Oblivion won't be the worst game ever.

[Lumpy]

"You" is a second person pronoun, whereas "he" is a third person pronoun.

In other words, the sentence starts off in the context of talking to a person then switches to talking about them.

No, see:
part one: YOU are
part two: A FUCKING MORON who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that HE's not going to buy anyway

The second pronoun is not supposed to accord with "you", but with "a fucking moron", which is in the third person. So the sentence was completly correct.

 

[kingcomrade]

No, he's right, Lumpy.

And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say you are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something.

"He" has no antecedent.
"Fucking moron" was a descriptor, not a subject.

 

[Lumpy]

No, he's right, Lumpy.

And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say you are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something.

"He" has no antecedent.
"Fucking moron" was a descriptor, not a subject.

"Fucking moron"'s syntactical function is irrelevant. "who has nothing better to do" is an atributive sentence which determines "moron". He should accord with "moron", not "you". What kind of fucking moron? One that has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway.
Trust me, I know my grammar.

 

[kingcomrade]

No, you obviously don't.
He is never speaking to anyone but the "thread starter." Just because he calls him as a "fucking moron" doesn't change the context of the sentence.

There is one shift in the sentence, between "thread starter" and "you." The first he is designating who he will be speaking to, and then he speaks directly to him. You've fallen into the same trap that the writer did.

 

[callehe]

even though the grammar is correct, formally speaking, i think it's more because of accident than deliberance.

(exchange the "he" with you and you'll notice how much better the sentence flows.)

oh, and also, a troll is a troll is a troll, no matter how correct grammar it uses.

 

[kingcomrade]

And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say you are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something.

Here is the sentence with proper punctuation:

"And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say: You are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that you're not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something."

 

[Lumpy]

No, you obviously don't.
He is never speaking to anyone but the "thread starter." Just because he calls him as a "fucking moron" doesn't change the context of the sentence.

There is one shift in the sentence, between "thread starter" and "you." The first he is designating who he will be speaking to, and then he speaks directly to him. You've fallen into the same trap that the writer did.

No, Twinfalls wasn't criticizing the shift from "thread starter" to "you", but the shift from "you" to "he", which is obviously correct.

 

[kingcomrade]

Read my post again, you've misunderstood.

Let me try again.

There is one CONTEXTUAL shift in the sentence.

"And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say: You are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that you're not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something."

Right where the colon is. That's where the only correct shift in the message is. Putting "he" in space of "you're" is not "obviously correct" it is obviously incorrect.

 

[Lumpy]

And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say you are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something.

Here is the sentence with proper punctuation:

"And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say: You are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that you're not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something."

No. That's wrong. The first part is "You are a fucking moron". The rest is an atributive phrase for this first sentence. "he's not going to buy anyway" is correct, not "you're...". That's because "he's not going to buy anyway" doesn't refer to the person who he was addressing to, but to the "fucking moron".
Informally, your version would be used. Formally, though, the original version is correct.

 

[kingcomrade]

Once again, "Fucking moron" is not a subject! The writer switched persons halfway through his sentence.

No, this is not a case of formal vs. informal. It's both grammatically and syntactically incorrect.

You are basically advocating that someone address someone else in the third person.

 

[Lumpy]

Once again, "Fucking moron" is not a subject! The writer switched persons halfway through his sentence.

No, this is not a case of formal vs. informal. It's both grammatically and syntactically incorrect.

You are basically advocating that someone address someone else in the third person.

Sigh... He's not going to buy it anyway did NOT, it did NOT refer to the one he was addressing to, but to "fucking moron".

 

[kingcomrade]

He's addressing the fucking moron not speaking about "the fucking moron." Fucking moron is not a subject.

 

[VenomByte]

For fuck's sake.

Both interpretations are grammatically correct.

'You' is the first subject. 'A fucking moron' (who has nothing better to do) is the second.

Using 'He' will refer to the moron. 'You' would refer to the initial subject. It doesn't matter that they are both the same entity. It's still perfectly valid.

examples:

You assraped a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway.

You were given head by a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that you're not going to buy anyway.

