On 03/22/2011 09:17 PM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote: > Even more OT: since we're talking about English grammar and orthography, > there are certain errors that tend to crop up on this list (and on > others of course), to wit: > > 1) This looks like an error? > 2) How do I do this. > > Sadly, they are often committed by those who would seem to be native > English speakers. People, informality is fine and I have no problem with > it, but a question in written English has to be grammatically structured > as a question and not a statement (error 1) and *must* conclude with a > '?' (error 2). Neither of these is optional, e.g. you can't convert a > statement to a question merely by sticking a '?' on the end. So the > correct forms of the above would be: > > 1) Does this look like an error? > 2) How do I do this? When viewed as single sentences what you've said makes sense. However, when viewed as part of a larger piece of work the sentence "This looks like an error?" may indeed be just fine and dandy. It would be a shorten form of "This looks like an error to you?" where the "to you" is implied by the broader context of the larger work. -- Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good. -- Samuel Johnson 葛斯克 愛德華 / 台北市八德路四段
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