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My only issue with this email is that he used the subject "we" when mentioning grabbing a coffee. The current accepted standard of phrasing in business circles
by kyro 14y ago
My only issue with this email is that he used the subject "we" when mentioning grabbing a coffee. The current accepted standard of phrasing in business circles eliminates the subject and would read "would love to grab a coffee".
Would love to hear your thoughts on this space.
- yogo 14y agoIs that really an accepted standard? I have to go out on a limb here and ask if that's even a proper sentence? Who/what is the subject? It certainly helps to know who you would be having coffee with.
- harshreality 14y agoThe subject is implied and purposely left out to avoid emphasis. It's not an ultra-formal construction, but it would be a stretch to call it incorrect grammar. You know who you'd be having coffee with. The sender of the email. :)
- pyrocrasty 14y agoJust as much of a stretch to call it proper grammar, though ;-) (Yes, that sentence was even less proper.)
- brian_cloutier 14y agoIt will always be a stretch, because there is no such thing as proper grammar.
- fratis 14y agoThe subject is an implied first person. (i.e., "I" or "we.") I see this kind of omission as a way for cowards to avoid explicitly standing behind their request, both to diminish their own disappointment if the recipient says no or ignores them and to mitigate the chance that the recipient perceives their note as 'needy.' Just my 2¢.
- rumcajz 14y agoI was wondering about this construct several times in the past. AFAIK English is not a pro-drop language, which means that the construct should be ungrammatical. My impression was that it was introduced to American English be immigrants with pro-drop native languages (Italians? Slavs?) Am I completely off track?
- bmuon 14y agoSpanish is pro-drop and much more present in the US.
- rubyrescue 14y agothe more spanish i speak the more i want to drop english words, and the more confortable i am moving the subject of the adjective to the end of the sentence.
- StavrosK 14y ago"Pro-drop" languages usually incorporate the person in the verb. So "grab" in "we grab" is different than "I grab". In Greek, it's "πίνουμε" vs "πίνω". You omit the subject because you lose no information. In fact, it's redundant to include it, so you only do it if you want to emphasize it.
- cwp 14y agoRight, technically English doesn't let you drop pronouns. On the other hand there is a pretty long tradition of dropping first person pronouns in writing. You see it in informal correspondence and journals from before electronic media were omnipresent. Stuff like, "Went to the store today. Got stuck in a snow bank and had to call a tow truck." I don't think it comes from immigrants that speak other languages, so much as economizing long passages of text that's all in the first person. The "I" at the beginning of every sentence just gets dropped.
- jholman 14y agoIt depends on whether you think "ungrammatical" means "not approved of by prescriptivists", or you mean "not used and/or not understood by fluent speakers". Given that you know the word "pro-drop", I assume you know this, and I'm not sure if I should bother continuing in this vein. Maybe you're asking for a descriptive grammaticality judgement from fluent English speakers? I agree that from a prescriptivist perspective, this is improper formal writing. From a descriptivist perspective, I try to avoid biz guys, but I suspect the GP post nailed it, with respect to common usage in the appropriate sociolect (the same sociolect that has "proof points", "value-add", "circling back", etc). Although maybe not for the last sentence of an email that already had that much circumlocution.
- xianshou 14y agoIt's not grammatical English, but nor are a variety of other constructs that we see as normal, such as "ain't no," or even "they" as a gender-neutral singular pronoun (this one matters only to sticklers). Convenience need not obey the rules. Would love to expand further if you are interested. Also: http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038 http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuati...
- Evbn 14y agoThe rules describe how people speak in large numbers. So these examples are grammatical.
- dbuxton 14y agoWould love to give, but 2 busy Sent from my mobile device. Please excuse typos.
- lubujackson 14y agoYou forgot the one letter signature, so pressed for time. L
- eclipticplane 14y agoOnly capitalized due to auto-capitalization.