The
Grammar
Logs
# 436
QUESTION Please tell me which is proper for business usage: 12:00 PM or 12:00 NoonSOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Ruston, Louisiana Sat, Jun 9, 2001
GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE "12:00 noon" is redundant; "noon" can't be anything other than twelve o'clock, so if you want to use "noon," which is fine, don't use "12:00" with it. Every writing manual or reference book will have a different take on the abbreviations a.m. and p.m. The Chicago Manual of Style says to use them without periods and set them in small caps, as in AM and PM. The NYPL Writer's Guide to Style and Usage says to use periods and lower-case letters (which is what I prefer). Incidentally, some people will argue that 12:00 p.m. actually means midnight, not noon: it is an abbreviation for "post meridian," which means "after mid-day," and there's no way that noon can be "after mid-day." Other people argue that a.m. means ante meridian or before noon, so twelve a.m. must mean midnight. (Those people are wrong, but still, that argument is made.) "Noon" and "midnight" are the concluding instants of parts of the day, not the beginnings. To avoid misunderstandings, it's a good idea to use "noon" or "midnight" and avoid a.m. and p.m. when referring to those times. (I suppose this just one reason why so-called military time is not such a bad idea.) Authority: New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage HarperCollins: New York. 1994. Cited with permission. p. 339.
QUESTION Should the verb in the following sentence be singular or plural? I am confused: is the subject "Years of polluting our air", in which case the verb would be singular, or is the subject "Years" in which case the verb would be plural? AND, depending on which is correct, should it be "their" toll or "its" toll? Years of polluting our air are finally taking their toll on the human race.Thank you.SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Unknown GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE At first glance, I thought the answer to this question was obvious: "years" is your subject, and "years" is plural. However, "years of polluting our air" can be regarded as a singular idea, a single thing that we have done to our environment. Two examples that Burchfield gives are "A certain cynicism and resignation comes along with . . . " and "The usefulness and credibility of such an arms agreement hinges on . . . " — in which two things combine to form a singular theme and thus take a singular verb. I think one could argue that "Years of polluting our air" is a singular idea, and thus should take a singular verb, "is taking," and call for a singular pronoun, "its toll." That's how I would write it, in retrospect. On the other hand, if you wrote it as it is, with plural verb and plural pronoun, it means that you are regarding the years individually, and I would probably never have noticed. 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.
QUESTION Adjectives after the object of the preposition: can they be part of the prepositional phrase? If not, does the phrase make any sense? Example: I dreamed of finding her.Have I mis-analyzed this sentence?Finding is a gerund, isn't it--i.e., a noun, and, therefore, the legitimate object of the preposition. So her becomes an adjective that modifies the gerund/noun. Or . . . ?
Thank you so much for your patience!
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Highlands Ranch, Colorado GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE Gerunds are verb forms that behave like nouns and therefore can do anything that nouns can do: subject, object, object of preposition, etc. You're right about "finding": it is the object of the preposition "of"; however, the entire gerund phrase is actually the object of the preposition. What is it you dreamed of? finding her. Because gerunds are verb forms, they can include all the complements and modifiers that regular verbs include.* For instance, in "I like working here," the adverb "here" is modifying the gerund "working." (A prepositional phrase can do the same thing, as in "I like working at the library.") In your sentence, the complement "her" is part of the gerund phrase, and that entire phrase is the object of the preposition "of." I hope this helps. *Authority: Understanding English Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994. p. 104.
QUESTION Letter writing is an intregal part of my job. A sentence in one of my recent letters was cited as grammatically incorrect by our quality assurance team who proofread the letter. The sentence is awkward and should be rewritten; however, I contend that there is no grammatical error. The sentence is as follows: You request that we close your account and explain that you did not authorize a magazine service to bill your account $40.00.I was told the sentence is confusing and incorrect be cause we is the subject. The reader felt it would be interpreted as we explain not you explain. Is this sentence grammatically incorrect? Thanks for your time.SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Tampa, Florida GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE "You" is the subject of the sentence; "we" is the subject of the first dependent noun clause. Your proofreader has a point. The sentence is, at best, ambiguous because it's impossible to tell whether the subject of "explain" is "we" (which it appears to be for reasons of proximity) or "you." This is especially confusing in this sentence because a second "you" shows up in a subsequent clause. We would be much better off subordinating the second idea with "because": "You have requested that we close your account because you have not authorized a magazine service to bill $40.00 to your account." (I'm not sure that that is a completely logical statement or reading of that person's request, but at least it's a readable sentence.)
