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This thread is for tropers who have trouble with English and would like some help with the crazy grammar of this crazy language.

Write down what you wish to edit on the wiki. If you have been suspended from editing, another troper might be kind enough to edit for you after your suggestions have been corrected.

The thread is for help and feedback on your own suggested edits.

If you want help correcting other people's edits (e.g., if you find a page which seems to have grammar problems but want a second opinion, or you don't feel able to fix it by yourself) then that's off-topic here, but we have a separate Grammar Police cleanup thread that can provide assistance.

Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 16th 2023 at 5:37:57 PM

Theokal3 Since: Jan, 2012
#1001: Jul 15th 2013 at 6:22:51 AM

Suggestion for the video game entry of Reformed, but Rejected:

  • Sarah Kerrigan from Starcraft II Heart Of The Swarm. While she still starts out as a bit of a Villain Protagonist at the beginning of the game and only later developped into an Anti-Hero, she genuinely feels sorry for her atrocities as the previous game's Big Bad, and tries her best to be a better person in order to make amends. The problem is, nobody really is (understandably) eager to forgive her for the millions of innocent people she slaughered. Even Jim Raynor, the guy who helped her get better in the first place, almost gives up on her after she willingly re-infested herself. Fortunately, she gets slightly better by the end of the game.

DriftingSkies Grand Exhausted Poobah from The Space between nowhere and somewhere. Since: Jul, 2012
Grand Exhausted Poobah
#1002: Jul 15th 2013 at 7:50:00 AM

  • Sarah Kerrigan from StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. She starts out as a bit of a Villain Protagonist at the beginning of the game and later develops into an Anti-Hero, because she genuinely feels sorry for her atrocities as the previous game's Big Bad, and tries her best to be a better person in order to make amends. However, nobody is eager to forgive her for the millions of innocent people she slaughtered. Even Jim Raynor, the man who helped her get better (elaborate?) in the first place, almost gives up on her after she willingly re-infested herself. Fortunately, she gets better (how so?) by the end of the game.

I would like to see a little more information about how she "gets better", both the first time and the second. I know nothing about the game myself though.

Also, make sure you use namespaces. It was redlinked because you need to link to VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm, and just StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm will give you a Red Link (which is not good).

edited 15th Jul '13 7:52:03 AM by DriftingSkies

Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you. — Nyx
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#1003: Jul 15th 2013 at 8:04:42 AM

That example is invalid. Kerrigan is not Reformed, but Rejected; she has the influence of the Zerg removed, but her goal is and remains vengeance against Mengsk. She never attempts reformation because she doesn't care about it. Even after she becomes the Swarm Queen again, her goal isn't acceptance.

She wants Jim's acceptance, but it's clear to everyone (including him) that it's a secondary goal.

edited 15th Jul '13 8:16:05 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
DriftingSkies Grand Exhausted Poobah from The Space between nowhere and somewhere. Since: Jul, 2012
Grand Exhausted Poobah
#1004: Jul 15th 2013 at 9:50:21 AM

[up] Fair enough. I was only looking at it from a grammar/spelling perspective, since I don't know enough about the work to determine whether it was actually factually correct.

Sorry about that.

Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you. — Nyx
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#1005: Jul 16th 2013 at 6:23:48 AM

When adding examples to trope articles, is it okay to use the word "himself" or "herself" to refer to the characters, especially if the character in question is the protagonist? I mean, as in "In [Work's name], [Main character] himself/herself.....".

DriftingSkies Grand Exhausted Poobah from The Space between nowhere and somewhere. Since: Jul, 2012
Grand Exhausted Poobah
#1006: Jul 16th 2013 at 6:26:09 AM

I'd need to see the specific example you want to add to be sure, but from what I can parse, I'm leaning toward "no" on that. In general, "In [work], [character] [does something / is an example because]" is going to be sufficient.

Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you. — Nyx
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#1007: Jul 16th 2013 at 7:13:15 AM

Calling the Old Man Out:

—>Frollo: Now- now, l-listen to me, Quasimodo- —>Quasimodo: No, you listen! All my life you've told me that the world is a dark, cruel place! But now I see that the only thing dark and cruel about it is people like you!!!
  • Tai Lung of Kung Fu Panda angrily calls out his adoptive father, Shifu, when he returns to claim the Dragon Scroll. Angrily relaying that everything he ever did was to make him proud. And his fury over Shifu not doing anything when he was denied the scroll.
—>Tai Lung: Everything I ever did, I did to make you proud of me. Tell me how proud of me you are, Shifu. Tell me! —>Punch —>Tai Lung: Tell me! —>Punch —>Tai Lung: TELL ME!
  • Five words: You. Will. Never. Be. Mufasa.
  • In Tangled, once Rapunzel is dragged back from Corona and realizes she's the lost princess, she calls Mother Gothel out on stealing her and claiming to protect her when she was using her all along.

