Grammarly, Syllables and Me

Posted on by Reena Saxena

I use Grammarly to write on my laptop.

It empowers me to make writing decisions, such as the use of ‘a’ and ‘an’, and other discrepancies that arise. It even suggests rewrites, but I always have the final say on whether to retain or discard the changes.

I feel compelled to switch it off while writing poetry, as it insists on using capitals at the beginning of a line, inserting definite or indefinite articles where they are not needed, or are likely to interfere with the required syllable count.

After learning about Grammarly, I consciously incorporated the practice of replacing ‘which’ with ‘that’ in many places.

PRONUNCIATION

The pronunciation of words varies across different parts of the world, making writing syllable poetry for beginners challenging.

As we would see the word “light” as having two syllables, “la” and “eet”, but this was not the case in syllabic poetry. Speed of speech also matters when counting syllables.

Howmanysyllables.com came to my rescue, and I think I’ve picked up reasonably well.

India follows British English owing to years of slavery, but American English is fast taking over as migration to the USA increases. Indians go on a holiday and return with Americanized accents. Of course, they ‘normalise’ in a few months 😊

TRANSLATION

Translating from one language to another gives me fresh insights into the language and culture each time I attempt something. Specific terms are not translatable, and the nearest possible alternative needs to be used.

LEARNING NEVER STOPS

Learning is a lifelong process, and my writing style will continue to evolve.

I want to take on translation assignments. Writing is much faster than translating, yet I appreciate the opportunity to reach different population segments.  We are a country with 22 languages and many more dialects. Machine translation leaves a lot to be desired. It often falls short, missing the nuances and ‘feel’ of words behind the technicalities, and can struggle with idiomatic expressions or cultural references.

Friday Faithfuls – Phonetics

12 thoughts on “Grammarly, Syllables and Me”

  1. I got rid of Grammarly, and replaced it with LanguageTool. Grammarly slowed down my computer and was not compatible with my browser. Plus, some suggestions make no sense.

    English is often considered one of the hardest languages to learn for non-native speakers due to its complex grammar rules, pronunciation variations, plus it’s full of contradictions and exceptions

    I find it interesting that 22 languages are spoken in your country.

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  2. Years ago I used “grammerly.” It was helpful when it came to grammatical errors, like punctuation; something I am really bad at. I don’t always put the commas and semicolons where they are supposed to go. I try, but I don’t always get it right.

    I only used the free version and not the paid version. It doesn’t fit in my tight budget. As far as spelling goes, since high school I always excelled at that. I just have problems with punctuation.

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