Ren Allen

Here's what I researched and found about "but". It seems that the
grammar police agree that it isn't always used to entirely negate the
first part of a sentence:

BUT

1. To suggest a contrast that is unexpected in light of the first
clause: "Joey lost a fortune in the stock market, but he still seems
able to live quite comfortably."
2. To suggest in an affirmative sense what the first part of the
sentence implied in a negative way (sometimes replaced by on the
contrary): "The club never invested foolishly, but used the services
of a sage investment counselor."
3. To connect two ideas with the meaning of "with the exception of"
(and then the second word takes over as subject): "Everybody but
Goldenbreath is trying out for the team."

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Michelle/Melbrigða

On 6/4/06, Ren Allen <starsuncloud@...> wrote:

Actually some of these are incorrectly using the word but. In our sloppy
American use of English they have become common place though.



> BUT
>
> 1. To suggest a contrast that is unexpected in light of the first
> clause: "Joey lost a fortune in the stock market, but he still seems
> able to live quite comfortably."


Which means that Joey didn't lose as much of a fortune as the first half of
the sentence implies. I'm sure this is one multi-millionaire talking to and
about another multi-millionaire or that Joey was smart enough to separate
his fortune so he didn't lose it all :)

2. To suggest in an affirmative sense what the first part of the
> sentence implied in a negative way (sometimes replaced by on the
> contrary): "The club never invested foolishly, but used the services
> of a sage investment counselor."


Actually the correct word should be because. "the club never invested
foolishly *because* they used the services of a sage investment counselor."

3. To connect two ideas with the meaning of "with the exception of"
> (and then the second word takes over as subject): "Everybody but
> Goldenbreath is trying out for the team."


While but isn't a bad choice in this sentence the word "except" is a much
better choice.

I find it very interesting how the English language has a multitude of
wonderful words in comparison to other languages. Most other languages have
very small thesauri because they don't have multiple words that mean the
same thing. Yet most people (especially in America) tend to limit their
vocabulary to a few stock words, therefor losing many good words in the
process. If you ask people what words are conjunctions they will list
(thanks to Schoolhouse Rock) And, but, or not knowing or appreciating all
the hundreds of other words that can be used to join two parts of a
sentence.

--
Michelle
aka Melbrigða
http://eventualknitting.blogspot.com
[email protected] - Homeschooling for the Medieval Recreationist


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Ren Allen

Sorry for that last misfire...I meant to write about that link I sent.
It's a great blog about "proper" English and the evolution of language.

http://thelanguageguy.blogspot.com/2005/04/proper-english.html

My account executive when I worked for Lauder, told me about a course
she took in college on Ebonics. They discussed the social influences
of Ebonics and how in MANY ways, it was an evolution of language,
rather than a devolution.

It opened my mind to the whole idea of "proper" English and grammar,
and just what it means.

Ren
learninginfreedom.com

Deb Lewis

Moron butts?


Deb

Joanne

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


--- In [email protected], Deb Lewis <ddzimlew@...>
wrote:
>
>
> Moron butts?
>
>
> Deb
>

[email protected]

-----Original Message-----
From: Deb Lewis <ddzimlew@...>

Moron butts?

-=-=-=-=-

OOOH! Speaking of butts: Rue has a cute one!

And you can see it on the cover of her wonderful book, Parenting A Free
Child; an Unschooled Life.

Connections, connections...

Ain't language fun?

<g>



~Kelly

Kelly Lovejoy
Conference Coordinator
Live and Learn Unschooling Conference
http://liveandlearnconference.org

"The hardest problem for the brain is not learning, but forgetting. No
matter how hard we try, we can't deliberately forget something we have
learned, and that is catastrophic if we learn that we can't learn."
~Frank Smith