Poll: Have you heard of the word gerund?

Someone on the radio said that less than half the native english speakers have ever heard of the word gerund and only 1% would be able to define it. I think Fruheads can do better than that. I'm not going to give the definition but here is a link to in on dictionary.com.

if we know the definition, do we get a cookie?

mmmm...cooookie

If you know the definition you get halvah. I knew you'd know it.

*follows the link nervously*

Yay!� I was telling the truth when I said I knew it and could define it!

i think the word gerund should be replaced with "nouned".

(which i bet is a higher percentage of fruheads than non-fruheads)

has heard of it...

::looks it up, because she answered #2::

Bad Linguistics major. No cookie. :o(

Dictionaries are supposedly descriptive, not prescriptive, so they list words like "irregardless" and perhaps one day "shiznit." If that's really so, then why do they still define words like "fast" as adjectives, since people clearly use them as adverbs?

Also, on another note, I've observed that recenetly the checkout lines at my local market changed their signs to "10 items or fewer."

I knew what it was but would never use it in a sentence big words don't make the man/woman...I guess it isn't really a big word but you know what I mean.

I knew you'd know it.

english majors represent?

hahaha

english major!!! woo!!!

spanish minor!! gerundio!

If "10 items or fewer" is meant to be a shortened way to say "10 items or fewer than 10 items" it makes sense. "Less" seems to imply quality, "fewer," quantity. "The offspring of a lesser god" will never be confused with "the offspring of fewer gods."

Similarly, "It is different than that" grates on me because I keep thinking it is short for: "it is different compared to that."

Sorry, I'm just on old fogey, so I better leave fastly.

Obscure words, the use of which brag of great erudition?

I voted for the third option. Should have listened to my latin teacher.

Some of us just can't help being sesquipedalian :-)

While lesser can have the meaning of "lower in quality or standing," in this usage both fewer and less refer to quantity. Less refers to an amount of an item, while fewer refers to a quantity of items, e.g. "We had fewer choices on the menu, and each portion was less."

And "A differs from B" is the correct usage.

I use small words so no one thinks of me as obstreperous.

I wish I'd known that noun word as then I could seem so much more intelligent in class but oddly now�I do Literature, my ability to be grammatical or know about linguistics has fallen though I still have to know loads of stuff no-one should need to know for philosophy and because I collect it--did you know that the earth has two moons?�� What does that do to the song ywgttm?

both of you are completely solipsistic. :)

You don't even exist so what do I care what you think?

eh?

A solopsist only believes in his own existence or at least acts that way.

I know what it means! I couldn't tell if you were joking, or if I had offended you and you were lashing out.

with me, when in doubt assume I'm joking :-)

were you joking when you said that? :o)

Solipsism is irrelevant to my considerations until someone can give me a definite answer to this: if I say something, but nobody is about who can hear this, am I still wrong?

A general rule of thumb is that you are always wrong.

;)

I know that. Trouble is - were I solipsistic - nobody exists to tell me so.

You are wrong, therefore you are.

I remember it from grammar, and use them often enough... but I'm an option 2 as well.� It's like the cross bar on the R that makes it an Rx... I used to know what that was called.� What IS that called?

Regarding the usage of words, I think we're long overdue for differentiating between "the English language" and "the American language."� American has changed enough that it's heresy (or sacrilege) to call it English.