To writers of all sorts...

[Hydra Omega]

On the whole, I tend to look down on the people who feel the need to correct every little thing. I think to myself "Do they really have nothing better to do than correct people online?" It brings this comic to mind.

 

That said, I'm going to take the opportunity to be completely hypocritical and point out a few pet peeves of mine that plague this wonderful community of Warhammer lovers. If you can believe it, I'm not trying to be irritating or even a little mean-spirited (well, maybe a little - this is the Chaos section, after all).

 

Reminders from your friendly neighborhood Grammar Commissar

 

1. If there's one thing that both the Emperor and the gods of Chaos agree on (except for Khorne - he's not big on punctuation), it's that apostrophes (') NEVER get tacked onto plural words. Bolters, chainswords, heretics, deluded followers of corpse Emperors, etc. Use them for contractions, as in "We've noticed that he's about to cut it's head off with a chainsword." I hear that Nurgle likes to take a dump on people who misuse apostrophes. I could be wrong, but why take the chance?

 

2. "Prone" means "lying on your face." It sends a slight shiver down my obsessive-compulsive spine whenever I read about all the "prone" bodies that are lying on their backs. If you really want to be correct, the right word is "supine," but it might be a good idea to reword your sentence somehow. "Supine" sounds a bit stuffy.

 

3. This one a lot of people do indeed get right, but a few don't, and it's easily correctable. A "clip" is a literal metal clip that holds onto the bases of several ammunition cartridges. They're used to rapidly reload some revolvers and rifles without removable magazines. The metal box that holds ammunition is the "magazine." Similarly, "bullets" are the things that fly out of stub-guns, and "cartridges" are the thing that you load into the gun, containing bullet and propellant all packaged inside a "cartridge case," aka "the thing that flies out the side of the gun when you shoot it." What you call lasgun and plasma gun ammunition, I have no idea. Have at it.

 

4. This one is a little iffy, because literally so many people have been misusing the word that the new definition is slowly merging into real modern dictionaries. This word is "decimate." It's a favorite of Warhammer writers, because it seems to speak of the horrible doom and destruction that is so integral to grimdark. If you can find a 40k book without this word in it I will eat my keyboard. The thing is, originally it meant "1/10 of them got killed." Like dec...imal, dec...ade, etc. It was a punishment in the Roman legions, some sources say for cowardice, some say failure, disobedience, whatever. Anyway, one out of every ten legionnaires got executed, not "every single bloody one and their mothers." I'm actually surprised that this use of the word hasn't made it into Warhammer fiction. It seems appropriate to Astartes and Imperial Guard both. I'm vaguely remembering one author using it correctly, but I really can't recall who or what it was. If someone knows, please remind me. As an interesting aside, I highly recommend Brent Weeks' Night Angels trilogy. He doesn't use the word "decimate," but the punishment features in the (very good) story. I would love to see this original meaning of "decimate" featured in a Black Library tale. Possibly as used by the Black Legion. You know, ordered by Abbadon? Maybe even during his...rise to power? Written by an author whose first name starts with an A... fine, I'll stop.

 

That's enough nitpicky stuff for now. I hope that not too many people will spew forum-hatred. By the way, although this is technically one of my very first posts, I've been lurking around here for longer than I can easily remember and been a 40k fan for...wow. 15 years. Time flies, doesn't it? Also, the reason I'm posting on the Chaos forum is simply that Chaos is awesome. The best 40k fiction always involves Chaos and, judging from my username, see if you can guess just who I support the most. I hope this has enlightened some people, pissed off as few as possible, and...that's it. Cheers!

 

Hydra Dominatus

[Olis]

Interesting way to introduce yourself, brother, but hail and welcome anyway! :lol:

 

I don't doubt some of this would be useful information to some of our members but I think this would be better served placed in the Librarium subforum, where most of the fiction created by the members here is placed. But that's by the by.

 

(Thanks for pointing out what 'supine' means, I didn't know that before.)

[Imperial Deceit]

1: What about when using plural possesive? As in the case of "The bolters' prodigious fire decimated the uneducated masses."

2: From Merrium and Webster: prone adj \ˈprōn\

Definition of PRONE

1: having a tendency or inclination : being likely <prone to forget names> <accident-prone>

2a : having the front or ventral surface downward b : lying flat or prostrate

 

3:An energy cell or pack. (And is it pronounced Las or Layz?)

4: Again, our freinds Merrium and Webster: dec·i·mate verb \ˈde-sə-ˌmāt\

dec·i·mat·eddec·i·mat·ing

Definition of DECIMATE

transitive verb

1: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of

2: to exact a tax of 10 percent from <poor as a decimated Cavalier — John Dryden>

3a : to reduce drastically especially in number <cholera decimated the population> b : to cause great destruction or harm to <firebombs decimated the city> <an industry decimated by recession

 

Cheerio!

