The Grammar Logs -- Number One Hundred, Six

The
Grammar
Logs
# 106

Question Does a comma come after the "and" in the following sentence:
He loves to eat steak, pizza, and ice cream.

Source & Date
of Question Oceanside, California
18 April 1998
Grammar's
Response Many good writers will tell you that that last comma is unnecessary, but most authorities lean toward putting it in. Strunk's Elements of Style actually lists this as its second rule of usage: "In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last." If you don't put the comma there, you will find that sometimes the last two items of a series tend to glom together, like macaroni and cheese, and if you don't want that to happen, you should definitely use the comma. (This guy's diet is bad enough.)

Question Can you help me identify the independent clause and dependent clause sections of this sentence below? Your help would be greatly appreciated!
Anna bought her first horse, and she made sure it was the tallest,fastest horse she could find.

Source & Date
of Question Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
20 April 1998
Grammar's
Response The reason your dependent clauses are difficult to find is that the word "that" has been left out, which is perfectly all right, but if you wrote the sentence, "Anna bought her first horse, and she made sure THAT it was the tallest, fastest horse THAT she could find." you would see that the two dependent clauses begin where the word "that" has been left out. Your independent clause, then, is "Anna bought her first horse, and she made sure."

Question What are subordinate clauses? Please give me several examples.
Source & Date
of Question Torrance, California
20 April 1998
Grammar's
Response See the section on Clauses. The word "dependent" is sometimes used instead of "subordinate" in that section. A subordinate clause is subordinate to or dependent on a main (independent) clause for its meaning; it won't make sense by itself. In the following sentences, the subordinate clauses are written in ALL CAPS.

My brother, WHO IS AN ENGINEER, lives in Philadelphia.
I believe THAT HE IS A DEMOCRAT.
WHEN WE'RE THROUGH HERE, we'll move on.
See the clauses section for many more examples. See, also, the quizzes on clause functions.

Question I need some exercises to teach my students how to form the plurals as well as the possessives of nouns. Example: child/child's/children/children's.
Source & Date
of Question Houston, Texas
20 April 1998
Grammar's
Response I just added another plurals and possessives quiz to our section on Plurals and Possessives. If that isn't enough, go to the Quiz List and, at the bottom of that page, you'll see a hyperlink to TOEFL's quizzes. They probably have several exercises.

Question Could you kindly explain the following:

Why do you say..."polite"...."IMpolite"...."friendly"...."UNfriendly"?
Is there any difference between a sentence said in a sarcastic tone of voice and a sentence said in an ironic tone of voice ?

Source & Date
of Question Grado, Italy
20 April 1998
Grammar's
Response There's a whole bunch of negative prefixes in English: un- (unexpected), non- (nonscientific), in- (inapplicable), dis- (disloyal), a- (amoral). And then there's "im-," which means pretty much the same as "un-" and "in-," but is applied to words by virtue of sound, not meaning. Sometimes a change in prefix can be meaningful, however. Unscientific is not the same as nonscientific, the first carrying the overtone of something being sloppy in its analysis, the second meaning that it has no pretense of being scientific in the first place. The why in your question is usually a matter of usage (requiring a trip to the dictionary), I'm sorry to say.
Sarcasm is a kind of irony. If there's a difference between the two, it's probably that sarcasm has the reputation of being kind of nasty and taunting.

Question 1.Should the 'temporary' of the phrase 'Due to a temporary insufficient supply of coins...' be replaced by 'temporarily' because it is used to modify insufficient? I saw the phrase in the concourse of a local bank.
2.Which of the following is correct? Please explain.

More than 1 man was injured.
More than 1 man were injured.
More than 1 men were injured.
3.How is the sentence structure of 'An odd loss attended winning the cold war, that of a scary enemy.'? How can we use the phrase 'that of'? What does 'that' refer to in this sentence?
Your website is titanic and invaluable. Thanks a lot.
Source & Date
of Question Hong Kong
20 April 1998
Grammar's
Response I'm not sure it's a good thing to be "titanic," but thank you.
(1) Yes, go back to the bank with a red pen and change "temporary" to "temporarily." They want the adverb form to modify "insufficient."
(3) You're better off without that phrase "that of." "That" refers to "loss," but it could be nicely replaced by a colon or dash: "An odd loss attended winning the cold war: a scary enemy.
(2) When all, any, more, most and some or fractional expressions are the subject of the sentence, their number will be determined by the number of the noun that follows. More than one man was lost, but more than twenty men were lost.
Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. 168.

