'Good stopping' 'nice walking'

[princessx]

Am I the only one to shudder when I hear this new way of praising children? It's not grammatically correct is it?

Should you really say: 'well done, you stopped at the appropriate place.'?

Any thoughts?

[Goodwordguide]

pag

[Pagwatch]

I remember when we had the DSs bedroom painted and DS2 almost immediately wrote his name in huge letters across the wall.
He had never written his name unprompted before so DH and I gave him a great big thumbs up and "good writing name!".
Ds1 just stood there looking at us with 'you're fucking kidding me!" etched across his little face.

[Pagwatch]

I love this thread.
I don't understand chunks of it,yet I love it.

[giraffesCantFlipPancakes]

Better than "fuckin STOP you wee shit!".

[Goodwordguide]

Interesting - I hadn't associated it with parenting language in particular.

[munchkinmaster]

It feels American to me as much of the positive parenting materials which use this construction are from the US. That may be just my experience though.

[Grockle]

Only on mumsnet!

[TolliverGroat]

It's a gerund rather than a present participle, innit? It's just that in English gerunds and present participles look the same. I suppose that "Your stopping is good" or "Your listening is good" would be more technically correct, but there's no need to get sniffy about the ingishness of the construction.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

As others have said, it is grammatically correct; it just sounds a bit unusual, and nothing wrong in that; language evolves and changes to meet needs. FWIW, it is not a construction in common use in the US, either.

[MrsShrek3]

try this?

[Goodwordguide]

I still don't see what's wrong with it or why it should be American - it's just an adjective + noun. Why is it different to eg, 'Nice dress!' Or 'lovely weather'. Is it the brevity you object to?

[Lollydaydream]

A verbal noun; we don't use them much in English, which is probably why the op finds 'good sitting' etc sounds odd.
Awaits correction; it's a bit scary posting in pedants' corner.

[Goodwordguide]

When DD had her homework problems, practically none of the British-educated parents (or teachers) knew what a gerund was and all the non-native English speakers did. We're not usually taught English grammar in that way, or at least, my generation (40-something) wasn't.

It's a verbal noun ie, a verbal form that functions as a noun - always ends in '-ing' eg,

Smoking is bad for your health.
The whistling of the kettle.

[munchkinmaster]

I suppose if you substituted another adjective ( e.g. excellent or pitiful) the construction would sound fine so grammatically it's okay but just sounds naff rather than wrong.

Whilst I understand such phrasing is very helpful for small children and those with limited receptive language, I think it's the Americanness which makes people itch a bit.

[Grockle]

[Goodwordguide]

Reminds me when DD had a poem for homework where she had to underline all the verbs.

The poem contained not one main verb but lots and lots of gerunds.

[MrsShrek3]

tiger, the gerund is the nearest we have in English. Agree it works so much better in Latin - from the pov of being simpler to explain at least! (actually, did I really just say that?)

[Grockle]

[tigerdriverII]

Besides being appropriate in the situations described it is grammatically correct. "Sitting" is a noun in this sense, so "good sitting" is absolutely fine. I think if you studied Latin you might find we are talking about the ablative absolute. We don't have that in English, but this construct works.

[Lollydaydream]

No-one ever tells me 'good listening' etc though
My dd1 is older now but 'good listening' etc (with obligatory thumbs up) is ingrained in my speech with her and dd2. Now dd1's speech is better I get told 'you're not doing good listening mummy' if I get what she's saying wrong.

[MrsShrek3]

pmsl, same point too
proper pedants sign in

[Goodwordguide]

X-post MrsShrek!

[Goodwordguide]

Why is it not grammatically correct? 'Walking' is a gerund there and 'good' is the adjective - it's a simple statement but it is complete. 'You're good at walking' is adding a subject but why is it 'better' grammar? What do you think is wrong with 'Good walking'. (Don't mean to sound at all narky, I'm genuinely intrigued).

[MrsShrek3]

sigh. princessx take a look at gerund and construction, and then figure out if it's "wrong".

[princessx]

Thanks for your responses. I knew it was recommended for children now, and it sounds like it's been properly researched to help learning. And I wasn't suggesting people shouldn't use it, I just wondered if it was actually grammatically correct. Thinking about it some more I don't think it is correct, I think we say you're good at listening / walking / dancing etc.

I'm not saying people should change what they say to children, I was just trying to work out what was wrong with it.