in episode 12 of grammar girl she spoke about being to wordy. she sais to use that before a restrictive clause and which before anything else. A restrictive clause is part of a sentence you cant get ride of because it restricts another part of the sentence.
for example: Balls that bounce high are good. (your saying that all balls that bounce high are good but not all balls bounce high which are not good.)
dont use words you dont need. Make your writing short and to the point.
Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they actually say.
for example: time to shine. (native people mean to do your best on what ever your doing, but none native people maybe think that the sun is coming out or something.)
This week’s grammar girl she talks about wordiness and idioms. She says that it is best if you just get straight to the point than to sneak up by adding unneccasry word to the sentence. Basically she says to get straight to the point than just using a lot of unnecessary words.
Ex. Dear Sam, I am writing this to tell you how I appreciated your help today.
This sentence is using to much words and can be written straight to the point. As Grammar Girl says it can sometimes be written in past tense when you are writing it today. The correct way would be :
“ Dear Sam, I appreciate your help today."
Another topic she explained today was Idioms. Idioms are phrases that don’t mean what they literally say. She said how some have meaning for a native speaker but aren’t expressed in a phrase that is clear and have a literally meaning. Grammar girl also refers to how some idioms are phrases that have had a more literal meaning in the past such as historical. If you weren’t a native speaker perhaps you wouldn’t understand what they mean.
Ex: A penny saved is a penny earned.
This phrase means by not spending money , you are saving money little by little. A Person who isn’t native would probably take it literally such as u save a penny you earn a penny they would probably not get the idiom.
Ex. A piece of cake. You would probably think when you read this a piece of cake in a plate. But this phrase actually means a task that can be accomplished very easily.
“ cleaning my room is a piece of cake”
So basically it means “ cleaning my room is easily accomplished.”
Remember idioms is a phrase that doesn’t mean what they literally say. -- Karina
Grammar Girl this week discusses Wordiness and Idioms. Wordiness is just being too wordy, adding to much. She tells us to just get straight to the point. Idioms are phrases that do not actually mean what they literally say.
Examples: It's raining cats and dogs. Literally it's not raining cats and dogs but it means that it is raining really hard.
I called to tell you that i miss you. You could just get straight to the point and say i miss you.
Diego your first example did not make sense to me. It didn't seem wordy to me.
On this weeks grammar girl the topic was about “Wordiness and Idioms” Wordiness is when you really just are using lot of unnecessary words in your sentences that shouldn’t be in there at all. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally are trying to say. But have meaning to native speakers. A lot of the idioms seem to be holdovers or phrases that had a more than one literal meaning in the past. Some of the idioms don't always have such a clear meaning.
Ex. Today I have to go to work and afterwords when I get home I have to do my homework.
This sentence uses words that are not necessary and can be written better to get straight to the point.
Today I have to work and do my homework.
Ex. Saved By The Bell. You would probably think that saved by the bell means being rescued by something that looks like a bell. But the phrase actually means that you were saved at the last possible moment.
I wasn’t paying attention in class, so my teacher called on me to answer a question but I was saved by the bell.
In today's Grammar girl she explained Idioms and Wordiness. She basically explains how to get straight to the point without the extra words, and idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say.
examples: The author of Fast Food Nation tells the truth about the Fast food industry.
The sentence gets straight to the point.
Diego, try re reading your work. Your examples are good, it's just so many mistakes.
Grammar girl talks about how to use words in a sentences so that you wont repeat the same thing over and over. Two main words that he talks about are “which” and “that”. Restricted clauses are clauses that restrict one sentences from the other so that the reader wont get confused. When using the word “that”, you should use it before a restricting clause. Also idioms are sentences that mean what they say. Depending where you come from you might think about the sentence differently.
Ex: People that kill animals are bad. (this means that people that kill animals are bad, but not all the people kill animals)
Ex: Nothing gained nothing lost.(this means that if you try to accomplish a goal and you don't succeed you don't have to worry because you did not loos anything as well)
I think that Karinap did a great job with this. She many words in a sentences to show why it is wrong to use to many words. Then in the other she corrected herself to show the right way to do it. It seems that she really understood the way to do it.
IN this weeks grammar girl we take a look at "wordiness and idioms" basically whats shes saying is that wordiness- is using words that are unnecessary. 1.example- in this weeks grammar i learned that... - I learned in this weeks grammar girl... Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say, but have meaning to native speakers. 2.Example- "Its raining cats and dogs outside." this doesn't literally mean its raining cats and dogs it just means that its raining really hard outside.
I believe you should have showed a clear example of wordiness. Remember wordiness is when a sentence uses to many uneccesary words, i believe your example could have been better in explaining the concept of wordiness.
Grammar girl told us about being wordy in our sentences. Instead of putting up a bunch of words just come out and say outright what your going to say. plenty of people are guilty of trying this. Sometimes its grammatically incorrect also. She also talks about idioms and what they are. Idioms are phrases with hidden meanings that mostly natives understand. Most of the phrases used today are taken from phrases used in the past.
EX.1: So i just wanted to tell you, you look really nice today.
that's much to wordy, it could easily be shortened to : You look very nice today.
EX.2: Pushing Daisies. That's an idiom that means that someone is dead. Pretty much only native people to America would know that.
@ Trevor: Your examples were not understandable and and your summary was way to short. try expanding on the subject.
This week grammar girl talked about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness means that your using to many unnecessary words in your writing. To prevent this just read over your writing and cut out any words that are extra and get right to the point. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say. Idioms are tricky because mostly only native english speakers understand them not foreigners.
Example of wordiness:
Alicia had to go to the bank because she had to go deposit her check, and talk to a customer representative because she needed help.
Here i could have just said:Alicia had to go to the bank to deposit her check and asked for help.
Example of an idiom:
Catch you later!
Here this phrase means I will see you later and not I will actually catch you later.
KarinaP
Your summary looks great but in the correction of your first example "I appreciate your help today" it should say I appreciated your help today.
In another episode of grammar girl, she talks to us about being wordiness and idions. Its better having a sentences that lead up to the main point rather then having words that don't have to be their. Adding all those words make the sntence confusing.
ex: When it rains I can't walk my dogs, take a run, etc.
When it rains, I can't do anything.
Roberto C. per.2
Response to Frenando C. Great work explaining what wordy and idioms were about but I was kinda confused about ur examples... :)
Wordiness is when the writer uses many unnecessary words to say or explain something. Wordiness can make a reader loose interest if the writer does not go straight to the point. For example:
1. Because of her carelessness and irresponsiblity she left the backdoor open and the dog ran away.
--In this example, there are way too many words to explain how the dog ran away. A writer should be short and concise.
Correction:
--1. The dog ran away because she left the backdoor open.
Idioms are sayings or phrases that say something but often mean something else. Idioms are phrases that should not be taken literally. For example:
2. What's the matter, cat got your tongue?
--This is an idiom that is often used by many to ask why they are speechless. To foreigners, this may sound a little strange because they do not know that it is just a phrase not a literal meaning.
SARAHALG:)
Comment to Sydney,
Nice job on just getting to the point of the podcast. I think that you are missing a second example. You should have added an example on idioms. Also, I think that you should clearly state what you are exaplining. Otherwise, nice job!
In this weeks grammar girl she talked about wordiness and idioms.Idioms are phrases that mean a total different thing then what they really are.Wordiness is basiacally writting to much when it can be shortened down and still mean the same thing.
Eamples for idioms
The cat got your tongue. This doesnt actualy mean that a cat has your tongue on his paw.It means that your speechless dont know what to say or lost for words.
Eye for an eye. It doesnt really mean you trade an eye for another eye.This means to be even with one another.
example for wordiness
Fernando has to get on grammar girl's website to listen to her podcast.He needs to have a clear understanding of it so he can summarize it and be done with his homework.
Fernando needs to listen to grammar girl's podcast so he can summarize and do his homework.
In episode 12, Wordiness and Idioms, Grammar Girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is using a lot of unnecessary words then getting to the point. In some situations it can in fact be grammatically incorrect. Idioms are phrases that don't represent what they literally say, but can have a meaning to a native speaker. When using idioms you have to know if your audience will understand what you’re trying to explain.
Ex.
Wordiness- they keep eating junk food despite the fact that it’s unhealthy.
-To the point- they keep eating the unhealthy junk food.
Get a kick out of something.
-It literally doesn’t mean to get a kick, but to find something amusing.
Roberto C, you didn’t really explain idioms and your examples could have been more complex.