Question Our preacher uses words like "present-indicative" to explain the impact of a word on a scripture. He was an English major in college and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, but it beats the heck out of me. Can you explain what present-indicative means? Also, if there is such a thing as present-indicative, then there must be a past-indicative and a future-indicative, right? What other options exist for words that might affect the meaning of a scripture? I'm primarily interested in verbs and nouns.
Source & Date
of Question Cameron Park, California
20 April 1998
Grammar's
Response Beating "the heck" out of you might be your minister's intent. I wouldn't know. Probably 99% of the sentences we speak and write are in the indicative. If they're not imperative or subjunctive in MOOD, they're indicative. It simply means a statement that intends to convey a fact or a truth. What might be interesting is that the scripture is couched in the present tense (as opposed to a more predictable past tense?), thus conveying a sense of immediacy or urgency to the words? Or it might be indicative that something happened in your minister's English-major past that he can't let go of.

Question In the example below, should the blank be filled in with LAST or LASTLY. Why?
Example:
First, make sure your door is locked. Next, consider some more sophisticated measures. .............. don't just think about it. Act now!

Source & Date
of Question Somewhere, Portugal
19 April 1998
Grammar's
Response You would use "last" for the same reason you use "first" and "next" instead of "firstly" and "nextly" (well, that's not a good example, is it?): you don't need an adverb there. You're simply enumerating things, and the non-adverbial form will do fine.

Question When writing a company name using "Incorporated," do you use a comma before the word "incorporated" or only if it is abbreviated to "inc."? Also, if the company name is within the body of a sentence, do you include another comma after the word "incorporated"? Help!
Source & Date
of Question Louisville, Kentucky
19 April 1998
Grammar's
Response According to the NYPL Writer's Guide to Style and Usage, we shouldn't use a comma in either case. The example they give is Synergen Inc., just like that. This is the prefatory paragraph:
Words that form part of a company's legal name, such as company, corporation, incorporated, or limited, are usually abbreviated; these terms are often dropped completely when the context does not require the formal and complete name of the company.
Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. 334.

Question Can you shed light on the EXISTENCE of a rule governing the appropriate use of "ence" versus "ance" that would explain why "sentence" is correct and "sentance" is not whereas in other words such as "dissonance" the use of "ance" is correct but "dissonence" is not! This question has stumpped language arts teachers as well as myself!
Source & Date
of Question East Lyme, Connecticut
19 April 1998
Grammar's
Response Not me. I'm still struggling with the single "s" in occasion and the two "r"'s in occurrence. However, if you go to the web-site of the Scripps-Howard Spelling Bee, you might find an answer. There's a person there who maintains a web-page called Carolyn's Corner, where she gets into all kind of obscure spelling rules and patterns that only these little spelling geniuses know about. She might entertain questions, but I don't know about that. Otherwise, you'll have to do some rooting around.

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Question	Does a comma come after the "and" in the following sentence: He loves to eat steak, pizza, and ice cream.
Source & Date of Question	Oceanside, California 18 April 1998
Grammar's Response	Many good writers will tell you that that last comma is unnecessary, but most authorities lean toward putting it in. Strunk's Elements of Style actually lists this as its second rule of usage: "In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last." If you don't put the comma there, you will find that sometimes the last two items of a series tend to glom together, like macaroni and cheese, and if you don't want that to happen, you should definitely use the comma. (This guy's diet is bad enough.)

Question	Can you help me identify the independent clause and dependent clause sections of this sentence below? Your help would be greatly appreciated! Anna bought her first horse, and she made sure it was the tallest,fastest horse she could find.
Source & Date of Question	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia 20 April 1998
Grammar's Response	The reason your dependent clauses are difficult to find is that the word "that" has been left out, which is perfectly all right, but if you wrote the sentence, "Anna bought her first horse, and she made sure THAT it was the tallest, fastest horse THAT she could find." you would see that the two dependent clauses begin where the word "that" has been left out. Your independent clause, then, is "Anna bought her first horse, and she made sure."

