The Grammar Logs
#560

Is it correct to use the word "airspace" in the plural form? Here is an example:

Disruption of services in particular airspaces are likely to affect services in adjacent airspaces.

Thank you

Airspace feels like kind of a mass noun to me, although it might not feel that way to people who are more aeronautically inclined than I (which includes almost everybody, by the way). I'd stick with the singular form for airspace:

Disruption of services in a particular airspace is likely to affect services in an adjacent airspace.

If more than one airspace is, in fact, affected, that doesn't change the truth of your statement, and it needn't affect the form of the sentence, either.

"Faced with a worsening manpower shortage and the stress of waging a non-stop battle for almost two months, there is now a danger that the patience of hospital staff is wearing thin and even genuine differences over how best to deploy resources will become polarised." is extracted from a local newspaper. Is "Faced with ...for almost two months" in the sentence a dangling modifier ? What is the subject of the main clause? Please advise. Thanks a lot.

Indeed, that is a dangling modifier. What, after all, is "faced with a manpower shortage"? It should be the next thing that comes along in the sentence, but such is not the case. We need something like "Faced with a worsening manpower shortage and … , hospital administrators must contend with …"

Can you tell me if there is anything grammatically incorrect with this phrase:

"The thing is is that..."

I hear a lot of people saying this and it drives me insane because I think it sounds absolutely ridiculous. I want to tell my students not to use it. How do I explain that it is wrong?

Advise your students that speakers using a superfluous "is" in this fashion are prone, in later life, to echolalia. That'll put the fear of grammar in 'em. A doubling up of is can be purposeful and even useful, as in "What is, is right" and "Whatever this is, is a mystery to me." Lovinger gives several examples of the superfluous is, including "The fact is is that there's nothing here" and "The problem is is that we've got a lot of work to do." In both cases, the second is is not necessary. Besides, you might ask your students what "the thing" means.

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

In this example, is the right word harsh or harshly…

In the morning, my alarm sounds ______________.

I thought it was an adverb, therefore harshly would be proper. But then sounds could be a linking verb. Please let me know. Thank you.

Your instincts here are right: "sounds" is a linking verb, and it is OK to link it with a predicate adjective "harsh." If, however, you are using "sounds" as an intransitive verb, as in "the trumpet sounds," you'd want to use the adverb "harshly." Here, I think you want "harsh."

Where is the predicate?

"The only way this hope could become real is if there is a God, who can combine the aims of morality and of nature by giving happiness to those who morally deserve it."

"that this hope could become real", is a noun clause, potentially the subject of a sentence, but lacking a predicate. The subordinating conjunction "that" has been suppolied. "The only way" is an adverbial modifier of the link verb "could become." The subjective complement "real" modifies the "hope."

"Is" lacks a subjective complement, making the predicate incomplete.

"if there is a God" is an adverbial clause of condition modifying the link verb "could become."

The relative proonoun introducing the first adjective clause has as its antecedent "God."

"who morally deserve it" is the second adjective clause. Its antecedent is "those," the object of the immediately preceding prepositional phrase.

Despite what appears to be a gross error, the meaning is unambiguous. Perhaps the real problem here is that of the student of syntax.

Take a deep breath. First, let's discover the subject of "is." What is? The answer is not "this hope could become real," but "the only way." "[That] this hope could become real" is a modifying clause for the subject, which is "way." Second, I would suggest that "if there is a God" is not an adverbial clause in this sentence, but a noun clause, the predicate you're looking for (apparently with great fervor). "If there is a God" can be a noun clause, after all, just as a similar clause is the object of the sentence in "How can we know if he's good enough?" With the rest of your analysis, I have no argument. The theology might be shaky, but the syntax is fine.

The first "that" is OK, if you're worrying about using "that" instead of "who." The right pronoun is not going to solve this sentence's problems, though. The second "that" comes along and confuses the reader, and there is a long and bumpy ride between the subject, "supervisor," and its verb, "must notify." How about something like "A department supervisor must notify the designated mail clerk when a large volume of mail requires bulk mailing procedures"?

Which is more correct and why

• Preventive Maintenance will be performed in your apartment
• Preventative Maintenance will be performed in your apartment

Thank You.

According to Bryan Garner, "preventative" is common, but the correct form, "preventive," is five times more common than the word with the extra, unnecessary syllable.

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.

It used to be written in ALL CAPS becuase the word is, indeed, an acronym (something to do with "facsimile," but no one remembers what), but nowadays we write both the verb and the noun with lower-case letters, "fax" (and faxes/faxed/faxing, etc.).

Is "is" the correct form of the verb here? Or should it be replaced by "be"?

That the system is fully conjugated and planar are important conditions for aromaticity.

"Be" would be an appropriate use of the subjunctive mood in that sentence. The sentence still barely gets off the ground, though, What if you started with the subject?

Aromaticity depends on a system's being planar and fully conjugated.

(And I have to assume that those words would actually make sense in whatever chemistry set you're playing with.)

In using the present perfect progressive, can you join two thoughts with 'while' and if so, how?. Ex. Is it correct to say , ' I have been waiting for my mother while he has been waiting for his sister'. Suggesting that you are still waiting, but neither party had arrived. Or would you say, ' I have been waiting for my mother while he is waiting...'

I'm not aware of any rules against using two present perfect progressives combined in this manner. It would obviously emphasize the concurrent and ongoing nature of the two activities at some time in the past that includes up to the present (as you describe it). It would probably be more commonplace and natural, however, to replace the second present perfect progressive with the present progressive, "he is waiting," or even with the simple present, "he waits." I will leave an e-mail icon here in case someone has a clearer sense of what's going on here or cares to correct us.

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