This week’s Grammar Girl was quite simple. She talked about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when the writer uses redundant words or phrases in their writing. To avoid being wordy, just get to the point. Idioms are phrases that have a different meaning than what they literally mean. Example 1: “One can instantly assume that the story is narrated in first person because in the introduction the narrator says …” I think that my sentence is wordy because I can remove some words to make a new sentence that is straightforward. To avoid being wordy I can rewrite it and change it to: “The story is narrated in first person because in the introduction the narrator says …” Example 2: “Pimp would be considered a flat character because …” Again, my sentence is wordy because I can remove words that are unnecessary. For example I can make it less wordy by changing it to: “Pimp is a flat character because …” An example of an idiom would be: It has been raining cats and dogs. When I say that, I don’t mean that actual dogs and cats are falling from the sky. That would be strange. It means that its raining hard.
response to Roberto, While reading your summary. I noticed that you misspelled several of your words. I also noticed that you used "their" incorrectly. I think you meant to use THERE.
In episode 12, grammar girl spoke about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness happens when a person adds unnecessary words that do nothing but wast the readers time and that it should be avoided. Idioms are phrases that do not mean what they are literally are saying, but have meaning to a native speaker.
Example of a wordy sentence: I just wanted to let you know that i am going out with some friends tonight.
The correct way to phrase this would be: I am going out with some friends tonight.
Example of an Idiom: Time to hit the books.
A native English speaker would understand that this means it is time to study while a person who isn't a native English speaker may think this would mean to literally hit a book.
Response to Diego: Your example covering idioms was good, but your first example was covering when to use the words which and that. Your example should have covered been covering wordiness, so it may be confusing people who are using your example to help them. But if it did have to cover which and that then it would have been a good example.
Today's topic was wordiness and idioms. Wordiness, involves unnecessary words that delays the main point. Just get to the main point, which makes your writing more concise. An idiom is an holdover or phrase. They do not always mean what they say, but do to the native speaker.
Ex.) To Paul & Linda X., You both have been invited to attend to dinner party on Thursday night.
To Paul & Linda X., You're cordially invited to a Thursday night party.
Ex.) There has been a great miscarriage of justice here!
This only means that an erroneous decision occurred.
Ferny B.!! Nice to see that you briefly got to your point.
Hey everyone i hoped you all enjoyed your three day weekend, i know i did. :]
This week on Grammar Girl #15 episode 12, she talks about wordiness and idioms. She said that she's caught herself being wordy a couple of times before and she doesn't like it at all. It's kind of a waste of time and the reader would most likely like for you to just get to the point. For example: "I am writing you this email today because i want to ...." That's a good example of too many unnecessary words. It would be nice if you just told them what you want them to know already.
Another subject that she brought up was idioms. Idioms are expressions whose meanings are not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. Native people would most likely know what some would mean. For example: "A little bird told me..."
A little bird is a person not an actual bird. A person who's foreign wouldn't really understand these expressions. They'd be clueless.
My response is to sydney. I strongly think that you should of made your summary a little more lengthy and more meaningful. You should of added what wordiness and idioms really mean. I also think you should of used examples of what wordiness and idioms are. It would of helped the readers gain a better understanding of what they're reading. Other than that have a good-night :)
In episode 12 Grammar Girl speaks to us on the complications of using "that and "which". The easy way to remember when to specifically use either one is "that" is used before a restrictive clause and "which" is used before everything else. A restrictive clause is part of a sentence that you can't get rid off because it specifically restricts another part of the sentence. Also in such types of sentence there isn't the usage of commas. Non-restrictive clauses are part of the sentence that can be left off without changing the sentence, sometimes referred as to additional information and revolve around the usage of commas. After the briefing of "that and "which”, I would continue to read her comments about not being wordy and getting directly to the point: it’s annoying. Then she identifies idioms being phrases that don't mean what they literally say, but have meaning to native speakers.
Example:
1. Bats that are aggressive usually bite and have rabies.
2. The weather is cold, which is a bad thing for bunnies.
3. I would like to tell you that I adore you. It is preferable to eliminate "I would like to tell you that" to not give the impression of being wordy.
4. Its raining cats and dogs.
Response to Mary:
You probably didn't explain that and which because you didn't want to stand and listen to the narrator. Well done only one error used the wrong "its" you should have used "it's" for "it is" in this sentence.
Wordiness and Idioms was the topic of this week's Grammar Girl. Wordiness simply just means having too many unnecessary words. Idioms are basically figurative language to an extent. I say to an extent because like Grammar Girl said it's only recognizable to those who are native to it.
Wordiness example: Microsoft's Office 2007 is a 600 megabytes download or disc operable program used for programs like Word or Powerpoint.
All of that isn't necessary.
Idioms example: Break a leg!
That doesn't mean to literally break a leg, it just means good luck.
My reply is going to go to Cris. I think your summary itself is a bit wordy. Either that, or you should place your punctuation marks better.
This week on Grammar Girl she talks about the use of that and which. That is before a restricted clause or part of a sentence that you cannot eliminate and which before everything else or something that can be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence or additional information. so if you can eliminate that part of the sentence use which, if not than use that.
EXAMPLE #1: "Throughout generations there is one issue that is being questioned over and over again: Are we responsible for others?" -if you use which you'd just be saying that "being questioned" isnt very questioned and unnecessary to the rest of the sentence.
EXAMPLE #2: "As I’m repeating the same phrases over and over again, I was beginning to lose my patience, which is a very rare thing for me to do." -i used which in this case because "which is a very rare thing for me to do" is unnecessary and is simply additional information to the sentence.
Trevor: Your summary was too vague and didn't really say anything about what grammar girl actually talked about... anyone can write that same summary just from looking at the tittle or the first sentence... also sydney you didnt have enough examples.
Grammar Girl spoke about Idioms and Wordiness. Idioms mean when you say something that you really dont mean just like beinf Ironic, ad wordiness is when you use words that you really dont need. If you wanna say something instead of going all around and sneaking in some unnessary words you could just be straight forward. She says how many Idioms are holdovers of phrases that had a more literal meaning in the past.
Example of Wordiness: I just wanted to make sure you recieved the work.
You really dont need to explain it you could just ask "DId you recieve the work?" Example of Idiom:
She put her foot in it This doesnt mean litterally someone put thier feet in something it just means that her cooking was well.
Response: Trevor: Maybe next time you could use another example since the cats and dog one was already used just to see if you understand it.But overall the rest is understandable.
This week's episode of Grammar Girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is simply using a lot of unnecessary words. Wordiness makes writing very annoying and redundant. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say, but have meaning to native speakers.
Examples:
1. After school I have to go pick up my sister and also do my chores. -this sentence is considered to be wordy.
correct way: After school I have to pick up my sister and do chores.
2."cat got your tongue" -this is an example of an idiom.
Grammar Girl episode 12 discussed "Wordiness" and "Idioms." Idioms are the phrases that don't mean something literally. For example: It was raining cats and dogs today!
Grammar Girl also talked about Wordiness, which is basically adding unessesary words. For example: Hamlet can be seen is a tragic charecter hero. improved: Hamlet is a tragic hero.
Daniel, I think you did a good job of explaining yourself. Your reply to Cris is to wordy."My reply is going to go to Cris. I think your summary itself is a bit wordy. Either that, or you should place your punctuation marks better." It should be,"Cris,your summary is wordy and your punctuation marks are off."
In today's Grammar Girl she talked about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when you use too many words to get to a point. ex:Today i am here because i wanted to ask you, are you allergic to peanuts? instead of just saying Are you allergic to peanuts? Idioms are words you use that dont literally mean what your saying for example if someone was to say "Im feeling blue today" a non native speaker would have no idea what that person is talking about.
I just wanted to tell you what this week's grammar girl was about...just kidding Ok, Grammar Girl taught us about being wordy and not getting straight to the point. The phrase "I just wanted" is an example of a wordy sentence, which means that it has a group of words that dont aten't really needed in the sentece. These word just make the sentence longer and go around in cirlce instead of just getting right to the point.
Ex. I had to go ahead of the group to get in front of the line. (I could have said, " I was in front of the group to get in front of the line.")
Idioms are phrases that dont literally mean what they say. To a native English speaker it might be normal and might understand what that expression really means. However a foreigner might take it literal and not know what it means.
Ex. It's raining cats and dogs. (This means that its raining hard, not literally raining cats and dogs)
This week's comment goes to Helen. I like the way you summerized everything into a small paragraph...very impressive =) No corections needed
Grammar spoke of wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when you add extra words. Idioms are phrases that aren't meant to be taken seriously.
