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The Grammar Logs # 135 |
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| QUESTION |
Please advise when to use "afternoon" and "evening".
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia ___ Sunday, May 31, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Afternoon" is from noon until evening. The tricky part is knowing when "evening" begins. It will vary. For some people, it's when the sun goes down, which, in turn, can vary from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in moderate latitudes. For others, it's whenever they eat the evening meal, which, again, varies considerably. I don't know what happens in Northern Alaska and Norway, where they have practically no afternoon at all in the wintertime. Evening ends, again, at various times -- usually when people go to bed. But for some people evening ends around 10 p.m. or so and that's when night begins regardless of when they go to bed. It's a pretty amorphous time, evening, which makes it kind of nice. |
| QUESTION |
Should quotation marks be placed around what someone is thinking?
For example,
I certainly wish I could go home, I thought. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Bloomfield Hills, Michigan ___ Sunday, May 31, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| See the section on Silent Speech. If you don't have much silent speech, I would use quotation marks if I were you, but there are other choices -- italics, indents, etc. -- and nothing (no marks or special emphasis), also, is appropriate. |
| QUESTION |
| Question 1:
What are the difference between "would", "could" and "should"?
When should I use would, could or should?
e.g. I should have done that!
I could be wrong. OR I would be wrong. Question 2: Please correct me if the following statement is wrong: Question 3: |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Bethesda, Maryland ___ Sunday, May 31, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| First, #2. No, you need a comma after the word "Bank" because the name of the bank is a Parenthetical Element. Second, #3. Not much difference. I could be wrong, but I think "thinking of" is a bit more incidental than "thinking about." I thought of the time we went on a picnic to Sulfur National Park, but I often think about my misspent youth. And Third, #1. That's a toughie. Maybe I should add to my section on Auxiliary Verbs. We use "should" primarily to suggest advice (You should quit smoking.) and expectation (The bus should be here soon.) We use "could" primarily to express possibility (Bob could have been champion.) and permission (Could I be excused?). For uses of "would," see the section on Conditional Verb Forms. It is also used to express permission (Would you mind if my brother came to the wedding?) and polite requests (Would you mind putting out that cigarette?). |
| QUESTION |
| One quick question: Why the name " preposition"? Does it have a specific definition? I would like to give my students a better understanding of prepositions, other than just they are function words or they are words that connect words to each other. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Unknown ___ Monday, June 1, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| It's almost impossible to define prepositions without using terms like "function words" and "showing relationships." They do, however, take the "pre-" or first position in a prepositional phrase, and a prepositional phrase is relatively easy to define as a group of words that locates something in time or space (with exceptions for phrases such as "like me" and "except Bob," which modify but don't really locate). Does this answer your question? There's more in the section devoted to Prepositions. |
| QUESTION |
| Hello, Are 'dominate' and 'predominate' synonymous? What about 'is predominated by' ? Is it same as 'is dominated by' ? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Kota Raja, Besut, Trengganu, Malaysia ___ Monday, June 1, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| When I look these words up in the dictionary, I end up being more confused than ever. They're virtually synonymous, so I don't know why we'd want to use "predominate" over "dominate." If anything, "predominate" leans toward the idea of influence as opposed to rule. You can also toss the word "predominantly" into the mix, a word that means much the same, except we use it to mean mainly. I'll post this question and less-than-useful response, and perhaps some other writer will suggest a way to sort out these words. |
| QUESTION |
| I am spending the summer in London. As a Texan I make frequent use of the colloquialism "y'all." I have been teased about this, but defended it by telling my work comrades that there was no 2nd person plural pronoun. Only to my shock and embarrassment did I later see that "you" indeed fulfills that role. I know that in other languages there is often a separate word for the 2nd person plural pronoun (i.e. Spanish's Usted (sing.) and Ustedes (plural)). I consider myself an above average grammar user, so I was amazed that I didn't know that English indeed had this pronoun. Did the use of "y'all" and the North's "you'se" or "you guys" come out in order to distinguish between the two uses of "you?" At least give me some information to defend my backwater ways so that I'm not labelled a boot-and-Stetson-hat-wearing redneck. Thank you, |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| London, England ___ Monday, June 1, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| One could do worse than be a wearer of boots and Stetson hats. Yes, "you" is both the singular and plural forms of the second person pronoun -- and has been all these years of your using "y'all." I'm not sure that's how you spell "you'se," incidentally (I thought it was "youz," but I don't have a dictionary of slang. Also, I think that "youz" (however you spell it) might be singular, also. I hate to leave you high and dry in London on this, but it beats being high and dry in Fort Worth. |
| QUESTION |
Please distinguish between "percent" and "percentage."
If I want to say:
This report shows the percent/percentages of students scoring at or above the national norm.Which is the correct word? Or: These percents/percentages show who will pass 3rd grade. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Chicago, Illinois ___ Monday, June 1, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| We use percent only when we're citing numerical data; we use percentage when we express a statistical part of something. We would use percentage, then, in both your examples, but we would say that "This report shows that 10 percent of students will score above the national norm." |
| QUESTION |
I'd like to know the possessive form of "Z" ending words, for instance the correct form is
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| New York, New York ___ Monday, June 1, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| If you're talking about one Ramirez, the first choice you give us is correct: Carlos Ramirez's residence. If there is more than one Ramirez, you would write: the Ramirezes' children. |
| QUESTION |
I have recently seen the word 'parallel' (adj) used in the following ways:
Thanks. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Tel Aviv, Israel ___ Tuesday, June 2, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I think that construction, "in parallel," is borrowed from physics, specifically the design of electrical circuits. My eleventh-grade physics teacher, Mr. Barabas, would be upset with me, but I can't remember what it means. All I remember is that it explains why some strings of Christmas tree lights (the cheap kind) will burn out when only one bulb is burned out. (Of course, that metaphor might not mean much in Tel Aviv.) If those sentences you give us really mean that something is (or some things are) parallel to something else, then the adjective form ought to be used; however, if the idea of something being structured "in parallel" to something else is apt (which seems likely in your second sentence, anyway), then the electrical metaphor is probably appropriate. But stay away from the humble pie. |
| QUESTION |
| Hi! I had a discussion with a friend the other day. He claims that for the word dice: "die" is a common form in the plural. Is that true? The dictionary tells me I'm right: either it has to be one die, many dice; or, one dice, many dice. Is it really possible to say: many die? Well, that was my question and I hope you will be able to help me. My friend is from Ireland and he was rather upset about my opinion. Was he pulling my leg about the "die-thing" or is he indeed right? Please let me hear from you soon. Yours thankfully |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Stuttgart, Germany ___ Tuesday, June 2, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The word "die" is singular -- one cube marked with little spots -- and the word "dice" is the plural of "die." Some dictionaries, however, will say that "dies" is an appropriate plural of "die." The word "dice" can be used to refer to a game played with dice and is then used singularly. So you could say "many dice" or "many dies," but not "many die." |
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