No, that’s completely correct grammar. It just sounds a little weird. You’d traditionally say “I have very recently eaten” or “I have very recently been fed.” But “I have very recently fed” is not an error in grammar.
That’s roughly what I thought - I did have “been” in there at one point but I dropped it to keep the shape of the caption neat. I don’t think I’ll be changing this then - I like the rhythm of what I’ve written, grammar quibbles be damned.
It is perfectly legitimate to use the verb “to feed” without an object to mean the same thing as “to eat.” For example: “The cows feed in the meadow.” The sentence “I have very recently fed.” seems odd because the use of that verb in that way almost always refers to animals, which very rarely speak for themselves. Grammatically speaking, there is nothing wrong with the sentence.
If you look up “feed” (present-tense of “fed”) in the dictionary, you’ll see that it was correctly used in the comic. As a transitive verb, “feed” means “to give food to;” as an intransitive verb, “feed” means “to receive food.”
Example of both uses:
“We fed some tuna to the cat.”
“We watched as the cat fed on the tuna.”
So either way - “I have very recently fed” or “I have very recently been fed” is correct. I like the first version better, since it positions the cat in command of his world, actively taking his food rather than passively receiving it.
When I saw that this strip had received nine comments I thought it would be a number of poorly spelled odes to the overwhelming cuteness of cats and apparently hilarious anecdotes about feeding them… and instead: a discussion about grammar.
The Internet Has Surprised Me Today…
One can only hope that “anon” was trying to be ironically funny with his ill-placed insult.
Of course, one can always hope for many things, such as rainbows made of lollipops and a nuclear submarine made of cheese; hope all you want, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen.
Well, FWIW, Bloom has a point. To the author, my apologies for neglectting (until now) to offer my compliments on a pretty funny comic. I particularly liked the cat’s subdued expression in the final panel.
As has been noted before this discussion is quite different from what one would expect to find in such a place, on the internet. Therefore I will do my part and help cure the insanity.
Sorry guys, but that cat is totally photoshopped. The pixels are all wrong. Trust me, I’ve seen quite a few shops in my time.
Perfectly finc epunchline. The cat is using the past tense of the verb. In this case, the cat is saying what HE/SHE did, which was to feed on the food.
Either, “I have recently BEEN fed,” or “I have recently fed” would be correct, but the second choice is actually more accurate, given the speaker in this case.
What Anon is failing to grasp is that cats have yet to grasp the fine sublties (or however it is spelt) of making a sentence perfectly legible to even the most comment-ridden, idiotic Anon. However, this cat is much better at grammar than most internet-bound cats.
Also:
LOLZ! Teh kitteh is funneh, and ai liek thz comik muchly!
I just hope “anon” ( who ironically hasn’t capitalized his name ), gets over his lack of self-esteem some day, and stops puffing himself up as someone better and ’smrtr’. Criticizing and trying to tear someone down because of something that wasn’t to be taken seriously in the first place…is just sad and annoying.
I’m going to be shifting my attention from anon to the actual reason there’s a comment box: The picture.
Wonderful work. It’s cute.
I stumbled upon a comic here, and have now come to be intrigued by your eccentric but original style.
okay, i think that ‘notcapitalizednameohnoes’ has a point, and fed can be a verb, like, “The scientists stationed in africa watched in horror as the pride of lions fed upon the zebra.” most of you are right, that this how he used fed in the sentence does sound a little weird, it is still perfectly fine to use it as it is in the cute, wonderful comic that i stumbled upon here.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Great grammar, idiot.
“I have very recently fed.”
January 27th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Um… okay, I’m really not spotting what I’ve done wrong with that sentence. Someone enlighten me?
January 27th, 2009 at 11:59 am
No, that’s completely correct grammar. It just sounds a little weird. You’d traditionally say “I have very recently eaten” or “I have very recently been fed.” But “I have very recently fed” is not an error in grammar.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
“I have very recently BEEN fed.”,
or
“I have eaten very recently.”.
Apologies for the jerk in the first comment.
