Word-smithing

I sent the following email to my dear friend, Nancy; a woman who has the most wonderful way with words and is an editor/writer in her free time. I decided to open it up to the hordes of folks who hang on my every word as well...

Two things...

1) Have you come across "grammar girl" in iTunes? I'm addicted. She is my hero. The frustrated Engligh-teacher inside of me has scads of lessons all worked out in my head using Ms. GG. Sadly, in my head they shal remain because I am pigeon-holed into the job of trying to teach a group of hoodlums who do not want to learn. That discovery, however (GG) leads me to question #2...

2) Do you have the difinitive explaintion for why people should use "finished" rather than "done"? My friend in college put it in terms I simply cannot use with my students, namely, "Turkeys and whores are done; people are finished". I try to use "batch of cookies" to replace the more colorful terms, but would love to find the actual reasoning behind this rule.

Any thoughts??

The latter quirk in the English language is really a sticking point for me. In the same manner as "can I go to the bathroom" leads to "I don't know - it sounds like a personal question to me", I am forced by some unseen entity to rephrase my students, and even waitstaff, when I hear "I'm/Are you done". Its nails on a chalkboard to me. And while I can explain pet peeve #1 (can/may) I am stimied at done/finished. I'd love some ideas on that.

Speaking of words, I do have something to be quite thankful for. (and yes, reader, I intentionally ended a sentence with a preposition. So shoot me already... there are times to sound proper and stuffy and there are times to just write, and this is no time for stuffiness) Christopher is gathering words into his little vocabulary with amazing speed right now. He loves to name off body parts (head, ear, toe, shoe) and is trying to name his toys as well.

My thankfullness comes in the form of the word "TRUCK". I am thankful that at this tender age he is not even going to attempt the /tr/ phoneme, which is far too advanced for him in an articulation sense. His brothers all tried it way too early in life, meaning I held my breath in fear every time they played with a truck. God forbid someone, such as an orderly, should ASK my dear sons what they were playing with, such as a truck, in a public place, such as a hospital waiting room. Because, the Jensen boys are more than willing to answer questions when asked, and they answer with gusto - and you can imagine the looks I got from those answers...

No - Christopher veers away from his brothers in may ways. Not the least of which is the fact that a "truck" to Chris is simply a "tuck".

Thank god for small favors. Or phonemes...