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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi
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To: Gauguin who wrote (34871)8/13/1999 6:53:00 PM
From: PCModem  Read Replies (1) of 71178
 
""I think I've figured out on who (or whoom) to blame my involvement in..."

You think "on" or "upon" is correctal?"

"on whom to place blame for my involvement in" is the officially "PCM recommended" way to phrase it. (smile)

I like those substitution examples because it is a practical solution that does not require learning a bunch of esoteric grammatical rules. I changed schools in the middle of third grade and completely missed learning some basic grammar. Never was taught how to diagram sentences, for instance.

But I had 3 years of Latin, 2 of Greek and 1 of German along the way and so picked up a lot from the English language's inflected cousins.

Actually, IMHO English is "European Creole" made up of Anglo-Saxon common words, Greek and Latin technical and formal words (mostly direct imports but many via French), built on a German grammatical structure -- which explains our tendency to want to use prepositions to end sentences with. We have been trained to treat such constructions as incorrect and awkward, but the construction communicates meaning, and seems to "flow naturally" most of the time when it happens. The rules against it come from Latin rules, forced onto Middle English and early Modern English by the Monks. But then what do I know, smile.

I still can't explain to anyone in technical terms the difference between lay and lie and lie. But I know without thinking about it which form to use when I want to express the idea that someone has lied about being late (or laid for that matter).

PCM
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