"Talking Grammar."
Once a servant girl—this really happened—exclaimed in disgust to her mistress, "I have stood everything from that butler till now, but now I will not stand a man talking grammar to me!"
I sympathize with that girl.
Surely a man who "talks grammar" is a sore infliction.
His grammar may be merely the obviously self-satisfied use of finical English, English of the "kyindly paws me the buttah" type. It may be an exaggerated exactness, such as "I—do—not—imagine" for "I don't think." It is possible to pronounce "ask" in such a way as to amount to a slap in the face.
Or, his grammar may be of the aggressive variety. He may say, "You do not mean 'these kind,' I suppose, but this kind." Or he may inquire with elephantine tact, "What is your authority for the pronunciation you give to the word, ' tomahto'?" You are too polite—and prudent—to knock him down, but you have committed assault and battery in the soul.
No; you may debate politics or theology in safety, you may discuss property rights with a socialist or the sacredness of life with an anarchist, but keep off your friend's verbs and nouns. That is sacred soil, not to be trodden by irreverent feet. For a man is likely to have grace for all things but grammar.