The
Grammar
Logs
# 289

QUESTION
Should a writer use the word "you" or the word "one"? For example, should the sentence be:
  • You can get a good value if you look.
    or
  • One can get a good value if one looks.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Indianapolis, Indiana Sat, Feb 6, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
You can use either one; the "one" is more formal (some would say more elegant) and can cause all kind of difficulties (more difficulties than it's worth?) with its possessives, with consistency in number, etc. In a sentence such as "As one walks the streets of Charlotte, he one is struck by. . ." or "One reads about such things in the newspaper, doesn't one?" the "one" can get stuffy and clumsy. I recommend Burchfield's book on the uses of "one."

Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.


QUESTION
Must neither always take "nor" or is "or" sometimes correct?
Neither Mr. Jones nor/or his family was prepared for the earthquake.
Someone objected to the neither...nor as sounding too harsh and accusatory.

Thanks.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
San Francisco, California Sat, Feb 6, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Use "neither-nor." You might rewrite it as "Mr. Jones and his family were not well prepared for the earthquake." But there's certainly nothing wrong with the "neither-nor" construction, and whoever thought it was "too harsh and accusatory" is being overly sensitive -- to the point of being silly.

QUESTION
A question about the perfect tenses:

The past participle, used with the perfect tenses, of to get is gotten, as in "He has gotten his book." Is it, then, colloquial or grammatically correct to say "I've got it," "He's got his book," et al.?

Thanks for your time.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Allentown, Pennsylvania Sat, Feb 6, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
According to Burchfield, "gotten" is seldom used in the UK, and in American English the use of "got" and "gotten" has become so confusing that making distinctions between them is nearly hopeless. Gotten, he says, is used when the sense is "obtained" ("He's gotten two tickets to Saturday's game."), but got when it means "owned, possessed" ("He's got two tickets in his pocket right now.") Gotten is preferred to get when a notion of progression is is involved ("The game has gotten ugly.")

Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.


QUESTION
Which is correct? I ate my lunch -- or -- I had my lunch.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Mountain View, California Sat, Feb 6, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
They're both correct. "I ate my lunch" decribes the process of putting things in your mouth, chewing and swallowing, etc. "I had my lunch" describes a more general process -- leaving your workplace, running across the street to the restaurant, eating the food, flirting with the waitress or waiter, coming back to work, taking a two-hour nap, etc.

QUESTION
Is or are beans countable or uncountable noun?

Thanks in advance.

SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Taipei, Taiwan Sat, Feb 6, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Generally, beans are countable. The beans have been eaten by rabbits. Too many beans spoil the soup. The beans are in the bowl. Even when you have "baked beans," you would say "The baked beans are delicious." When you make a dish like "rice and beans," however, it becomes singular: "The rice and beans is delicious."

QUESTION
My question is about the use of "apart from" at the beginning of a sentence meaning "in addition to". In my text, the previous short paragraph mentioned that brewery x makes traditional beer y.

In the sentence in question, I have written

"Apart from y, the brewery also makes a, b and c. "
My boss (we are a translation and copywriting outfit, both of us British) says "Apart from" is wrong here. I feel it is ok. What is your verdict? Maybe "In addition to" would be preferable.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Stuttgart, Germany Mon, Feb 8, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I hate to agree with bosses, but I think he or she has a good point here. "In addition to" would be much better. The brewery really doesn't make those beers apart from "y"; it makes "y" in addition to those beers. "Apart from" would work in a sentence such as the following: "Apart from its reputation as a maker of fine beers, Brewery X enjoys a reputation as one of the country's finest. . . . ." "Apart from" sort of compartmentalizes things.

QUESTION
Does the following sentence need a verb, such as "explains" after "edits and"? If so, what is the rule?
Course 119 discusses data element validation using field, file, and relationship edits and how to resolve initial file relationship edits.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Toms River, New Jersey Tue, Feb 9, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Yes, another verb (such as "explains") would help break up the sentence and clarify things a bit. What if you wrote it this way:
"Course 119 uses [shows how to use?] field, file, and relationship edits in the validation of data elements and explores the resolution of initial file relationship edits."
I think that's a slight improvement -- considering that I haven't the slightest idea what "relationship edit" is.

QUESTION
Can you please tell me which pronoun choice is correct?
  • It was just you and he in the room.
    OR
  • It was just you and him in the room.
Thank you
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Citrus Heights, California Wed, Feb 10, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Frankly, in a sentence like that, you can't win; even the correct answer will sound clumsy. I would reword it to say "You and he were the only ones in the room." But since you want the predicate nominative following the linking verb, you want "you and he."

QUESTION
Is it possible to have a possesive of a possessive? How would you punctuate it? For instance, imagine that "Steven's" is the name of a store. If I were to discuss the policy of Steven's, would it be Steven's' policy? Can you put two apostrophes in one word?
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Orefield, Pennsylvania Mon, Feb 15, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
No, that would be awfully clumsy and difficult to "translate." Since the store belongs to Steven, we call it Steven's. If Steven has a policy we call it Steven's policy, and we understand that his name can be substituted for that of the store. On the other hand, we could talk about the "policy of Steven's."

QUESTION
Most grammar books say that present participles function as adjectives, though occasionally they will say that present participle phrases may have adverbial overtones.
In the sentence:
The crying baby awoke. "Crying" is an adjective, telling which baby.
But in the sentence:
The baby awoke crying. "Crying" seems to be working as an adverb, telling how, or under what condition the baby awoke.
How do you come down on this?
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Fairbanks, Alaska Mon, Feb 15, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I think that the verb "awake" can function as a linking verb, as in "I woke up angry." I think it's more accurate to think of the word "angry" as a predicate adjective, rather than as an adverb (because it's not the same thing as saying "I woke up angrily.").

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