371–380 of 735 posts
> Erroneous Use of is comprised of:
> The phrase is comprised of is increasingly common but has long been considered poor usage. It was not a frequent collocation until about 1950. Replace it with some other, more accurate phrase -- e.g. ...
> "Moreover, the crowd in the mysterious room was comprised of [read comprised or was comprised of] adults, and Harry knew there were not nearly that many teachers at Hogwarts" J.K Rowling ...
This essay and this crusade are a perfect embodiment of why no one takes Wikipedia seriously (even if we all use it as a starting place for research). I cannot imagine dedicating 15+ years of my life over something that is grammatically incorrect in some contexts at its worst — but is frequently just a stylistic choice. Of all the hills to die on and disrupt prose over, the author chooses this one. Wikipedia is full…
Sounds like it barely takes any effort.
I love these one-person crusades against present reality. Words mean whatever a critical mass of people want them to mean. For example, the usage of the present tense here: "Composed of" and "consists of" are better alternatives. is incorrect. It should read: Composed of" and "consists of" were better alternatives. This thread is literally a clout ATM machine for a group comprised of pedants.
"ATM machine"? RAS syndrome.
Are there any profiles of Wikipedia editors? I have to admit that they seem like another breed to me. I don't even bother editing Wikipedia, not that I ever did in quantity, just as I saw things. Everytime I have, even to correct some clear error, it is usually immediately reversed or removed altogether (things as simple as correcting the title of something). They have very strange conventions and their own Wiki lang…
Mine is "try and" - Please, please stop saying this. It doesn't make any sense (except in the rare cases that it does, like "try and fail," unless you really are trying TO fail, in which case it doesn't) The correct phrase is "try TO" I'm on a one-person crusade to fix this throughout the English speaking world, by occasionally ranting about it to a relatively small group of indifferent people on the internet. Is it…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We still have Türk Dil Kurumu (Institute of Turkish Language) in Turkey. In their website, their motto is declared as "Our Language is our Identity" (Dilimiz Kimliğimizdir). They proposed so many silly words, at one point people were coming up with fake translations attributed to them and others were believing in those, turning them to urban legends. One such legend is my favorite: Turkish word: Tren (Train) Supposed…
> My best attempt, perhaps GPTs can do better I doubt it's been trained on that, here is what it told me: > I'm sorry, but the phrase "Alttan ittirmeli üstten tüttürmeli çok oturgaçlı getirgeçli götürgeç" appears to be a nonsensical combination of Turkish words. It doesn't have a clear meaning or context.
> try a literal translation for "Alttan ittirmeli üstten tüttürmeli çok oturgaçlı getirgeçli götürgeç"
>> ChatGPT: Sure, here's a literal translation of the original Turkish sentence: "Bring-take with a lot of lower-upper pushing-pulling, with many buttocked and seated ones."
>> As you can see, the literal translation doesn't make much sense in English, and it loses the humor and rhythm of the original tongue twister.
> try a better translation
>> Certainly, here's a better translation of the original Turkish sentence that preserves the humor and rhythm:
>> "Jostle and wiggle with seats too small or too big, to make it through this ride like a true champion of the middle."
>> This translation captures the playful tone and the challenge of the original tongue twister, while using language that is more natural and understandable in English.
Oh well :)
Mine is "try and" - Please, please stop saying this. It doesn't make any sense (except in the rare cases that it does, like "try and fail," unless you really are trying TO fail, in which case it doesn't) The correct phrase is "try TO" I'm on a one-person crusade to fix this throughout the English speaking world, by occasionally ranting about it to a relatively small group of indifferent people on the internet. Is it…
This is perfectly acceptable in my opinion, it's an elliptical form of: "Why don't you try (to do whatever "this" is) and see (if it will work)?".
"Comprise" means the opposite of what people who use "comprised of" think it means.
While "¹
Prepositions combine with verbs to form phrasal verbs, and it's possible for phrasal verbs to have their own semantics that is removed from the base verb. For instance, "get in" or "get up" are different verbs from "get". It's also possible for a participial adjective (formed by "to be" + participle + preposition) to be an idiom. An example of this is "to be heard of" which means to be known or recognized. This has d…
You completely missed the point, which proves the work of this Wikipedian is very much necessary.
It's perfectly clear why some people don't like "comprised of", and what their reasoning is. That reasoning is seriously flawed, though, on multiple accounts.
The first is that language changes. This particular ship sailed so long ago, that it literally could only have sailed; the age of steam power had not yet dawned. In that time we have seen changes like sensitivity taking the place of sensibility.
Secondly, "be comprised of" follows sound word-forming processes inherent in the English language. It's obeying certain rules, just not ones that are above the sophistication of internet grammar cops. There is no rule that the participial adjective "be comprised of" has to relate to the verb "comprise" in a specific way.