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Today’s lesson is about misplaced modifiers, which is one of my many pet peeves.
The word “only” is frequently misused. Here’s an example straight from a YWN article:
Parents in Beit Shemesh are only required to pay 290 NIS for the ten-lesson program.
According to this, the only thing parents are required to do is pay 290 NIS.
They are not required to get their children to the lessons.
They are not required to feed or house their children.
They are not required to provide adequate clothing for their children.
They are not required to send their children to school.
No, the only thing they are required to do is pay 290 NIS.
A more accurate sentence would be “Parents in Beit Shemesh are required to pay only 290 NIS for the ten-lesson program.”
See what I did? I moved the word “only” so that it modifies the price and not the parents’ requirements.
Do you only have this issue with YWN? 🙂
Thanks.
From a dikduk perspective, “only” is quite correct. The author is stating his/her belief that 290 shekels is a low price for the service offered. It implies the parents are getting a good deal. The author may be totally treff when it comes to facts, but from a grammar perspective he’s glatt kosher.
Thank you, teacher.
(recess time)
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Haifagirl, while you are right and bad grammar bothers me also, only an idiot would make any of the assumptions you list in your post.
Oh Shreck! I’ve got pb&j for lunch you wanna trade?
lol! Here I thought I was going to learn some Hebrew.
Hebrew leson of the day:
Remwmber there is ????? and ???. And ghe difference between them. Example: My friend had the misfortune to have forgotten her hebrew, so when she went to israel with her husband and two kids for the summer, she made alot of mistakes.
Asking the bus driver how much it was for a husband, her, her girlfriend and 2 kids.
( ???, ???, ??? ???, ???? ?????)
Can you spot thd mistake that had the whole bus laughing? (- point for corect answer, TWO if you write what she should of said, THREE if you spell it correctly)
Is thag good enoigh for a lesdon in hebrew?
Btw its nice seeing you again….haifagirl…
do u rlly live in chaifa?????
Did you see the spell checker poem..?????
Ill try to repost it, its on a old thread
Here it is: originally by getzel1 3 yrs ago ereposted by dasyochid last year. Reposted by me this year…its rlly cute, enjoy
getzel1 Adds much humor here 🙂 Spell Checkers – a little Poem. A Little Poem Regarding Computer Spell Checkers…
Eye halve a spelling chequer It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a key and type a word And weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar write It shows me strait a weigh.
As soon as a mist ache is maid It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the error rite Its rare lea ever wrong.
Eye have run this poem threw it I am shore your pleased two no
Its letter perfect awl the weigh My chequer tolled me sew.
POSTED 2 YEARS AGO #
putting the only right before the price is used to imply it’s a cheap price (or, if used sarcastically, expensive). The way it was used was grammatically acceptable, though yes it IS an ambiguous sentence.
In other news, the first letter of every word besides determiners and conjunctions (anything else?) should be capitalized in a title- AKA Title Case :). Yes, i’m teasing
Cool, are you really a girl?
Why havent i seen you on in so long?
do you speak hebrew?
We could make a hebrew gramner lesson of the day!
I would think “for the ten-lesson program” would put it in context.
Haifa, I’m enjoying your humor! Oh, and your grammar lessons too! I love finding grammar mistakes…
haifagirl, shouldn’t your name be spelled with a capital letter? Besides for it being your username, it’s also the name of a town, so in both cases, a capital letter is required.
Hey, give a teen a break, i type fast plus my spell-check does the oppisite of what its suppposed to do…..plus as long as this resembles english and ppl can read it, i dont feel like doing all that boring stuff…..
so do you know hebrew grammer as well as english?
My friends favorite topic is grammer, they talk about it day and night, how do you say ?? (back) plural?????
1. ???? (with a vais)
2. ???? (with a beis)
3.???? (with a vais)
or 4. ???? (with a bais)
Its impossible to follow hebrew grammer
did you know every verb in modern hebrew has 103 different ways of being said depending ob past, future, command, present, male, female, and to whom you are talking to? And dont youvDARE mix any of them up….
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