Grammaticabobble Rammed Down Our Throats
Noseweek|March 2019

I SUFFERED SORE DISMAY AT THE AGE of ten-or-so upon learning that language was not for pleasure, it was for discipline.

Harold Strachan
Grammaticabobble Rammed Down Our Throats

Discipline such as would make one an example in Natal, British Empire. A dreadful teacher appeared with underclothing such as would make one believe she had but one large central buttock and no place for a poephol as expected on a low-class person. She was now going to teach us not to speak like low-class persons, like colonials, but to disassemble everything we were about to say and quickly reassemble it as a proper grammaticabobble sentence. But you had to do this fast otherwise people would perhaps think you were a low-class person.

You should analyse each sentence into main and subordinate clauses and figures of speech and avoid all foreign words like Okay and Footsack. There were adjectival clauses and adverbial clauses, every clause had to have a verb, and you should never end a sentence with a preposition like What are you thinking of? You should say Of what are you thinking?

This story is from the March 2019 edition of Noseweek.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the March 2019 edition of Noseweek.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM NOSEWEEKView All
Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
Noseweek

Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit

After losing his cool when his fees were questioned

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
Panel Beater De Luxe
Noseweek

Panel Beater De Luxe

Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.

time-read
8 mins  |
September 2020
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Noseweek

Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman

Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2020
A Picture Of Peace?
Noseweek

A Picture Of Peace?

Beware: Appearances can be deceptive

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2020
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Noseweek

Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse

Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be

time-read
4 mins  |
September 2020
Everybody Drinks Corona
Noseweek

Everybody Drinks Corona

I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.

time-read
3 mins  |
May 2020
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
Noseweek

Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic

From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary

time-read
4 mins  |
May 2020
The money train
Noseweek

The money train

Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Noseweek

‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'

Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’

time-read
8 mins  |
May 2020
Bush school – A memoir
Noseweek

Bush school – A memoir

OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.

time-read
10+ mins  |
May 2020