The Grammar Logs
#528

I am writing a procedure manual. I need to know how to pluralize a Form name that is used as a Proper Noun. The name of the form is: Notice of State Tax Lien. When we are speaking of more than one, we have used the term: Notices of State Tax Lien. We have been told that you cannot pluralize a Proper Noun when it is a form, and that we must write: Notice of State Tax Lien(s). I cannot find in any English grammer instructions where it is proper to use (s) when writing about singlular or plurals. Occasionaly the sentence will give an instruction for one form, but the instructions will be the same if multiple forms have been issued. I tried to change the sentence to: Each county Notice of State Tax Lien .......

I have read each of your categories that seem appropriate, but none cover the (s), and none speak of Proper Nouns or Form Names. I did like, however, your secretaries of state. Thanks so much for your help.

I think you have stumbled upon a wonderful way to solve all problems of pluralization. We'll just add the "s" in parentheses. Of course, I don't know how we'll say that "s," but we'll leave that up to others. Indeed, you cannot change the name of the form to a plural, but this "(s)" device is too weird; no one would know what it is supposed to signify. You're going to have to invoke the word "form" and refer to the plural as "Notice of State Tax Lien forms." Incidentally, while we're thinking about plurals, you probably mean that you are working on a procedures manual.

I was under the impression that when a name ends in "s," and you make it possessive, you add an apostrophe, and then an "s." For example, "Martin Amis's fiction is better than Keith Richards's singing."

Many people use only the apostrophe, and drop the "s" — they would write, using the same example, "Martin Amis' fiction is better than Keither Richards' singing.

I thought, however, that the rule is to only drop the "s" for plural possessives - "The Jones' cat ate the firefighters' rat," with Jones being the family of people called Jones, and the firefighters being a group of firefighters.

Am I mistaken, or is it just a case of the barbarians winning? Thank you very much for your help with this.

First, we don't drop the "s" for plural possessives: it would be "the Joneses' cat." Second, we usually add the apostrophe +s to a name ending in "s," as in "Martin Amis's fiction." However, when an s-ending name ends with a "z" sound or an "es," we don't add the "s" to the end of the possessive: "the Hodges' cat" and "Keither Richards' singing" (although "Richards's singing" is not really wrong, either). Third, the barbarians? that's a hockey team, right?

Is this sentence okay:

This session is anticipated to be the first in a series whose ultimate goal is to... (blah blah blah)

I guess my main question is this: Is it appropriate to use "whose"? Thanks!

Maybe it's the "blah, blah, blah," but the "whose" is the least of the problems here; in fact, the "whose" is fine. Can we elimiinate "ultimate"? And can we be a bit more optimistic and say "This session will be the first in a series [of _??__] whose goal is to . . ."?

I have noticed recently that many people, in the media particularly, are using the long a sound for a when saying a beautiful day, for example, instead of the short u sound. Is there some grammmatical rule about this or is it just a new fashion in speech?

I doubt if there is anything new about this. When we'e trying to emphasize the singularity of something, we often use the long "a" sound: as in "There wasn't a car left on the lot." And broadcasters often try to emphasize something even when it's not particularly appropriate to do so. That's undoubtely what you're hearing.

What is verb agreement with the word "most" — is or are?

Building expenses are $3,000 below plan, most of which (is or are) in the area of labor costs.

It depends on what "most" is referring to. Here, it's referring to "costs," which is plural (see your first clause), so you need the plural "are." It might have been wise to put this modifying clause closer to the thing it's modifying and give the idea of the savings end-focus in your sentence:

Building expenses — most of which (is or are) in the area of labor costs — are $3,000 below plan.

A coworker and I are debating which of these sentences is grammatically correct:

1. She misled her supervisors into believing the investigation had been commenced when it had not been.
2. She misled her supervisors into believing the investigation had been commenced when it had not.

I maintain that since the investigation can not commence itself, then it requires a helping verb (in this case the past perfect progressive use of "been" at the end of the sentence) in order to achieve agreement with the first part of the sentence (which says ....believing the investigation had been commenced.... when it had not been.).

The problem is not with the "been" at the end of the end the sentence (which we needn't really repeat); it's with the use of "commenced" in a passive construction. That verb simply doesn't admit of the passive voice. We can say that the investigation had commenced (although "begun" or "started" might serve just as well), but not "had been commenced."

Are these sentences below grammatically correct?

I envy your house?

I envy your trip to Boston?

I can find no evidence that those sentence are incorrect grammatically; however, a more common usage would be to envy the person who is enjoying the house and the trip to Boston — not the house and the trip themselves. Thus, one would write "I envy you your house" and "I envy you your trip to Boston."

If you do a search on Google.com for "I envy your," you'll come up with nearly 24,000 hits; if you do a search on Google.com for "I envy you," you'll come up with just over 4,000 hits. This is not the least bit scientific, I grant you, but it tells me something about the common uses of this verb.

Working in a restaurant and studying at the university at the same time (is/are) sometimes necessary for financial reasons.

Is it 'is' or is it 'are' and why is it what it is?

I think your question deserves some kind of prize for the most interesting use of tiny monosyllables! Doing both of those things — working and studying — at the same time, the idea (or "theme") of doing both of those things at the same time, is a singular entity and requires the singular verb "is." And that's why "is" is what and where it is.

I'd go with "recreation," for two reasons: 1) to make it parallel with "transportion," and 2) because the alternatives are not really recreational in themselves; they're about recreation.

Recently, I encountered the following sentence:

'It is believed that the thief had seen them leave the yacht and had either swam out to the yacht or hitched a ride with the crew of another boat.'

What has me puzzled is the word 'swam'. Should it be replaced by 'swum'? My dictionary tells me that swam is the past tense of swim and that swum is the past participle.

What I can't work out is whether this sentence demands a past participle or a verb in the past tense. I have read this site's section on participles, but I'm still confused.

Your instincts are right: we need the past participle of the verb "to swim" there: "had either swum out to the yacht or hitched a ride." I do have to agree that "swum" is one of the more unfortunate verbs in the English language.

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