The
Grammar
Logs
# 317

QUESTION
Should this very long sentence be considered a run-on?
In spite of the fact that the country and city environments are so different and in light of the fact that it is glaringly evident that a majority of the dwellers in both suburban or urban areas will always seek to fill their spare hours with forms of recreation that satisfy their basic human need to relax and enjoy, I have concluded that whether an underpopulated outdoor mountain is being utilized for recreation or an overpopulated indoor gymnasium is the area in which the recreational activity is being carried out, many of the same or similar elements must go into successfully developing, maintaining, managing and operating a recreational activity center that provides for the ultimate enjoyment of the members of the general public who seek the facility out.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Brooklyn, New York Sat, May 8, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
A run-on sentence is one in which independent clause are improperly connect—or just smooshed together. And that never happens with this sentence. It's a bit of a monster (it even manages to end with a preposition!) and shouldn't be kept in the house, but it's a well built monster.

QUESTION
When we use 'many a man' the personal pronoun for the words is they or him as we are using 'many a man is,' not 'many a man are'
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Malaysia Mon, May 10, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
You're right to use the singular verb with "many a man." Use singular pronouns to go with the construction also: "Many a man has lost his life at sea." Burchfield describes this construction as "notionally plural" but singular in usage.

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


QUESTION
Would I say,
  • My leg hurts bad
  • My leg hurts badly
THANKS
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Plainfield, New Jersey Mon, May 10, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I'm glad you asked "would I say," because you probably wouldn't write either, at least not in formal expressions. In speech, though, I think we'd say, "My leg hurts bad." I would suggest that "hurts" works as a linking verb in that sentence (like "feels") and should be followed by an adjective, not an adverb. (Thus it would be different from a verb like "suffer," which would take an adverb form: "They suffer greatly.") A more acceptable expression would be to make "hurt" a predicate adjective and then modify it with "badly": "My leg is badly hurt."

QUESTION
I'm writing about a product whose trademarked name begins with a lower case "e" (e-Sim). If I need to start a sentence with the product's name, should I keep the "e" lower case or should I capitalize it? Example:
  1. e-Sim is a new product from SMG, Inc.
  2. or
  3. E-Sim is a new product from SMG, Inc.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Mon, May 10, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
When the word comes at the beginning of a sentence, capitalize it. If it's really important not to capitalize the word (if the makers of e-Sim are really fussy about this, say), then rewrite the sentence so the word appears elsewhere.
SMG's latest product, e-Sim, is . . ..
Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. p. 230. Cited with permission.


QUESTION
The situation:
The telephone rang right after I entered the room.

With 'no sooner':

  • No sooner had I entered the room than the telephone rang.
    or :
  • No sooner had the telephone rung than I entered the room.
Which of these two forms is better and how would it be with 'Hardly...when'?
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Somewhere, Poland Tue, May 11, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Somehow the first version of the "no sooner" choice is clearer. (It's somehow more obvious what event came first, and it might have something to do with being able to hear the phone if you're not in the room yet.) I would avoid the "hardly" alternative: what does it mean to "hardly enter" a room? (We know what it means, but it's not a good option.)

QUESTION
Are there any rules regarding the use of "small" and "little" as compared to "big"? For example, is an animal little or small? Is a car little or small? I'm interested in a general answer regarding usage to all items, as well as a concrete answer to the examples.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Neulengbach, Austria Tue, May 11, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
I don't see any important distinction between these words in my dictionary. The word "small" might be a bit more formal. If you were writing a child's book, you would write about little animals; if you were writing a biology textbook, you would write about small animals. The word "small" can also have a nasty bite to it: "He's small-minded. She's a small person." On the other hand, the "small car" sounds economical and the "little car" sounds cramped. An awful lot, then, depends on context.

QUESTION
Please tell me which is correct:
  • An obsession with cats.
    OR
  • An obsession for cats.
Thanks.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
San Francisco, California Tue, May 11, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
With the verb "obsess," most writers use "obsess with" ("He was obsessed with getting all A's.") With the noun—"obsession"—I think that most people use "with" (that's what the dictionary calls for), and that's what I'd recommend, but it's probably going too far to say that "obsession for" is wrong.

QUESTION
When do you use past perfect tense? Although some grammar books recommend its use for an action that happened before another one in the past, one can find a lot of examples when the past perfect tense is simply used to narrate in the past.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Chisinau, Republic of Moldova Wed, May 12, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Although it's possible, I suppose, to maintain the past perfect for a while, it's always going to function with the assumption that what you're describing happened before something else. Without that something else, the past perfect is going to seem—well, weird. I would have to see the examples of a sustained past perfect narrative before commenting, I guess.

QUESTION
I would like to know the difference in usage between "deceiving" and "deceptive". For instance, in the sentence ...
"The house is deceiving because it looks smaller than it really is."
... wouldn't "deceptive" be a better word to use? Any info is appreciated.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Concord, New Hampshire Wed, May 12, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
Something that is "deceptive," says the dictionary, "has the power to deceive." I would think that people and things that act—like advertisements, say—could be deceiving, but things like houses should be described as deceptive. (Although we could argue that the shape of the house has deceived us, couldn't we?) I had never thought of this distinction before.

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


QUESTION
I hope you can help me on this - Someone told me that a business letter can be signed by a person other than the sender if the signer puts the letters "p.p." before the sender's name. Is this correct and if it is what does "p.p." stand for? Thanks in advance
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE
Unknown Wed, May 12, 1999
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE
It comes from the Latin per procurationem, which means "by proxy" (which also assumes that the user of such a signature has the legal right to do so, of course).

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