Friday, May 20, 2022

Grammarly Solecism Example

"The luck of a main character was often, unbelievably good."

I didn't know luck could be often. I wonder what often luck is?

I guess it's a synonym for 'good' in context. Quick reversal: "The luck of a main character was good. Unbelievably often." Hardly superb diction, but it works.


This is exactly the kind of mistake that computer-based grammar is likely to make. It will have trouble identifying sub-phrases, because (like the author using it and the readers reading it) it doesn't actually know what words mean. It has to identify a phrase based on how it's spelled. The author doesn't know what commas are for, they have to figure out which commas go where by imitation, which is inflexible &c.

As I said earlier, this may be an accent. Maybe in their native language putting a comma there doesn't make you sound like a stuttering idiot child. However, at best, it's a grammar mistake that Grammarly doesn't fix. 

That, said, there's this, one guy who, puts so, many unnecessary, commas that while, I'm exaggerating a lot it, rapidly, becomes, unreadable. This is the kind of problem that's caused when an insecure writer trusts a tool that's dumber than they are. 


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd put in different punctuation, personally.

"The luck of a main character was, often, unbelievably good"

I don't think this implies luck could be often.

To just say "He was unbelievably lucky" would imply something along the lines of being in the right place at the right time.


To me the phrasing implies they actively take a lot of chances and tend to win.

It wouldn't cover
"He rolled the dice and got double sixes"
or
"He woke up at his usual time at 7, and a piano fell into his bedroom at 7:20"

But it would cover
"He often played dice games, and rolled double sixes half the time"



Alrenous said...

Someone with good grammar can use nonstandard grammar to convey a nonstandard idea.

In general, a sentence with a comma in in should work okay if all the commas are periods.

In general. A sentence with a comma in it should work okay if all the commas are periods.

I'd put in different punctuation.

He woke up at his usual time at 7. A piano fell into his bedroom later.

He often played dice games. He rolled double sixes half the time.

The luck of the main character was often.

Someone with bad grammar cannot convey a nonstandard idea with nonstandard grammar. [,] It looks like they're being a retard again.

Anonymous said...

It seems you hate commas (the internet cannot easily convey the humour I mean with this statement).

But a comma does allow an idea to flow as part of a sentence.

Your different punctuation reads like a bunch of short, formal statements.

Not that the idea is conveyed incorrectly, but it seems less like natural speech and more like an argument.