Let's help one another to improve our grammar!

Australia
November 25, 2009 2:23pm CST
Let's start with something basic: "can you fix me grammer please"
1 person likes this
2 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
25 Nov 09
If you want the sentence you quote corrected, then it is more a case of vocabulary and spelling than of grammar. Correct English would be something like: "Would you correct my grammar, please" 'Fix' means different things in different contexts (and different things in the US and Britain). In British English, 'to fix' usually means 'to attach something permanently' but it can also mean 'to mend something that is broken': "I am just going to fix this coat hook to the wall" "Please would you fix the clutch on my car. I find that it's slipping." In American English, both the above would be acceptable but one can also say: "I am going to fix breakfast" (meaning, 'to prepare [a meal]') Only the first of the three examples is really 'correct' English. The other two are 'slang' or regional usages and, because of this, it's better to choose another word in your sentence. 'Me', in the sense I think it is intended in the sentence, should be the possessive 'my'. Very often, 'me' is, phonetically, what is said but it is usually clear from the context that 'my grammar' is what is meant. 'Grammar' (with '-ar' at the end) is the correct spelling for the word meaning (among other things) 'how words and their component parts combine to form sentences'. Taken as a whole (and depending on the context), your sentence could actually mean two completely different things. 1) "Please would you help me with the correct construction of my sentences and use of words" 2) [To a medical specialist] "Please, are you able to make my grandmother well again." In the second instance, treating the sentence as a representation of actual speech, "me grammer" might easily be how one hears "my grandma" spoken! As a result, the sentence you give is not as 'basic' as it looks. Do you want us to 'larn yer 'ow ter speak proper' or do you require medical assistance for your ancestor?
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
25 Nov 09
Note that, since you have used the word 'fix' in a transitive sense, I ignored the intransitive usage of the verb (rather rarer, in fact, than its use as a noun which is immortalised in the English name for the character of the Druid priest and medicine-man, Getafix, in the cartoon series 'Asterix'.)
@Anne18 (11029)
25 Nov 09
How about... Could you please help me to fix my grammer
• Australia
26 Nov 09
Good. Good. it needs a question mark but it is very well structured.