The Grammar Logs
#530

I know "ahold" is informal English, but I was told that it is only used when referring to an object and never a person. For example, "I got ahold of some information," but not, "I got ahold of my friend by phone." Is this true, or can you use "ahold" to refer to a person as well as an object? Thank you.

"Ahold" (and its much more substandard cousin, "aholt") is, as you point out, quite informal. Garner calls it "dialectal," but then says that it's very nearly a standard usage and gives two examples, one with a person and one with an object. Lovinger is more adamant about keeping "a" and "hold" in separate pens, and none of my reference books are very keen on it.

From The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Styleby Bryan Garner. Copyright 1995 by Bryan A. Garner. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc., www.oup-usa.org. and used with the gracious consent of Oxford University Press.

Authority: The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style by Paul W. Lovinger. Published by Penguin Reference (New York: 2000).

Here's a sentence my fellow copy editors and I have been discussing. We've taken a vote; the vote stands at 7 to 2 for this version:

Republicans argue it's too close to Election Day to replace Torricelli and that the Democrats should not be allowed to dump a candidate just because he's trailing.

(Actually 2 of the 7 voted to take out the "that the" before Democrats.)

The minority voted for this version:

Republicans argue it's too close to Election Day to replace Torricelli, and Democrats should not be allowed to dump a candidate just because he's trailing.

The main question is in regard to the comma after Torricelli. What do you say?

Let's get rid of the comma. There are two noun clauses serving as compound objects of whatever the Republican are arguing, and the "and" will suffice to connect them. It would be nice, however, to put those two noun clauses in parallel form, and the repetition of that would help a lot:

Republicans argue THAT it's too close to Election Day to replace Torricelli and THAT Democrats should not be allowed to dump a candidate just because he's trailing.

The following sentence is wrong.

Car makers worry about their industry more than environmentalists.

I say that the problem is that the first half of the sentence is an independent clause and the second half is only a sentence fragment. So, if I were to add "do" to the end, the sentence would be grammatically correct, correct?

The second half of your response is correct: if you add "do" after "environmentalists," the second is correct. But the reason is not quite right. The added "do" removes the ambiguity of the sentence. Do the car makers worry more about their industry than they worry about environmentalists, or do they worry about their industry more than environmentalists worry about their (the car makers') industry? The added "do" removes the ambiguity to good effect. (But there is, technically, no fragment involved here.)

If you use " majority, " like " majority of us..., " do you use singular verb or plural? It confuses me most of the time. Thanks.!

When majority is followed by a prepositional phrase beginning with of and something that is countable — like "the majority of people/students/us," etc. — we invariably use a plural verb with it. When it stands by itself, it is often singular, as in "The majority has spoken," but not always, as when the countable subjects are clearly implied, as in "The voters of Hampden County have registered, and the majority have registered Democrat."

When including a telephone number in a newsletter that has an extension, which example should it look like?

1. 708-532-1900 (x2804) or
2. (708) 532-1900 x2804

Where do the ( ) go?

Second question (which has 2 parts) I want to write include this statement in my newsletter:

The evening provided an opportunity for parents to meet school personnel and listen to presentations addressing our special assistance counseling, "All-4-One" and academic programs.

1. Do I need a comma after "All-4-One"?
2. If so, does the comma go inside the quotes or outside?

Thanks so much! I am having debates with my cohorts!

Oh, those silly cohorts! The Gregg Reference Manual recommends this format for phone numbers: (708) 532-1900, Ext. 2804 (but write out Extension in formal correspondence). So that settles that.

Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.

Your second question might best be addressed by putting the simpler of the two things you're going to discuss first:

The evening provided an opportunity for parents to meet school personnel and listen to presentations addressing our academic programs and "All-4-One," [our new] program in special assistance counseling.

(I hope I have not messed up the meaning of your sentence in the process.) You might consider using italics instead of quotation marks to set off "All-4-One." If you leave the order the way it is, though, put a comma after "All-4-One," and put it before the closing quotation mark.

Which is the correct usage when changing a verb with its modifying adverb into a compound adjective? This is a well-handling race car, or this is a good-handling race car.

Either one of them sounds pretty awful. "Good" is probably technically correct, but how about a smooth-handling race car, instead?

Does this sentence make sense? "Shadowing the best buyer in the universe enabled me to see all the daily responsibilities that a buyer's job includes first hand." Are the words "first hand" misplaced?

I think you need to trust your instincts here. "First hand" would be much better off closer to the thing it modifies, as in "…enabled me to see first hand. …"

On an English test my son wrote, " Do you have some books?". It was marked wrong. The answer was "Do you have any books?" Both sentences sound natural. Are there no instances when the first sentence can be used?

The answer to this question shouldn't be as difficult as it seems to be. It seems that some is used in so-called assertive sentences, as in "He has some books," and we are more apt to find any in so-called non-assertive sentences (questions and negations), as in "He didn't have any books" or "Do you have any books?" However, if the speaker or writer of a question has a strong reason to believe that the answer to a question will be yes, he can ask for such a simple confirmation using some instead of any. This is especially true when we make an offer of something (with good reason to think that the answer will be yes, I'll have some of that): "Would you like some pancakes this morning?" In short, although the word any is far more apt to appear in that sentence, I certainly would not say your son's sentence is incorrect. For instance, what if I pick up a friend's suitcase, and it seems to be very heavy. I might well ask, "Do you have some books [in there]?"

Authority: A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. Longman Group: London. 1978.

Is it permitted to use an article definite or indefinite with the noun "anathema"?

This is to settle a heated debate. It was stated by one party that "Atomic weapons are an anathema to civilised people" the other party stated that such a sentence should not be used with the indefinite article.

Your help would be appreciated.

Let's toss some cold water on your heated debate. The word anathema can be used as a regular noun (essentially meaning "a thing cursed") and a determiner can appear in front of it, "an anathema." However, it is usually used as what Burchfield calls a "pseudo-adjective" or a predicate nominative (no determiner): "The union was anathema to the middle management class."

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.

We have discussed Holiday Gatherings and think it appropriate to thank our employees, all of who have worked so hard and effectively throughout the year. These gatherings are an opportunity to demonstrate our appreciation for these efforts.

There doesn't seem to be a question attached to this hifalutin excuse for a Christmas bash, but I would recommend eliminating the phrase "all of" from the sentence.

We have discussed Holiday Gatherings and think it appropriate to thank our employees, all of who have worked so hard and effectively throughout the year.

Or maybe change it to "to thank our hard-working employees"? And I trust your reader will know what "Holiday Gatherings" means.

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