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The perils of pedantry

posted by Zed on May 13 2002 23:38

So tonight I was listening to someone going on about "the imperative tense." Naturally, I was grinding my teeth. Not satisfied with merely being wrong, he went for inconsistent, also, referring subsequently to "the imperative voice."

I smiled and nodded, but inside I screamed "Mood! Mood! The imperative mood!"

After years of effort, I have socialized myself to the extent to which I don't compulsively correct people anymore. But the instinct lives on.

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