Tea at Trianon: Top 25 Grammar Mistakes

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, January 10, 2011

Top 25 Grammar Mistakes

I found myself reading this very carefully. Share

2 comments:

christopher said...: I'd have to admit that the "its" "it's" possessive problem has been one I've been forced to personally battle every day of my life despite its simplicity, but most of these can be chalked up to poor education (and methinks that the writer stretches the point a bit far on some of them).

My pet peeves ("personal" omitted) center on the "irregardless" phenomenon and on the supposedly-educated peoples using the word "nu-cu-lar" - thank you President Bush for making it an accepted pronunciation (though I'm sure he's only miming Eisenhower respectfully), even unto the present holder of the office...; January 10, 2011 at 7:59:00 AM EST
Unknown said...: Thank you thank you thank you thank you. I majored in English, but I've been in the "real world" for a few years. That has chipped away at my grammar and this is a great refresher!; January 10, 2011 at 10:40:00 AM EST