Is this sentence grammatically correct

Question

i am not a native speaker and was quite heavily attacked for using the following sentence. is it correcht or does it contain any errors in your opinion?

here is the thing:

i assumed people would be able to tell that what i wrote was meant as satire, based on the fact that the original question asked for a "spelling mistake" and that then changing "illegal" to "legal" is a political mistake and has nothing to do with false spelling, and also doesnt show much thinking on the part of the person asking the question...

i realize that it contains some bad spelling and punctuation.

thanks

p.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Anonymousi realize that it contains some bad spelling and punctuation.

In that case you realize that it contains errors, right? And your question was whether it contained errors.

In any case, I wouldn't try to say all that in one sentence. Here's how I would write it. I don't know what you mean by 'political mistake', so I changed that.

I assumed that people would be able to tell that what I wrote was meant as satire, based on the fact that the original question asked for a "spelling mistake". Changing "illegal" to "legal" is a mistake in word choice and has nothing to do with incorrect spelling. Besides, it doesn't show much thinking on the part of the person asking the question.

Anonymouswas quite heavily attacked

Was the attack based on the grammar or on the content? Perhaps people objected to the last part, where you show some disdain for the person who asked the question? I don't see that the grammar itself should have occasioned an attack.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

no. thanks for trying but i really wanted to know whether this sentence was GRAMMATICALLY correct in the way that i wrote it. the "attacks" (that sounds a bit harsh looking back) were concerned with grammar.

To be precise this means above all things that someone demanded the introduction of "which" into this sentence as follows:

I assumed people would be able to tell that what I wrote was meant as satire, based on the fact that the original question asked for a "spelling mistake" and that then changing "illegal" to "legal" which is a political mistake and has nothing to do with false spelling, and also doesn't show much thinking on the part of the person asking the question...

as you can see the person correcting this paid a lot of attention to minor spelling issues. these corrections are all just. when iposted my original version of the sentence what i meant by being aware of mistakes in it was that i was indeed aware of these minor spelling mistakes, that i frequently make out of laziness, as you can see.

I dont believe the inserted "which" is right however.

also i notice you changed "false spelling " to "incorrect spelling". would you feel that "false" is completely inadequate, or is it possible to use it?

thanks,

p.

Dimsumexpress · Answer

"Which " here is used to form a restrictive clause, and looks correct to me, referring to changing illegal to legal.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousI dont believe the inserted "which" is right however.

No, it isn't. It leaves the subject changing 'illegal' to 'legal' without a predicate.

The 'that's are a little hard to place, however. The reader may be a little confused as to which of the following is meant.

1 I assumed people would be able to tell

that what I wrote was meant as satire, based on the fact

that the original question asked for a "spelling mistake"

and (based on the fact)

that then changing "illegal" to "legal" ...

2 I assumed people would be able to tell

that what I wrote was meant as satire, based on the fact

that the original question asked for a "spelling mistake"

and (would be able to tell)

that then changing "illegal" to "legal" ...

That's the part I found difficult to follow.

CJ

Anonymousyou changed "false spelling " to "incorrect spelling". would you feel that "false" is completely inadequate, or is it possible to use it?

It's possible because it's understandable. However, it's not idiomatic, so it marks you as not being a native speaker.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

thank you. i see what you mean about it being confusing. the meaning was intended to be that of suggestion no 1.

thank you.

p.

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