Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Gracious is an adjective.
- Al is always gracious.

Graciously becomes an adverb. Is that right?

- She accepted the invitation graciously.
- We graciously accept.

This is one we go round and round with, I know.
Jane

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Your grammar is correct.

The point to be made is that if you have to point out that you are "graciously accepting", you are being ungracious. It's like bragging, "One of my best character traits is my humility."

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I think just for the heck of it we should all start saying something different. Everyone is jsut following what they think is the "right" thing to say. It really doesn't matter how you say it, as long as you thank the other team for choosing you. I think everyone just say's they graciously accept because some other team did it awhile back and it sounded "right"... Saying something like "Thank you, we would love to alliance with you" or something like that is more than acceptable...

Just my .02

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

[quote=indieFan;602336]Steve,

While I have just learned something new about how the word "gracious" is currently used, I have to remind you that the English language is constantly evolving. One only needs to look at almost any definition in the OED to understand this.


Oh I understand it is an evolving language... and I do not disagree... Perhaps it is that I was just too beat up at school when I used a sentence fragment (automatic 31 points off!)
and had an editor at one time... I would get letters from English majors about my language so I suppose that did me in too... Wait... You're an English major? I'd better check my list... your name may be on it!

Steve

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Thank you Gary.
Steve's advice/suggestion is coming from across the pond - so I'm trying to think about it a little bit from that perspective rather than from here in Texas. The phrase was one of those things I 'got used to' after a couple of years. :)
Jane

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I can't disagree with you in the definition but it IS a far reach to make it to "happy." and I've never heard of " Happy Professionalism " I've heard of "Happy Bunny!"...but that not gracious at all....

Steve

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

WHOA JANE!
I AM in London... But I'm a native TEXAN! You know... wanna go home with the Armadillo.... that stuff... (boy it THAT song true!) I'm afraid that if even some Texans (me) can see the Un graciousness in saying "... graciously accepts..." well... I'd like to hear from some English teachers.
I prefer "Yep" myself ...but seriously, I don't have a problem with it... I just think I'd like the kids I mentor to look and sound educated... I provide the contrast that makes them look almost genius!

Steve

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Is the line "Team xxxx accepts your gracious invitation" be more proper?
:)

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Well, in that case - oh never mind.
Hello from Texas and thank you for this thread, I think...
Jane

Edit: Rich, I would answer your question - yes, I think it would do nicely. It could be: Team xxxx accepts your gracious invitation with pleasure. (My grandmother would love it.)

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

For the record, I'm in the same camp as Steve. Gracious should not be a descriptor one applies to himself or his team. But that's not my key point.

I think a push to encourage kids to be more creative, unique, and independent when accepting an alliance pick offer will significantly reduce the frequency of hearing "graciously accept". Favoring this type of mentor attitude may eventually and pleasingly spill over into other areas of the student's participation on the team. I roll my eyes upon hearing many of the kids copycat this same tired phrase over and over and over and over and over and over and over (that's one "over" for each year I've been involved with FIRST). I think people on both sides of the grammar coin would agree that encouraging originality is a mutually-beneficial path to pursue.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

WooWoo!! That says everything right there... It's overused and needs to replaced with soemthign more individual. Maybe incorporate your team name not just team number into it. Make it creative. I'm going to start thinking of a couple possibiblities for nationals if we get chosen...

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

I personally like "Team XXX accepts"

I think the whole gracious thing is getting a bit over used at the regional. It drives my wife insane after about the 40th time you hear it at a regional.

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

But then you'd have to pay a royalty to Team 1294 ("Top Gun") and their robot "Maverick."

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

[pedant] You wouldn't hear it more than 23 times, would you? [/pedant]

Re: You Cannot Graciously Accept
 

Agreed. When I used to be an alliance captain, I simply said the team number. And when we were picked, I said we accept.