Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

Here’s a small pop quiz for all you loyal readers.  This quiz is sort of in conjunction with the Grammar Police post from earlier this week.

Which of these sentences are acceptable?

1) I lent him my favorite toaster oven on Thursday.
2) I loaned him my favorite toaster oven on Thursday.

Any ideas?  The phrasing of my question should have tipped you off.  Both of them are correct (hence my use of are in the question.)  Many will tell you that loan cannot be used as a verb, but this is not true.  Feel free to use loan as a verb as much as you want.  It is completely interchangeable with lend.  There is only one exception to this rule and that is in the figurative sense.  Example:  “Friends, Romans, countryment: lend me your ears!”  Obviously you’re not going to give the speaker your ears, so using loan would not be correct. 

Now that I’ve bored most of you… lesson over.  :)

P.S.  I found out something interesting about Mike when we discussed this topic.  He uses borrowed in a way that doesn’t even sound right.  For example, he would say this sentence is correct.  “I borrowed Mike my copy of Friday Night Lights season one.”  I guess people from the upper midwest use this phrasing a lot but it’s technically incorrect English.  Interesting (at least to a nerd like me.)

I will admit that I sometimes act as the grammar police around my friends.  Mostly I call them on inproper useage for laughs.  I am defnitely no expert in the grammar department, but there are certain rules that I do try and call people on in work emails and other written communication.  Mike also reminded me of a great grammar rule through a joke he told me.  Never end a sentence with a preposition.  It’s a hard one to remember and it sometimes makes you wonder how to rewrite a sentence when you notice that you’ve just broken this rule.  Here’s an example of an email conversation that I had with a friend/co-worker over this rule.

Friend: Where are the envelopes at?

Me:  Incorrect grammar usage.  Please revise your sentence and resend.

Friend: What?  I’m asking you where the envelopes are at.  What part don’t you understand?

Me:  Seriously, I have no idea what you are asking.  Please revise your incorrect sentence and resend.

Friend:  AH!  You are so dumb!  Where are the envelopes?

Me:  They have a stack located by the printer.  I’m glad you were able to catch your mistake without me having to explicitly point it out.

Yeah, it is sort of extreme but I really only do it to get them all worked up.  It’s all in good fun and they know it.  Maybe it’s a bit annoying, but I don’t care.

I was surfing the web today and found this article at The Onion about commas.  It’s pretty funny and very difficult to read.  Check it out here.

Do you ever find yourself being the grammar police?

Today is Cinco de Mayo.  Unlike St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated throughout Mexico.  In fact, it’s largly ignored.  I had a discussion with Mike about this day this past weekend.  For the record, Mike was correct that it is not celebrated in Mexico and I was right that it exists because of the Battle of Puebla.  Read the very short Wikipedia entry here.