QUESTION Sentences such as "All job applicants are not interviewed." seem to have become more common. Obviously some job applicants will be interviewed. I thought that the proper structure was "Not all job applicants are interviewed." Do these two sentences mean the same thing? What grammar rules are involved? Thanks
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Arlington, Texas GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE This is probably not a grammar problem; it's a logic problem. "All job applicants are not interviewed" is grammatically correct, but it obviously doesn't say what one wants to say (as you point out). The structure "not all job applicants" nicely provides for the fact that some job applicants are, in fact, interviewed. I'm not aware of any evidence that statements — or misstatements — such as "All job applicants are not interviewed" are gaining in popularity, but I'll trust you that such is the case, and I wouldn't be surprised.
QUESTION My friend emailed me this quote from Moulin Rouge and I've been questioning this comma use for a while because on Roger Ebert's website, he constantly repeats this practice. I figured a writer as well-known as Ebert would be sure to get comma punctuation done correctly. Here's the quote : "The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."The comma before "is," I believe, is unnecessary. Does it not break rule #9 on your grammar page? Is Ebert really that careless? Thanks for reading this.SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Loganville, Georgia GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE You're right: that comma is not necessary. You will find similar sentences which require a comma at that point to help the reader avoid confusion (usually where two verbs come together like that), but this sentence isn't one of them. I don't know if this really means that Ebert is careless.
QUESTION Lawyers in court frequently form a question as "isn't it true that the sky is green?". The typical answer is no. However, I believe the answer should be yes as the sky is not green. Thank you
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Sacramento, California GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE Your question gives us another example of why contractions should be avoided in asking questions in formal writing. What is the answer, for example, to the apparently simple question "Can't you come with me?" A simple yes or no is not adequate to such a question. Does a simple "no" negate the negative of "can't" and mean that you can, in fact, come with me? Does a simple "yes" mean that "yes, you can't come"? Although the typical answer to your lawyer's question might be no, a much better answer would be "No, it is not true that the sky is green." The answer "yes" would leave most people (including the lawyer) perplexed. Authority: Understanding English Grammar by Martha Kolln. 4rth Edition. MacMillan Publishing Company: New York. 1994. p. 140.
QUESTION I have a website where I post daily devotionals online. I have noticed that at times in my study Bible the word He or Him is capitalized when referring to Christ, but I'm not sure what the proper use or principle to apply is when I am writing my devotionals. Please help.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Unknown GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE The Chicago Manual of Style speaks to this issue: "In few areas is an author more tempted to overcapitalize or an editor more loath to urge a lowercase style than in religion." The Chicago Manual goes on to say that this is probably due to "unanalyzed acceptance of the pious customs of an earlier age." For whatever the reason, though, the practice nowadays is NOT to capitalize pronouns referring to deities, as in "he" or "God in his mercy" or "Jesus and his disciples." Other noun reference to persons of the Christian Trinity, however, are capitalized, as in Lamb of God, Holy Spirit, the Lord, Son of God, Son of man, Christ child, King of Kings, etc. (but not in God's fatherhood, Jesus' sonship, etc.)
Authority: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed. U of Chicago P: Chicago. 1993. p. 265-266.
QUESTION How can I know the word "last" is used as adjective meaning it is most unlikly? Tell the difference between the two last's in the following sentences:
- He was the last man to walk on the Moon.
- He is the last man to betray his friends.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Yokohama GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE In reading, there's no way to tell except by context. Since we know that this man is not, really, the last man to betray his friends (there will be others), we would guess that the sentence means that he is the least likely person to do so. In speech, we can put a stress on the word "last" when we mean least likely: "He was the LAST man to betray his friends."
QUESTION The correct spelling for guarantee when used as a verb, e.g., Mr. Smith shall guarantee (or guaranty) the lease obligations.SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Irvine, California GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE I was not aware of this distinction until now. When used as a verb, you always use guarantee; when used as a noun, there is a difference between guarantee and guaranty, but the difference is minuscule and incomprehensible to mere mortals. Use whichever you please (I think most people use guarantee). 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.
Previous Grammar Log