help with grammer thingyisms

dourdog · Jul 21, 2009

Hey all.

I have a feeling that this will be the first post of many.

I am having trouble modifying a noun.

The word is: Nemeter. (N-E-meter)

Its is a race of people bearing the same name as there home world. Now, the other races I have modified by putting ians on the end to represent the plural or group. For example: The race of Brennus become Brennusians.

This doesn’t really work with Nemeter; Nemeterians. I find my tongue trips over it trying to say it.

Any suggestions? Could I use Nemeteri? Am I doing it right? An internet search was quite fruitless.

Sophia · Jul 21, 2009

I don't know the proper way of modifying the name, but perhaps you could get around the problem by calling them something like "the Nem", where Nemeter is the name they would give to their world in their language, rather than using English rules.

Mr Flibble · Jul 21, 2009

Any suggestions? Could I use Nemeteri? Am I doing it right?

If you're writing SFF it's your world - your rules. Nemeteri looks fine to me. Or as ES said, the Nem, or Nemetus, or Nemetrim a la Tolkien ( or should that have an h for that?), or Nemebooger if you so desire and it fits your world

Because the Nemwhateveryoudecide don't necessarily use English as their basis for grammar? ETA: Unless they're colonists and they happen to speak English rather than any other Earth language.

RJK · Jul 21, 2009

I'd vote for Nemeterites

sunandshadow · Jul 21, 2009

Nemeter would be a blot more natural to pronounce as nehm uh tur. If you want it pronounced Ennimeter, spell it more like that.

dpaterso · Jul 21, 2009

Nemeterusian dogs! Your base are belong to us!

-Derek

Rufus Coppertop · Jul 21, 2009

Nemeteri works well in my opinion.

BTW, there world needs to be their world.

benbradley · Jul 21, 2009

I suspect there are SEVERAL "standard" ways to indicate "residents of area x," which is to say there's (as far as I know) NO standard. A resident of Georgia is called a Georgian (GEOR gian), but a resident of Florida is called a Floridian (flo RI di an).

A resident of Nemeter could be a Nemetian.

Now I'm thinking of Mars and Marvin The Martian.

Oh, and the technical name for these is thingymabobs.

Dale Emery · Jul 21, 2009

Nemetans
Jeff
Nemet

LOG · Jul 21, 2009

dourdog said:
Its is a race of people bearing the same name as there home world. Now, the other races I have modified by putting ians on the end to represent the plural or group. For example: The race of Brennus become Brennusians.

It's a race of people...their...-ians
Since it refers to Nemet in the singular, the apostrophe contracts 'It is' into 'It's.' No need for a second 'is.'
'Their' is the possessive form.
'on the end' = suffix
(Should the period and comma be inside the quotations even though they are not part of the words as extracted from there origins? I keep forgetting my quotation rules...>.>)

@dpaterso: I never got how that phrase was funny, I get it's origin, just not why it's funny.

dpaterso · Jul 21, 2009

JJM said:
@dpaterso: I never got how that phrase was funny, I get it's origin, just not why it's funny.

Me neither, other than it's the classic mistranslation that underlines the need for grammar check by third parties when you haven't a clue, and aliens from another planet probably wouldn't know what to call the inhabitants of Nemeter either.

-Derek

dourdog · Jul 22, 2009

Thanks for the input people. It has helped and stoped me worrying too much about it becoming a large gramatical error.

I doubt I shall be calling them Jeff though! thanks Dale

I consider my knuckles firmly rapped over the 'their, there' incident. Didnt spot that one. Seem to be doing it alot at the moment, keep spoting it in my writing. I blame it on my messy desk distracting me. Some one really should tidy it up.

LOG · Jul 22, 2009

dourdog said:
I consider my knuckles firmly rapped over the 'their, there' incident. Didnt spot that one. Seem to be doing it alot at the moment, keep spoting it in my writing. I blame it on my messy desk distracting me. Some one really should tidy it up.

*Looks around his junk-ridden desk*
...yeah >.> We need to find a service to do this, 'desk-cleaning' as it's known.

help with grammer thingyisms

dourdog

Sophia

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble

RJK

Sheriff Bullwinkle the Poet says:

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

Rufus Coppertop

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Dale Emery

is way off topic

LOG

Lagrangian

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

dourdog

LOG

Lagrangian