Please don't try to work on the Airplane

[Tommay85]

As far as Grammar goes, I stick to the "historian" test. Poor grammar or elocution is like Pornography...you know it when you see it. And it will, always and forever, be "an historian", not "a historian". It's like nails on a chalkboard to even type the later. However mightily the forces of "new age" grammar might labor (labour?), there will always be things that are simply, well, "beyond the pale", yes?

Here's what I've always believed to be the Final Word on the subject. DFW, as usual, speaks my heart.

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.htmlDid you know that probing the seamy underbelly of U.S. lexicography reveals ideological strife and controversy and intrigue and nastiness and fervor on a nearly hanging-chad scale? For instance, did you know that some modern dictionaries are notoriously liberal and others notoriously conservative, and that certain conservative dictionaries were actually conceived and designed as corrective responses to the "corruption" and "permissiveness" of certain liberal dictionaries? That the oligarchic device of having a special "Distinguished Usage Panel ... of outstanding professional speakers and writers" is an attempted compromise between the forces of egalitarianism and traditionalism in English, but that most linguistic liberals dismiss the Usage Panel as mere sham-populism? Did you know that U.S. lexicography even had a seamy underbelly?

It you find that even slightly interesting, it really is worth reading the whole thing.

Sorry, but "an" will forever, and only go with a vowel or a number that starts with a vowel to me. Your example "an historian" makes me want to dispatch a heard of domo-kuns after a litter of kittens!

 

[Deleted member 27505]

As far as Grammar goes, I stick to the "historian" test. Poor grammar or elocution is like Pornography...you know it when you see it. And it will, always and forever, be "an historian", not "a historian". It's like nails on a chalkboard to even type the later. However mightily the forces of "new age" grammar might labor (labour?), there will always be things that are simply, well, "beyond the pale", yes?

Here's what I've always believed to be the Final Word on the subject. DFW, as usual, speaks my heart.

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html

It really is worth a read, if you've the time.

The trick is being incision, not derision in one's provision... of admonition. Ensures a good wrap, not a bad rap.


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[Boris Badenov]

It's a soft h, you heathen. I mean 'EATHEN!

 

[Boris Badenov]

The trick is being incision, not derision in one's provision... of admonition. Ensures a good wrap, not a bad rap.


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Derision is, unfortunately, necessary, from time to time, to protect proper proscription, and, dare I say, erudition!

 

[Deleted member 27505]

Derision is, unfortunately, necessary, from time to time, to protect proper proscription, and, dare I say, erudition!

Yeah, @Derg seems usually to have that prescription for the diction proscription.


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[trafficinsight]

I could tell you several stories about airplanes that were "fixed" by an A&P. Like most certifications, it means very little in the real world.

It means that you are expected to be aware of and adhere to the standards set forth etc. etc., and that means everything.

Like many pilots, some choose not to follow it, and in some situations you may be warranted in deviating, but that doesn't mean it's not important, or that it "means very little."

 

[FloridaLarry]

Preventive vs Preventative

What form becomes preferred is decided by usage, and usage is rarely guided by concerns of logic or consistency.

from Grammarist, op cit

Vernacular may well be acceptable, in some places. Methinks Preferred trumps Acceptable.

Pilots pride themselves on their logic and consistency. Maybe it's a three-stripe - four-stripe thing?

Acceptable belongs on the MEL.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

Derision is, unfortunately, necessary, from time to time, to protect proper proscription, and, dare I say, erudition!

I had an English grammar teacher and still use quotation marks in the British manner unless I'm writing for publication.

 

[PhilosopherPilot]

Boris,

Do you say "minimums?"

 

[Pilot Fighter]

Boris,

Do you say "minimums?"

Serenity, now! (I also use commas in the British style.)

 

[knot4u]

As far as Grammar goes, I stick to the "historian" test. Poor grammar or elocution is like Pornography...you know it when you see it. And it will, always and forever, be "an historian", not "a historian". It's like nails on a chalkboard to even type the later. However mightily the forces of "new age" grammar might labor (labour?), there will always be things that are simply, well, "beyond the pale", yes?

Here's what I've always believed to be the Final Word on the subject. DFW, as usual, speaks my heart.



It you find that even slightly interesting, it really is worth reading the whole thing.

http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html

Proof @Boris Badenov is smarter than 90% of us. I before E except after C.