All of these examples needed to be moved to Animated Films folder. Please help me to it.

edited 16th Jul '13 7:14:06 AM by Craver357

PPPSSC Since: Nov, 2009
#1008: Jul 16th 2013 at 7:32:25 AM

  • Tai Lung of Kung Fu Panda angrily calls out his adoptive father, Shifu, when he returns to claim the Dragon Scroll . Angrily , angrily relaying that everything he ever did was to make him proud . And and mentioning his fury over Shifu not doing anything when he was denied the scroll.

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and Tangled looked fine. Finding Nemo and The Lion King need more context, and some general style fixes. Two Words: Obvious Trope shouldn't be used in write-ups, and you should mention the work name rather than PotHoling it.

edited 16th Jul '13 7:35:02 AM by PPPSSC

Theokal3 Since: Jan, 2012
#1009: Jul 16th 2013 at 6:24:30 PM

Suggestion for the comic book entry of Motive Decay:

DriftingSkies Grand Exhausted Poobah from The Space between nowhere and somewhere. Since: Jul, 2012
Grand Exhausted Poobah
#1010: Jul 16th 2013 at 6:45:42 PM

I think that can do with some restructuring to make it flow a little more coherently.

How about something such as this?
Many fans consider The Clone Saga of Spider-Man to be the franchise's Dork Age. At its start, the Jackal had a logical (if twisted) motivation for trying to kill Spider-Man (he blamed him for the death of Gwen Stacy). But when Executive Meddling led to the streching of the saga, his original motivations were lost, and he was gradually turned into a crazy Generic Doomsday Villain. His later plots include attempting to screw with Peter's life by cloning him and trying to convince him that he was a clone himself, and to Take Over the World by killing everybody and replacing them with clones.

edited 16th Jul '13 6:50:08 PM by DriftingSkies

Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you. — Nyx
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#1011: Jul 17th 2013 at 5:32:59 AM

@#1008 PPPSSC: I know, but all I'm asking for is help to move the examples to the Animated Films folder by creating it, since I'm unable to edit at the moment.

CaptainPeregrin The Cat with the Timey-Wimey Ball from A Democratic Kingdom Far, Far Away Since: Mar, 2013
The Cat with the Timey-Wimey Ball
#1012: Jul 17th 2013 at 11:09:17 AM

[up] This thread is for, well, Getting Help With English. If you want help rearranging examples and such, that would go in another forum (although I'm not familiar enough with the fora to say exactly where).

But I am a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer
Theokal3 Since: Jan, 2012
#1013: Jul 18th 2013 at 2:22:13 AM

Drifting Skies: I can see how it comes up more coherently that way, but isn't mentionning the Dork Age aspect first making it weird to post this in the Motive Decay section ?

DriftingSkies Grand Exhausted Poobah from The Space between nowhere and somewhere. Since: Jul, 2012
Grand Exhausted Poobah
#1014: Jul 18th 2013 at 5:55:12 AM

I thought that too later, after I had come up with it, so I definitely agree with where you are coming from. As such, might I recommend:

  • At the start of The Clone Saga of Spider-Man, the Jackal had a logical (if twisted) motivation for trying to kill Spider-Man (he blamed him for the death of Gwen Stacy). But when Executive Meddling led to the streching of the saga, his original motivations were lost, and he was gradually turned into a crazy Generic Doomsday Villain. His later plots include attempting to screw with Peter's life by cloning him and trying to convince him that he was a clone himself, and to Take Over the World by killing everybody and replacing them with clones. This is a major part of why many fans consider The Clone Saga to be the franchise's Dork Age.

* At the start of ''TheCloneSaga'' of ''Comicbook/SpiderMan'', the Jackal had a logical (if twisted) motivation for trying to kill Spider-Man (he blamed him for the death of [[ILetGwenStacyDie Gwen Stacy]]). But when ExecutiveMeddling led to the streching of the saga, his original motivations were lost, and he was gradually turned into a crazy GenericDoomsdayVillain. His later plots include attempting to screw with Peter's life by cloning him and trying to convince him that he was a clone himself, and to TakeOverTheWorld by killing everybody and replacing them with clones. This is a major part of why many fans consider ''The Clone Saga'' to be the franchise's DorkAge.

edited 18th Jul '13 5:55:52 AM by DriftingSkies

Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you. — Nyx
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#1015: Jul 19th 2013 at 5:00:50 AM

[up][up][up] @Captain Peregrin: I know that this thread is for getting help with English, but I thought another troper would help me out about my edits, just like the above information had promised ("If you have been suspended from editing, another troper might be kind enough to edit for you after your suggestions have been corrected"). Does this mean that I had to edit for myself (Which I'm unable to do so at the moment) after my grammar had been corrected?

