Who would win a grammar contest, Randy D or NevanB?

  Nevan would; he's studied it more extensively than I have, so I believe his expertise exceeds mine.  I merely paid attention to what was being taught to me from the first or second grade onward, whichever one it is when they start teaching that stuff.  Additionally, my mother was an English major when she was in college, so grammar is either in-bred in me or absorbed through atmosphere as I grew up.  I have never taken formal classes in it the way Nevan has, it just comes to me naturally.


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I've only noticed Randy D correct a person's grammar and as annoying as it is at times, he is good at it. :) This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at January 16, 2018 7:49 AM MST

Randy D~

I haven't seen enough of NevanB's questions and answers to evaluate his grammar, but I've never seen a flaw in the writing of either.
I'd be tempted to call it a draw.
But when I read RandyD's answer, I decided to agree with him.

I think Randy and I actually have fairly different approaches to grammar. It's true that I have six years of linguistics education, but that's not quite the same as an English major's competence in style and knowledge of the rules of usage. Linguistics is more about the inner workings and processes of language (even language that violates the rules) more than it is about a set of standards and the application thereof. There are times when I'm not precisely clear on what the standard usage of a certain word is (whereas Randy might know this). That said, my grammatical knowledge is certainly competitive and Randy would be a very formidable opponent. :D