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The Grammar Logs # 194 |
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| QUESTION |
| My five-year-old thinks burping is funny. But when I tell him his behavior is rude. or when I told him his behavior is rude. . . . I would I know whether tell or told is right and why? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Goosebay, Canada  Tuesday, September 1, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Told" implies that you did this in the past; the event of your telling him is over with. "Tell" implies that this happens from time to time, and you continue to tell him that his behavior is rude -- which is probably the truth, since it's the beginning of a lifelong habit. |
| QUESTION |
| What is a comma splice? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Coral Gables, Florida Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| See Comma Splice. It's a kind of run-on sentence in which two independent clauses are joined with only a comma (instead of a comma plus a coordinating conjunction). |
| QUESTION |
I just want to know where we use the present perfect and where we use the past.
for example: we say: `what have you done this summer? or What did you do this summer? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Montreal, Canada Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Please review the section on Tenses including the hyperlink to the Directory of Tenses and to Colin Mahoney's web-page devoted to the uses of the present perfect. If you have a specific question after all that, please write back. Either of your sentences is correct, but we would probably use the second one in most contexts -- because the summer is over (well, for academic types, it is) and the events of the summer are finished. |
| QUESTION |
| Does the MLA define new guidelines for date formats, e.g., How should 240 BC be displayed - if applicable. I always wondered why a religious conotation was used. Does that infer the power of organized religions? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Fairfax, Virginia Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The MLA only suggests the use of 240 BC. AD appears before the number: AD 240. The MLA Handbook also suggests the secular alternatives, 240 BCE and 240 CE, which means "before the common era" and "common era," respectively, the "common era" beginning with the birth of Christ. Does this imply the power of organized religion? I'll let you be the judge of that. |
| QUESTION |
| My problem is tenses and I would like to learn more about them. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Prilep, Macedonia Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| We've just added quite a bit of information on verb tenses. Click HERE for help. Be sure to check out the Directory of Tenses, too. If you have questions then, be sure to write back. It's good to hear from Macedonia -- the 80th country to send in a question to ASK GRAMMAR! |
| QUESTION |
| Would one write "Either of them is going...." or "Either of them are going..."? Thanks |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| San Diego, California Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Is. "Either" is always singular. So is "neither." |
| QUESTION |
Can you tell me what is wrong with this sentence? Bobby was so excited that he jumped up and down, goody, goody I'm going home with someone else. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Burton, Michigan Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
For one thing, it's a run-on sentence; for another, there seems to be some quoted language (from Bobby?), which isn't properly attributed to a speaker. We might try to rewrite it as follows:
Bobby was so excited that he jumped up and down. "Goody, goody!" he shouted. "I'm going home with someone else." |
| QUESTION |
| I just LOVE your site; I've bookmarked it for both my children. Thanks for all your hard work. Now my question: I've yet to run across information on expository writing. Is there perhaps another name for it? My daughter is a senior in high school, but taking Eng 101 at a junior college. Expository writing is the topic of the day!! Thanks for your help. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Phoenix, Arizona Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The section of the guide devoted to Principles of Composition contains several digital handouts on various patterns of expository essay writing. It simply means the exposition -- exploration? investigation? argumentation? -- of ideas. |
| QUESTION |
I wrote the following sentence:
Included are a story about the game and a logo on disk.My co-worker corrected me, saying I should have written. . . "Included is . . . I maintain that I have two things included, namely the story and the logo. I mean, I would say "A story and a logo are in included" not is. So I think I'm right. What do you think? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Las Vegas, Nevada Wednesday, September 2, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The inversion of subject and verb in your sentence has apparently confused your co-worker. Your verb choice is correct. I would suggest, however, that the sentence would be greatly improved without the inverted order and given a real subject: "I have included a story about the game and a logo on disk." |
| QUESTION |
| I want to have a good commmand of prepositions. Could you help me in this regard? I also make mistakes in official letter writing and memos. Kindly resolve it at your best efforts. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Karachi, Pakistan Thursday, September 3, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| First, I would ask you to review our section on Prepositions, and then write back with more specific questions if you have any. We don't have any material on business writing, although we've been thinking about adding a section. In the meantime, the OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue University has some material that might prove helpful. Click HERE to go to Purdue. Three new countries in one week -- Chile, Macedonia, and Pakistan! That's more exciting than Mark McGwire's home-run tally! |
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