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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

Archive for July 2005

Number of comments in parentheses

28: Temps are down

The N&O staff has done a good job of covering the oppressive heat this week. Public Editor Ted Vaden noted the colorful phrases our writers have used. I have noticed that, for the most part, we have correctly avoided characterizing temperatures as “hotter” or “warmer.” As the Associated Press Stylebook says, temperatures either rise higher or fall lower; they do not become “warmer” or “cooler.” Broadcast weather reports often use “warm” or “cool” to describe temperatures. On the radio just now, I heard a meteorologist from the National Weather Service use “cooler” to describe today’s temperatures. As a reader[.....]

27: I gotta be me

I heard Sammy Davis Jr. sing “I Gotta Be Me” the other day. (It’s a great record, by the way.) That phrase “gotta” (for “got to”) is fine for Sammy to sing or for us to say to our pals. It doesn’t work in writing very well. Many writers avoid “got.” It’s just not a very pretty word. You can easily substitute “I have to be me.” (I know, that doesn’t fit well in song lyrics, but we are talking about something else.) You can also substitute for “got” in other uses, too. For example, instead of Ryan got[.....]

26: And …

Some editors and writers have a rule against starting a sentence with “and” or “but.” These are two of the coordinating conjunctions, which you can remember with FANBOYS: For And Nor But Or Yet So Many usage experts say that it’s perfectly fine to start a sentence with “and” or “but” (or any of the other coordinating conjunctions). You should probably not use this construction over and over, though. If you do start a sentence with “and” or “but,” do not put a comma after the words, as in this sentence: But, we wanted to know what to do[.....]

25: I am loath to loathe

The words “loathe” and “loath” seem to give writers trouble. I found this sentence in a wire service story Monday: Being a wine lover, she is loathe to pick just one, though. “Loath” is what we needed here. Most people know the meanings: “loathe” means to despise, and “loath” means reluctant. The two words are pronounced differently in standard American dialect: “loathe” has a soft th sound as in father, and “loath” has a harder th sound as in teeth. That might help some people distinguish them. But the important distinction for good writing is that “loathe” is a[.....]

24: But is it ironic?

Irony is a hard concept to explain. I think people understand it when they see “Romeo and Juliet,” for instance. They know that the audience knows what Romeo does not when he visits the Capulet tomb: that Juliet has taken a sleeping potion and is not dead. That is dramatic irony. They also find it enjoyable when they read a story by O. Henry, the wonderful North Carolina-born writer whose tales almost always ended with a result that is the opposite of what the characters intended or expected. That, too, is called irony. People also laugh when a comedian[.....]

23: Contemplating a bust

I was struck today the use of “bust” as a noun and a verb in today’s (July 24) paper. The story, the lead on page 1B, was about arrests related to the making of methamphetamine in McDowell County and across North Carolina. Here is a sentence with “bust” as a verb: In the first six months of this year, the state busted 199 meth labs, 20 percent more than the same time a year ago, according to the State Bureau of Investigations. And here is one with “bust” as a noun: A single bust can tie up people for[.....]

21: A word about proofreading

A reader called us to task recently for using “taught” when we meant “taut.” We copy editors know the difference, of course. It’s embarrassing to miss a homonym mistake like that. This gives me a chance, though, to write about copy editing and proofreading. At the first newspaper I worked for, starting in 1976, proofreaders were part of the production process. They read galleys of stories and marked corrections to be made. When computers came into wide use in newspapers, the job of proofreader gradually disappeared. That doesn’t mean, however, that proofreading disappeared. We don’t have proofreaders at our[.....]

16: What? An adverb?

A reader’s question led me to look up the word “what” today. He asked about the phrase “what with,” as in this example: We didn’t have a chance get to the beach this year, what with Caroline’s illness and Wesley’s summer job. The reader wondered how to label the phrase grammatically. I turned to some books, looking for the answer. Finally, I looked up “what” in the three dictionaries on my home office desk and found they all address this phrase directly. Here is part of the entry in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition: what adverb, … used to[.....]

15: If you’re looking for a deal …

A colleague suggested a blog entry about nonsensical “if … then” sentences. This is a subtle matter that doesn’t give most of us pause, but it’s worth a look. These “if … then” constructions often appear in TV commercials and ads. Here is an example: If you like fast sports cars, then the XYZ Dealership has a deal for you. The “then” clause doesn’t follow from the “if” clause. We start the sentence with the subject “you,” but we switch subjects in the second clause to “XYZ Dealership.” You could revise this sentence like this: If you like fast[.....]

13: Two books about grammar and usage

I like to read and collect books about grammar and usage. These books certainly come in handy when I need to look up a knotty problem, and I am enough of a grammar geek that I enjoy reading about subject-verb agreement and pronoun antecedents. I recently ordered a couple of books that others might find useful. “Words Into Type” based on work by Margaret E. Skillin, Robert M. Gay and others (Prentice Hall) is a highly influential style manual. The third edition of the book was published in 1974, and that’s the version I have. It is aimed at[.....]

12: Feeling the effect

I searched for some examples of the confusion of “affect” and “effect” and was glad that stories recently published in The N&O used the two words correctly. Writers (and perhaps their editors) have this distinction down pat. “Affect” is most often a verb that means “to influence” or “to have an effect on.” Here is a sentence from a recent news story that uses “affect” correctly: The state Supreme Court decision does not affect ESC employees who process unemployment-benefits claims. “Effect” is most often a noun that means “intent” or “influence.” Here is an example from a recent news[.....]

9: Our modifiers are compounded daily

Researching this topic, compound modifiers, I ran across the truest sentence I have read about style, grammar and usage. It’s from one of my favorite books, “The Gregg Reference Manual” by William A. Sabin (published by McGraw-Hill Irwin). In an appendix of the 10th edition titled “Essays on the Nature of Style,” Sabin writes, “It does no good to pretend that compound adjectives are an easy thing to master. They aren’t.” Amen to that, Mr. Sabin. A compound modifier is different from a series of adjectives in front of a noun. A compound adjective is a combination of two[.....]

8: Of prepositions and pronouns

I encountered this sentence in a piece of copy I was editing Friday (July 8): It later sparked an argument between she and her boyfriend. I changed “she” to “her,” of course, but I also knew that I had blog fodder. A pronoun that is the object of a preposition should be in the objective case. “Between” seems to be one preposition that gives a lot of folks trouble. Whenever I teach about pronouns, I always use the example of “between you and I” because that error seems so prevalent and I want to do my small part to[.....]

5: Who needs whom?

Some people think we should give up on “whom.” This pronoun gives English speakers and writers absolute fits. Still, I like “whom.” To me, it’s useful, and once you get it, it’s not that hard to use. Remember that pronouns have varying forms for person, number and case. Case is the problem with “who” and “whom.” “Who” is the nominative form; it is used as the subject of a verb. “Whom” is the objective form; it is used as the object of a verb, a preposition or an infinitive. I was reminded today (July 6) of the problem with[.....]

3: What is an icon anyway?

Writers use the words “icon” and “iconic” much more often today than when I entered the newspaper business almost 30 years ago. I suppose “icon” became more widespread when computer makers used it to describe the on-screen symbols associated with programs. But now the word refers often, as the Random House Webster’s College Dictionary defines it, to a person or a thing “revered or idolized.” The dictionary uses as an example “a pop icon.” That seems to be the usage that the headline writer meant in the headline on a story about the Bob Dylan-Willie Nelson concert June 12[.....]