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The Grammar Logs # 336 |
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| QUESTION |
| Is "snuck" an acceptable verb? Or, what is the correct past tense/past participle form of "to sneak"? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
Metairie, Louisiana  Wed, Jul 28, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The online Merriam-Webster's says that "snuck" has caught up with and even surpassed "sneaked" as an acceptable past participle of "sneak." (This is probably more true in the U.S. than in the U.K.) Authority for this note: WWWebster Dictionary, the World Wide Web edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, Tenth Edition. Used with permission. |
| QUESTION |
My colleagues and I are in disagreement as to whether "who" or "whom" should be used in the following sentence:
"If not, please advise me of the person who/whom you wish to appoint as executor."Thanks. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Princeton, New Jersey Thu, Jul 29, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| You want the object of "you wish to appoint," which means you want "whom." Can we get rid of "of the person": "Please advise me whom you wish to appoint as director."? |
| QUESTION |
| Can a year possesive anything? For example is it correct to write "Sales tax revenue for the quarter is 8.3% greater than last year's comparable period." |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Atlanta, Georgia Thu, Jul 29, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I wouldn't want to say no to your initial question because we talk about "a year's salary," "a year's time," etc. The statement you give us, however, is not clear because we end up comparing two unlike things. It's important to compare revenue to revenue, not revenue to a period. Can we say that the "revenue for the quarter is 8.3% greater than the revenue of the same quarter, last year"? Yes, it's more words, but it's also clearer. |
| QUESTION |
I know that the object of a prepositional phrase should never be the subject of a sentence (e.g., "bevy" is the subject in "A bevy of renegade tourists hijacked the tour bus in broad daylight."), but I am always perplexed when there is
an additional intervening prepositional phrase. In the sentence below, is "is" referring to "dormitory" or "group"? (The presence of "that" after the prepositional phrase and before the verb is what seems to be the cause of my confusion.)
You are a group of resident advisors in a dormitory that is facing an unusual number of roommate conflicts and serious morale issues.Your answer and explanation would be greatly appreciated. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Santa Ana, California Sat, Jul 31, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
There is a difference in that sentence between what "that is" wants to refer to and what it actually refers to. A modifier will tend to modify the word or phrase it is closest to, so the sentence reads as if the dormitory is facing an unusual number of conflicts. If we want the reader to know that the group of counselsors is facing these conflicts, we're going to have to put the modifier closer to the word that's modified.
You are a group of resident advisors that is facing an unusual number of roommate conflicts and serious morale issues in a dormitory setting.Further, I would now eliminate the "that is" altogether. |
| QUESTION |
| I am a police officer working in England as part of a team of officers that go into schools giving talks. We are called The Police Schools Involvement Unit. My query is this : Should there be an apostrophe after the "s" in schools (i.e. Schools') - or is it OK to leave it as it is? Your help would be much appreciated,
Many thanks. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Gloucester, England Sat, Jul 31, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I should know better than to get involved in the names of organizations, especially in England, but I was asked once to help name some kind of royal society of engineers and now I can't help myself. I think the name of your unit has some real problems. I first read it as having something to do with "police schools," and I would continue to read it that way if it weren't for your note. No amount of apostrophes will help you. I think you're better off with something like: "The Schools Involvement Unit, Gloucester Police" or "The Police Involvement Unit, Gloucester Public Schools." In any case, you can't allow "Police" to come before "Schools." |
| QUESTION |
We have checked all your indices, and a dictionary, and cannot find a rule to support the common usage for myself as shown below:
The panel included myself, Jane, John and Bob.Alternative use: The panel included Jane, John and me.Which is best? Is this the correct usage? And, if so, which grammatical rule would govern the use of myself? |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Sat, Jul 31, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| As a general rule, "myself" should not appear as either the subject or the object of a sentence. (Thus it is wrong in your example; you want me, as in your alternative statement.) This how the NYPL Writer's Guide states the case—but that restriction is probably an overstatement. Burchfield, on the other hand, says that constructions such as "Palme Dutt's nervousness communicated itself to Isaac and myself" and "The rift between myself and Lord Hailsham is unseemly. . .." are "beyond reproach," except that the "myself" should always come last. But the example you give us quite clearly does not admit of "myself." Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. p. 124. Cited with permission. Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press.
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| QUESTION |
What's the difference between the following sentences:
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Somewhere, Pennsylvania Tue, Aug 3, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| I don't think it has much to do with omitting the subject; it's more a matter of parallel form and consistency of mood (passive/active, as you point out). "He was feted" is a passive construction, and we need "being denounced and exiled" to make the second part of the sentence passive also. If you repeated the subject in the second part of the sentence, yes, you would use "before he was denounced and exiled" (and the comma would probably disappear). |
| QUESTION |
| The dictionary says that "watermark" is one word, so you would write
"high watermark," not "high-water mark," right? Or wrong? The very first definition
is "A mark showing the greatest height to which water has risen." Second meaning:
"A line indicating the heights of high and low tide." Yet I often see "high-water mark." It's even on those page, in one of the contributions of pet peeves. Please let me know. Thanks, and I enjoy your site. |
| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Raleigh, North Carolina Tue, Aug 3, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| Using either definition, my dictionaries also suggest that "high watermark" is the correct usage for that mark on the dining room wall that shows how high the waters reached in the flood of '57. I'm kind of surprised by that, but I haven't given it much thought. A "watermark" can also refer to the design built into a piece of paper that shows its authenticity or quality. But the dictionary surely has the last word in such matters—until the next edition of the dictionary. "High watermark" it is.
Bob Cress writes: "Webster's Tenth Collegiate (p. 548) says "high-water mark" means highest point or peak. Couldn't it also mean the highest level that water reaches in a flood? That seems logical to me."
I concur. |
| QUESTION |
Which is correct
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Wellesley, Massachusetts Tue, Aug 3, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
| The word "opened" means that the custodian (or someone else) will unlock the doors and let people in. The word "open" means that people are allowed access to the library all day (or during the hours in which it remains "open"). It seems odd, though, doesn't it, that this does not work for its opposite—"closed." |
| QUESTION |
Which of the following sentences is right:
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| SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE |
| Unknown Tue, Aug 3, 1999
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| GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE |
I don't think the problem with the sentence can be fixed with the "being written." The sentence has a problem in parallel form that calls for more invasive surgery—something like
Icelandic is one of several Germanic languages that seem compact when written but lengthy in English translation.I'm not sure that "compact" is the word you want here. If this version doesn't satisfy you, you might try blowing the sentence up and starting over again—maybe with two sentences? |
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