Archive for July, 2009
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 30, 2009
I often see writers and editors putting a comma before the word because, for example, This won’t surprise anyone who has known her for a long time, because she has always espoused both liberal and conservative perspectives.
The problem with this construction is that the word because is a subordinating conjunction, which means that it introduces a subordinate, or dependent, clause. When placed after the main clause, also called the independent clause, neither subordinating conjunctions nor subordinate clauses get commas before them. If, however, the subordinating conjunction (and its dependent clause) come at the beginning of a sentence, a comma must be used after the clause.
So, for our example sentence above, we would have either:
- This won’t surprise anyone who has known her for a long time because she has always espoused both liberal and conservative perspectives.
OR
- Because she has always espoused both liberal and conservative perspectives, this won’t surprise anyone who has known her for a long time.
Other examples:
- I stayed home instead of venturing out for the evening because I was tired.
- Because I was tired, I stayed home instead of venturing out for the evening.
- His explanation did not satisfy her but, rather, made her suspicious because she’d just seen a similar plot on the late, late show.
- Because she’d just seen a similar plot on the late, late show, his explanation did not satisfy her but, rather, made her suspicious.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: comma use, dependent clause, grammar errors, punctuation, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 27, 2009
I came across this column on the demise of the apostrophe, called Are You Killing the Apostrophe. It makes no sense to me to discard a perfectly good and useful mark of punctuation simply because some people don’t know how to use it and aren’t willing to learn. A similar argument has been made about the word whom——but that’s another story.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: apostrophe use, punctuation, writing | 2 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 24, 2009
While flipping through the television stations recently, I noticed that the Sci Fi Channel is now the SyFy Channel, and not knowing what SyFy was, I did a little research (Sci Fi Becomes SyFy).
As it turns out, Sci Fi was concerned that the name of their channel was too, for the lack of a better term, geeky, so they changed the name to SyFy. In other words, the name of their channel is pronounced the same, and it gives the same impression to anyone speaking. The only difference seems to be that no one will now know how to spell it or understand why it’s spelled in a bizarre way.
My initial thought was that we all make rash decisions that don’t work out too well—–until I realized that they had chosen this “new” name from a list of 300 possible names. They actually believe this will make some sort of a difference.
I really should go–The Wx Channel has a show I want to watch.
–Paul
Posted in language | Tagged: language, marketing, pop culture, Sci Fi channel, SyFy Channel, telvision | 2 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 21, 2009
Behavior
We know that there is a tendency for discussions on the Internet to become personal, petty arguments and attacks, but we’ve been lucky. Nearly everyone leaving a comment on our blog has been respectful and polite (thank you), but since we’ve never posted any rules about commenting on the blog, we’ll do that today.
Moderation Rules
All comments are moderated, so comments will not appear instantly on the site even if you’ve previously left comments. We reserve the right to edit comments (or to not publish them) at our discretion; any editing will be to remove any inappropriate (profane or disrespectful) language, shorten exceptionally long comments, remove content unrelated to language and grammar, etc.
Comments will not be published if they include any type of personal attack, inflammatory language, overly negative language, or are not directly related to the topic.
Discussion
Also, while the writers of the blog may occasionally comment to a comment, we will not answer specific grammar questions inside of comments. Comments are intended to be short, succinct commentary on the topic at hand, not areas for prolonged discussion between the writers and one reader or a Q&A with the writers. We’d rather spend our timing writing posts for everyone to read rather than answer a question of an individual.
We occasionally write posts about pet peeves we’ve received, so the Pet Peeves page is the best place to ask a question that we might address in the future.
–Paul and Sherry
Posted in off topic | Tagged: comment rules, comments, languageandgrammar.com, paul yeager, sherry cove | 1 Comment »
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 20, 2009
Everyone loves arguing about which type of computer is better, Mac or PC, but now that Bill Gates has patents on a weather modification system (Hurricane-calming technology? Bill Gates has a plan), which computer giant would produce the best weather modification system?
I took a look at the very topic on cloudyandcool.com, with a post called Mac Versus PC–Weather Domination Category.
–Paul
Posted in humor, weather | Tagged: bill gates, humor, mac versus pc, off topic, paul yeager, weather, weather modification | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 16, 2009
How many times have you heard someone say I could care less? For every time you’ve heard it, have you wondered why the person saying it COULD care less about something he seemingly doesn’t care about at all?
The correct saying is I couldn’t care less–which, considering the context within which it’s always said, makes more sense.
I could care less if you’re breaking up with me means that you’re admitting that you do care about being tossed aside like yesterday’s newspaper. And while we all probably do care when that happens to us, we usually don’t want the other person to know, so we say I couldn’t care less (not I COULD care less), meaning, Here’s your hat; what’s your hurry?
