I have a grammar question for you. - General

A friend and I are in a bit of a debate over who is correct. Recently I obtained an iPod Nano 4G, and the individual I got the iPod from was a dude named Will. Now, if I was discussing the condition of the iPod, and it has been dropped but by Will and not by me, and I said "I haven't dropped it since Will." Is that correct? My view on it is that I am saying that I haven't dropped it, but at the same time adding 'since Will' to the end signifies that Will had dropped it. Catch my drift? So basically, he is arguing his point is valid and mine isn't. He thinks it is incorrect because saying "since" means that I would have dropped it in the first place. That isn't true is it? I am confused, as you can see, and I need your help Facepunch. I can accept the fact I am wrong, but I strongly believe against it.

It's not a complete sentence it ends with a comma. You should have said "I didn't drop the ipod; Will did."

It should be, "The iPod hasn't been dropped since Will had it."

[QUOTE=Aidan_088;33092400]It's not a complete sentence it ends with a comma. You should have said "I didn't drop the ipod; Will did."[/QUOTE] I put the comma there because that wasn't the end of the sentence. It was the end of the spoken sentence, but not the written one. 'and I said "I haven't dropped it since Will." is that correct?' Having a period in there says the end of the sentence in general. So yeah, I am going to reword it as 'and I said "I haven't dropped it since Will." Is that correct?' But still ', and I said "I haven't dropped it since Will," is that correct?' is still right.

Or Aidan_088's post.

You're implying that you dropped it before Will did. It might be a correct sentence (I'm not sure), but you still shouldn't use it since it's misleading.

The sentence isn't a complete thought, therefore structurally incomplete. "I haven't dropped it since Will got pregnant."

You are saying that you never dropped it "since Will" when, in fact, you have never dropped it. Also, 'since' is supposed to be followed by a verb, not a proper noun. I would say that it is incorrect.

Will dropped it, not me, I wasn't even holding it so you can take your accusation and shove it up your ass.

No, that's not really correct. [editline]2nd November 2011[/editline] "I haven't dropped it since Will had dropped it."

[QUOTE=A big fat ass;33092938]No, that's not really correct. [editline]2nd November 2011[/editline] "I haven't dropped it since Will had dropped it."[/QUOTE] That still applies that he dropped it. "Since" implies that he did drop it. Will dropped it, I didn't. I didn't drop it, Will did. It hasn't been dropped since Will owned it.

Will hasn't iPod since dropped it I.

ipod no friends with ground after Will no really, "I haven't dropped the iPod, but Will did (before I bought it from him.)"

You know it's a slow day for Facepunch when a grammar thread is in the top 50 most popular threads.

English Major at UC Santa Barbara gets you lodsa pussy.

what the fuck, dude. just tell him "yo, man. will has dropped it, but i haven't"

Couldn't you just have said "I've never dropped it but Will has" or "The Apple product which i bought or received second hand from Will has only been dropped by him. I have not yet dropped the product ,thank you for your concerns friend".

"Will dropped the iPod. NOT ME. Stop blaming me for everything, Mom. Sometimes you just need to accept that I'm not your little boy anymore! I have a job now! I have friends. I don't need you! Stop walking in on me when I'm sleeping, too. I've been recording my room and I've seen you do it!" [editline]2nd November 2011[/editline] that's the proper way to say it

"Will dropped the iPod. NOT ME. Stop blaming me for everything, Mom. Sometimes you just need to accept that I'm not your little boy anymore! I have a job now! I have friends. I don't need you! Stop walking in on me when I'm sleeping, too. I've been recording my room and I've seen you do it! WILL DROPPED THE FUCKING APPLE PRODUCT, NOT ME. FAGGOT." The acutal correct way to say it.

you obtained an ipod so did you steal it?

"I it drop Will podI since." would be correct.

I haven't dropped it since Will did and that's that

[QUOTE=Cjmax;33092325]"I haven't dropped it since Will." [/QUOTE] This sentence is structured wrongly in my opinion and sounds broken. "My view on it is that I am saying that I haven't dropped it, but at the same time adding 'since Will' to the end signifies that Will had dropped it" "I haven't dropped it since Will." Sounds like the sentence is incomplete and is missing something. Perhaps adding a "dropped it once" to "since Will" to make "I haven't dropped it since Will dropped it once." ? Assuming he gave the iPod to you, Assuming that Will only dropped it once, if someone questions(or you are stating on) the condition of the iPod, you should say " Will dropped this iPod once before he gave it to me, i haven't dropped it since." The above ^ sentence is what best explains the condition of the iPod in my opinion, as it manages to state that you have not dropped it yet, and Will had dropped it once before you obtained the iPod.

I don't understand how you can think that yours is right? To say exactly what everybody else is saying in a slightly different way: "I haven't dropped it since..." sounds like you have dropped it, but not since some event. "Nobody has dropped it since Will", would be better, although it's a bit strange sounding.

Well done everybody! Let's get on with question two: If Imhotep had a Zune, and you dropped it since he gave it to you, should you care?

[QUOTE=Mister Royzo;33102210]Well done everybody! Let's get on with question two: If Imhotep had a Zune, and you dropped it since he gave it to you, should you care?[/QUOTE] Maybe since Will iPod,

"I didn't drop the Will, iPod did "

[QUOTE=Mister Royzo;33102210]Well done everybody! Let's get on with question two: If Imhotep had a Zune, and you dropped it since he gave it to you, should you care?[/QUOTE]Imhotep is invisible.

well your dependent clause is "will"

[QUOTE=Cjmax;33092325]A friend and I are in a bit of a debate over who is correct. Recently I obtained an iPod Nano 4G, and the individual I got the iPod from was a dude named Will. Now, if I was discussing the condition of the iPod, and it has been dropped but by Will and not by me, and I said "I haven't dropped it since Will." Is that correct? My view on it is that I am saying that I haven't dropped it, but at the same time adding 'since Will' to the end signifies that Will had dropped it. Catch my drift? So basically, he is arguing his point is valid and mine isn't. He thinks it is incorrect because saying "since" means that I would have dropped it in the first place. That isn't true is it? I am confused, as you can see, and I need your help Facepunch. I can accept the fact I am wrong, but I strongly believe against it.[/QUOTE] From a descriptive standpoint, everything about the sentence is fine, except that the syntactic tree is incomplete. I wish I had a program that could draw out syntactic trees to illustrate this to you, but the problem is basically that the determiner phrase "the Will" needs to take a verb phrase to be complete and form a sentence of its own, and allow "since" to connect to the determiner phrase "the Will (did)" in order to embed the sentence into the larger one. Some information on syntactic trees can be found [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_syntax_tree"]here[/URL]. Intuitively, for me anyway, saying you hadn't dropped something since Will had dropped it presupposes that you may have dropped it before, but that you have not dropped it by or after the time Will had dropped it.