The Chicago Manual of Style blog CMOS Shop Talk has a nifty quiz about verbs. I scored 9 of 10, as did a friend, and we both took issue with the CMOS answer for the first question: “A verb is the only part of speech that can express a full thought by itself.” True, or false?
I see the reasoning for the CMOS answer, but still I say, “Baloney!” I left a comment saying just that, with a smiley face to indicate my good humor about it all, but I fear that the word baloney may have gotten my comment zapped by a spam filter.
But Elaine assures me that baloney is not spam.
Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Verbal comedy
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This may be irrelevant, but I've always been intrigued by words that contain both subject and verb; methinks, Godspeed.
ReplyDeleteBullshit!
ReplyDelete(sorry, I couldn't resist!)
ReplyDeleteMerriam-Webster labels methinks an impersonal verb, something I’ve never heard of before. Are there other words like it and Godspeed?
ReplyDeleteAs for bullshit: yes!
Thanks for the fun idea, Geo-B, and the fun example, Matthew. What about “daresay”? The OED treats it as a two-word idiom. Merriam-Webster calls it a transitive verb.
ReplyDeleteSo strange — M-W has a citation that uses the word without “I”: “And while the mute Leatherface steals the show, the movie's documentary-like opening narration and audio of heinous news reports hint at something, daresay, more sophisticated.” I always thought it was “I daresay.”
ReplyDeleteAnd it’s only used in the first person, present tense.
ReplyDelete