Anonymous #1 7w

no lmao

23

Anonymous OP 7w

I’ve seen it used both ways. Why can’t it be both?

-1

Anonymous #1 7w

Give me a sentence where it is a noun

-8

Anonymous #2 7w

it is by definition a noun lol

28

Anonymous #2 7w

“Wow, I’ve never seen such whimsy. Very nice” in this sentence, whimsy is used as a noun, and I’d say it’s grammatically correct. However I do understand that in the majority of cases, “whimsy” is an adjective. I just acknowledge both

15

Anonymous #1 7w

What is that to say? That sort of whimsy. That “kind of whimsy.” The whimsy of that sort. The whimsy of what? The whimsy of a film? That’s an adjective. You’re talking about the features of that film. That’s an adjective. The whimsy of that girl? The what? The kind of description of that girl. Adjective

-8

Anonymous #3 7w

A “whim” is a noun. Whimsy is an adjective

-10

Anonymous #2 7w

are you having a stroke?

6

Anonymous OP 7w

Slow as hell

-8

Anonymous #2 7w

say i mention the "sadness" of a film. does that mean "sadness" is an adjective? because that's the argument you're making.

11

Anonymous OP 7w

the state of the u.s. education system

11

Anonymous OP 7w

If you’re watching a whimsy movie or a movie with whimsy, the noun is the movie. Describing it with whimsy. Are we fucking slow?

-8

Comment Deleted

0

Anonymous #2 7w

A noun is a person place or thing, an abstract concept is still a thing

12

it's misuse of the word. people mix up you're/your all the time, that doesn't mean "i think your wrong" is correct

9

Anonymous #2 7w

"a movie with whimsy" is "a [noun] with [noun]" it would be a "whimsical movie" not a "whimsy movie"

11

Anonymous #4 7w

the -y ending is oneshotting these people oml

21

Anonymous OP 7w

Open the schools 💔

20

Anonymous #4 7w

No, it’s a noun. It’s an attribute, which is a “thing” therefore a noun. Attributes are not adjectives

4

Anonymous #6 7w

whimsical is an adjective whimsy is a noun

17

No it can’t. Whimsical is an adjective. Whimsy can never be an adjective because it’s always a noun

11

Anonymous OP 7w

Exactly

4

Anonymous #7 7w

The death of American literacy past like a 4th grade level

15

Anonymous #8 7w

Okay calm down. Academic semantics is no reason to talk down to people. Some people just don’t understand it, and that’s okay

-3

Anonymous #6 7w

it is actually very concerning that this poll is 50/50

18

Anonymous OP 7w

🤓

3

Anonymous #6 7w

It’s not talking down to people I’m just concerned that our literacy rates are dropping, it’s not OK because we’re getting dumber and that makes us easier to manipulate

15

Anonymous #8 7w

Our literacy rate isn’t dropping. Past literacy rates reflect our ability to read ANY English, whereas modern ones reflect our ability to read at a college level. You’ve been misinformed

-4

Anonymous #6 7w

Apparently knowing the difference between a noun and a verb doesn’t make you any harder to manipulate

-2

Anonymous OP 7w

Whimsy, that which has whims

-3

Anonymous #6 7w

Not trying to talk down to people, just observing the state of American English education. I don’t mind people breaking the rules of academic English in general, but I think they should know them in the first place before they break them to ensure effective communication when required. This is a relatively minor example of an overall trend

9

Anonymous #7 7w

This particular example is also not just a boy academic English, but every dialect of English I’m aware of (which is certainly not all of them). “Ain’t” for example is perfectly grammatically correct in everything but academic English — whimsy being used as an adjective isn’t in any dialect afaik.

9

Anonymous #7 7w

It’s not a trend. Education is not moving backwards, the economy is not shit, the world is not ending. Ever since the dawn of time, people have been saying that the world is on the brink. It’s a mortal obsession. But you need to stop twisting things just to match that interpretation. People can speak and read just fine, and the people who are wrong here know how to use the word whimsy. They simply aren’t categorizing the words correctly. It’s completely useless knowledge unless you’re an English

-4

Anonymous #6 7w

Teacher

-3

Anonymous #6 7w

American math and reading test scores have fallen in the last decade (aka a trend!). That is a fact, not an opinion. Teachers have been anecdotally noting a decline in reading and writing abilities of their students as well since about the pandemic. The state of our education is certainly better than it was a hundred years ago, but statistically worse than it was ten years ago. Look up Stanford Educational Opportunity Project for the stats.

14

Anonymous #6 7w

I do agree that people here can use whimsy appropriately, and that the knowledge is mostly superfluous, but I don’t love people confidently defending the wrong answer. Obvs most respondents aren’t doing that, but I don’t love it that some are.

