Daniel Greene

Tag: grammar

  • “it was decided that we took” grammatical error

    The phrase “… it was decided that we took four days…” is grammatically incorrect. Do you know why?

  • El pezón y la tetilla

    In Spanish, el pezón—a masculine noun—is the woman’s nipple, and la tetilla—a feminine noun—is the man’s nipple. #gender #español

  • Weird Al’s “Word Crimes” – Better than Schoolhouse Rock!

  • Three lessons this interpreter is learning from teaching ASL

    1. It takes patience and creativity to sign with people who know little sign language.

    I have a new respect for Deaf people who take the time to sign with ASL students. Having more respect for Deaf people and more creativity in how I express myself is making me a better Deaf community member.

    2. I’ve been doing it wrong.

    Well, maybe not wrong, but there are things I never knew, such as that Y is considered a down letter; that is, Y is made by tilting the palm downward. I’m sure this is not a hard and fast rule; in fact, I can see even on the Signing Naturally DVD the language models do not always sign Y that way. Still, I never knew it ever tilted down at all. Now I see it in the way I and other signers spell the lexicalized #style and #yes. I also never knew that the sign WHEN meant what day, not what time. Again, I’m sure this is not a hard and fast rule, but I never knew it was a rule at all. Those are just two examples of several. Learning how to refine my signing is making me a better interpreter.

    3. Now I see what my students have learned.

    Since many of the interpreting students and working interpreters I teach have learned ASL with the Signing Naturally curriculum, I have a better idea of what they were taught. Knowing what my students have learned is making me a better interpreter trainer.

  • There is no ass to Rick — and four other symbols you mispronounce

    As an interpreter, I go to many places where people call typographical symbols by the wrong names. It irks me, but I can’t say anything about it while I’m interpreting, so please hear me now as I correct some common errors.

    @
    This is an at sign, a.k.a. at symbol or simply at when spoken in an email address. It is not an ampersand.
    &
    This is an ampersand.
    /
    This is a slash. It is not a backslash.
    \
    This is a backslash.
    *
    This is an asterisk. If you don’t pronounce the s before the k, you risk offending Rick.

    This is Rick. Unfortunately for him, there is no asterick.