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The Grammar Logs # 240 |
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| QUESTION |
My sentence is :
I want to get married _____ and ____ buy my own home as soon as possible.Whether we can use commas in the fill-in-blanks or not. Thanks |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Lansdale, Pennsylvania  Mon, Oct 26, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| No. Commas are not necessary in that sentence. In fact, they would be incorrect. |
| QUESTION |
| What are the rules for hyphenating words? e.g., off-line |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Santa Monica, California Mon, Oct 26, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I hate to weasel out of a question like this, but I highly recommend you borrow the Chicago Manual of Style from the library and check out the page after page about hyphenation. The rules for hyphenating are obscure and often just plain weird. The best bet: when in doubt, go to the dictionary. |
| QUESTION |
| In chapter 14, verse 22 of the Book of Jeremiah in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible appears the following sentence: "We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this." Is that gramatically correct? I suggest that it should read "who does all this," since "who" is the subject of the verb "to do." If the sentence is correct because the subject is "you," what is the gramatical role of "who?" |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Moorestown, New Jersey Mon, Oct 26, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| "Who" is indeed the subject of "do" in that clause, but the word who has no person; it can refer to singular or plural; first, second, or third person. "We who are about to die," etc. In your sentence, the who is referring to you, so the verb wants to agree with the second person, so we want do. Jeremiah was right. |
| QUESTION |
| Is there a specific term for the adoption of a tradename as a noun? eg - vacuum cleaner becomes hoover |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, UK Mon, Oct 26, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
![[E-Mail Icon]](../gif/email.gif){kind=small} I don't know. There's a name for everything, isn't there? I shall leave an e-mail icon here in case one of our users knows the answer.
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| QUESTION |
My daughter is in fourth grade. She was to correct capitalization on these sentences within a paragraph: They got the job through their father, Doctor True. Now, their mother and father are at the train station to see them off.The teacher marked that mother and father in the second sentence should be capitalized because they are "specific nouns." I disagree because they were not used as names and they were preceded by a modifier (their). If mother and father are to be capitalized in the second sentence, why isn't father capitalized in the first sentence? HELP! |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Ballwin, Missouri Mon, Oct 26, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| You're absolutely right; I can't help you anymore than you can help yourself. There isn't a reference or writing manual on my shelf that would recommend capitalizing "mother and father" in that sentence -- for precisely the reasons you give. I'm hoping there's some kind of misunderstanding -- or that your daughter's teacher was very tired that day and missed seeing the word their. |
| QUESTION |
| My husband heard on news radio that universities got together and decided that splitting an infinitive was to now be accepted. TRUE? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Louisville, Kentucky Mon, Oct 26, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Universities are utterly incapable of getting together on anything, so don't worry about that. There was a bit of a fuss in the newspapers lately because the new Oxford American Desk Dictionary (which comes out this month) has given its assent to split infinitives, saying that the rule against them is based on Latin and that it "is not firmly grounded, and treating two English words as one can lead to awkward, stilted sentences." Other dictionaries made this pronouncement years ahead of Oxford. There are plenty of circumstances, however, in which splitting an infinitive can be a very bad idea. Click here for article: The Hartford Courant October 25, 1998 |
| QUESTION |
| Hello. Would you read the following? The audience was ( ) middle-aged.According to the answer book, the appropriate for the blank is mostly. I've checked some dictionaries, but I'm not sure why largely is not appropriate to fill in the blank. Would you let me know the difference between the two? I'd appreciate your help. Thank you very much in advance. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Sapporo, Japan Tue, Oct 27, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Largely would fit there just fine. I suppose mostly would be a bit more precise if you're expressing the notion of majority, and mostly would probably be preferred by most writers anyway. |
| QUESTION |
| What is a "vague pronoun" Thanks |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Virginia Beach, Virginia Tue, Oct 27, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I doubt if it's a new category of pronouns. The term is probably being used to refer to any pronoun when the reader cannot be sure what the pronoun refers to -- such as the infamous "they say. . . ." I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case some user has a better idea. An alert user suggests that "vague pronoun" might mean Indefinite Pronouns -- such as any, some, many, several, few, etc. |
| QUESTION |
| My daughter transfered to a parochial school where they are diagramming sentences. She did not have this taught yet
in her former class. This is for a sixth grade class. Are there any sites where I can get more information to assist her on the internet? Thank you for your assistance. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Tue, Oct 27, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Not that I know of. I've been thinking of adding some material on diagramming to the Guide, but it's rather a pain because it requires some graphical representations. Still, it wouldn't be all that bad to get into the basics, I suppose. Maybe over the semester break? In the meantime, I would refer you to Kolln's book: Understanding English Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994. |
| QUESTION |
| I see and hear "to try and" more frequently lately (even my 6th grade son's English teacher says it!). I see it as a thing to avoid in your "Confusion: Sources and Remedies" list. The word-guy in the Boston Globe said it's not all that bad, if you look into it. (Boston Globe, Sunday 25 Oct 98) (Hence, I'm here on your page.) Can you tell me how "to try and" could possibly be correct? "To try, and fail" might be ok, with the second "to" implied. (for example: "I tried [to win], and I failed [to win]. To try, and fail, is a bummer." But "to try and find", "to try and go", etc, just don't seem correct in any context. "To find my keys, I have to look. I will try and find them." The "try and" construction seems like a clumsy way to say: "I will try, and I will find them." |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Cambridge, Massachusetts Wed, Oct 28, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| You're going to great pains to justify the chap from the Boston Globe. It's not worth it -- trying to save this construction from the Plague Words and Phrases. You could also say "I try and fail, over and over again," but as you point out, that has a different meaning. When a verb follows the the verb to try, we almost always want the infinitive form. |
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