The Grammar Logs
#549

These two words are interchangeable. The only difference, of course, is the sound, so you have to let your ear be the judge. According to Garner, "everyone" appears in print about twice as often as "everybody."

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.

Is it correct to write "New York Stock Market" or do we have to add the 's for the possessive (New York's Stock Market)? And why?

What about in "London, Frankfurt and New York Stock Markets"?

Thank you

In any case, we wouldn't capitalize "Stock Market" because that is not the official name of anything. (But you would capitalize New York Stock Exchange.) Because more than one stock market makes its home in New York, you could write about the New York stock markets — or about New York's stock markets if you're trying to emphasize the city more than the markets. The possessive is certainly not necessary, and "the London, Frankfurt, and New York stock markets" would be acceptable.

Could you please tell me if the following sentence is a simple sentece or a complex sentence.

"They met before the end of World War II."

The teacher's guide for our reading book says that this sentence is complex because before is an adverb. I believe in this case before is a preposition which would mean it is a simple sentence. Thank you for your help.

The teacher's guide is wrong, and you are right. The word before is introducing a prepositional phrase, not an adverb clause. There is no subject-verb relationship in what follows before in that sentence. If you wrote something like "They met before World War II came to an end," you'd have a subject-verb relationship in a dependent clause, and a complex sentence.

I said that something bothered me "too much" to not say anything. My friend said that I was wrong and I should say it bothered me "so much." I don't think I'm wrong. I've argued that it is a difference of speech versus written language, but he's determined I'm wrong. Am I really?

I don't think it's a matter of speech versus writing, and I don't think you're wrong, either. If you change the phrasing to "so much," you'll have to add a clause: "It bothered me so much that I had to say something [or "could not remain silent"?]" "So much to not say anything" wouldn't work at all, but your expression is fine.

Which is correct? 1 in 3 people is special vs 1 in 3 are special

"One in three people IS" is correct.

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.

1) In the following sentence, is the capitalized word considered a direct object or an indirect object?

She told the zoo STAFF about this program.

Since there isn't a direct object, I thought that the word STAFF, which I would usually consider to be an indirect object, would be considered a direct object.

2) In the following sentence, is FROM considered a preposition?

The heat came from inside the earth.

Your first instincts about "staff" were right: it's an indirect object. The absence of a direct object doesn't turn an indirect object into a direct object. In a sentence like "She told the staff a lie," the word "lie" is clearly the direct object, and "staff" is the indirect recipient of that action. The same remains true in your sentence even though the "something" is missing.

Is it correct to say "Mr. Smith is ill and will not be travelling this week. In his stead, Mr. Jones will be attending the meeting." (referring specifically to the phrase "in his stead")? Can the word "stead" refer directly to an individual? Is the above phrase synonymous with "replacing" or "instead"?

Any clarification you could provide in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (which, at 3800 pages, is plenty long enough for me), "in his stead" is perfectly acceptable — meaning "as his representative or deputy" or "as his successor." It avoids the suggestion, I suppose, that Mr. Smith is replaceable.

Authority for this note: Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Fifth Edition. Oxford University Press, New York. 2002.

When is it appropriate to use "what" and when is it appropriate to use "which?" ex. Which season do you like best? or What season do you like best? Does the answer have something to do with the number of things being compared? Thanks!

The choice of "which" or "what" as "wh- word" doesn't have anything to do with the number of things being referred to. If I give you a choice of four cars, I would ask you which one you want. If I give you a choice of all the cars in the world, I would ask you what car you prefer. So it's a matter of whether you're choosing from a limited set or not. In your question, there are only four seasons to choose from, so "which" would be appropriate.

"There is a certain dignity, discipline and gallantry associated with the police that draw me to it."

Recently, I wrote the above sentence, but felt uncomfortable with its construction. Please let me know if it needs to be reframed.

In both England the U.S., "police" is used as a collective plural: "The police have been called." I assume the same is true in India, and so the "it" near the end of your sentence strikes the reader as odd. If you changed "police" to something like "the police force" (or some such singular entity), you could keep the singular "it." Changing "it" to "them" is not a happy remedy.

When using the term 'the Blues' when is blues capitalized, and when is it left lowercase?

I would refer you to an article in The Atlantic Monthly (online version), in which "blues" is consistently written in the lower case. That's good enough for me. I also would suggest that you can find plenty of other resources that would capitalize it — especially articles that are interested in defining this kind of music. You might, in fact, find something like "Country Blues" capitalized (I suppose to distinguish it from other kinds of blues?).

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