Example #1 : My visit to the doctor concluded that I have the flu. -The doctor said I have the flu.
The first part of that sentence just made it longer.
Example #2: A little bird told me that you have candy.
The expression "a little bird told me..." doesn't literally mean that a little bird told me something. It's used when you don't want to name the person who told you the information.
Response to Michelle V.: I like your summary. It wasn't wordy. Also your examples were fairly helpful. Good Job. :)
In this week's Grammar Girl, she talks about wordiness and idioms. I learned from her that it is better to get straight to the point than to sneak and add unnecessary words to a sentence. Idioms are phrases that don't have a literal meaning but are common to native speakers. I guess she is implying that some idioms are confusing so be careful when you're using them.
EX.WORDINESS
I have been meaning to tell you that...
This is unnecessary just tell the person what you have been meaning to tell them. EX.IDIOM Would you like the early bird special?
This obviously doesn't mean someone is being referred to as a bird it just means that they like to wake up early.
Response to aj: You didn't really shorten the sentence by doing that but I think you get what Grammar Girl meant you just could have used a better example with more unnecessary words involved.
Most people tend to use many words they don't need in a phrase. Instead of getting stright to the point they say all these unnecessary words. This is called wordiness. Even Grammar Girl mentions that she is sometimes guilty about wordiness. She says she likes to start e-mails by saying, "I just wanted to let you know,". It is unnecessary to say this. On top of that, it seems as if she were speaking in the past tense, making it gramatically incorrect. Idioms are simply phrases that don't mean what they literally say. Native speakers will usually know when someone is using an idiom, but it may be more difficult for a foreigner to understand. Idioms can be tricky, but once you understand the concept, you will be using them on a daily basis.
Ex.1 Here's an example of a sentence with wordiness. "David Souter just wanted to let Sandra Day O'Connor know that she was doing a good job on the Supreme Court."
The correct form of this sentence should be something like this, "David Souter let Sandra Day O'Connor know that she is doing a good job on the Supreme Court."
Ex.2 An idiom would be something like this, "It's a piece of cake." When people use this phrase they don't mean that it's literally a piece of chocolate or strawberry cake, they're actually trying to say that what they are doing is easy to do.
Response: This week my response goes to Rocio. Although you did mention the main points of this week's grammar girl, but you could add a little bit more information just to clarify what you are talking about. Your examples were intriguing. Good Job!
In podcast 12, Grammar Girl talked about wordiness and idioms. She explained that it is better to be less wordy. She also explained that idioms were pharases that didn't mean exactly what they seem to mean. The meaning isn't literal.
ex. "At that time, the rain started to pour down". The rain didn't literally pour down.
ex. "...I phad put a little more fire into my pull". I didn't really put real fire.
You seem to understand the podcast fairly well. However, you should check your post and watch your punctuation before you post. Also, You used the same example that Grammar Girl used for Wordiness.
hey just wanted to let you guys know that grammar girl's subject was wordiness and idioms. Ok, so i did that on purpose. Yes, there was no need for me to say "just wanted to let you guys know". i wouldn't be telling something if i wasnt writing, so why would i need to say that? I DONT NEED TO SAY THAT. Thus wordiness is a problem and often redundant. I can delete that part of the sentence and start it off with "grammar girl's subject was wordiness and idioms. This is straight to the point, and i dont have to waste the reader's time.
An idiom is a saying or phrase common and understandable to native speakers.
"up the creek without a paddle"
to a foreigner, your conversation can awkwardly turn in a different direction. he or she might take the expression literally. but to a native english speaker, we would know that one would be in a bad situation when one is "up the creek without a paddle"
To WEAR24BETTERTHANME
your first idiom is incorrect. Yes, it could literally mean the pour. At least thats what i have established by todays examination of the weather. Where is an example of wordiness?
In episode 12 of grammar girl, the topic of idioms and wordiness. She really put emphasis on the fact that people should but that in front of a restrictive clause and which in front of everything else. She touched on the topic of wordiness and showed us that a writer can still get to the meat of the sentence with using only a fewer words. ex1. Kobe Bryant is such a great basketball player and is good at three pointers, mid range, and layups.
You could use less words to just say "Kobe Bryant is such a great basketball player.
Idioms are sayings that are not suppose to be taken literal.
Ex2. Go out there and break a leg.
This saying simply means good luck in whatever the person your saying it to is about to do. It doesn't mean to go break you leg literally, that would be just plain mean.
Diego, You did a great job with all the topics discussed, except for the wordiness. Describe what grammar girl was talking about a little more. Don;t be afraid to go in depth. -Dominique Thomas
In this weeks grammar girl its talks about wordiness and idioms . she say that its best to say what you have to say without adding more than what is needed?
ex:Thanks for the visit we had a super great time!! 2nd ex:thank for the visit.
examples "Come to the party with me. Please!" B: "Oh, all right. I don't want to, but I will."
shawn B Need to give I think a little more effort on the examples....
Wordiness is just using a lot of unnecessary words and it's a problem. One is just repeating the same things over again. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they say, but do have meaning. Of course only native speakers understand such things.
Ex. Louis wanted to ask if he can protect the DNA.
This could easily be simplified.
Louis asked if he can protect the DNA.
Ex. Elma needs new blood for her team.
Elma doesn't literally need blood but she does need new people.
In this weeks grammar girl she talks about using wordiness and idioms. Sentences are better if they are left without the extra words. Wordiness is the use of unnecessary words. Idioms are phrases that are used to say something without meaning it literally.
Examples- 1. The fast runner runs fast. We know the runner is fast, so theres no need for the the runner is fast. 2.Break a leg. Its an idiom because the phrase actually means break a leg, but it tries to say "try hard".
Response- diego Your first example makes a little sense, but can be better and the summary needs more information.
This week grammar girl is about “Wordiness and Idioms”. Wordiness is when you alot of unnecessary words and not just getting are to the point. Idioms is phrases that mean what it says it is.
ex: Do to the rain and all the wind blowing and the cold the gane was calle off so not no wil get sick.
Just To say the game ws called off the rain.
"Im so hungery I can eat a horse" you will not eat a hose.
In this weeks Grammer Girl, she gave a lesson on wordiness and idioms. Instead of using extra words that aren't neccesary to include in your sentence, you can use less words to get straight to the point of your statement.
Ex: I just wanted to say that you didn't correct my paper.
Make It shorter and just put. "You did not correct my paper."
Grammmer Girl described idioms as a phrase or sentence that means something completely different than it appears. You have to have that native lanuage to understand. Something that if someone from a different country would not understand.
"Its raining cats and dogs"
A foreigner wouldn't believe you if they heard you say that. They might think your crazy. We dont look at it like that.
Fernando, Your sentences are long. Good job making them shorter. I didnt think you could do practice the work so well. I now understand this assignment better. -Alex B.
Grammar Girl talks about wordiness and idioms this week. As you already know from viewing the post, extra wordiness is mainly caused because people feel they need to introduce every idea they bring to a conversation. And to add a bit more substance to her post this week, Grammar girl included some information about idioms stating that they are phrases that are mainly understood by native speakers.
I looked at my own writing on my phone and saw that I usually add the phrase "I was wondering" anytime I try to broach a question. This creates a nonagressive tone which would be absent if I simply asked the question which could be interpreted as a demand.
An idiom that comes to my mind, since I usually try to avoid using idioms in my writing is to "have fun". People don't "have fun", they have a fun experience. Americans have just become accustomed to dropping the word experience. People trying to learn English often have a hard time trying to understand these idioms.
And to Sinister Kush: I like how you separate your examples with a second summary this one about the idiom section of Grammar Girl's post. I will try that next time we have a post that talks about two or more topics.
Todays grammar girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when someone is making a very long sentence adding more words rather thant making it short.
Ex: I just wanted to tell you but i love your book its so good.
rather then saying "i love your book, its great" I used more words infont of what i was trying to say.
Idioms are a way to express something that really doesnt mean by it. What I mean is like
Ex: you need to stop befor jumping the gun you should think about it.
"jumping the gun" is a idiom people might think it means to really jump a gun but it means "take a big risk" there are many other idioms that mean many things
This week Grammar Girl discusses on the topics of wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is found when sentences include irrelevant words are; for example, the words "just wanted to let you know" could be deleted for the main point to be more straightforward. Idioms are phrases that more commonly used by native speakers. Idioms do not have a literal meaning; therefore, some or most of the time, idioms can be easily misunderstood.
