grammar nazi

I’ve been accused of being a grammar nazi. This is not really fair. My father was an English teacher (as in a teacher of English – as well as, I suppose, a teacher who is a native speaker of english….see what I mean?) and it wasn’t until I was well into my teens I realized it isn’t normal to be corrected and/or to correct other people while speaking. I rarely got through two or more sentences when speaking with dad without a interruption to correct some usage mistake I’d made. Or, his personal favorite, if I started a question by saying, “Dad, how come….” This would bring about at least a full minute’s worth of “How come? why for do you say ‘how come’? perhaps you mean to say ‘why’ or ‘is there a reason for’ or even ‘what is the cause of’?” I’d stand, metaphorically smacking myself around for falling into that usage trap in a moment of weakness and then resume the question with the proper interrogative.
I never did learn how to parse a sentence using all the correct terms in formal instruction. In fact I still have a problem telling an adjective from a gerund and a participial phrase from some other kind of subjunctive clause. The strange thing is, after years of reading and listening to dad, I just know when something is right or not. Don’t go by this blog, please, as it falls into the category of conversational English and all formal bets are off. This is the grammar nazi equivalent of crossing one’s fingers.
Even in elementary school, when we would be assigned compositions on various topics, I remember proudly taking whatever paragraph I’d just sweated over to show Dad. It was a content thing for me and obviously I’d fail to make that clear to him because he’d read it over, say it was pretty good and hand it back…after he’d made corrections in red pen all over what I thought was my final copy…
Ahhh, such abuse, eh?
And that, dear readers, is why I am a grammar nazi. It really is all the fault of my upbringing…blame my parents…go ahead. At least it’s a little cleaner than being a serial killer or petty theif.