(no subject)

[coraa]

(To clarify, I'm looking for what you use, not what you think is 'correct.')

[Poll #1238529]

(No, no reason.)

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I was taught dove, but I've seen dived by copyeditors, etc.

I was taught sneaked (and scolded if we wrote snuck) but I think snuck is being accepted.

I was taught to put the comma between adjectives, but note that it frequently is left out--in fact I leave it out because in reading aloud I don't do a comma pause in my voice.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

With both dived/dove and sneaked/snuck, I've heard that one variant is the older, more traditionally-accepted version, and the other is the newer, gaining-acceptance version -- but I can never remember which is which!

I wouldn't put a comma in "small black cat" myself -- despite having been also taught to put commas between adjectives -- but I'm less sure what I'd do with, say, "wet angry cat." I think I might put a comma there. I'm not sure why, except possibly that I think of "black cat" as being one unit, but "angry cat" is two units. I'm not sure.

[pnew8.livejournal.com]

The rule I've heard on small black kitten is whether the first adjective describes the second adjective, whether small described black, since it doesn't, a comma goes in.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'd put the comma there because I"hear" the comma-pause when saying it aloud. I think that's because I want to make clear that this is a wet cat that happens to be angry, and not a wet angrycat, so to speak.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I was taught to put a comma between adjectives only if the word "and" could be substituted for the comma and preserve the meaning. "The small and black kitten" might work, but I think most people would really mean "the small blackkitten."