Grammar Lessons

with special guest

Señor Palabras
the Grammar Bandito

(Webmaster's Note:  In our continuing effort to attempt to educate the vast majority of humanity (since of course the schooling systems are too busy investing in bullet proof vests to worry about your growth or literacy), we have brought in an expert in the English language to handle your questions and common mistakes.  We apologize if you inadvertantly learn something from this article (and any future ones as this will be a regular column), we know that learning or bettering yourself is certainly not the way of the world today.  With that, I turn it over to Señor Palabras)

¡Hola, muchachos!  ¡Me llamo Señor Palabras!  Bueno, esto es bastante.  No escribo más en Español.  As I said, my name is Señor Palabras, the Grammar Bandito.  I seek a peaceful and happy life, but find that these good times are continually destroyed by the horrible, horrible inglés that you speak here in Los Estados Unidos (and in the rest of the world también).  So, I begged Señor Danimal el Hombre Mejor to let me help to teach English, since it's the international language (as long as the only nations on Earth are America and England).  These are all questions I have been asked, and I'll do my best to answer them in a way even the dumbest of gringos could get, bién?

What is a good preposition to end a sentence with?

Oh my, what isn't a good preposition to end a sentence with?  For those of you who don't know, prepositions are those small words like "which, for, by, at, about, to" and others along those lines about.  Now, while it is fact that, in the English language, you should never, never, never end a sentence with a preposition, I've found that it makes you sound much smarter to use one to end your sentence with.  Like in the preceding sentence, for instance.  Even though I could have simply ended it at the word "sentence," by tacking on the preposition "with" I managed to sound both illiterate and uneducated!  Here's a couple more examples you can live by:
Where are you at?  (this is a very common one nowadays)
Where are you going to?
What do you need that for?
What's that show about?
Really, there's tons of them, but you can always just throw a preposition at the end of a sentence, even when it has no PizzleWiggly place on Earth being there, like "I'm going to the store by" or "I think I'll watch some TV around."

Can you explain the word "albeit" to me?  Could you possibly use it in a sentence?

Sure.  "If you need someone to shovel that manure, you can bet your hot tamale that albeit."  Ha ha, not that's only un poquito joke.  "Albeit" is a trendy buzzword which means "even though," but clearly sounds much more intelligent and classy, so you should use it at every turn.  Another good one is "presumably."  Try to work that in whenever possible.
WRONG:  I like to eat pizza
RIGHT:  Presumably, when the food is hot and cheesy, albeit covered in sausage, then it's presumably pizza, albeit not my favorite topping to eat pizza with.  (notice the advanced technique of ending that stellar sentence with a preposition)

I am new person to country of America.  I like to talk gooder so I sound more normal.  Please to help?

Of course, mi amigo.  There are several steps you can take to make sure you sound just like every other gringo.  One of course is to pepper your talk with the words "basically" and "like."  You should try to get these worked in at least every third word.  Also, you should go out of your way to mispronounce words.  The grand finale of course will be to refer to concepts as "things" rather than simply saying their names, like so:
WRONG: Hello there, how about this weather today?
RIGHT: Well basically, yesterday was like, totally cold.  But, like, today is basically a-whole-nother story.  It basically all like comes down to that whole "Global Warming" thing. (you should shake your head while saying that last part)
The bottom line is that you should sound like a cross between a Valley Girl, a drunken hobo, and one of the Friends cast members, only try to make less sense.  Remember, it's the goal of every gringo to sound as stupid as possible!

What's the difference between the words "regardless" and "irregardless?"  I think they both mean the same thing, don't they?

"Regardless" roughly means "despite" while "irregardless" roughly means "I'm a stupid clown without basic speaking skills who deserves to be gutted like a sea bass."

My brother always shortens "orientation" to "orientate," while I think the shortened word is "orientationationationate."  Which of us is right?

Well, mis niños, the answer is that neither of you is right.  In fact, you both sound like possibly the stupidest gringos I have ever encountered.  The correct verb is "orient."  "Orientate" is what you say when you are sissy little maricon or a chupa cabras, and I don't have the first clue what that word is that you said, but in my country, people who speak like that often have their tongues removed.  I'm pretty sure that mi burro knows that the verb is "orient."  What else does this hermano of yours do...shorten "commentator" to "commentate?"  That's another good one.  This must be a joke, not even a gringo could be this stupid.

Alright, well unfortunately, I'm out of time for today.  My enchiladas are finally done in the oven, and I need to go get them before they burn.  Muchas Grácias for your time, and please keep the questions coming--I'm here para ayudar, or as you gringos say, "basically, to like do that whole helping thing."

¡Hasta luego, muchachos!

- Señor Palabras

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