Examples: (1) She basically wanted to act with amenity to be friendly with her classmates. The word "basically" is not needed and the sentence would therefore be called wordy. The corrected sentence would read: "She wanted to act with amenity to be friendly with her classmates."
(2) Do you feel butterflies in your stomach? This idiom means "Are you feeling nervous?"
The topic of wordiness and idioms. She talked about the how people should try to keep things as simple as possible and a good way is by eliminated a lot of words that do not have to be in the sentence. Idioms are a good example of shortening sentences because the phrase "go break a leg" has been used for years and all that means is, good luck in what ever your doing.
Paul Rodriguez is a very constant and talented skateboarder. This could be changed to "P-Rod is an awesome skateboarder."
Idioms are phrases that aren't literally what they sound like.
2. Go kill it out there.
This is just saying to do good at what your doing, like a contest or a play. It does not mean to literally go kill someone.
@diego Typo in the second sentence of your summary, I was a little skeptical on your first example but other then that I do not really see a problem.
Response to Jesse Macchoro: Doesn't the idiom "break a leg" actually mean "good luck"? I can see how you related the idiom to "try hard" in a way. However, your explanation for the idiom seems to need editing done. I did like your ways of defining the terms, wordiness and idioms, though.
Grammar Girl this week discussed on the topic of Wordiness and Idioms. Wordiness refers as putting too many words that are not needed; instead get straight to the point without the extra words. Idioms are phrases that do not literally mean what is said. Examples: 1. It's raining cats and dogs. This example is not translated literally; it just means that it is raining really hard. 2. After all this time thinking about you I came to the conclusion that I have the biggest crush on you. This is an example of wordiness. You have to get straight to the point and just say I have a crush on you, eliminating the part where you have been thinking and so on. Response: My comment goes towards Trevor’s’ post. In your first example it wasn’t clear how you changed it or if your sentence was already changed into fewer words. Vanessa Garcia Period 2
In grammar girl 15.12 she spoke about being too wordiness and idioms. She said it's always best to get straight to the point. It's unnecessary to add words that don't really belong there. Idioms are basically phrases that don't mean what they literally say. A lot of idioms seem to be holdovers of phrases that had a more literal meaning in the past.
Examples: 1."This has been a long day. I'm beat!" -beat: exhausted; very tired
2. "Jake didn't make very good grades in school, but his sister was a real egghead." -an egghead: a very intelligent person.
In this Weeks episode of grammar girl. She talks about Wordliness and idioms. Wordlisness being the use of too many unnecessary words in a sentence or paragraph. Then she explains that idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say but have meaning to the speaker.
This week Grammar Girl talk about Wordiness and idioms.Wordiness is when your using a lot of words that are unnecessary which can make the sentence a bit confusing. Its when you repeat the same things over and over again. Idioms on the other hand are phrases that don't literally mean what is said, but has a meaning to it. For example, Ex: There are other fish in the sea. - If you were having a conversation with someone about a guy who hurt you, and the person said this specific idiom, don't get perturbed by it. What the person really means is that there are other guys out there for you.
Response to Michelle: I don't think your on the correct episode as us and Fernny i like your example of an idiom. It's straight to the point and clear.
In episode #12 grammer girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when you use a lot of unnecessary words. You might get your reader confused or bored if you repeat the same thing over and over again. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they really are saying.
Examples:
1.We are both invited to dinner for Danny's birthday on January 18,2010. (wordiness)
We are both invited to dinner for Danny's birthday.
2. Your heart is cold as ice.
Hello FunkyFreshMeh, Your summary and example are good, but you need an example of wordiness. Good job!
I couldn't do GG at school as I originally intended because the site kept trying to run a scam on me by blocking my access to the site and forcing me to take this dumb survey promising to redirect me to grammar girl when finished however it did not. It instead directed me to a site called burstmedia.com which according McAfee Site Advisor user reviews, installs adware content into your computer without consent. Check it out for yourself if you do not believe me with any kind of site analyzing software (I don't think you can use McAfee Site Advisor publicly). Please use caution when going on this site to do your Grammar Girl assignments. Apparently its not called quick and DIRTY tips for nothing. Now on with my response...
This week's grammar girl IN TEXT talks about wordiness and idioms (the audio for some reason talks about "Which" vs. "that"). Wordiness is an undesirable trait of having many unnecessary words in your sentences.I actually suffered from wordiness myself today in an email.
Ex: I would like ask you if you could write me a letter of recommendation for a scholarship.
Get to the point already! I could have just asked the question but I had to go above and beyond the call of duty. AH HA! You see what I did there? I just transitioned you the next subject, which is idioms, by using one. Idioms are phrases that mean not what they sound like. What does it mean to go above and beyond the call of duty. Duty cannot call and I cannot physically go above or beyond it.What it really means is I did more than I had to. Here's another:
Ex: Other kids often tell nerds to "get a life" however, why is it that just because they are not partying all the time they have no life?
Everybody has a life. If you don't have one you're dead. What "Get a life" really means is "become more sociable."
@FunkyFreshMeh: Repeating words over and over is repetition not wordiness. Wordiness is just having unnecessary words; they can all be completely different from one another. You at my first example. I did not repeat any words over and over but it is still considered wordy.
My name is Deonte Lang and I approve this message.
In this episode of Grammar Girl the topic being covered is Wordiness and Idioms. What is wordiness well I interperted it as using extra words that are unnecessary, making the statement too "Wordy".For example "I must say what wonderful weather were having today? " (british accent). This can be shortened "great weather?'' (American accent).
Idioms are the second topic covered in this weeks episode. An idiom is a phrase that isnt intended to be taken literally. An example of an idiom would be "A slap on the wrist" meaning a very light punishment. The person didnt literally get slapped on the wrist...or maybe they did. Idioms are usually intended for the native speakers of a language becuause they dont usually cross the language barrier very well.
Today's Grammar Girl #12 talks about idioms. Idioms are phrases that don’t actually mean what they say, yet they still have a meaning to them. Wordiness is when you don’t get to the main point basically when you are using unnecessary words. Here are some examples below.
Idioms Ex: It’s raining cats and dogs. This means is raining very hard.
Wordiness Ex: Before I for get to tell you, come early to the party tomorrow.
To Diego: Your first sentence of your summary for Grammar Girl did not make any since. Below will be a copy of your sentence along with my corrections.
in episode 12 of grammar girl she spoke about being to wordy. she sais to use that before a restrictive clause and which before anything else
In episode 12 of grammar girl she talked about being to wordy. She said to not use that before a restrictive clause or before anything else.
Above are my corrections to your sentence of what I thought you were trying to say.
In this episode of grammar girl she talks wordiness and idioms. These problems are created in writing when a writer feels the need to expand a sentence or anything with unnecessary words. She suggests that one must be concise in order to get ones point across. Idioms are also unneccesary in writing because they are phrases whose literal meaning is different from what they are intended to mean.
Example 1: You are strong as an ox. A person literally isnt strong as an ox but may be strong.
Example 2: The advertisers are in the habit of appealing to t.v. viewers with ethos.
as opposed to getting straight to the point be saying
Advertisers appeal to t.v. users throuhg ethos.
Response to Sydney:Sydney tour example are not explained I feel that in order for you to thoroughly grasp the concept you must explain your examples. In doing so you will inculcate the material so you wont forget it.
58 comments:
in episode 12 of grammar girl she spoke about being to wordy. she sais to use that before a restrictive clause and which before anything else. A restrictive clause is part of a sentence you cant get ride of because it restricts another part of the sentence.
for example: Balls that bounce high are good.
(your saying that all balls that bounce high are good but not all balls bounce high which are not good.)
dont use words you dont need. Make your writing short and to the point.
Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they actually say.
for example: time to shine.
(native people mean to do your best on what ever your doing, but none native people maybe think that the sun is coming out or something.)
This week’s grammar girl she talks about wordiness and idioms. She says that it is best if you just get straight to the point than to sneak up by adding unneccasry word to the sentence. Basically she says to get straight to the point than just using a lot of unnecessary words.
Ex. Dear Sam,
I am writing this to tell you how I appreciated your help today.
This sentence is using to much words and can be written straight to the point. As Grammar Girl says it can sometimes be written in past tense when you are writing it today. The correct way would be :
“ Dear Sam,
I appreciate your help today."
Another topic she explained today was Idioms. Idioms are phrases that don’t mean what they literally say. She said how some have meaning for a native speaker but aren’t expressed in a phrase that is clear and have a literally meaning. Grammar girl also refers to how some idioms are phrases that have had a more literal meaning in the past such as historical. If you weren’t a native speaker perhaps you wouldn’t understand what they mean.