[Olis]

(And is it pronounced Las or Layz?)

 

Las (Lazz). Always, always Las. :lol:

[Imperial Deceit]

You owe Kren and Frep a doller. :lol:

[Olis]

You owe Kren and Frep a doller. :lol:

 

That reminds me, I haven't read TSoaLR for absolutely ages. :P

[Kol Saresk]

And a slight rebuttal that is more of "I am sure this was implied but not mentioned."

 

1.) Apostrophes do get used when showing the possessive form of a plural word. Such as "The Marines burst through the window, interrupting the cultists' rituals."

 

2.) The meaning of words changes with time. I am positive that you are aware of this. Prone has from "lying on your face" to "simply lying" down. The dictionary may still show it as how you put it, but I am reminded of the saying "Ain't ain't a word but it is in the dictionary."

 

3.) Same as above. The word's meaning is following its use. A clip was used to rapidly reload a projectile weapon. The word "weapon" now includes rifles. The only quick way to load a rifle is by using a magazine. Magazine is a big word to say in a hurry, to continue the flow of the story. Like "supine".

 

4.) Void Stalker. No eating of keyboard is necessary. As far as the word use, the word did "to take a lot and kill every tenth person." And considering just how large the Imperium is, the word is actually understated rather than overstated. But that's only if you use the whole galaxy as a background setting versus a specific part of it. Of course, it I will agree with you that in the specific setting, it has taken a reversal in that 1 out of 10 survive rather than die.

[Legatus]

Use them for contractions, as in "We've noticed that he's about to cut it's head off with a chainsword."

I'll go ahead and assume you put that in there to test us.

[Imperial Deceit]

See? Kol_Saresk basically just verified everything I alread said. (Good idea to actually read other posts before you post)

 

Good eye Legatus, I totally missed that.

 

Olisredan gets 40,000 cool points for knowing TSoaLR. :lol:

[Kol Saresk]

I was ninja'd(as in what I was writing was posted while I was writing and was therefore unaware of it.).

[Imperial Deceit]

I must be the ultimate ninja if I got you by 25 minutes. :pinch:

I shall now found a new chapter to honour this momentus occasion: The Emperors Ninjas!

[Hydra Omega]

Oh, man. Is there a 40k way to commit seppuku? My example sentence did include an incorrectly used apostrophe. Also, I forgot to mention the all-important possessive plural. I feel Nurgle dumping on me as I type. And I am again astonished at the awesomeness that is ADB. No "decimate," in Void Stalker, indeed. This keyboard is tough, but good with Franks hot sauce (as is everything else). You win the internets. All of them. I am aware of the changing nature of language, but as a veteran of the Long War, I have a conservative mindset when it comes to things like slaughtering Imperials and language use. Imperial Deceit must have a more up-to-date dictionary than I do, as I've never seen the "not- lying-on-your-face" definition of 'prone" before. In my feeble defense, I'm an apprentice Apothecary in real life and words like "prone" and "supine," "dorsal," "ventral," are everyday annoyances. As far as the "rapid-reloading" thing goes, I'm a bit wishy-washy. "Clips" are catchier to say, I guess, and as they are used to rapidly reload rifles, I'm tempted to say that lasgun power packs could be fairly called "clips." I'd stick with the original terminology for solid-slug guns, though. As far as that goes, I did note that ADB uses "magazine" for bolters. Anyway, I've eaten my share of humble pie, served up by you incisive Chaos lords. Yes, it was an odd way to introduce myself, and in the chaos forum no less, but maybe it was part of a cunning Alpha Legion plot...

 

Hydra Dominatus

[Kol Saresk]

It's absolutely no problem. People have done worse, and like I said, I'm sure most of it was implied, but not directly so. And like I said, the "complicated"(uncommon or long mulltiple, syllable words) aren't often used in favor of shorter, simple words. In a firefight, it's easier/faster to say "Hand me a clip!" over a "Hand a magazine!". That's all I was pointing out. I wasn't trying to attack you or anything.

 

EDIT: Oh and welcome to B&C! :pinch:

[Imperial Deceit]

At least you are willing to enjoy your helping of crow. :pinch: Also my dictionary comes from their offical website. Don't feel to bad, there are a few grammer nazis here on B&C, and every now and then one of us punctuation allies must push them back out of France. Anyways, welcome to the forum, don't let this set you back and hopefully you will post again.

 

P.S. - If you're set on commiting 40k seppuku just wait until GW updates you out of existance, Squat style.

