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The Grammar Logs # 140 |
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| QUESTION |
| Usage of prepositions on and upon-- What is your guidance in using "upon" and "on" in sentences? Dependencies always upon? ...will do that depending upon the result.Time and place use on? ...meet on Wednesday, on the overpass?Thanks in advance. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Monterey, California  Monday, June 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| That would be a nice distinction, but I don't think it'll hold up. The words are much more equivalent than that; it's just that "upon" is considerably more formal and sometimes (some would say) a bit archaic, even stuffy. William Carlos Williams wrote that "so much depends upon a red wheel barrow. . . " and Christ is said to have walked upon the water. But "on" could be used in either case. You can depend on it -- or upon it, if you prefer. |
| QUESTION |
| You are so much more prettier than she is. vs. You are so much more pretty than she is. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Boulder, Colorado Monday, June 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| What's wrong with "You are so much prettier than she is."? "Much more pretty" would be an acceptable second-place, but "so much more prettier" won't do: the "prettier" makes it comparative and the "more" tries to make it even more comparative, which is impossible. |
| QUESTION |
What is proper in the following sentence for (it)?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Houston, Texas Monday, June 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Remember that its is always the possessive of it -- What is its color? -- and it's always means either it is or it has. You want the possessive its for this sentence. See our Notorious Confusables section. |
| QUESTION |
| I sometimes get confused about quantifiers: much and many Someone said once, "when you're speaking about money and time use much, but when your counting use many". Is this true? So I will ask. How much money do you have? Or How much time do we have left? But I will say, tell me how many singles are there? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| F'sted, St. Croix U.S.V.I Monday, June 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| You've got it! If it's countable, use many; if it's measurable (quantifiable?), but not countable, you're probably going to use much. Your examples are good ones. And you could add, "How many minutes do we have left?" |
| QUESTION |
| Here is my sentence. Have I used the semi-colon correctly? Have I used other punctuation correctly? Thanks. Low risk activities are those that are: (a) relatively brief--they do not require too much class time; (b) clearly structured--the tasks are well defined and described in writing; (c) involve course content that is relatively familiar and concrete--students commonly have greater difficulty working with unfamiliar and abstract course material; and (d) familiar to students or which students have been given adequate opportunities to learn--students get better at using active learning approaches with instruction and through practice. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Miyazaki, Japan Tuesday, June 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| It looks good to me. Punctuation for a list like this is relatively loose, as long as it's consistent, and this list certainly is. I think I might have made it a vertical list and skipped the "and" before the last item, but it's fine the way it is. The one problem the list has is the lack of parallel form in item "c": the other three are all adjectival (relatively brief, clearly structured, familiar to students) and the third element needs to be similar: "familiar and concrete in content"? -- but this suggests that it is awfully close to the fourth item, doesn't it? Maybe leave out the word "familiar" in the third element? |
| QUESTION |
| Judging performance based on student opinions is [are?] unfair but also hurts [hurt?] teaching quality. "Judging performance based on student opinions" is singular or plural? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Hong Kong Tuesday, June 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Don't be confused by the fact that the plural "opinions" comes between your real subject, "judging," which is singular, and its verbs. You want "is" and "hurts" in this sentence. "Judging performance based on student opinions" is one thing. (The word "opinions" is the object of a prepositional phrase that modifies "judging" but doesn't change its number.) |
| QUESTION |
About the placement of prepositional phrase "to the international classroom" in a sentence. Which of the following sentences is correct or, are both of these sentences correct, and do they have the same meaning?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Taipei, Taiwan Tuesday, June 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The sentences mean the same. Sentence B is a bit easier to read, I think. You might consider simplifying the sentence: "Our twenty years of teaching experience brings bright students to the international classroom." I'm a bit puzzled about how your experience brings them there, but I'll believe it if you say it's so. |
| QUESTION |
| Recently while looking through some boxes, I was trying to find the box which contained my checks. When i came upon the correct box, I said, "This is the checks" implying that it was the box which had the checks in it. I feel that I can use is with the plural form in this case. Am I correct? thank you |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Sewickley, Pennsylvania Tuesday, June 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| It is possible to use "this" as a pronoun to refer to the box, but outside the immediate context, where your listener is standing there watching you discover "this box," it's hard to know what you're talking about and it's going to sound weird, "This is the checks." You would be much better off with "These are the checks," or "This box is the checks," or better yet, "This box contains the checks." In other words, there's nothing grammatically wrong with your sentence, but it could be much clearer. |
| QUESTION |
| Hi! Is this correct? "It depends on that which you are interested in?"Might we omit "that", "which" or both? Tanks |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Riga, Latvia Tuesday, June 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
 Your instinct to omit one or the other of these subordinating words is correct. You might try substituting the word "what" for both of them: "It depends on what you are interested in." or "It depends on what interests you." Incidentally, I don't think you have a question there (no question mark), and I hope the context of your sentence makes clear what "it" is.
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| QUESTION |
| Dear Grammar - Do I feel badly about your webpage, or do I feel bad? We are discussing this at work - whether we feel badly about X's situation, or bad about X's situation... |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Pequannock, New Jersey Wednesday, June 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| After a so-called Linking Verb, you want an adjective, not an adverb, so you feel bad, not badly. See, also, the section on definition of Adjectives. |
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