Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

If the biolding is 40 feet high, amd ot's hald underground, it'd be 80 feet tall.  A triangle of 40 feet height and 3- feet base would have a long side of 50 feet - but you need to tie pff the rope at each end, amd the rope os going to sag, so a 50-foot rope won't dp; better buy a 6=' length.

In 1912, Honolulu was in polynesia, but now it's in the state od Hawaii.

The three largest states in 1912 were, in order of size, Texas, California, and Montana.  That's no longer true.

How could you possiblt get Geography #3 wrong?

The organ of circulation used to be a Hammond B3, with a Leslie.  Made ir REALLY easy to move your feet.

Lancasrer, PA activelt goes after truants, and billboaerds warned that it's an $831 fine when you're caught, in 2009.

The proper spelling of Sir Walter Raleigh was flexible, just as the proper spelling of William Shakespeare was.  My grandfather was named after him, and his parents spelled it Rily.  His wife has Betty on her birth certiificate, but she told people her name was Betsy, and when her mother's family bible turned up, her birth was recorded as Betsy.

I know a family named Hyman, except that when one of the boys married, the story is that his new wife thought that it would be classier if it was spelled Heymann.  Before the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act, changing your name was a right under the Common Law (and I think the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act is unconstitutional under the 9th Amendment), and it was pretty easy - you walk into the Social Security office, said you name was now different, and you swapped your old SS card for a new one, then used it (if necessary) to change everything else.

In Indiana, Basketball is THE presatige high school sport, not Football.  It's not called "Hoosier Hysteria" for nothing. John Wooden came from Mooresville.  Larry Bird from French Lick.  Adolph Rupp was from Baja Indiana.  Tony Hinkle invented the orange basketball at Butler. The NBA was invented over Fred Zollner's kitchen table in Fort Wayne.   And, of course, McDonald's gave away copies of "Hoosiers", the movie about the 1954 "miracle" team from Milan.  When Bobby Knight became a fugitive from Puerto Rican justice, there were calls, only slightly in jest, that he be elected state governor. 

Back to the original question.  Google "parts of speech" and google presents a definition that says In English the main parts of speech are noun, pronoun, adjective, determiner, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.  I don't think "determiner" was a part of speech in 1912.  In fact, I don't think it was a part of speech in the 1950s or 1960s.  I think "articles" were. And what about gerunds?  Weren't they parts of speech?

I seem to recall my spinster 8th-grade english teacher telling us there are 8 parts of speech, but I can no longer reel them off.  Sorry, Miss Young.  Obviously, noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection, but I don't recall the 8th.  Or maybe there were eleven, which would allow for article, gerund, and, uh, something else.

I had thought that expletives deserved to be their own part of speech, rather than being lumped in with interjection, as there were several people whose masterful cursing impressed me, but I now know better.  Although I knew this guy in college who could string together words, each acceptable individually, that painted a disgusting picture.