9

Anonymous #7 7w

Has there ever been a decade when teachers didn’t claim reading and writing were declining? I recall an old note in a stone tablet a thousand years ago where a professor complains that students no longer know how to write on tablets because of this new “paper” shit. Old people always complain that the youth are getting dumber and young people always complain that old people are out of touch. And as for test scores, that’s likely because of a temporary surge in long-distance learning

-4

Anonymous #7 7w

People are stubborn dude you can’t change that. I also hate when people can’t accept that different categories exist. It’s always “the word can actually be used both ways”. But that’s life

-2

Anonymous #6 7w

"people are stubborn dude, if someone says 1 + 1 = 3 what can you do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

5

Anonymous OP 7w

I mean yeah if someone says 1+1=3 you’re not gonna get them to admit they’re wrong

-1

Anonymous #2 7w

Let’s take your example and replace whimsy with an actual adjective. A movie with Whimsy, a movie with sad, a movie with colorful, a movie with silent. Do you see how none of the adjectives make sense? In this sentence it only makes sense with a noun. Like whimsy

9

Anonymous #2 7w

In all of these examples you are making the object of the sentence possessive over the noun whimsy. Change it to a noun and read it “the color of a film, the handbag of the girl” please take an English class this is pissing me off 😭

8

Anonymous #6 7w

Whether the knowledge is useful or not is irrelevant in this situation. The amount of people getting this question wrong suggests a lack of critical thinking and some sort of disconnect between applying foundational, elementary knowledge to solve problems.

3

Anonymous #10 7w

No it suggests that they don’t understand the difference between a noun and an adjective. That’s not critical thinking, that’s knowledge you get from hearing about nouns vs adjectives. It’s not useful. The only reason you’re acting like it is is because you want to act like you’re smarter than everyone else. I got the answer correct right away. I’m not being a dick about it. Learn something from that

-3

Anonymous #6 7w

Wdym it’s not useful it’s literally like. The building blocks of any language. It determines the order of words in a sentence to convey meaning. You may not actively think about it everyday but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to be able to distinguish. You might not have to count to ten everyday but it’s important to know the order of numbers.

6

Anonymous #6 7w

i think i'm smarter than any native english-speaking college student who can't differentiate between nouns and adjectives. if that makes me an asshole, so be it

10

Anonymous OP 7w

It makes you incorrect

-4

Anonymous OP 7w

You’re just being a dick at some point. How dare some people make a damn mistake. Fuck

-2

Anonymous OP 7w

Eat glass if you want to be miserable

-1

Anonymous #2 7w

hoes mad

6

Anonymous OP 7w

Bro is insufferable

-2

Anonymous #2 7w

Some stupid people are too stupid to realize they're stupid

10

Anonymous #10 7w

Bro ur literally on here crying about how everyone is dumber than you because they don’t know about some piece of English semantics. Anyone could fail a question like that it doesn’t make them stupid. Is that seriously the only form of validation you have in your life? The fact that you know answers to useless questions?

-4

Anonymous #10 7w

Open the schools?? They teach you that in school. Nobody remembers it because it’s not useful

-2

Anonymous #6 7w

Speak for yourself babe just bc YOU wouldn’t remember that the sky is blue if you spent too long indoors doesn’t mean the rest of us have that issue

3

Anonymous #6 7w

"A piece of English semantics" it's LITERALLY the foundation of English language/grammar/communication. Yes, reopen the schools because you were clearly too busy drawing an eyeball in the back of the class when they taught it the first time

7

Anonymous #9 7w

Guys I swear it was a joke :(

1

Anonymous #10 7w

I GOT IT RIGHT. Go look at my earlier comments. You don’t learn to speak in school you learn to speak from hearing others. Your brain knows the language pattern. This does not reflect on anyone’s ability to read, write, or speak at a college level and you know it. It’s completely useless information. It’s just a category conceptualized centuries after modern English became widely spoken for dictation purposes

0

Anonymous #6 7w

If you think it does, YOU don’t have critical thinking skills. You literally are not capable of forming your own thoughts

-1

Anonymous #6 7w

*speaking* is intuitive but this is the first thing you learn when learning to write. Like literally the first thing is subject and verb. It is how the conventions of written language were established. It is how we are able to be having this argument. And yes, language skills are vital to the development of critical thinking skills, it’s why peasants were kept largely illiterate. It’s why it was illegal to teach enslaved black people to read in the pre civil war south.

1

Anonymous #5 7w

No peasants were kept illiterate because schools cost money and resources. Reading is usefull, but every single person here can read and write at a college level despite not know that whimsy is a noun. Your brain knows how English works. This is a stupid fun fact that you are using to insult others. You should genuinely be embarrassed

-1

Anonymous #6 7w

If you can’t think critically about what makes education inaccessible to working classes at large and why it is that way, I’m not going to keep having this conversation. Like I said, it’s not obvious, it’s not at the forefront of every thought, but it matters.

6

Anonymous #5 7w

No it’s doesn’t matter even the slightest bit. And you are clearly uneducated about academics historically and present. Again, you should be embarrassed

-1

Anonymous #6 7w

I feel like folks are being way too extreme/ad hominem here (directed at everyone, not any one person in particular). I think it matters more than #6 does, and less than #5/10. But not knowing a singular fact doesn’t make anybody stupid (perhaps uneducated, depending on the fact), and neither does whether or not you believe it’s important to know said fact. I feel like we should be able to talk about such things without dissolving into personal attacks.

1

Anonymous #7 7w

I actually understand and agree to some extent of #6's point that it's possible to be successful without being able to identify parts of speech, but i also before that parts of speech is so core and foundational to the education system that not understanding it would signify you aren't paying attention and building an understanding in school; rather, you are going off of intuition, more akin to regurgitation.

12