CaptainPeregrin The Cat with the Timey-Wimey Ball from A Democratic Kingdom Far, Far Away Since: Mar, 2013
The Cat with the Timey-Wimey Ball
#1016: Jul 19th 2013 at 11:39:42 AM

[up] Okies, sorry about that. Like I said, I'm still learning the ropes around the fora. Still, if you just want to rearrange preexisting entries, there's probably a better place to ask for help. I know I'm just tuned to correcting grammar when I'm on this thread xD

But I am a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer
Theokal3 Since: Jan, 2012
#1017: Jul 23rd 2013 at 5:27:42 AM

Suggestion for WesternAnimation.Kaijudo Rise Of The Duel Masters YMMV:

  • What An Idiot: Carny in Caught in the Spotlight; right after his father advised him to not do anything stupid at the beginning of the episode, he immediatly summons his creature in a public area (hidden from most public, but still) to show it to his friends and start indiscriminately using its attack just to show off. Not only does he end up almost causing an accident, but a picture of him is made and ends up on the Internet, his father his understandably mad at him, and the Choten wants his skin.

edited 23rd Jul '13 5:29:17 AM by Theokal3

DriftingSkies Grand Exhausted Poobah from The Space between nowhere and somewhere. Since: Jul, 2012
Grand Exhausted Poobah
#1018: Jul 23rd 2013 at 7:07:52 AM

What an Idiot: Carny in Caught in the Spotlight; right after his father advised him to not do anything stupid at the beginning of the episode, he immediatly summons his creature in a public area (hidden from most public, but still) to show it to his friends and start indiscriminately using its attack just to show off. Not only does he end up almost causing an accident, but a picture of him is made and ends up on the Internet, his father his understandably mad at him, and the Choten wants his skin.


What An Idiot: Carny in Caught in the Spotlight. Mere moments after his father advises him not to do anything stupid, he summons his creature in a public venue to show it to his friends, and he starts indiscriminately using its attack to show off. Not only does he almost cause an accident, but a picture of him ends up on the Internet, his father is enraged, and the Choten is after him.

Beyond the beaten path lies the absolute end. It matters not who you are... Death awaits you. — Nyx
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#1019: Jul 23rd 2013 at 8:50:16 AM

Bad Mood as an Excuse:

  • Theodore Tugboat: In "The Grumpy Garbage Barge", Theodore's mood went from good to bad after he couldn't tolerate Guysborough's grumpiness. He starts frowning at Emily and George, who also frowns and went on to complain to others until everyone gets snappy with each other. When the Dispatcher demands to all the tugboats to explain why they were misbehaving, Emily's reply is that they're just in a grumpy mood.

Hysterical Woman:

  • Juliet herself in Romeo and Juliet. Though Romeo is already a character who often let his emotions run wild, she is not far off from acting on her own impulses too. The reason why she and her husband's lives ended in their suicides was when she jumped to the decision to arrange plans with Friar Lawrence to help fake her death via a sleeping potion, unaware of what would happen if said plan were to fail and Romeo was unable to get the message from the Friar.

Apegacine Since: Feb, 2012
#1020: Jul 23rd 2013 at 11:43:22 AM

A couple of Suggestion For the Blazing Dragons main page.

Reckless Crossbow Usage: In the pilot episode blaze keeps his crossbow loaded at all times and accidently fires it multiple times.

Schizo Tech: The level of technology on this show mainly depends on Rule of Funny for example A toilet appears in the pilot episode and another episode had the knights use a speedboat as part of a gag.

Ship Tease: Flicker and flame Get a lot of these moments, mainly in the first season but there was at least one instance of this between them in season two.

edited 23rd Jul '13 11:44:45 AM by Apegacine

CaptainPeregrin The Cat with the Timey-Wimey Ball from A Democratic Kingdom Far, Far Away Since: Mar, 2013
The Cat with the Timey-Wimey Ball
#1021: Jul 23rd 2013 at 1:35:05 PM

[up][up]Bad Mood as an Excuse:

  • Theodore Tugboat: In "The Grumpy Garbage Barge", Theodore's mood went from good to bad after he couldn't tolerate because of Guysborough's grumpiness. He starts frowning at Emily and George, who also frowns start frowning back, and went on to complain to others until everyone gets snappy with each other. When the Dispatcher demands to that all the tugboats to explain why they were misbehaving, Emily's reply is replies that they're just in a feeling grumpy mood.

