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"Fun with grammar"

Well not really 'fun' as such....or even anything close to it, but what the hell - I'll post it anyway.

The following are gramatically incorrect phrases shown to me by a friend studying english. See if anyone can find all the problems in each, and correct the statement.

1) Have I got news for you!
2) That is blatantly obvious to you and I.
3) You and me have quite a unique opportunity here.
4) It would be not uncommon to agressively seek help on these questions.

Have fun, and feel free to add your own.

To us it is blatently obvious?

nope, you still haven't sussed it. :)

These are not supposed to be easy. Most degree level english students don't manage to pick out ALL the errors.

I am impressed you got the split infinfitive...I only looked up what on earth it was this evening!

Jeez, and I got a B in English language... just shows how long ago that was! :-)

I really can't think of #1, but I think #2 could be...

It is blatantly obvious to us.


???

Still, at least I got the 'big' one! ;-p

Damn. :D

hmmm. I don't know if that's allowed or not, but it's not what I'm looking for in any case :)

The question "Have I got news for you?" cannot be answered by the person that it is directed at, because the question is asking them something that they wouldn't know.

E.G. What is my favourite colour?

Is that right? :D

More marking...

er-no wrote:
> 1) There is news I have for you!

Also a correct alternative. Can anyone tell me why "Have I got news for you?" is incorrect?

>2) This is so blatantly obvious to
> you and I.

Still not right

>3) You and I have a unique opportunity here.

Very good. You've replaced 'me' with I, and you also seem to have noticed that something cannot be 'quite unique', since that contradicts the meaning of the word unique. That's another one solved.

>4) Would
> it be so uncommon to agressively seek help on these questions that I
> have above this one..

Double negative removed, which is good style, but you left in the split infinitive ('To seek' has been split by the word 'agressively'. This is considered incorrect grammer.)


Not bad. One has been fully solved by wookie, and another by er-no. Who can finish off the other two?

Right, now for some marking :)

Wòókiee Møn§†€R wrote:
>I have news for you!

This would be a correct alternative

> or "Have I got news for you?"

This still has an error in it. Anyone know why it's wrong?

>2. It is blatantly
> obvious to you and I.

This still contains one or more errors

>3. We have a quite unique opportunity
> here.

Also still contains an error

>4. It would not be uncommon to seek help aggressively on
> these questions.

Ah, very good. You've corrected the split infinitive and rearranged the double negative to a more acceptable form. This one's now fully solved.

' Iz I so craxy 2 ask 4 a cycler 4 me BD?'

'Me? Failing english? Thats unpossible.'