I could care less means that you actually could care less than you do, which means that you do, in fact, care. I couldn’t care less means that you could not care any less than you do.
That’s the correct usage—in case you care.
Sherry
Posted in language | Tagged: English, grammar error, I could care less, I couldn't care less, language | 5 Comments »
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 15, 2009
Anytime I hear Quicksilver President and CEO Bob McNight say “A tsunami in surfing is a thrilling prospect, but the tsunami in business is terrifying” in an advertisement, I am shocked that something so stupid and insensitive is used as a commercial.
One of the best ways to be dismissed is to communicate in such an outrageous manner.
The 2004 tsunami killed nearly 300,000 people and displaced (meaning destroyed their homes) well over 1,000,000 others, and the president and CEO of a major company apparently thinks a day like that would be a thrilling day for surfing. What would be an exciting day to ski–the day that the entire mountain of snow falls in a huge avalanche that destroys the town? What would be a wonderful day for golf–the day that a tornado with 200-plus mph wind destroys the course?
Either Mr. McKnight knows little about the world around him (or knows nothing of recent historic events), or he is so in love with a clever line that his crack marketing staff came up with that he doesn’t care that the statement makes no sense and makes him and his company look insensitive and clueless.
–Paul
Posted in language, writing | Tagged: Bob McKnight, language, outrageous commercials, Quicksilver, tsunami, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 13, 2009
Verbs can have one of three moods: indicative, imperative, or subjunctive.
The indicative mood only includes verbs in sentences that are either statements (declarative sentences) or questions (interrogative sentences).
- It is unfortunate that more people do not live their lives in the spirit of The Golden Rule.
- Why don’t more people live their lives in the spirit of The Golden Rule?
Sentences of either command or strong request are sentences in which the verb is in the imperative mood. Often, the subject of an imperative mood sentence is not written into the sentence but, rather, is an implied “you.”
- Stop interrupting me!
- Be careful up there.
The subjunctive mood is used for several things:
1) When saying something that is contrary to fact; that is, when using verbs of wishing or wanting, use the subjunctive.
2) When one part of the sentence holds true only if the first part of the sentence occurs, use the subjunctive.
- If he were taller, then he’d be president.
3) When the sentence is a recommendation, use the subjunctive.
- The committee recommends that you be dismissed immediately.
Sherry
Posted in grammar, language, writing | Tagged: English, grammar errors, imperative, indicative, language, subjunctive, verb moods, writing | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 9, 2009
I doubt that many people who started on the career path of marketing ever dreamed of the day when they would need to promote a laxative, and it’s not exactly the type of product that’s easy to market. We know what it’s for. We know what it does. We don’t need (or like) to talk about it.
Having said that, I think that Dulcolax could have done a better job of separating their fine product from the competition other than saying that the pill is comfort coated.
I have nothing else to say on the topic–other than to say that I’m surprised that you can buy laxatives from Amazon.com.
–Paul
Posted in humor, language, off topic | Tagged: dulcolax comfort coated, humor, language, laxative | Comments Off
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 6, 2009
The rarely ever grammar goof is really just a hybrid of rarely and hardly ever, which both mean the same thing; thus, together, they create a type of redundancy.
Use either rarely OR hardly ever, not rarely ever.
I rarely ever arrive at work on time. (wrong)
I rarely arrive at work on time. (correct)
I hardly ever arrive at work on time. (correct)
Sherry
Posted in language | Tagged: English, grammar errors, hardly ever, rarely, rarely ever, writing | Comments Off
Comment on Comments
Posted by languageandgrammar on July 21, 2009
Behavior
We know that there is a tendency for discussions on the Internet to become personal, petty arguments and attacks, but we’ve been lucky. Nearly everyone leaving a comment on our blog has been respectful and polite (thank you), but since we’ve never posted any rules about commenting on the blog, we’ll do that today.
Moderation Rules
All comments are moderated, so comments will not appear instantly on the site even if you’ve previously left comments. We reserve the right to edit comments (or to not publish them) at our discretion; any editing will be to remove any inappropriate (profane or disrespectful) language, shorten exceptionally long comments, remove content unrelated to language and grammar, etc.
Comments will not be published if they include any type of personal attack, inflammatory language, overly negative language, or are not directly related to the topic.
Discussion
Also, while the writers of the blog may occasionally comment to a comment, we will not answer specific grammar questions inside of comments. Comments are intended to be short, succinct commentary on the topic at hand, not areas for prolonged discussion between the writers and one reader or a Q&A with the writers. We’d rather spend our timing writing posts for everyone to read rather than answer a question of an individual.
We occasionally write posts about pet peeves we’ve received, so the Pet Peeves page is the best place to ask a question that we might address in the future.
–Paul and Sherry
Posted in off topic | Tagged: comment rules, comments, languageandgrammar.com, paul yeager, sherry cove | 1 Comment »