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The Grammar Logs # 250 |
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| QUESTION |
| Hello.
Would you take a look at the following?
1. You must not go out for another two or three days. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Saporro, Japan  Sun, Nov 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| All of the sentences above are just fine. |
| QUESTION |
How to make a difference between "a" and "the"?
for example,a girl is carrying _a__ gun and__a__ knife.So when do we use "a" and "the"? Thanks. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Hong Kong Sun, Nov 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Please review the section on articles in Articles, Determiners, and Quantifiers. That ought to help. In your sentences, the "a" doesn't specify which gun and knife she carries. In the second sentence, the "the" implies that there are only cat and one dog that she could possibly sleep with, so we name them specifically, with "the." It's a tough choice, though, and it takes a long time for speakers and writers of English (as a second language) to pick up on these differences. Don't give up, but don't knock yourself out about it either. Just listen and read carefully, and it will come with time. |
| QUESTION |
Is there a word for words that are spelled the same, but pronounced differently and mean different things, depending on how they are used?
Examples: block, close |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Middletown, Connecticut Sun, Nov 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Your examples confuse me, frankly, but I think what you have in mind are homographs. Check out the Notorious Confusable for homonym, homograph, and homophone -- and then you'll be as confused as I am. |
| QUESTION |
| I'm supposed to write an essay and include at least 3 cumulative sentences and 3 periodic sentences, only, I dont know what they are. If you could help me that'd be really grea. Thanxs!! |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Morristown, New Jersey Sun, Nov 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
A periodic sentence builds up modifying phrases and clauses before it gets to the main clause (which is often rather short and to the point) and the period itself.
Because Lewis and no formal training in the biological sciences and even less in astronomy and because these skills would be important if his findings were to have any scientific validity, he was sent to Philadelphia for private tutoring.A cumulative sentence, on the other hand, begins with the main clause, and then spins off into a series of modifying phrases. Watch this wonderful monster from Joseph Conrad's story "Youth": And we all nodded at him: the man of finance, the man of accounts, the man of law, we all nodded at him over the polished table that like a still sheet of brown water reflected our faces, lined, wrinkled; our faces marked by toil, by deceptions, by success, by love; our weary eyes looking still, looking always, looking anxiously for something out of life, that while it is expected is already gone -- has passed unseen, in a sigh, in a flash -- together with the youth, with the strength, with the romance of illusions. |
| QUESTION |
I would like to know what is the ungrammatical sentence among the following sentences.
I was finally ready to bring my plan into fruition. My Han River dream had begun to come true. The target I selected was Inchon. The target date, because of the great tides at Inchon, had to be the middle of September. By a week before the target date, all the details of the master plan has been worked out.I think it may be the last sentence, because has must be changed into had (or would have been) but I am not sure of that. Please tell me what is the ungrammatical sentence and the reason why it is so. Also show me the correct sentence. Thank you. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Unknown Sun, Nov 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| You don't need my help; you're doing a fine job on your own. |
| QUESTION |
Thanks for an interesting web site. Here's an excerpt from your section on pluralization:
Do not use the apostrophe-s to create the plural of acronyms (pronouncable abbreviations such as LASER and IRA and NASA) and other abbreviations.My question: How should one pluralize acronyms that end in the letter S? For example, the acronym for network operating system is NOS. I don't know whether to use NOSs, NOSes, or NOS when referring to multiple systems. My wife argues that the S stand for system, which is pluralized by adding an s, so NOSs is correct. I disagree, and argue that the acronym should be treated as if it were a word, and NOSes is correct (I'd feel more confident if it didn't smell so much). The final entry is a concession to those who would argue that the S could stand for either system or systems, and thus the NOS acronym, like "deer," could be both singular and plural. Of course, since IQ is pluralized as IQs, that argument is a tough sell. Of course, I guess I could just spell it out... I would appreciate any insight you could lend. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Unknown Sun, Nov 8, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I'm assuming you say the plural of NOS the same way you'd say "noses," right? If so, I vote for NOSs -- just because I like consistency, not because I'm afraid of your wife. I think I understand what you're saying in wanting to provide an "es" ending, but we can't really treat the acronym "as if it were a word." Those who would argue that "S" can stand for either "system" or "systems" are the spawn of Satan and should be immediately fired. Whatever you decide, NOS is going to smell, and you ought to come up with a different acronym. We devised a Committee on Writing Standards (COWS), at our college many years ago, and the bad jokes -- MOOving to adjourn, approving the MOOnutes, etc. -- simply will not stop. |
| QUESTION |
Relative pronoun "that" as subject
This grammar book says the following pairs of sentences
are all correct, only the emphasis regarding the nouns
within each pair of sentences is different.
Is that true? Comments?
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Somewhere, Canada Mon, Nov 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I respectfully disagree with "this grammar book." In the first pair of sentence, the antecedent of "that" is "guys" and we want a plural verb ("are hurt"); in the second pair, the antecedent is "product" and we want a singular verb ("resembles"). We could deconstruct the sentences this way: "Of the guys that are hurt by the rumors, this is one" and "Of a product that resembles coins, these are samples." (Those are not good sentences, but that is one way to determine the subject that determines the number of the verb.) If you rewrote the "guy" sentence to read something like "This is the only one of the guys. . . ," we would want a singular verb. |
| QUESTION |
| Business Letter Writing At the top of the letter, which is correct? Mr. Dave Evans Acting Manager IBM Corp 2300 Red Land San Carlos, California 94401 or Dave Evans Acting Manager IBM Corp 2300 Red land San Carlos, California 94401 and, my second question: Is it still popular to put your initials at the bottom of the letter? For example: JH/el (JH being the author of the letter and el being the typist) Thank you very much. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Tokyo, Japan Mon, Nov 9, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Use Mr. Dale Evans. Apparently, the use of the typist's initials in lower case is still acceptable -- at least when that's important, for some reason. Authority: The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers by Maxine Hairston and John J. Ruszkiewicz. 4th ed. HarperCollins: New York. 1996.
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| QUESTION |
| Dear Grammar, What exactly is the difference between small and little? Thanks |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Gothenburg, Sweden Tue, Nov 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Not much. Very little difference. There are some emotional overtones. Little, I think, is more apt to be cute, whereas small is more a matter of pure measurement. Little, however, can be derogatory, as we now think of "little women," for instance. I suggest you visit a good dictionary. Authority for this note: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission. |
| QUESTION |
I don't know if these sentences are correct:
My project consist in developing a web site about computer assisted learning language which would help foreign students to write in English. This web site would expect a dialog between teachers from the university and the students who would like to correct his writing. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Bristol, UK Tue, Nov 10, 1998
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The word "expect" is used in an unusual way, and we run into serious trouble with "the students who would like to correct his writing." The the is inappropriate and unnecessary and the singular possessive "his" is trying to refer to the work of the plural students. Also, project in the first sentence is singular, so we need a singular verb, with an -s ending. I think most writers would put a hyphen between computer and assisted. |
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