The Wire Does Grammar
Posted on | May 15, 2009 | No Comments
The Wire, Season 1, Episode 7—One Arrest
The beginning of this episode opens with the team analysing a conversation they’ve intercepted on the phone. In itself it’s interesting the way the dealers are using a language code, which the cops have to crack, but six minutes forty seconds into the episode, the fun begins. McNulty has submited a report which the judge is reviewing. The judge is having some trouble with McNulty’s grammar:
Judge: Look here Jimmy, you mis-spelled culpable, and you’re confusing then and than. T-H-E-N is an adverb used to divide and measure time… “Detective McNulty makes a mess and then he has to clean it up.”
McNulty: Thanks teacher. It’s great that you’re going through every word but…
Judge: Not to be confused with T-H-A-N, which is most commonly used after a comparative adjective or adverb as in, “Rhonda is smarter than Jimmy”. Yeah?
I love it.
Comments
Leave a Reply
Support theWORDjunkie
Buying something for yourself via the Amazon widget below and theWORDjunkie will receive an affiliate kick-back. (If you have an addblocker in place, you might not see the widget. Use this linkinstead.)
Thanks for your support.