Ex: A penny saved is a penny earned.
This phrase means by not spending money , you are saving money little by little. A Person who isn’t native would probably take it literally such as u save a penny you earn a penny they would probably not get the idiom.
Ex. A piece of cake.
You would probably think when you read this a piece of cake in a plate. But this phrase actually means a task that can be accomplished very easily.
“ cleaning my room is a piece of cake”
So basically it means “ cleaning my room is easily accomplished.”
Remember idioms is a phrase that doesn’t mean what they literally say.
-- Karina
Grammar Girl this week discusses Wordiness and Idioms. Wordiness is just being too wordy, adding to much. She tells us to just get straight to the point.
Idioms are phrases that do not actually mean what they literally say.
Examples:
It's raining cats and dogs.
Literally it's not raining cats and dogs but it means that it is raining really hard.
I called to tell you that i miss you. You could just get straight to the point and say i miss you.
Diego your first example did not make sense to me. It didn't seem wordy to me.
On this weeks grammar girl the topic was about “Wordiness and Idioms” Wordiness is when you really just are using lot of unnecessary words in your sentences that shouldn’t be in there at all. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally are trying to say. But have meaning to native speakers. A lot of the idioms seem to be holdovers or phrases that had a more than one literal meaning in the past. Some of the idioms don't always have such a clear meaning.
Ex. Today I have to go to work and afterwords when I get home I have to do my homework.
This sentence uses words that are not necessary and can be written better to get straight to the point.
Today I have to work and do my homework.
Ex. Saved By The Bell.
You would probably think that saved by the bell means being rescued by something that looks like a bell. But the phrase actually means that you were saved at the last possible moment.
I wasn’t paying attention in class, so my teacher called on me to answer a question but I was saved by the bell.
Alex. L
In today's Grammar girl she explained
Idioms and Wordiness. She basically explains how to get straight to the point without the extra words, and idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say.
examples: The author of Fast Food Nation tells the truth about the Fast food industry.
The sentence gets straight to the point.
Diego, try re reading your work. Your examples are good, it's just so many mistakes.
Grammar girl talks about how to use words in a sentences so that you wont repeat the same thing over and over. Two main words that he talks about are “which” and “that”. Restricted clauses are clauses that restrict one sentences from the other so that the reader wont get confused. When using the word “that”, you should use it before a restricting clause. Also idioms are sentences that mean what they say. Depending where you come from you might think about the sentence differently.
Ex: People that kill animals are bad. (this means that people that kill animals are bad, but not all the people kill animals)
Ex: Nothing gained nothing lost.(this means that if you try to accomplish a goal and you don't succeed you don't have to worry because you did not loos anything as well)
I think that Karinap did a great job with this. She many words in a sentences to show why it is wrong to use to many words. Then in the other she corrected herself to show the right way to do it. It seems that she really understood the way to do it.
Fernando Cazares
Period 2
IN this weeks grammar girl we take a look at "wordiness and idioms" basically whats shes saying is that wordiness- is using words that are unnecessary.
1.example- in this weeks grammar i learned that...
- I learned in this weeks grammar girl...
Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say, but have meaning to native speakers.
2.Example- "Its raining cats and dogs outside."
this doesn't literally mean its raining cats and dogs it just means that its raining really hard outside.
Trevor Benjamin
Per 5
Diego,
I believe you should have showed a clear example of wordiness. Remember wordiness is when a sentence uses to many uneccesary words, i believe your example could have been better in explaining the concept of wordiness.
Grammar girl told us about being wordy in our sentences. Instead of putting up a bunch of words just come out and say outright what your going to say. plenty of people are guilty of trying this. Sometimes its grammatically incorrect also. She also talks about idioms and what they are. Idioms are phrases with hidden meanings that mostly natives understand. Most of the phrases used today are taken from phrases used in the past.
EX.1: So i just wanted to tell you, you look really nice today.
that's much to wordy, it could easily be shortened to : You look very nice today.
EX.2: Pushing Daisies.
That's an idiom that means that someone is dead. Pretty much only native people to America would know that.
@ Trevor: Your examples were not understandable and and your summary was way to short. try expanding on the subject.
Cris Garcia P.2
This week grammar girl talked about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness means that your using to many unnecessary words in your writing. To prevent this just read over your writing and cut out any words that are extra and get right to the point. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say. Idioms are tricky because mostly only native english speakers understand them not foreigners.
Example of wordiness:
Alicia had to go to the bank because she had to go deposit her check, and talk to a customer representative because she needed help.
Here i could have just said:Alicia had to go to the bank to deposit her check and asked for help.
Example of an idiom:
Catch you later!
Here this phrase means I will see you later and not I will actually catch you later.
KarinaP
Your summary looks great but in the correction of your first example "I appreciate your help today" it should say I appreciated your help today.
In another episode of grammar girl, she talks to us about being wordiness and idions. Its better having a sentences that lead up to the main point rather then having words that don't have to be their. Adding all those words make the sntence confusing.
ex: When it rains I can't walk my dogs, take a run, etc.
When it rains, I can't do anything.
Roberto C.
per.2
Response to Frenando C.
Great work explaining what wordy and idioms were about but I was kinda confused about ur examples... :)
Wordiness is when the writer uses many unnecessary words to say or explain something. Wordiness can make a reader loose interest if the writer does not go straight to the point. For example:
1. Because of her carelessness and irresponsiblity she left the backdoor open and the dog ran away.
--In this example, there are way too many words to explain how the dog ran away. A writer should be short and concise.
Correction:
--1. The dog ran away because she left the backdoor open.
Idioms are sayings or phrases that say something but often mean something else. Idioms are phrases that should not be taken literally. For example:
2. What's the matter, cat got your tongue?
--This is an idiom that is often used by many to ask why they are speechless. To foreigners, this may sound a little strange because they do not know that it is just a phrase not a literal meaning.
SARAHALG:)
Comment to Sydney,
Nice job on just getting to the point of the podcast. I think that you are missing a second example. You should have added an example on idioms. Also, I think that you should clearly state what you are exaplining. Otherwise, nice job!
SARAHALG:)
In this weeks grammar girl she talked about wordiness and idioms.Idioms are phrases that mean a total different thing then what they really are.Wordiness is basiacally writting to much when it can be shortened down and still mean the same thing.
Eamples for idioms
The cat got your tongue.
This doesnt actualy mean that a cat has your tongue on his paw.It means that your speechless dont know what to say or lost for words.
Eye for an eye.
It doesnt really mean you trade an eye for another eye.This means to be even with one another.
example for wordiness
Fernando has to get on grammar girl's website to listen to her podcast.He needs to have a clear understanding of it so he can summarize it and be done with his homework.
Fernando needs to listen to grammar girl's podcast so he can summarize and do his homework.
Fernando betancourt per.5
In episode 12, Wordiness and Idioms, Grammar Girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is using a lot of unnecessary words then getting to the point. In some situations it can in fact be grammatically incorrect. Idioms are phrases that don't represent what they literally say, but can have a meaning to a native speaker. When using idioms you have to know if your audience will understand what you’re trying to explain.
Ex.
Wordiness- they keep eating junk food despite the fact that it’s unhealthy.
-To the point- they keep eating the unhealthy junk food.
Get a kick out of something.
-It literally doesn’t mean to get a kick, but to find something amusing.
Roberto C, you didn’t really explain idioms and your examples could have been more complex.
-Lucy Salguero
This week’s Grammar Girl was quite simple. She talked about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when the writer uses redundant words or phrases in their writing. To avoid being wordy, just get to the point. Idioms are phrases that have a different meaning than what they literally mean.
Example 1: “One can instantly assume that the story is narrated in first person because in the introduction the narrator says …” I think that my sentence is wordy because I can remove some words to make a new sentence that is straightforward. To avoid being wordy I can rewrite it and change it to: “The story is narrated in first person because in the introduction the narrator says …”
Example 2: “Pimp would be considered a flat character because …” Again, my sentence is wordy because I can remove words that are unnecessary. For example I can make it less wordy by changing it to: “Pimp is a flat character because …”
An example of an idiom would be: It has been raining cats and dogs. When I say that, I don’t mean that actual dogs and cats are falling from the sky. That would be strange. It means that its raining hard.
response to Roberto,
While reading your summary. I noticed that you misspelled several of your words. I also noticed that you used "their" incorrectly. I think you meant to use THERE.
- Mary G per2.
