how did you guys pass university english???

[LinuxNewbie]

i'm in this and it's just impossible. here are some examples of sentences which are wrong and their corrections:

Sue was so tired that she layed down for a nap.
looks pretty ok right? well here is what the book says it should be
Sue was so tired that she lyed down for a nap.

wtf? you lay down, you don't lie down. that's what commense sense would say.

here is another one:
There was a deck of cards laying on the floor.
the correction is supposed to be:
There was a deck of cards lying on the floor.

what?? isn't that considered personification to claim that cards are lying? people lie, cards don't.
is there a way to pass english without bribing or having sex with the teacher?

is there a way to pass english without bribing or having sex with the teacher?

Sure! .. study.

[sharder8]

Hmmmm . . . . . .

500+ college credits . . . . . .

AA and BA w/minors . . . . . .

Ya' know what? I don't remember taking English Grammar/Composition! I do remember taking English Lit. and Shakespear!

Guess it's back to class time for me!?!

Harder

[nomaxim]

I still can't figure out why I park in the driveway and drive on the parkway????

[DutchMaster]

Okay my English isn't more then the few lessons I got on highschool.
At least I know the differance between getting layed and getting lyed to!!

IMO this isn't right or isn't right according to the latest spelling. Lets wait for some UK Oxford speaking Techimonians to get some light on this subject...

[LinuxNewbie]

i'm failing english and my super smart friend in chemistry (who is also required to take english) failed last year. i don't know how either of us will make it.

one of my friend's assignments was to write his own poem then analyze it. he wrote a poem and analyzed it and THEY TOLD HIM HE WAS WRONG. um??? he wrote it, he knows what it means!

I don't think lyed is a word. Deck of cards lying is OK- lying has 2 different meanings depending onthe context.

But, yeah, English is not an easy language. Its a mess, really. But remember its still the most powerful language in the world in terms of expressions, depth (specially in science/medicine/technology...) and we'll just have to live with it.

Warts and all.

[LinuxNewbie]

here is the exact reason we shouldn't need university english

from Practical C++ Programing

But English is a lousy language when you must write exact instructions. The language is full of ambiguitiy and imprecision. Grace Hopper, the grand old lady of computing, once commented on the instructions she found on a bottle of shampoo
wash
rinse
repeat
she tried to follow the directions, but she ran out of shampoo. (Wash-rinse-repeat. Wash-rinse-repeat......)

Of course, we can try to write in precise English. We'd have to be careful and make sure to spell everything out and be sure to include instructions for every contingency. If we worked really hard, we could write precise English instructions, right?

As it turns out, there is a group of people who spend their time trying to write precise English. They're called the government, and the documents they write are called government regulations. Unfortunately, in their effort to make the regulations precise, the government has also made the documents almost unreadable. If you've ever read the instruction book that comes with your tax forms, you know what precise English can be like.

by Steve Oualline

i think Steve's onto something here......

[TheBurningCat]

I'm getting B+ for grade 12 english, It cant be that hard.... My spelling mistakes around here are infomous!

[krohnjw]

Infamous