would support Brians' choice of "which" over "that." I'm now outta here.

[OakLeaf]

Hey, I didn't make that statement. Feel free to correct your quote . . .

I didn't think it was you. I just didn't bother to put in a sub-quote (since you didn't ). Italics aren't preserved in auto-quote.

It was part of our Law Journal's style manual. Let them call our faculty "quibbling self-styled grammar experts" if they like [I mean honestly, how is that rule any different from any of the ones we've been complaining about in eleven pages of this thread?], but I had not only to know the rule, but to apply it to manuscripts submitted by law professors.

[SadieKate]

That would be because there is visual differentiation between regular and italic text, and included a link to the statement, in my post.

[Chile Pepper]

That versus which is a style question. US publishers tend to prefer the distinction, whereas the Brits almost never do--they freely use which as both restrictive and nonrestrictive. I personally edit my authors following the that/which distinction based on my publishers' expressed preferences, but strictly speaking, which is grammatically correct.

[crazycanuck]

Ok, i've been pondering this one for the past week & am now wondering if i'm out to lunch..

Someone please tell me why I can't say "Please email the details to me or Please email the details"?
Email can be a a verb..Email, emailing, emailed... If i'm incorrect, please provide numerous accurate sentences as examples.

Next one is Sunburn. Can it be used in the folowing manner:" I ended up with a sunburn." ?? I could say " I'm sunburnt" but can I say " I'm sunburnt on my back"? Should one only say " My back is sunburnt"?

Thank you..