The Grammar Logs
#556

Please tell me the differences and usage of "thou" and "thee"

These archaic pronouns, both meaning "you," are the subjective and objective forms, respectively. "Dost thou love me?" and "Hail to thee, blithe spirit!"

Is this a complete or proper sentence? Thank you.

Provide me the article or a copy of the article.

The verb "provide" can be used as a transitive verb in this manner, but it is usually combined with the preposition "with," as in "Provide me with the article or a copy of the article."

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

Is the comma before lately just a variation form of the adverb ending a phrase? Or maybe, is it a way of intensifying the adverb. Please see if you can help me… I am puzzled!

• "I have been thinking about you too, lately—just not like you described."
• "I have been thinking about you too lately—just not like you described."

Without the comma, the adverb "lately" is ambiguous. What does it mean to think of someone "too lately" (that you didn't think of him in time)? The comma allows us to read the "too" as "also" and then to read the "lately" as "recently" (which is what the writer intended).

Which is correct....

• Your name sounds REAL southern
or

• Your name sounds REALLY southern?

Only in casual speech or very casual writing is "real" acceptable as a substitute for "very." You want "really." "Real" (as an adverb) is regarded as particularly gauche in England.

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.

Should the sentence below use "is" or "are?"

A corporate credit card and / or information regarding preferred hotel vendors is available from the Accounting Department.

That seems like rather an odd occasion to use "and/or." Either you're going to have both pieces — the credit card and the information — or you're not. And if you're not, I don't now why the "or" wouldn't suffice (and then, if they're both there, so much the better). If you feel that we can't avoid the stilted, legalistic and/or construction (which has no space, by the way on either side of the slash) and that we must, therefore, choose a singular or plural verb to go with things we're not sure we're combining or not, let's choose a tense in which that won't matter: instead of "is" or "are," let's use "will be."

Which of the following sentences is correct:

• High expectations of all students is the standard in my classroom.
or

• High expectations of all students are the standard in my classroom.

I would use "for" instead of "all," because "of" is ambiguous: who has the expectations? the students or someone else? The sentence also indulges in the tautology of "expectations" and "standards," which are pretty much the same thing. I would suggest that since we're talking about "my classroom," we go ahead and just say that "I have [or 'hold'] high expectations for all students in my classroom."

I see your point, but the word in question is not exactly doing double duty. The sentence tells us that Claire will meet someone or something — and whatever follows will be the object of that verb. In this case the object of the sentence is a clause, "whoever arrives by train," and the indefinite pronoun is the subject of the clause (obviously requiring the nominative form, "whoever"). The same thing happens in a sentence like "See who is ringing the bell." The pronoun is not the object of the verb "see"; the object of the verb is the entire clause that follows ("who is ringing the bell") and the pronoun,"who," serves as the subject of that clause.

I cannot seem to find rules for the use of the -ic and -ical endings, as in symmetric versus symmetrical. Are they interchangeable? Thank you for your help.

Unfortunately, there are no such rules. These words are often interchangeable, which drives usage gurus crazy, but they can also mean different things, as in historic (something of serious moment that happened in the past, like the sinking of the Lusitania) and historical (an event or document, etc., that belongs to the past, whether it is important or not). Frankly, the only way to know is to have a decent dictionary close at hand. Unfortunately, there are dozens and dozens of such words and for many, one of these endings (or the other) is a needless variant.

I am trying to figure out what the difference is between the following words: minimal, minimum. In the sentence, "he consumes minimal amount of caffeine each day.", is it minimal or minimum? Also in the sentence, "These people will acquire no more than minimal amount of nutritional deficiency."; is it minimal or minimum? I very much need your assistance as soon as possible.

Both these words can be used as adjectives, and they mean pretty much the same thing. Garner makes the following distinction: minimal will mean few, little, smallest [minimal support, disturbance, objections] whereas minimum will mean "consisting in the fewest necessary things, or the least acceptable or lawful amount" [minimum wage, maintaining minimum contact with his children]. In your first sentence, then, the caffeine sentence, I'd use "minimal," and in the second, I'd use "the minimum amount" (although I don't think you mean that anyone acquires a deficiency).

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.

My boss puts a question mark on sentences that do not require a direct answer (example below). This punctuation is not correct, is it? Thank you.

"Could you please let me know the answer as soon as possible?"

At the end of a very polite request (like your boss's sentence), especially one to which a direct response is not even required, it is customary not to use a question mark. So your instincts here are correct.

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