In either case, it is the fucking moron who is doing the bitching. Given that either 'you' or 'he' refer to the same entity (in the original example), I would stick with 'the moron' and use 'he' for consistency.

But that's just my personal preference.

 

[kingcomrade]

Once again, this is not a third person sentence, he is ADDRESSING someone. There is no compromise to be had.

 

[Lumpy]

Once again, this is not a third person sentence, he is ADDRESSING someone. There is no compromise to be had.

The syntactical function of "moron" is completly irrelevant. "He" determines "moron", that's why "he" was used, rather than "you".
Examples:
"You're a moron because you complain about a game even though you're not going to buy it."
"You're a moron who complains about a game even though he's not going to buy it."
See the difference?

 

[kingcomrade]

"He" does not determine moron because this is NOT A THIRD PERSON STATEMENT. Moron is not a subject! For the, what, fourth fucking time?

"You're a moron because you complain about a game even though you're not going to buy it."
"You're a moron who complains about a game even though he's not going to buy it."

Yes I see the difference. I know what you are trying to say, and it is a somewhat understandable mistake. But it is still wrong.

This guy is switching from second person to third person halfway through the sentence. It is wrong. It isn't even technically correct, it is wrong.

 

[kingcomrade]

The syntactical function of "moron" is completly irrelevant.

What? Then how, exactly, are you backing up your argument? The only possible way for that to be an honest mistake is if you thought you were changing subjects halfway through the sentence.

 

[kingcomrade]

Here's an example of my own. I am addressing to you.

"Lumpy, your defense of this mistake in English grammar is making him look silly."
"Lumpy, you cannot change persons in the middle of a statement, or he will be confusing the sentence."

 

[Lumpy]

Grammar was the last thing I would have expected to discuss in here. The codex never ceases to surprise me.
What do you understand by subject?

 

[Lumpy]

Here's an example of my own. I am addressing to you.

"Lumpy, your defense of this mistake in English grammar is making him look silly."
"Lumpy, you cannot change persons in the middle of a statement, or he will be confusing the sentence."

Both sentences are CORRECT. Yes, for your information, two sentences in a phrase CAN have different subjects. But this is a completly different situation.
Those sentences have a coordinatory relationship (or whatever it's called) between them. They are linked by or. In that situation, there was the main sentence, "You are a fucking moron", and then the rest of the phrase, which was an ATRIBUTIVE to MORON, not to YOU. That's why HE is appropriate, not YOU.

 

[Solik]

<3 this thread

 

[Lumpy]

<3 this thread

No, actually, I would say that larger than three this thread.

 

[kingcomrade]

Lumpy, my mother is a college level English teacher, I've been reading books since I was tiny, I spend a lot of free time reading articles and periodicals about grammar. It's something that interests me, it's not a surprise that I would discuss it.

Alright if you want me to deconstruct the sentence, here we go.

"And if the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say: You are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway. You'd think one of the devs kicked your puppy or something."

"[And]If the thread starter is still around I'll take this opportunity to say"
This is the first part of the sentence. This is in the third person, because he is addressing the forum.
Then, he describes what he is going "to say":

You are a fucking moron who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway.

This is one sentence. "You" is the subject of the clause "You are a fucking moron." That is the subject of the entire sentence. This sentence is in the second person, he is directly addressing someone.

"who has nothing better to do than bitch about a game that he's not going to buy anyway."

This is an dependent adjective clause describing "you." It is not describing the "fucking moron." Fucking moron isn't a subject of anything, it is a descriptor. I don't know if this is something you do in Romanian, but you can't abstract out "fucking moron" as a nested clause or a complex pronoun. It doesn't make syntactical sense to do that either, because the context of the statement is direct address. I would never call you "he" to your face.

 

[kingcomrade]

Both sentences are CORRECT.

No they are not, because I only have a single subject and I addressed him first in the second person.

 

[kingcomrade]

Oops, I just realized, every time I said "syntactical error" I meant "semantic error." That might be what's confusing you. And yes, semantic errors are equally valid. I could construct a million sentences with correct syntax, but they're still incorrect if they don't make semantic sense.