Also talks about wordiness. She says you really don't have put words if your going to put your main objective across. Just say what you want to say.
Ex. It is a pleasure to have your presence at our party (great to have you). simple enough.
Idioms are phrases that aren't what they really mean.
Ex. "Hit the road" (Going on a trip, not really hittin the street)
Diego I don't really understand your example for wordiness.
In episode 12, grammar girl spoke about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness happens when a person adds unnecessary words that do nothing but wast the readers time and that it should be avoided. Idioms are phrases that do not mean what they are literally are saying, but have meaning to a native speaker.
Example of a wordy sentence:
I just wanted to let you know that i am going out with some friends tonight.
The correct way to phrase this would be:
I am going out with some friends tonight.
Example of an Idiom:
Time to hit the books.
A native English speaker would understand that this means it is time to study while a person who isn't a native English speaker may think this would mean to literally hit a book.
Response to Diego:
Your example covering idioms was good, but your first example was covering when to use the words which and that. Your example should have covered been covering wordiness, so it may be confusing people who are using your example to help them. But if it did have to cover which and that then it would have been a good example.
-Ricardo Fernandez
Period 2
Today's topic was wordiness and idioms. Wordiness, involves unnecessary words that delays the main point. Just get to the main point, which makes your writing more concise. An idiom is an holdover or phrase. They do not always mean what they say, but do to the native speaker.
Ex.)
To Paul & Linda X.,
You both have been invited to attend to dinner party on Thursday night.
To Paul & Linda X.,
You're cordially invited to a Thursday night party.
Ex.)
There has been a great miscarriage of justice here!
This only means that an erroneous decision occurred.
Ferny B.!!
Nice to see that you briefly got to your point.
- CARLOS HISQUIERDO
- PERIOD 2
Hey everyone i hoped you all enjoyed your three day weekend, i know i did. :]
This week on Grammar Girl #15 episode 12, she talks about wordiness and idioms. She said that she's caught herself being wordy a couple of times before and she doesn't like it at all. It's kind of a waste of time and the reader would most likely like for you to just get to the point. For example: "I am writing you this email today because i want to ...."
That's a good example of too many unnecessary words. It would be nice if you just told them what you want them to know already.
Another subject that she brought up was idioms. Idioms are expressions whose meanings are not predictable from the usual meanings of its constituent elements. Native people would most likely know what some would mean. For example: "A little bird told me..."
A little bird is a person not an actual bird.
A person who's foreign wouldn't really understand these expressions. They'd be clueless.
My response is to sydney. I strongly think that you should of made your summary a little more lengthy and more meaningful. You should of added what wordiness and idioms really mean. I also think you should of used examples of what wordiness and idioms are. It would of helped the readers gain a better understanding of what they're reading. Other than that have a good-night :)
- Sandra Fernandez
In episode 12 Grammar Girl speaks to us on the complications of using "that and "which". The easy way to remember when to specifically use either one is "that" is used before a restrictive clause and "which" is used before everything else. A restrictive clause is part of a sentence that you can't get rid off because it specifically restricts another part of the sentence. Also in such types of sentence there isn't the usage of commas. Non-restrictive clauses are part of the sentence that can be left off without changing the sentence, sometimes referred as to additional information and revolve around the usage of commas. After the briefing of "that and "which”, I would continue to read her comments about not being wordy and getting directly to the point: it’s annoying. Then she identifies idioms being phrases that don't mean what they literally say, but have meaning to native speakers.
Example:
1. Bats that are aggressive usually bite and have rabies.
2. The weather is cold, which is a bad thing for bunnies.
3. I would like to tell you that I adore you.
It is preferable to eliminate
"I would like to tell you that" to not give the impression of being wordy.
4. Its raining cats and dogs.
Response to Mary:
You probably didn't explain that and which because you didn't want to stand and listen to the narrator. Well done only one error used the wrong "its" you should have used "it's" for "it is" in this sentence.
It means that its raining hard.
Wordiness and Idioms was the topic of this week's Grammar Girl. Wordiness simply just means having too many unnecessary words. Idioms are basically figurative language to an extent. I say to an extent because like Grammar Girl said it's only recognizable to those who are native to it.
Wordiness example: Microsoft's Office 2007 is a 600 megabytes download or disc operable program used for programs like Word or Powerpoint.
All of that isn't necessary.
Idioms example: Break a leg!
That doesn't mean to literally break a leg, it just means good luck.
My reply is going to go to Cris. I think your summary itself is a bit wordy. Either that, or you should place your punctuation marks better.
Daniel Rodriguez
Period. 2
This week on Grammar Girl she talks about the use of that and which. That is before a restricted clause or part of a sentence that you cannot eliminate and which before everything else or something that can be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence or additional information. so if you can eliminate that part of the sentence use which, if not than use that.
EXAMPLE #1:
"Throughout generations there is one issue that is being questioned over and over again: Are we responsible for others?"
-if you use which you'd just be saying that "being questioned" isnt very questioned and unnecessary to the rest of the sentence.
EXAMPLE #2:
"As I’m repeating the same phrases over and over again, I was beginning to lose my patience, which is a very rare thing for me to do."
-i used which in this case because "which is a very rare thing for me to do" is unnecessary and is simply additional information to the sentence.
Trevor:
Your summary was too vague and didn't really say anything about what grammar girl actually talked about... anyone can write that same summary just from looking at the tittle or the first sentence... also sydney you didnt have enough examples.
Griselda Isaac
Grammar Girl spoke about Idioms and Wordiness. Idioms mean when you say something that you really dont mean just like beinf Ironic, ad wordiness is when you use words that you really dont need. If you wanna say something instead of going all around and sneaking in some unnessary words you could just be straight forward. She says how many Idioms are holdovers of phrases that had a more literal meaning in the past.
Example of Wordiness:
I just wanted to make sure you recieved the work.
You really dont need to explain it you could just ask "DId you recieve the work?"
Example of Idiom:
She put her foot in it
This doesnt mean litterally someone put thier feet in something it just means that her cooking was well.
Response:
Trevor: Maybe next time you could use another example since the cats and dog one was already used just to see if you understand it.But overall the rest is understandable.
This week's episode of Grammar Girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is simply using a lot of unnecessary words. Wordiness makes writing very annoying and redundant. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say, but have meaning to native speakers.
Examples:
1. After school I have to go pick up my sister and also do my chores.
-this sentence is considered to be wordy.
correct way:
After school I have to pick up my sister and do chores.
2."cat got your tongue"
-this is an example of an idiom.
Response to diego:
You did a good job explaining your examples.
Grammar Girl episode 12 discussed "Wordiness" and "Idioms."
Idioms are the phrases that don't mean something literally. For example:
It was raining cats and dogs today!
Grammar Girl also talked about Wordiness, which is basically adding unessesary words. For example:
Hamlet can be seen is a tragic charecter hero.
improved:
Hamlet is a tragic hero.
Michelle Vasquez per:2
Daniel,
I think you did a good job of explaining yourself.
Your reply to Cris is to wordy."My reply is going to go to Cris. I think your summary itself is a bit wordy. Either that, or you should place your punctuation marks better." It should be,"Cris,your summary is wordy and your punctuation marks are off."
Michelle V. Per:2
In today's Grammar Girl she talked about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when you use too many words to get to a point.
ex:Today i am here because i wanted to ask you, are you allergic to peanuts? instead of just saying Are you allergic to peanuts?
Idioms are words you use that dont literally mean what your saying for example if someone was to say "Im feeling blue today" a non native speaker would have no idea what that person is talking about.
-Yazmin Llamas per.5
I just wanted to tell you what this week's grammar girl was about...just kidding
Ok, Grammar Girl taught us about being wordy and not getting straight to the point. The phrase "I just wanted" is an example of a wordy sentence, which means that it has a group of words that dont aten't really needed in the sentece. These word just make the sentence longer and go around in cirlce instead of just getting right to the point.
Ex. I had to go ahead of the group to get in front of the line.
(I could have said, " I was in front of the group to get in front of the line.")
Idioms are phrases that dont literally mean what they say. To a native English speaker it might be normal and might understand what that expression really means. However a foreigner might take it literal and not know what it means.
Ex. It's raining cats and dogs.
(This means that its raining hard, not literally raining cats and dogs)
This week's comment goes to Helen. I like the way you summerized everything into a small paragraph...very impressive =)
No corections needed
Grammar spoke of wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when you add extra words. Idioms are phrases that aren't meant to be taken seriously.
Example #1 :
My visit to the doctor concluded that I have the flu.
