Korean Job Discussion Forums

[EFLtrainer]

[Nowhere Man]

CuLo,

I think you're confusing rules about dangling modifiers.

When we reduce clauses, we run into this problem:

While riding the bus to school, my phone rang.

This suggests that your phone was riding the bus to school.

However:

While I was riding the bus to school, my phone rang.

is correct.

"I" am not my phone.

Qinella is right.

[Privateer]

[tomato]

Here's another misplaced modifier:

Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address while travelling on the back of an envelope.

And we certainly must not forget the Groucho Marx classic:

One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas.
How he got in my pajamas I'll never know.

[tomato]

"I'm sorry, sir, we don't serve colored people."
"Oh, that's okay, I don't eat colored people."

"Make me a pepperoni pizza."
"Abracadabra! You are now a pepperoni pizza!"

"Call me a taxi."
"Okay, you're a taxi."

It's too bad we can't translate these jokes into Korean.
The word endings would remove the ambiguity.

[identity]

say goodnight gracie

[tomato]

Identity's sentence is ambiguous because of the lack of punctuation.
I don't know whether that means "Say 'Goodnight,' Gracie" or "Say 'Goodnight, Gracie.'"

That reminds me of the boots-without-shoes parlor game:
You go around the room asking each person to "say boots without shoes."
You express dissatisfaction, because most players will think you meant "Say 'Boots without shoes,'" so they will say "Boots without shoes."
Rather, you meant "Say 'Boots' without 'Shoes,'" so you will only be satisfied if a person finally says "Boots."

A similar game is Queen of the Mountain.
A girl sits on a chair placed on a table.
An male initiate is brought in, and the Queen says, "Say who you love the most."
The initiate names his favorite cross-sex peers one by one, but the Queen continues to express dissatisfaction.
The Queen finally expresses satisfaction only when the initiate says, "Who you love the most."

[Qinella]

That boots without shoes game is guaranteed to make you the drunken arsehole at any given party, even if you're not drunk. Trust me, I'm the king of devising annoying party-wide games when I'm drunk. That one sounds perfect.

Sorry, that was off-topic. Here's another grammatically unright sentence for your enjoyment.

Identity had been sending me threatening PMs, which made me smile.


Note for EFLTrainer: Please take the sentence as it is, with no context.

[tomato]

That was in past perfect, and it should have been present perfect.

[Qinella]

PP Continuous, but we'll count that as half a point.

[identity]

no, i was referring to the post above mine. george burns would say to his wife gracie allen at the end of their show, "say goodnight gracie", and gracie, of course, would reply, "goodnight gracie".

my lack of punctuation has nothing to do with it, although if you wanted to get technical, some more quotes would clarify things.

[tomato]

Shall we compile a list of famous ungrammatical quotations?
I'll start off:

A rose is a rose is a rose.
--Gertrude Stein

It is an honor that I dream not of.
--Shakespeare

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
--Bert Lance

A hero ain't nothing but a sandwich.
--Alice Childress

You aint' nothin' but a hound dog.
--Elvis Presley

There ain't no such animal!
--unknown

[EFLtrainer]

[identity]

so would holding them down and grating their bellies with a cheese grater. what's your point?

[tomato]

In my opinion, the most ingenious puns are the ones which confuse more than one pair of words. Here are some examples: