The Sperrys: Just a Little Happy Post

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Just a Little Happy Post

So, as I was thinking about how the last week of the term I'm going to be writing two ten-page papers, I got a happy thought. I'm going to be graduating this year! That's right folks, if I can manage to learn enough Italian to pass the course this spring term and then continue through summer with all my other classes, I WILL BE DONE!!! Well, sort of. I'll be done with my undergraduate studies, at least--WOOT!

2 comments:

Libby said...: Definitely something to be excited about! You are awesome!; January 7, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Cindy said...: Go Sarah!!!; January 7, 2009 at 3:55 PM

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John and Sarah's Grammar Tips

Lesson 4: Should have looked up what "of" means! Welcome back bloggers to the Sperry Grammar Hospital. Here we like to heal the grammatically sick and afflicted. Today's treatment deals with a very important and often misused verb conjugation: the past participle. This one is, as we thought, pretty easy to understand, but many seem to think that the word "of" (which is a preposition) is a verb. If you go back far enough you will remember hearing something in elementary school about the "helping verb". Well this is what we're talking about. The helping verb in case is "to have". How many times have you written or seen written a sentence like this one: "I should of bought that car". See anything wrong with that sentence. If you don't, then you are our audience. The word "of" in that sentence is incorrect. That should be "have", because in this case we are dealing with the "Past Participle" or a subjunctive tense; something that should have happened, but didn't. You can't use "of" here because "of" is a preposition (a word that tells the relationship of two objects to each other). In this tense, the verb requires the help of the verb "have". Written correctly, the sentence would look like this: "I should have bought that car." Many times people also use the wrong verb conjugation in the past participle as well, but that's another lesson all together. So remember, if you say "should" or "could", make sure it's "have" not "of".

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Just a Little Happy Post

2 comments:

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