-The doctor said I have the flu.
The first part of that sentence just made it longer.
Example #2:
A little bird told me that you have candy.
The expression "a little bird told me..." doesn't literally mean that a little bird told me something. It's used when you don't want to name the person who told you the information.
Response to Michelle V.:
I like your summary. It wasn't wordy. Also your examples were fairly helpful. Good Job. :)
- Rocio L. p2
In this week's Grammar Girl, she talks about wordiness and idioms. I learned from her that it is better to get straight to the point than to sneak and add unnecessary words to a sentence. Idioms are phrases that don't have a literal meaning but are common to native speakers. I guess she is implying that some idioms are confusing so be careful when you're using them.
EX.WORDINESS
I have been meaning to tell you that...
This is unnecessary just tell the person what you have been meaning to tell them.
EX.IDIOM
Would you like the early bird special?
This obviously doesn't mean someone is being referred to as a bird it just means that they like to wake up early.
Response to aj:
You didn't really shorten the sentence by doing that but I think you get what Grammar Girl meant you just could have used a better example with more unnecessary words involved.
Giovanna Murray
Per 2
Most people tend to use many words they don't need in a phrase. Instead of getting stright to the point they say all these unnecessary words. This is called wordiness. Even Grammar Girl mentions that she is sometimes guilty about wordiness. She says she likes to start e-mails by saying, "I just wanted to let you know,". It is unnecessary to say this. On top of that, it seems as if she were speaking in the past tense, making it gramatically incorrect. Idioms are simply phrases that don't mean what they literally say. Native speakers will usually know when someone is using an idiom, but it may be more difficult for a foreigner to understand. Idioms can be tricky, but once you understand the concept, you will be using them on a daily basis.
Ex.1 Here's an example of a sentence with wordiness. "David Souter just wanted to let Sandra Day O'Connor know that she was doing a good job on the Supreme Court."
The correct form of this sentence should be something like this, "David Souter let Sandra Day O'Connor know that she is doing a good job on the Supreme Court."
Ex.2 An idiom would be something like this, "It's a piece of cake." When people use this phrase they don't mean that it's literally a piece of chocolate or strawberry cake, they're actually trying to say that what they are doing is easy to do.
Response: This week my response goes to Rocio. Although you did mention the main points of this week's grammar girl, but you could add a little bit more information just to clarify what you are talking about. Your examples were intriguing. Good Job!
Fernando S. Per. 2
In podcast 12, Grammar Girl talked about wordiness and idioms. She explained that it is better to be less wordy. She also explained that idioms were pharases that didn't mean exactly what they seem to mean. The meaning isn't literal.
ex. "At that time, the rain started to pour down". The rain didn't literally pour down.
ex. "...I phad put a little more fire into my pull". I didn't really put real fire.
Gia,
You seem to understand the podcast fairly well. However, you should check your post and watch your punctuation before you post. Also, You used the same example that Grammar Girl used for Wordiness.
Shauna
In episode 12, Grammar Girl discusses how some writings are too wordy. Some people might write words that are irrelevant to the point.
Ex. "So, like, I was reading Grammar Girl's new episode, and, like, it was about wordiness and idioms."
In this episode, Grammar Girl also touches on idioms, which is a common phrase that does not mean what it is literally saying.
Ex. He kicked the bucket.
To Karina.
I believe that your comment was very wordy. It would be more effective if you simply stated her points, instead of what she actually wrote.
Paul
hey just wanted to let you guys know that grammar girl's subject was wordiness and idioms. Ok, so i did that on purpose. Yes, there was no need for me to say "just wanted to let you guys know". i wouldn't be telling something if i wasnt writing, so why would i need to say that? I DONT NEED TO SAY THAT. Thus wordiness is a problem and often redundant. I can delete that part of the sentence and start it off with
"grammar girl's subject was wordiness and idioms. This is straight to the point, and i dont have to waste the reader's time.
An idiom is a saying or phrase common and understandable to native speakers.
"up the creek without a paddle"
to a foreigner, your conversation can awkwardly turn in a different direction. he or she might take the expression literally. but to a native english speaker, we would know that one would be in a bad situation when one is "up the creek without a paddle"
To WEAR24BETTERTHANME
your first idiom is incorrect. Yes, it could literally mean the pour. At least thats what i have established by todays examination of the weather. Where is an example of wordiness?
In episode 12 of grammar girl, the topic of idioms and wordiness. She really put emphasis on the fact that people should but that in front of a restrictive clause and which in front of everything else. She touched on the topic of wordiness and showed us that a writer can still get to the meat of the sentence with using only a fewer words.
ex1. Kobe Bryant is such a great basketball player and is good at three pointers, mid range, and layups.
You could use less words to just say "Kobe Bryant is such a great basketball player.
Idioms are sayings that are not suppose to be taken literal.
Ex2. Go out there and break a leg.
This saying simply means good luck in whatever the person your saying it to is about to do. It doesn't mean to go break you leg literally, that would be just plain mean.
Diego,
You did a great job with all the topics discussed, except for the wordiness. Describe what grammar girl was talking about a little more. Don;t be afraid to go in depth.
-Dominique Thomas
In this weeks grammar girl its talks about wordiness and idioms .
she say that its best to say what you have to say without adding more than what is needed?
ex:Thanks for the visit we had a super great time!!
2nd ex:thank for the visit.
examples
"Come to the party with me. Please!"
B: "Oh, all right. I don't want to, but I will."
shawn B
Need to give I think a little more effort on the examples....
Wordiness is just using a lot of unnecessary words and it's a problem. One is just repeating the same things over again. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they say, but do have meaning. Of course only native speakers understand such things.
Ex. Louis wanted to ask if he can protect the DNA.
This could easily be simplified.
Louis asked if he can protect the DNA.
Ex. Elma needs new blood for her team.
Elma doesn't literally need blood but she does need new people.
-Sara per.2
In this weeks grammar girl she talks about using wordiness and idioms. Sentences are better if they are left without the extra words. Wordiness is the use of unnecessary words. Idioms are phrases that are used to say something without meaning it literally.
Examples-
1. The fast runner runs fast.
We know the runner is fast, so theres no need for the the runner is fast.
2.Break a leg.
Its an idiom because the phrase actually means break a leg, but it tries to say "try hard".
Response- diego
Your first example makes a little sense, but can be better and the summary needs more information.
Jesse Machorro.
- smelendez92
I think you need to explain what an idiom is and explain your examples more.
-Sara per.2
This week grammar girl is about “Wordiness and Idioms”. Wordiness is when you alot of unnecessary words and not just getting are to the point. Idioms is phrases that mean what it says it is.
ex: Do to the rain and all the wind blowing and the cold the gane was calle off so not no wil get sick.
Just To say the game ws called off the rain.
"Im so hungery I can eat a horse"
you will not eat a hose.
shawn your examples do not show that you get it
In this weeks Grammer Girl, she gave a lesson on wordiness and idioms. Instead of using extra words that aren't neccesary to include in your sentence, you can use less words to get straight to the point of your statement.
Ex: I just wanted to say that you didn't correct my paper.
Make It shorter and just put.
"You did not correct my paper."
Grammmer Girl described idioms as a phrase or sentence that means something completely different than it appears. You have to have that native lanuage to understand. Something that if someone from a different country would not understand.
"Its raining cats and dogs"
A foreigner wouldn't believe you if they heard you say that. They might think your crazy. We dont look at it like that.
Fernando, Your sentences are long.
Good job making them shorter.
I didnt think you could do practice the work so well.
I now understand this assignment better.
-Alex B.
Grammar Girl talks about wordiness and idioms this week. As you already know from viewing the post, extra wordiness is mainly caused because people feel they need to introduce every idea they bring to a conversation. And to add a bit more substance to her post this week, Grammar girl included some information about idioms stating that they are phrases that are mainly understood by native speakers.
I looked at my own writing on my phone and saw that I usually add the phrase "I was wondering" anytime I try to broach a question.
This creates a nonagressive tone which would be absent if I simply asked the question which could be interpreted as a demand.
An idiom that comes to my mind, since I usually try to avoid using idioms in my writing is to "have fun".
People don't "have fun", they have a fun experience. Americans have just become accustomed to dropping the word experience.
People trying to learn English often have a hard time trying to understand these idioms.
And to Sinister Kush:
I like how you separate your examples with a second summary this one about the idiom section of Grammar Girl's post. I will try that next time we have a post that talks about two or more topics.
Rama P.2
Todays grammar girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when someone is making a very long sentence adding more words rather thant making it short.
