Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion The Ultimate Bad Homework Question Thread!

One of the questions K students are supposed to answer for a project:

"Where were you at?"

Ah, took me a bit to figure out the perceived issue. The general rule is you do not include the preposition if it is superfluous to the meaning.

So, is there a reason that the "at" may not be superfluous? It seems one looseness in language leads to the need for specificity elsewhere. "Where were you?" is often treated as if it says "What were you doing?"

I ask: "Where were you?"
I could get:
"Working on the car."
or
"In the garage."

I ask: "Where were you at?"
I would expect only to get:
"In the garage."

Well since the question right before it is "What did you do?" I think the offending question was just looking for location. So I'd say it's a case of bad grammar. But it may be one of those things you could argue varies by region or subculture. (Remember those "Where you at? " commercials?)

Find the misplaced modifier in the following sentence:

Me and my friend took a ride in the car named Jimmy.

Keep in mind that this is 6th grade GT ENGLISH and the teacher has made it her mission to teach grammar.

Well, it looks fine to me. Is this a remake of the movie 'Christine,' by any chance? I'd probably need to see the next sentence to find out if "Jimmy" developed angry or jealous feelings toward the friend or not.


DD adds that it needs to read that "My friend and I" went for a ride, anyway. But beyond that, it sounds like a great start to an interesting story.


DD was complaining recently about a similarly egregious usage error in an AP Lit assignment. So I'm sad to say that it doesn't necessarily get better.

Jimmy is in fact the official name of the GMC S-15 SUV.

It was the "me and my friend" that the kids objected to. The teacher's response was that another teacher made the worksheet.

Another example is" Mary wears a pair of socks. This teacher says socks is the direct object. As in Mary wears socks and "a pair" modifies socks. Experts? Is this true? DD is not confident in this teacher.

And "She is older than me" is correct rather than "She is older than I". (Internet search says this is controversial)

True, but that's the model name, not a proper name. We don't say, "the car named Taurus," for example. It's just "a Taurus."

Some people do name their cars, though, so I suppose that part of the sentence is still not 100% incorrect.

NO NO NO. "pair" is the DO. "of socks" is a prepositional phrase modifying "pair."

If it were "Mary wears socks" socks would be the DO.


"older than I" is the traditionally correct usage; the other is so widespread that it is now accepted by many.

But how totally obnoxious to have a teacher like this...

DeeDee

I agree with Dee Dee, pair is the DO and of socks modifies it.