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The Grammar Logs # 136 |
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| QUESTION |
| Which is correct? "She is taller than I" or "She is taller than me". I think that the first one is correct because the I is short for "I am". "Me am" would not be correct. Am I correct? Also, what is the official grammatical construct under which the correct use of the pronoun falls? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| San Francisco, California ___ Tuesday, June 2, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Most writers would agree with you, that the word "than" is a subordinating conjunction introducing what turns out to be an elliptical clause (the "am" is left off, as you point out). And since it's a clause, you want a subject there, "I." Some writers, however, would argue that the word "than" can act (or ought to be allowed to act) in the same way as the preposition like: We can say "he is tall like me," so why can't we say "he is taller than me"? It's an interesting question. For now, anyway, and certainly in formal prose, I would use the subject form of the pronoun after "than." |
| QUESTION |
Does "eye opening" in the following sentence need a hyphen?
It was an eye opening experience. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Morristown, New Jersey ___ Tuesday, June 2, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Yes. I suppose an exception would be if your optometrist introduced you to the experience of opening your eyes in a new way. Naaah. |
| QUESTION |
| What are the rules on word breaks at the line endings? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The Chicago Manual of Style has five pages of rules about this. It's too complicated to cover in this Guide. Very seldom is it a problem in academic writing, where most authorities say we shouldn't use justified margins and where modern word-processors take care of such matters for us. If you need real advice, I'm afraid you'll have to purchase or borrow a manual of some kind -- or ask a more specific question. |
| QUESTION |
| Is would've a contraction? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Manhattan, Kansas ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I can't find it in my dictionaries, but I guess that doesn't stop it from being a contraction. You would surely use it in only the most casual prose anyway, right? (It certainly beats writing it "would of"!) |
| QUESTION |
An employee's immediate family will be defined as "spouse and dependent(s)" in guidelines for a contest. Regarding agreement of collective noun to a plural noun, should a statement read--
Contest is open to all employees and their immediate families.Or-- Contest is open to all employees and their immediate family. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Minneapolis, Minnesota ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Regardless of how you define family, those employees have families. Each of them might have a family, but most of them have families. |
| QUESTION |
| When using indirect speech or unspoken thoughts within a quote, do you put those thoughts inside single quotation marks (so that they become a quote within a quote) or is it unnecessary? eg. "Inside the dressing-room there were wild celebrations. Healy up on the table belting out Under the Southern Cross, champagne corks popping and all the guys downing beer like it was going out of fashion. Looking round, I remember thinking imagine if we'd won!" OR eg. "Inside the dressing-room there were wild celebrations. Healy up on the table belting out Under the Southern Cross, champagne corks popping and all the guys downing beer like it was going out of fashion. Looking round, I remember thinking, 'Imagine if we'd won!'" (NB. In the latter example, would you capitalise the 'i' of imagine because it is beginning the thought?) Finally, is there any online (or hard copy) literature on these sort of specifics? Much obliged & I love your site |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Melbourne, Victoria, Australia ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| There are no hard and fast rules about recording what I call "silent speech," so I doubt if we'll find anything about its use within a larger quotation. I would use the single-quote marks and capitalize the first word -- to set it off from the rest of the language. There may be guidelines for this kind of thing in creative writing textbooks, but not in the usual expository prose manuals. |
| QUESTION |
| Dear Grammar, How should one reference information gathered from the internet? Many websites contain information that is not presented in the form of a paper. Thank you for your time, Grammar. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Kobe, Hyogo, Japan ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I'm not sure what you mean by "in the form of a paper," but there is a pretty thorough document on citing WWW information in our Guide to Writing Research Papers. Just click on Electronic Online Resources. |
| QUESTION |
| Is there a glossary with all the grammar words and their functions somewhere. EXAMPLE: I want to make flash cards for my children as to the definition of a verb, pronoun, conjuction etc. |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| Cottonwood, California ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The first hyperlink on our Table of Contents, Sentence Parts and Word Functions contains a number of definitions. Don't skip the next hyperlink, though: Verbs and Verbals. The small-files version of Jack Lynch's Guide to Grammar and Style may have more concise definitions. Boiling down the idea of a verb to its definition is probably not as important as being able to pick verbs out of a sentence and demonstrate their relationship to a subject. |
| QUESTION |
| Would you say the key to writing grammar, essays, composition papers is to have a strong vocabulary? |
| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| North Brunswick, New Jersey ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| It certainly doesn't hurt, but is it the "key"? No, I don't think so. It's crucial to have an adequate vocabulary, but that isn't necessarily the same thing as a strong vocabulary. It's probably more important to have a feel for how sentences work and how ideas can be organized. (I'm not sure what you mean by "writing grammar," by the way.) Have you seen our section on Vocabulary? |
| QUESTION |
Which of the following sentences is correct? [in a paragraph describing a sequence of events, for example]
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| SOURCE & DATE OF QUESTION |
| San Francisco, California ___ Wednesday, June 3, 1998 |
| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Sentence #1 would be my choice to convey a sense of consecutive order. The second sentence conveys a sense of logic (i.e., Something is wrong with all these essays. All essays, then, must be rewritten.), but I would set off the "then" with a pair of commas. |
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