January 27th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
That’s roughly what I thought - I did have “been” in there at one point but I dropped it to keep the shape of the caption neat. I don’t think I’ll be changing this then - I like the rhythm of what I’ve written, grammar quibbles be damned.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
It is perfectly legitimate to use the verb “to feed” without an object to mean the same thing as “to eat.” For example: “The cows feed in the meadow.” The sentence “I have very recently fed.” seems odd because the use of that verb in that way almost always refers to animals, which very rarely speak for themselves. Grammatically speaking, there is nothing wrong with the sentence.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
It’s just that “I have very recently fed” implies that the cat fed something else. It’s not incorrect grammar, it’s just the wrong sentence.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
If you look up “feed” (present-tense of “fed”) in the dictionary, you’ll see that it was correctly used in the comic. As a transitive verb, “feed” means “to give food to;” as an intransitive verb, “feed” means “to receive food.”
Example of both uses:
“We fed some tuna to the cat.”
“We watched as the cat fed on the tuna.”
So either way - “I have very recently fed” or “I have very recently been fed” is correct. I like the first version better, since it positions the cat in command of his world, actively taking his food rather than passively receiving it.
January 27th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
What Mitch said! Go Mitch!
January 27th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
[…] E-merl.com - New Experiments In Fiction » Blog Archive » Cats Meow […]
January 27th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
When I saw that this strip had received nine comments I thought it would be a number of poorly spelled odes to the overwhelming cuteness of cats and apparently hilarious anecdotes about feeding them… and instead: a discussion about grammar.
The Internet Has Surprised Me Today…
January 27th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
I think “anon” has erred in that he has failed to realize that this is a comic, not a term paper.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:39 am
One can only hope that “anon” was trying to be ironically funny with his ill-placed insult.
Of course, one can always hope for many things, such as rainbows made of lollipops and a nuclear submarine made of cheese; hope all you want, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Well, FWIW, Bloom has a point. To the author, my apologies for neglectting (until now) to offer my compliments on a pretty funny comic. I particularly liked the cat’s subdued expression in the final panel.
January 28th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
As has been noted before this discussion is quite different from what one would expect to find in such a place, on the internet. Therefore I will do my part and help cure the insanity.
Sorry guys, but that cat is totally photoshopped. The pixels are all wrong. Trust me, I’ve seen quite a few shops in my time.
January 29th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Perfectly finc epunchline. The cat is using the past tense of the verb. In this case, the cat is saying what HE/SHE did, which was to feed on the food.
Either, “I have recently BEEN fed,” or “I have recently fed” would be correct, but the second choice is actually more accurate, given the speaker in this case.
So, seriously. Don’t be a dick.
January 29th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Are you sure it’s shopped? It looks pretty realistic to me. Maybe it’s just your eyes.
January 29th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Today my cat’s purrs mainly mean “Where have my balls gone? This morning I had balls, but now I have none.” It’s a mournful sound.
February 3rd, 2009 at 7:15 am
To heck with most of you! It’s a cute strip! Funny and not crude which in this day and age makes it darn good!
April 10th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
Wow, coming into this one late…
@Mitch, well put and what I’d have said if I had the words ready - and had been first
@Merlin, Good strip, found you via StumbleUpon and now I’m hooked! I like the imperiousness of “I have recently fed” myself, anyway.
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Mitch is right and Anon is an idiot.
April 25th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
What Anon is failing to grasp is that cats have yet to grasp the fine sublties (or however it is spelt) of making a sentence perfectly legible to even the most comment-ridden, idiotic Anon. However, this cat is much better at grammar than most internet-bound cats.
Also:
LOLZ! Teh kitteh is funneh, and ai liek thz comik muchly!
April 26th, 2009 at 5:15 am
I just hope “anon” ( who ironically hasn’t capitalized his name ), gets over his lack of self-esteem some day, and stops puffing himself up as someone better and ’smrtr’. Criticizing and trying to tear someone down because of something that wasn’t to be taken seriously in the first place…is just sad and annoying.
I’m going to be shifting my attention from anon to the actual reason there’s a comment box: The picture.
Wonderful work. It’s cute.
I stumbled upon a comic here, and have now come to be intrigued by your eccentric but original style.
April 29th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
alert(’Oops!’)
June 28th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
okay, i think that ‘notcapitalizednameohnoes’ has a point, and fed can be a verb, like, “The scientists stationed in africa watched in horror as the pride of lions fed upon the zebra.” most of you are right, that this how he used fed in the sentence does sound a little weird, it is still perfectly fine to use it as it is in the cute, wonderful comic that i stumbled upon here.
June 28th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
and no i did not capitalize my name on purpose.
August 13th, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Looks sorta like my cat.
He uses the same “Meow” whether he is eating, poopin, or biting me.