Ex: I just wanted to tell you but i love your book its so good.
rather then saying "i love your book, its great" I used more words infont of what i was trying to say.
Idioms are a way to express something that really doesnt mean by it. What I mean is like
Ex: you need to stop befor jumping the gun you should think about it.
"jumping the gun" is a idiom people might think it means to really jump a gun but it means "take a big risk" there are many other idioms that mean many things
Henry H
per.5
This week Grammar Girl discusses on the topics of wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is found when sentences include irrelevant words are; for example, the words "just wanted to let you know" could be deleted for the main point to be more straightforward. Idioms are phrases that more commonly used by native speakers. Idioms do not have a literal meaning; therefore, some or most of the time, idioms can be easily misunderstood.
Examples:
(1) She basically wanted to act with amenity to be friendly with her classmates.
The word "basically" is not needed and the sentence would therefore be called wordy. The corrected sentence would read: "She wanted to act with amenity to be friendly with her classmates."
(2) Do you feel butterflies in your stomach?
This idiom means "Are you feeling nervous?"
The topic of wordiness and idioms. She talked about the how people should try to keep things as simple as possible and a good way is by eliminated a lot of words that do not have to be in the sentence. Idioms are a good example of shortening sentences because the phrase "go break a leg" has been used for years and all that means is, good luck in what ever your doing.
Paul Rodriguez is a very constant and talented skateboarder. This could be changed to "P-Rod is an awesome skateboarder."
Idioms are phrases that aren't literally what they sound like.
2. Go kill it out there.
This is just saying to do good at what your doing, like a contest or a play. It does not mean to literally go kill someone.
@diego Typo in the second sentence of your summary, I was a little skeptical on your first example but other then that I do not really see a problem.
Response to Jesse Macchoro:
Doesn't the idiom "break a leg" actually mean "good luck"? I can see how you related the idiom to "try hard" in a way. However, your explanation for the idiom seems to need editing done. I did like your ways of defining the terms, wordiness and idioms, though.
Grammar Girl this week discussed on the topic of Wordiness and Idioms. Wordiness refers as putting too many words that are not needed; instead get straight to the point without the extra words. Idioms are phrases that do not literally mean what is said.
Examples:
1. It's raining cats and dogs.
This example is not translated literally; it just means that it is raining really hard.
2. After all this time thinking about you I came to the conclusion that I have the biggest crush on you.
This is an example of wordiness. You have to get straight to the point and just say I have a crush on you, eliminating the part where you have been thinking and so on.
Response:
My comment goes towards Trevor’s’ post. In your first example it wasn’t clear how you changed it or if your sentence was already changed into fewer words.
Vanessa Garcia
Period 2
In grammar girl 15.12 she spoke about being too wordiness and idioms. She said it's always best to get straight to the point. It's unnecessary to add words that don't really belong there. Idioms are basically phrases that don't mean what they literally say. A lot of idioms seem to be holdovers of phrases that had a more literal meaning in the past.
Examples:
1."This has been a long day. I'm beat!"
-beat: exhausted; very tired
2. "Jake didn't make very good grades in school, but his sister was a real egghead."
-an egghead: a very intelligent person.
Melissa Flores Per. 5
In this Weeks episode of grammar girl. She talks about Wordliness and idioms. Wordlisness being the use of too many unnecessary words in a sentence or paragraph. Then she explains that idioms are phrases that don't mean what they literally say but have meaning to the speaker.
Ex. I skate because it is very fun to me.
a bit too many words
I skate because its fun
Ex. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
This is an example of an idiom
Joseph C
Per 5
This week Grammar Girl talk about Wordiness and idioms.Wordiness is when your using a lot of words that are unnecessary which can make the sentence a bit confusing. Its when you repeat the same things over and over again. Idioms on the other hand are phrases that don't literally mean what is said, but has a meaning to it. For example,
Ex: There are other fish in the sea.
- If you were having a conversation with someone about a guy who hurt you, and the person said this specific idiom, don't get perturbed by it. What the person really means is that there are other guys out there for you.
Response to Michelle:
I don't think your on the correct episode as us and Fernny i like your example of an idiom. It's straight to the point and clear.
In episode #12 grammer girl talks about wordiness and idioms. Wordiness is when you use a lot of unnecessary words. You might get your reader confused or bored if you repeat the same thing over and over again. Idioms are phrases that don't mean what they really are saying.
Examples:
1.We are both invited to dinner for Danny's birthday on January 18,2010. (wordiness)
We are both invited to dinner for Danny's birthday.
2. Your heart is cold as ice.
Hello FunkyFreshMeh,
Your summary and example are good, but you need an example of wordiness. Good job!
Sandra Viramontes
Period 5
I couldn't do GG at school as I originally intended because the site kept trying to run a scam on me by blocking my access to the site and forcing me to take this dumb survey promising to redirect me to grammar girl when finished however it did not. It instead directed me to a site called burstmedia.com which according McAfee Site Advisor user reviews, installs adware content into your computer without consent. Check it out for yourself if you do not believe me with any kind of site analyzing software (I don't think you can use McAfee Site Advisor publicly). Please use caution when going on this site to do your Grammar Girl assignments. Apparently its not called quick and DIRTY tips for nothing. Now on with my response...
This week's grammar girl IN TEXT talks about wordiness and idioms (the audio for some reason talks about "Which" vs. "that"). Wordiness is an undesirable trait of having many unnecessary words in your sentences.I actually suffered from wordiness myself today in an email.
Ex: I would like ask you if you could write me a letter of recommendation for a scholarship.
Get to the point already! I could have just asked the question but I had to go above and beyond the call of duty. AH HA! You see what I did there? I just transitioned you the next subject, which is idioms, by using one. Idioms are phrases that mean not what they sound like. What does it mean to go above and beyond the call of duty. Duty cannot call and I cannot physically go above or beyond it.What it really means is I did more than I had to. Here's another:
Ex: Other kids often tell nerds to "get a life" however, why is it that just because they are not partying all the time they have no life?
Everybody has a life. If you don't have one you're dead. What "Get a life" really means is "become more sociable."
@FunkyFreshMeh:
Repeating words over and over is repetition not wordiness. Wordiness is just having unnecessary words; they can all be completely different from one another. You at my first example. I did not repeat any words over and over but it is still considered wordy.
My name is Deonte Lang and I approve this message.
In this episode of Grammar Girl the topic being covered is Wordiness and Idioms. What is wordiness well I interperted it as using extra words that are unnecessary, making the statement too "Wordy".For example "I must say what wonderful weather were having today? " (british accent). This can be shortened "great weather?'' (American accent).
Idioms are the second topic covered in this weeks episode. An idiom is a phrase that isnt intended to be taken literally. An example of an idiom would be "A slap on the wrist" meaning a very light punishment. The person didnt literally get slapped on the wrist...or maybe they did. Idioms are usually intended for the native speakers of a language becuause they dont usually cross the language barrier very well.
Today's Grammar Girl #12 talks about idioms. Idioms are phrases that don’t actually mean what they say, yet they still have a meaning to them. Wordiness is when you don’t get to the main point basically when you are using unnecessary words. Here are some examples below.
Idioms Ex: It’s raining cats and dogs.
This means is raining very hard.
Wordiness Ex: Before I for get to tell you, come early to the party tomorrow.
To Diego: Your first sentence of your summary for Grammar Girl did not make any since. Below will be a copy of your sentence along with my corrections.
in episode 12 of grammar girl she spoke about being to wordy. she sais to use that before a restrictive clause and which before anything else
In episode 12 of grammar girl she talked about being to wordy. She said to not use that before a restrictive clause or before anything else.
Above are my corrections to your sentence of what I thought you were trying to say.
Sincerely, Kelly Roberts
Period 5
In this episode of grammar girl she talks wordiness and idioms. These problems are created in writing when a writer feels the need to expand a sentence or anything with unnecessary words. She suggests that one must be concise in order to get ones point across. Idioms are also unneccesary in writing because they are phrases whose literal meaning is different from what they are intended to mean.
Example 1: You are strong as an ox.
A person literally isnt strong as an ox but may be strong.
Example 2: The advertisers are in the habit of appealing to t.v. viewers with ethos.
as opposed to getting straight to the point be saying
Advertisers appeal to t.v. users throuhg ethos.
Response to Sydney:Sydney tour example are not explained I feel that in order for you to thoroughly grasp the concept you must explain your examples. In doing so you will inculcate the material so you wont forget it.
Stephanie Calderon per 2
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