English Grammar Recitation Lesson 7

[howiecram]

Hello! My lovely black and white thinker is melting down over the use of the word "or" in the answer to the question they are to memorize. She doesn't understand why it says "or", instead of "and". She is used to lists with the word and. I explained that in this case a sentence is either declarative, imperative, interrogative OR not AND exclamatory. So, this is why we use or. She's still frustrated and I can not explain it to her. She then said ok, but in the question "what are the two types of letters" the answer is vowels AND consonants". So my explanation of it is either a vowel OR a consonants.....is falling on deaf ears because she says she'll never remember the answer because she has learned in lists you use AND not OR. (these tiny details.......argh*

She also doesn't understand imperative sentences....it gives a command OR makes a request. A request is actually a question. - a Request "May I go to the bathroom?" She can't understand how one type of sentence can have two ending marks. vs. interrogative which always asks a question. She feels like "May I go to the bathroom?" and "Do you like peas or carrots?" are the same (which I know they are different) - her rationale is that they are both asking yes or no. I can't explain "request" well enough to differentiate the two....

I just tried again....her reply. "I still don't understand, a request is a question, so why is not interrogative?" (beating head on a wall here...)

[cherylswope]

Hi, Christine. I am not sure how we all missed this, but I only noticed your post today!

I'm away on a big writing/planning weekend for SC 9&10, so I do not have EGR I with me. However, I admire your oldest and her perceptivity. She has always been a good editor.

In my opinion, if she wants to change the "or" to "and" for her own sense of continuity regarding the list of types of sentences, you may want to allow this. I think she makes a good case!

As for the imperative, I think she'll need to acquiesce. She is correct that a request may sometimes be an interrogative, e.g., "May I have a cookie?" But an imperative, which is not an interrogative, may sometimes be a request: Please sit down now. In other words, a request may be an interrogative or an imperative, but a request that is an imperative will not be an interrogative. The clue is the absence of the question mark.

It might help her to consider a child's request as an interrogative, "May I go to the bathroom?", but a teacher's request as an imperative, "I would like for you to sit quietly now."

If someone reading this is more grammatically inclined than this explanation, feel free to chime in!