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# 217

QUESTION
What's the difference between "go slow" and "go slowly".

and

If somebody keeps coming late, can you say to him: "Please try to come earlier or early?

Thanks in advance.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Taipei, Taiwan Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
We sometimes use the adjective form in that way. They're virtually synonymous in this case.

I think you'd want to tell this individual "to come earlier." If you say "to come early," that means he has to arrive (let's say) before class even starts. (And you're lucky if he arrives earlier, much less early.)


QUESTION
Having trouble with synonyms and antonyms. Could you help me to understand them.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
King's Ranch, Texas Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Synonyms are words that mean the same thing; antonyms are words that mean the opposite (or nearly so). Go to the online Merriam-Webster's and play with the Thesaurus for a while, looking up some common adjectives and nouns to see what it comes up with for synonyms and antonyms. (Incidentally, watch the spelling of those two words.)

Authority for this note: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission.


QUESTION
I am writing a short paper from a presentation I went to on domestic abuse. My third paragraph discusses the power and control one tries to exert over the partner. Physical is the most effective way to gain this but there are 8 others. Now, my question. After this sentence, these behaviors are summarized below with a brief description: Then I typed a bullet followed by -- Intimidation. Every woman who is a victim of ..... Is using the bullet kosher for grad school? I don't think so but don't really want to stretch each behavior into a paragraph.

Thanks ahead for your help.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Riner, Virginia Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Neither the MLA Handbook nor the APA Publication Manual treats the matter of vertical lists satisfactorily (so far as I can find, anyway). The Chicago Manual of Style doesn't seem to provide for the use of bullets (I don't know why), but numbering such a list seems to be acceptable to that august authority. I'm afraid you should ask your instructor.

QUESTION
When do you use "less" in a sentence and when do you use "fewer"?
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Dallas, Texas Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
This question has just been elevated to the status of a FAQ: Frequently Asked Question and the difference between the two words elaborated upon in the Notorious Confusables article. Write back if you still have trouble with it.

QUESTION
Hi. I recently read a short sentence :
"Brevity is the soul of wit."
This sentence is clean, concise, and perfect. But I was wondering if a simple addition of words can make this grammatically incorrect? For example, do the following sentences make sense to you?
  • "THE brevity is the soul of wit."
  • "Brevity is the soul of THE wit."
  • "A brevity is the soul of A wit."
and so forth...

Any response would be greatly appreciated.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Unknown Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
A review of Articles seems to be in order, and you might also look at what we have to say about Count and Non-Count Nouns. "Brevity" is a non-count noun, a quality, and we can't use an article in front of it unless we're talking about "the brevity of something." Putting an article in front of "wit" changes its meaning from the name of a quality to the name of a kind of person ("a wit" is a witty person) and "the wit" is appropriate with "of phrases" -- "the wit of John Donne." In short, then, the answer is that the addition of these simple words changes the meaning considerably and even makes them grammatically incorrect.

QUESTION
I just want to know about grammer i.e. present tense, simple past, past continuous
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, Jordan Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Please review the material in the section on Verbs and then write back if you still have a question -- one that is more specific, I hope.

QUESTION
Hello. This is my first posting to you. Could you please answer the following question?
Do all the following have the same meaning?
  1. The result is not satisfactory at all.
  2. The result is not at all satisfactory.
  3. The result is far from satisfactory.
  4. The result is anything but satisfactory.
  5. The result is by no means satisfactory.
    If so, which has the opposite meaning of the following?
  6. The result is not really satisfactory.
By the way, #6 has the meaning of "partial negation"?

I'd appreciate your comment on this. Thank you very much.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
First of all, no, I don't think #6 is a "partial negation." Perhaps someone has argued that the result is satisfactory, but this comment asserts that it is not satisfactory, not really. In that sense, I believe that "satisfactory" is absolute, not relative (i.e., it either is or it isn't). All of those expressions have pretty much the same meaning, and any one of the first five is a bit stronger than #6.

QUESTION
My mother always told us to say either, "a half hour" or "half an hour"...never to say "a half an hour". Was she correct? Thank you.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I'm not sure why she was right, but I believe she was. I think it's purely idiomatic, though. We would say, "We'll leave in a quarter of an hour," but we would probably say, "We'll leave in half an hour." It probably has more to do with sound than anything else.

QUESTION
What is wrong with this sentence? Even while others still like pop or maybe they prefer rock.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Huntsville, Alabama Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
That sentence is not really a sentence; it's a fragment. It begins with a subordinating conjunction, "even while," and the whole thing is thus subordinated to an independent clause that never gets written.

QUESTION
In a sentence where the subject is understood by a adjective's allusion, as in:
  • "The wise are invited."
  • "The first is mine."
what is the grammatical name for the adjective is such a use? (Is there a special name for it? Has the adjective--"wise", "first"--become the noun?) Thanks
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Rapidan, Virginia Tue, Sep 29, 1998
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
The term I have seen used for a construction such as "the wise" is Collective Adjectives. ("The poor will always be with us," etc.) They're always plural and preceded by the. The word "first," however, is simply an ordinal number being used as a noun; it's not the same thing.

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