Wed May 10, 2017, 09:02 AM

Grammar Nazi: Two grammar mistakes in one sentence of Trump's

letter to Comey:

“While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau,”

"you informing me" -- the gerund "informing" is a noun and should take the possessive adjective "your" (not "you"

.

"to effectively lead" -- classic split infinitive. Not a grammar error per se, but a major stylistic weakness. Would read better to say "not able to lead the Bureau effectively."

The days of William Safire, George Will and William Buckley Jr. are long gone for Republicans.

Have fun, my fellow grammarians and band of brothers!

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9 replies	Author	Time	Post
Grammar Nazi: Two grammar mistakes in one sentence of Trump's (Original post)	KingCharlemagne	May 2017	OP
Thank you!	Shanti Mama	May 2017	#1
Grammar mistake or grammatical mistake?	dalton99a	May 2017	#2
That construction has a technical name.	Jim Lane	May 2017	#4
Trump only hires the best people (who apply).	L. Coyote	May 2017	#3
Trumps writes well in that letter	lunatica	May 2017	#5
ONLY two? someone else must have written it.	niyad	May 2017	#6
I would rather swear at him in Japanese	yuiyoshida	May 2017	#7
Thank you for your paying due attention to this. nt	FigTree	May 2017	#8
Message deleted by DU the Administrators	DavidDvorkin	May 2017	#9

Response to KingCharlemagne (Original post)

Wed May 10, 2017, 10:12 AM

Shanti Mama (1,288 posts)

1. Thank you!

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Response to KingCharlemagne (Original post)

Wed May 10, 2017, 10:15 AM

dalton99a (75,683 posts)

2. Grammar mistake or grammatical mistake?

j/k

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Response to dalton99a (Reply #2)

Wed May 10, 2017, 01:12 PM

Jim Lane (11,175 posts)

4. That construction has a technical name.

In English, it can be grammatically proper to ram a bunch of nouns together in a phrase.

In the Romance languages, by contrast, the phrase would have to be the equivalent of "grammatical mistake" or "mistake of the grammar". In English, however, "grammar mistake" is proper. In fact, I can thank you for your Internet message board grammar post, using a string of five nouns with no prepositions.

There's even a name for this type of string, although alas I've forgotten it.

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Response to KingCharlemagne (Original post)

Wed May 10, 2017, 10:38 AM

L. Coyote (51,128 posts)