Patrick's Place

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Saturday Six

1. How different is your speech pattern among your friends versus a stranger you’d meet on the street?

Friends get more slang, more inside jokes. Otherwise, what you see is what you get. Except with my family (of origin, not those with whom I live), where I am much more guarded.

2. How often do you get asked where you’re from based on your accent?

Never. I have a pretty classic mid-America accent, and that's where I lived. Actually, in Tennessee this summer, I did get asked, but one has to expect questions like that on vacation.

3. What word or phrase said by newscasters is your biggest pet peeve?

"[preposition] s/he and I" as in "Mom gave that to she and I" or sometimes "Mom gave that to her and I." Or, "Her and I have one of those at home." / "Me and her have one of those..." I had a stickler-for-prepositions-teacher.

4. Take the quiz: How good at grammar are you?

My answer is here. I got an A.

5. How often do you look up a word in a dictionary, either online or print?

At least once a week. Then again, I read about 5 language blogs, and they use words that are quite unusual, so I need to make sure I know what I think they mean. If that makes sense. I also use dictionaries a lot for etymologies. Like, where did the word "comedy" come from.

6. How many books or guides on grammar do you currently own?

Uh, who knows. Probably several, but most are packed away in boxes as they are from college. I am a HUGE word geek, though so at any given time I have loads of books about words, which occasionally discuss grammar.