[Hyaenidae]

I come to the B&C for one reason, and one reason only.... Warhammer 40,000. More specifically, I come here because Astartes kick more ass than a three legged ninja. Grammatical errors, especially simple ones, are such a moot point in the grand scheme of things, it's practically not worth mentioning. We have, at the time of this writing, over 59,000 friggin' members, many who are not native english speakers. Errors are to be expected, and accepted, lest every post on this site devolve into a frenzy of people constantly correcting and trying to look down their noses at each other. On top of that, with the dominance of smartphones, 4G internet, etc, you have the literary hell that is Autocorrect, which could make a college level english major sound like a six year old.

 

Chances are, there are a number of grammitical errors in my own writing. Frankly, I couldn't care less. I don't come here to ensure my t's are crossed and my i's are dotted, I come here to talk about skinning loyalists and/ or heretics, in the form of painting/modeling mini's, writing battle reports, discussing the recent Horus Heresy revelation, and everything else power-armour related. If my, or anyone elses, shoddy english makes your eyelid twitch, maybe you should just let it go, and focus on what brought you to this site in the first place, brother.

 

 

Not trying to sound like an ass, mind you. It's always great to meet a fellow Alpha Legion fan. :pinch:

[Snejk]

What 1000 Heathens said.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

It's absolutely no problem. People have done worse, and like I said, I'm sure most of it was implied, but not directly so. And like I said, the "complicated"(uncommon or long mulltiple, syllable words) aren't often used in favor of shorter, simple words. In a firefight, it's easier/faster to say "Hand me a clip!" over a "Hand a magazine!". That's all I was pointing out. I wasn't trying to attack you or anything.

 

EDIT: Oh and welcome to B&C! :lol:

 

 

Emphasis mine, which is why we real life soldiers don't say the full word "magazine" and instead apply the time-saving measure of shortening the word itself to "mag." This has even ported into military films such as Black Hawn Down; in the scene where Shughart and Gordon go down defending Mike Durant, Gary Gordon (played by Jamie Lannister, I might add), while reloading, yells to Shughart, "Randy! Last mag!"

 

And no, I don't have the entire movie memorized. Just most of it.

[*Furyou Miko]

It's grammar. Grammar. With an 'a'.

 

Also, though they aren't common, there are some clips that are used to speed load magazines, although I can't think of any examples off the top of my head (and it really is a small number, because it's a stupid idea).

[voi shet magir]

couldn't care less. I

Well done. Getting this kind of thing right is probably all Henry Fowler was asking for.

 

Listen, everyone quit this website and read the New Yorker. Do not expect to find wide overlap of minorities: like the minority that is cultivated and the minority that likes this game. You end up multiplying very small percentages. This especially since we are mostly xbox-owners from the sprawling interior of whichever country we are in, and very few polo-playing academics have time for this strictly indoor kind of consumerism. Also, I think the smarter 40k players often play only with their friends in their houses and do not much post online, so forum-goers can be the worst of the worst.

 

Factio- specific boards are usually smarter than the comprehensive sites. This is probably as good as it gets, when it comes to marines.

[Akylas]

Heh, calling a magazine a clip is one of the first mistakes new guys frequently make. Drives him up the wall.

 

Welcome to the site.

[Possessed Marine]

It's grammar. Grammar. With an 'a'.

 

Also, though they aren't common, there are some clips that are used to speed load magazines, although I can't think of any examples off the top of my head (and it really is a small number, because it's a stupid idea).

My SKS has an internal "trap door" magazine well, load with stripper clips. And yes, I absolutely prefer detachable magazines

 

 

Also one book that does mention 'decimation' and provides the correct definition on 1/10 of a company killed is "World War Z" by Max Brooks.

[KhorneWolf]

Also, though they aren't common, there are some clips that are used to speed load magazines, although I can't think of any examples off the top of my head (and it really is a small number, because it's a stupid idea).

 

If memory serves (and this was a lot of years ago), when I was doing my time as a light infantryman (think IG without any vehicles), the bulk cases of 5.56mm that we took to the firing range had 10-round stripper clips to load M-16 magazines with. If you held them just right and had the hand strength of a Primarch, they were marginally faster than loading the rounds into the magazine individually.

 

On the other end of the spectrum, an old Kar-98k that I owned until it was stolen used stripper clips to fill an internal box magazine, and that was a smooth efficient process.

[Warsmith Aznable]

If memory serves (and this was a lot of years ago), when I was doing my time as a light infantryman (think IG without any vehicles), the bulk cases of 5.56mm that we took to the firing range had 10-round stripper clips to load M-16 magazines with. If you held them just right and had the hand strength of a Primarch, they were marginally faster than loading the rounds into the magazine individually.

 

They should have issued you one of these things:

 

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/ARR-038.jpg

Make's live's easier when youre' lying on your butt in the prone putt'n' bullets in yer gun to decimate the enemy's with.

[muadib02]

A mag charger is a soldier's best friend.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Yes, speed loaders FTW.