lol I've caught myself using dove before!

So were you thinking that we could all post random grammar tips here?

Sure! Anything you come across. It sure makes a better impression on the reader.

Hmmm....

NEVER SAY "HELLO!"

Seriously. I can't stand it when people say hello in supposed fantasy fiction. Thomas Edison invented it!

As for that poor 'dove.' I humbly disagree. I have done some fascinating research on the subject and have come to the conclusion that only very picky people pick on the use of 'dove' as the past test of 'dive.' It is actually derived from an Old English form of making the past tense, and has become a part of accepted American English.

The same goes for the vendetta that overly zealous grammarians have against 'then' (wink to Duchess Daisy), adverbs, and adjectives.

Thomas Edison? Seriously?!
Where'd he get that? Good grief.
Of course, no one else would ever catch it... lol

Some good grammar tips sites:
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quiz_list.htm

He got tired of saying "Are you there?" into the phone every one of the countless times he was testing. That was the original phrase to say. So he just shouted out "Hello!" And it stuck.

Another word that you should not use in Fantasy is 'guy.' Do not over use the pseudo-word 'uh' and 'um' as well. There are a lot.

although, I'm sure there was verbal clutter in medieval ages as well.

Mindy E., I'm sure there was, but I'm also sure it was a bit different that it is today. *snort*
I must admit I have used "Uh" and "Um" but I try not to use them too much because they can make any story sound crass and uneducated. lol

I wondered about that. I saw some taboo sorts of stuff in the One Year Adventure Novel (hereafter referred to as OYAN) for adverbs, etc., and wondered what they would have against them. To me, it makes the story more vivid and realistic. Student Writing Intensive instructor Mr. Andrew Pudewa encouraged the use of as many as possible. Still, I can see where OYAN is coming from with the adverbs...just don't agree with it.

The only place I use "uh" or "um" are in places where the speaker is struggling to find words in an incredibly awkward situation. And even then, I only found 4 "uh's" in a manuscript of 118,000 words. (Well, that's not entirely true. I found 14, but 10 of them were within the name of a river: Nuruhain.)

But I agree that you want to be careful not to modernize things too much. The trick is finding a readable voice that allows your audience to connect with your characters, and not feel like the characters' speech patterns hold the reader at arms length. Tricky, to say the least.

Okay, I know I've "uh" way too many times! And I might have a hello in there too.
Is "Hi" bad to use too?

Yes it is. Use something more old and natural like "greetings" or something of that kind if you really need it (most of the time you don't need to have anything, actually), or just make up a cultural greeting. In some places in my world, a newcomer declares his creed as his greeting so that the others know whether their creeds dictate a certain reaction to him and what customs to expect.

Okay, that makes sense!

*Grimace* I have hellos sprinkled liberally throughout all of my writings. *sigh*

I searched my NaNo story for the word "guy" the other day to see if I had used the word anywhere, and there were at least 10 times I had used it.
Bad, bad brain.

I found "um" in there once, too. Deleted it as well.

My characters must be pretty rude...they don't say hello to each other much at all. (Though I can think of one Hello in my current MS that I'm now saying "Oh NO!" about.)

(I know these are oold topics but there is potential in them so I thought I would reply to the past)

It really depends on your writing voice. There are a lot of books out there that take artistic liberty with writing -- The Book Thief, which is really good but has some bad language in it. And Huckleberry Finn uses bad grammar-- and do all sorts of interesting experimentation (not necessarily with bad grammar except in dialogue, but then there's Huck Finn and it's considered a classic).

But yeah... definitely learn as much as you can about the English language so that you know where it's okay to break a rule and know how to do it in a way so as to keep it readable.
But also keep your writing style consistent all the way through. It's a hard thing to do.

"They're" means "they are", not "this thing that belongs to them"

"Their" is possessive "They"

And learn how to correctly spell things, and pay attention to the spelling in the books you read. You may pick out an error.