Comments on: A Christmas Carol

By: Samuel

Samuel — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:31:09 +0000

Wow, I definitely think that Doug should try to incorporate “Future Perfect Progressive Passive” – Aggressive into a cartoon!

By: David

David — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 17:38:55 +0000

Oh my God, I love this.

By: scott

scott — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 08:10:00 +0000

it’s f’ing perfect, whether the grammer is or not.
I love it.
as a newly started english teacher I find I haven’t got a clue if it is or if it is not.
great cartoons all.
love scott

By: Diego

Diego — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:36:00 +0000

this is a winner, doug. ranks high up there.

By: Elwood

Elwood — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 06:15:00 +0000

Wow!

And I thought I was a grammar nut.

You have all been being putting me to be have been shamed...

By: johnslat

johnslat — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 01:21:00 +0000

Dear tealizzy,
Well, a true passive construction indicates that an action is performed on the subject of the sentence, whereas a stative passive construction merely describes the state or condition of the subject. So, to change the sentence to a "true passive" all that needs to be done is to add an agent:
"Ebenezer! You will have been disappointed by all the wrong choices you have made in your life."
Admittedly a bit more verbose than the original, but heck, if you want a "true passive", you have to make sacrifices.
Regards and Merry Christmas
P.S. If Doug wanted to feature an even more bizarre tense, he could have used the Future Perfect Progressive Passive:
"Ebenezer! When I come again, you will have been being disappointed for quite some time by all the wrong choices you have made in your life."

By: TeaLizzy

TeaLizzy — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 00:25:00 +0000

It could, after all, be a periphrastic, no?

By: TeaLizzy

TeaLizzy — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 00:24:00 +0000

1) Absolutely hilarious!
2) Dear English Teacher: I grant your point about participles, which are widely misdiagrammed, but is this not the way that English FORMS the future perfect passive? If not, please conjugate ‘be disappointed’ into the future perfect passive for me.
- A Classicist

By: [SSJiffy]

[SSJiffy] — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 20:03:00 +0000

I don’t get it

By: johnslat

johnslat — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 19:33:00 +0000

Dear Teresa,
Well, I DID say it was nitpicking. But I can’t help myself. Actually, though, having one of the Savage Chickens try to diagram a sentence might be a worthy subject for Doug to consider. After all, sentence diagrams are mostly “chicken-scratching”, anyway.
Regards and Merry Christmas,
John
P.S. By the way, although the number of basic sentence patterns in English is not firmly established, your “10″ is one of the foremost contenders.