Hysterical Woman:

  • Juliet herself in Romeo And Juliet. Though Romeo is already a character who often let his emotions run wild, [she is not far off from acting on her own impulses too]. The reason why she and her husband's lives ended in their suicides their lives ended in suicide was when that she jumped to the decision to arrange plans with Friar Lawrence to help fake her death via a sleeping potion, unaware not thinking of what would happen if said plan were to fail and Romeo was unable to get the message from the Friar.

Italicized all of the verbs I could find - they need to be in the same tense, be it present or past. The part in brackets doesn't make a lot of sense and should be reworded. Sorry if it seems like I'm picking on you, but the longer the entry, the easier it is to make mistakes xD

  • [up]Reckless Crossbow Usage: In the pilot episode, Blaze keeps his crossbow loaded at all times and accidently accidentally fires it multiple times.
  • Schizo Tech: The level of technology on this show mainly depends on Rule of Funny. For example, a toilet appears in the pilot episode, and another episode had has the knights use a speedboat as part of a gag.
  • Ship Tease: Flicker and Flame get a lot of these moments, mainly in the first season, but there was at least one instance of this between them in season two.

Looks like you're having problems with capitalization and punctuation, but otherwise it doesn't look bad. In general, names are capitalized, and other words are only capitalized if they follow a period (.) or colon (:) (with the exception of Wiki Words, of course). A good rule of thumb for commas is to put them right before a conjunction ("but", "and", etc.) or just where there's a natural pause in the middle of a sentence (like "For example,").

edited 23rd Jul '13 1:40:59 PM by CaptainPeregrin

But I am a cat, and no cat anywhere ever gave anyone a straight answer
Craver357 Since: May, 2012
#1022: Jul 24th 2013 at 8:15:25 AM

[up] Never mind. There's no need to help with Bad Mood as an Excuse example regarding Theodore Tugboat, since someone had added the example already. I just need to try to correct the Hysterical Woman example regarding Romeo and Juliet.

  • In Romeo and Juliet, though Romeo often lets his emotions get the better of him, Juliet herself was not far off from acting on her own impulses too. The reason why their lives ended in suicide is that she jump to the decision to arrange plans with Friar Lawrence to help fake her death via sleeping potion, not thinking of what would happen if said plan were to fail and Romeo was unable to get the message from the Friar.

Theokal3 Since: Jan, 2012
#1023: Jul 24th 2013 at 11:46:38 AM

A suggestion for the YMMV page of Avengers Assemble:

  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Bruce Banner is completely absent from this show; this incarnation of the Hulk apparently stays transformed permanantly (and unlike in Earth's Mightiest Heroes, no explanation is given why; Banner isn't even mentionned), and, since he lacks the Jekyll and Hyde Split Personnality, is reduced to a Dumb Muscle Blood Knight whose most dialogues can be summed up as "Time to smash" or "Give me something to hit". Especially surprising considering this show tries to emulate the spirit of the Avengers movie, which was partially popular because of Banner.

edited 24th Jul '13 11:48:32 AM by Theokal3

MagBas Mag Bas from In my house Since: Jun, 2009
#1024: Jul 26th 2013 at 3:43:07 PM

Please, verify my grammar in this example to the Heartwarming page of Phineas And Ferb:

  • In Candace's dream, Phineas and Ferb's inventions are portrayed as perfectly safe in relation to the "safe" way preached by an authority figure and Linda- being the "busting" version of the Wizard Of Oz- is portrayed as a fun-loving Reasonable Authority Figure unlikely to punish the boys by their inventions. This is specially heartwarming when compared to Perry's Dream Within a Dream in Phineas And Ferb Are Busted.

edited 28th Jul '13 5:06:25 AM by MagBas

MagBas Mag Bas from In my house Since: Jun, 2009
#1025: Aug 2nd 2013 at 5:47:11 PM

Makes one week that i put the example above. I am guessing in put this other example in Phineas And Ferb, this time to the Fridge page:

  • Why Candace dreamed with Linda being tolerant with the fun ways created by the boys if she generally acts as if she guess that she will be really angry? Well, Candace is the member of the family that interacts more often with Linda's tolerant side.

Please, verify my English.

edited 2nd Aug '13 5:47:49 PM by MagBas


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