Timeline for Using contractions correctly in Grammar like the word "weren't" when asking a question
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 29, 2018 at 9:21 | comment | added | Martin Bonner supports Monica | @JasonBassford There are no formal "rules" of English grammar (as there are for computer languages like C), there are only attempts to describe how educated English users use the language. "Were not you..." consists of words that are used, but they are never used in that order; therefor it is ungrammatical (aka "wrong"). | |
| May 28, 2018 at 19:38 | comment | added | user230 | Being pedantic is fine, but it is ungrammatical; claiming otherwise simply means you're insufficiently familiar with the relevant grammar. | |
| May 28, 2018 at 19:30 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | I mentioned Noam Chomsky's famous grammatical construct elsewhere recently: colorless green ideas sleep furiously. Despite it not being something I would say (aside from referring to it), it's not technically wrong. Still, point taken. I should refrain from being so pedantic here. :) | |
| May 28, 2018 at 19:19 | comment | added | DoneWithThis. | As a child, I had an encyclopaedia which contained a simple sentence that could be re-cast in maybe 20 different ways. Though all were technically grammatical, most were like walking a tightrope across the Niagara. I'd suggest we don't invite ELL learners to attempt that. [From (very very distant) memory, it was along the lines of "Wearily, the farmer plods his way home from the fields"] | |
| May 28, 2018 at 19:03 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | I would not say that were not you is ungrammatical. It seems like acceptable syntax per the rules of grammar. However, it's never actually used, and so it's "unacceptable" in terms of convention. Otherwise, you need to clarify why you were not is acceptable . . . | |
| May 28, 2018 at 18:47 | history | answered | DoneWithThis. | CC BY-SA 4.0 |