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The Grammar Logs # 200 |
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| QUESTION |
| I am looking for a list of the prepositions, can you please help me out? Thanks |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Santa Rosa,California  Monday, June 29, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! You have sent in Question #2000 to ASK GRAMMAR. Your prize is a truckload of books from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Just pull up your truck to the back of the library and tell them I sent you to get your books. As for the prepositions, yes, there is a list. (This is your lucky day, isn't it!) Go to the section on Prepositions and click on the hyperlink for the list. It's certainly not every one of them, but there's a fair number there. |
| QUESTION |
| Is Apple Computer's recent campaign slogan "Think Different" idiomatic/grammatically correct? Some writers, such as of "Business Week" and "Slate" seem to consider it's not. I think it's correct. From Collins Cobuild, the pattern of "verb (itr) + adj" for "think" is quoted. People have also been using "think fit". Moreover, the pattern is not rare, like "feel good", "get bad". Grateful for your advice. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Hong Kong Wednesday, September 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I don't think the parallel to "feel good" and "get bad" (as in "it's getting bad outside") is a particulary good one. Those are linking verbs, and I have a hard time thinking of think as a linking verb. In every other context I can think of, I end up using an adverb: I think well, I think clearly, I think brilliantly, etc. Sometimes I even think differently. (Don't think I'm prejudiced; I love my Macintosh!)
I'm not sure what Apple has in mind here, but if making us think about their ad is their purpose, they've succeeded brilliantly. |
| QUESTION |
| What is an unecessary shift in pronoun? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Norfolk, Virginia Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| An unnecessary or unwanted shift of pronoun reference occurs, for instance, when we've been writing about a novel and, quite appropriately, we've been saying what readers might think, how they might interpret something, etc., and then all of a sudden we say, instead of they, "you read it this way." Or -- a better example -- we write instructions for what students are supposed to do on the first day of class: they should do this, they should do that, they ought to remember this. And then we add, "If you do all these things. . . ." |
| QUESTION |
| Can you tell me the appropriate use for "on" and "in" especially for Spanish speakers? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| San Francisco, California Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| It would be much better if you referred to a good dictionary. Try the online Merriam-Websters. In is not so hard, but on has dozens of uses. If you still have questions after consulting the dictionary, please write back. WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission. |
| QUESTION |
I just want to know when do we use from and when do we use since. Also, I appreciate if you tell me which tenses we use with each of them.
for example, do we say: I arrived from 5 days or since 5 days. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Montreal, Quebec, Canada Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Is there some kind of crisis in confidence in the use of prepositions? We wouldn't use either "from" or "since" in that sentence. We might say something like "We arrived five days ago." or "We've been here since Friday." or "We'll stay from Friday to Monday." or "From Saturday on, he's done nothing but watch TV." or "He has been working on that project since last Tuesday." As you can see, the "since" seems to call for some version of the past tense; I don't think there's any such limitation on "from." |
| QUESTION |
I WANT to put the period after the sample sentence, even in this e-mail. The
sentence had parentheses and an exclamation point, which the editor figured
was enough punctuation.
Charles was concerned because the sentence didn't make sense (which makes sense because Janet, in a hurry to send off her e-mail, did a lousy job of proofreading!) |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Seattle, Washington Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| If it is appropriate to end the material within parentheses with an exclamation mark (or a question mark), you still have a responsibility to end the entire sentence with a period (outside the parentheses). |
| QUESTION |
| Can you tell me when do we use "in which" and when do we use "at which"? For example: in which or at which floor can I find you? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Detroit, Michigan Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Something weird is going on; everyone's having trouble with prepositions. I would say, "on which floor can I find you?" We might say, "in which lab do you do most of your work?" or "at which college did you have the most fun?" |
| QUESTION |
| What is an open syllable? A parent asked me this question and I am unfamiliar with the terminology. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Clinton, Mississippi Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
Sorry. I've heard of open vowels and open compounds, but never an open syllable. It might have something to do with line-endings? ![[E-Mail Icon]](../gif/email.gif){kind=small} I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case someone knows.
Tom Mueller writes that "an open syllable ends with a vowel or, said another way, 'open syllable' is a name for a
syllable without a consonant at the end. |
| QUESTION |
| Where does the phrase "another county heard from" originate? How do we use it today? This was a question I got yesterday. Bless the teacher. We had 5 librarians working on it and no one found the answer. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Jackson, New Jersey Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| If I were on my own, I would make something up, but now that librarians are involved, I must take this seriously. I have no idea, nor do I have the references materials that might have the answer. However, I will put a little e-mail icon here, and someone who does know might send us the answer. Frankly, I wouldn't count on it. It sounds like one of those idiomatic clichés that could have come from almost anywhere. I thought it was a political line, first -- something uttered as votes came in from outlying counties. But now it's uttered, often in a rather disparaging manner, whenever someone else shares an opinion.
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| QUESTION |
Which is the correct: "than" or "from" when used as follows:
"community leadership takes on a different meaning than when campaigning as an individual" (excerpt from an article I read).This is very confusing, but I have seen instances (frequently) when the word "than" is used instead of "from." Can you clarify and offer the grammar "rule" on this subject? thank you. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| West Sacramento, California Thursday, September 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Unless you've left out crucial elements of that sentence, it's a mess -- and substituting "from" for "than" isn't going to save it. The relationship between community leadership and campaigning as an individual is hopelessly muddled. My recommendation is that the author should take this sentence out and shoot it and then start over. Does it means something like "Community leadership is one thing; individual campaigning is another"? or "Community leadership takes on a different meaning when one is campaigning as an individual"? |
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