I’m a big fan of grammar. Surprise, right? But in order to use grammar properly, we need to understand the parts of a sentence. A lot of grammar deals with objects of sentences. You know, subject, verb, object. Suzy slapped Bobby.
But not everything that comes after a verb is an object. Prepositional phrases can throw a wrench into the mix.
Puns!
Puns, puns, puns. You either love them, or you are wrong. Charles Lamb and Edgar Allan Poe both had low opinions of those who did not like puns, with Lamb going so far as to say, “I never knew an enemy to puns who was not an ill-natured man.” So if you don’t like puns, well, you must not be a very pleasant person to be around.
Back when I first moved to Denver, I saw a sign that was an inspiration for a post on proper quotation use. And now it’s time for the second installment of proper quotation usage.
We know that quotations are used in dialogue. But what happens when you have a pair of really long-winded characters engaged in extensive conversation?
Confession time: I love when famous people who are dating become one word. Brangelina. Bennifer. The entire cast of Glee. In college, my friend Cassie started dating this guy Brent, and Brassie was born.
This phenomenon has a name, and as a student of the French language, I love using it: portmanteau.