Question	What are subordinate clauses? Please give me several examples.
Source & Date of Question	Torrance, California 20 April 1998
Grammar's Response	See the section on Clauses. The word "dependent" is sometimes used instead of "subordinate" in that section. A subordinate clause is subordinate to or dependent on a main (independent) clause for its meaning; it won't make sense by itself. In the following sentences, the subordinate clauses are written in ALL CAPS. My brother, WHO IS AN ENGINEER, lives in Philadelphia. I believe THAT HE IS A DEMOCRAT. WHEN WE'RE THROUGH HERE, we'll move on. See the clauses section for many more examples. See, also, the quizzes on clause functions.

Question	Could you kindly explain the following: Why do you say..."polite"...."IMpolite"...."friendly"...."UNfriendly"? Is there any difference between a sentence said in a sarcastic tone of voice and a sentence said in an ironic tone of voice ?
Source & Date of Question	Grado, Italy 20 April 1998
Grammar's Response	There's a whole bunch of negative prefixes in English: un- (unexpected), non- (nonscientific), in- (inapplicable), dis- (disloyal), a- (amoral). And then there's "im-," which means pretty much the same as "un-" and "in-," but is applied to words by virtue of sound, not meaning. Sometimes a change in prefix can be meaningful, however. Unscientific is not the same as nonscientific, the first carrying the overtone of something being sloppy in its analysis, the second meaning that it has no pretense of being scientific in the first place. The why in your question is usually a matter of usage (requiring a trip to the dictionary), I'm sorry to say. Sarcasm is a kind of irony. If there's a difference between the two, it's probably that sarcasm has the reputation of being kind of nasty and taunting.

Question	In the example below, should the blank be filled in with LAST or LASTLY. Why? Example: First, make sure your door is locked. Next, consider some more sophisticated measures. .............. don't just think about it. Act now!
Source & Date of Question	Somewhere, Portugal 19 April 1998
Grammar's Response	You would use "last" for the same reason you use "first" and "next" instead of "firstly" and "nextly" (well, that's not a good example, is it?): you don't need an adverb there. You're simply enumerating things, and the non-adverbial form will do fine.

Question	I need some exercises to teach my students how to form the plurals as well as the possessives of nouns. Example: child/child's/children/children's.
Source & Date of Question	Houston, Texas 20 April 1998
Grammar's Response	I just added another plurals and possessives quiz to our section on Plurals and Possessives. If that isn't enough, go to the Quiz List and, at the bottom of that page, you'll see a hyperlink to TOEFL's quizzes. They probably have several exercises.

Question	Our preacher uses words like "present-indicative" to explain the impact of a word on a scripture. He was an English major in college and I'm sure he knows what he's talking about, but it beats the heck out of me. Can you explain what present-indicative means? Also, if there is such a thing as present-indicative, then there must be a past-indicative and a future-indicative, right? What other options exist for words that might affect the meaning of a scripture? I'm primarily interested in verbs and nouns.
Source & Date of Question	Cameron Park, California 20 April 1998
Grammar's Response	Beating "the heck" out of you might be your minister's intent. I wouldn't know. Probably 99% of the sentences we speak and write are in the indicative. If they're not imperative or subjunctive in MOOD, they're indicative. It simply means a statement that intends to convey a fact or a truth. What might be interesting is that the scripture is couched in the present tense (as opposed to a more predictable past tense?), thus conveying a sense of immediacy or urgency to the words? Or it might be indicative that something happened in your minister's English-major past that he can't let go of.

Question	Can you shed light on the EXISTENCE of a rule governing the appropriate use of "ence" versus "ance" that would explain why "sentence" is correct and "sentance" is not whereas in other words such as "dissonance" the use of "ance" is correct but "dissonence" is not! This question has stumpped language arts teachers as well as myself!
Source & Date of Question	East Lyme, Connecticut 19 April 1998
Grammar's Response	Not me. I'm still struggling with the single "s" in occasion and the two "r"'s in occurrence. However, if you go to the web-site of the Scripps-Howard Spelling Bee, you might find an answer. There's a person there who maintains a web-page called Carolyn's Corner, where she gets into all kind of obscure spelling rules and patterns that only these little spelling geniuses know about. She might entertain questions, but I don't know about that. Otherwise, you'll have to do some rooting around.