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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for October 2005

Number of comments in parentheses

31: Bare with us?

One of the funniest instances of homonym confusion that I have ever heard of purportedly came from a church bulletin that said: We are renovating the Sunday school wing. Please bare with us. Today I ran across another instance of a writer confusing “bear” and “bare.” It’s from The Herald, a Scottish newspaper site. In a story about the three young stars of the Harry Potter films, it says: “It’s been an odd five years, but it’s been great,” says Radcliffe who, with cropped hair, a trendy purple shirt and black tie (and no black-rimmed spectacles), now bares only[.....]

28: Persuade me to follow the rule

We have an expression among copy editors: Don’t follow the stylebook out the window. That is, don’t be so rigid in your enforcement of style rules that you make changes that aren’t in the best interest of the reader or the writer. The Associated Press Stylebook entry on “convince” and “persuade” is a rule that I sometimes choose to ignore because it doesn’t seem to cover every instance. The stylebook, which we use at The News & Observer, says, “You may be convinced that or of something. You must be persuaded to do something.” The rule appears to forbid[.....]

25: We do care

Some people, perhaps you, irritate some people, including me, by saying, “I could care less.” Y’all need to stop it. We are losing patience. OK, so “could care less” is not a big grammar-usage sin, but it is annoying. What the folks who “could care less” mean is that they “could NOT care less.” That is, they care so very little that they could not possibly care less. Of course, the “could care less” usage is so widespread that very few of us pay much attention any more and, in truth, we know what they mean, even though the[.....]

24: Continual or continuous?

If your neighbor’s dog barked all night, was the noise “continual” or “continuous”? It depends. Did the dog bark, then stop, then bark awhile again? Then the dog barked continually — that is, off and on, or repeatedly. If the dog truly never stopped barking all night, then the barking was continuous — that is, unbroken or uninterrupted. The two words are not interchangeable, although they are close to each other in meaning. Here are a couple of recent instances of these words used correctly in The N&O:On Greenspan’s watch, the U.S. economy grew from March 1991 to March[.....]

21: Loath to say this

I have “loathe” and “loath” on my mind. I fixed two instances this week. In both cases, the writer had written “loathe” but actually meant “loath.” I think that the mistake is most often just a typo, but I think it’s worth repeating: * Loathe is a verb that means to abhor, to hate, to despise. * Loath is an adjective that means reluctant. Here are examples from The N&O: “You’d think the group would be loath [reluctant] to tinker with a formula that has served it so well, but there will be at least one major change on[.....]

19: Diagnose an illness

A colleague reminds me of the widespread misuse of “diagnose.” As he points out, illnesses are diagnosed, not people. Theodore H. Bernstein in “The Careful Writer” and John Bremner in “Words on Words” write about this common misuse. My colleague and the esteemed language experts might find fault with this small headline on today’s front page: Often-sued doctor still may diagnose patients. Here is the offending structure as it usually appears in print: The boy was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. If we are going to follow the example of Bernstein and Bremner, we would write: Tourette syndrome was diagnosed[.....]

18: Sneaked or snuck?

The past tense of the verb “sneak” seems to be mutating (and I do mean like a germ). I always change “snuck” to “sneaked” because I consider “snuck” nonstandard. I have some support from usage experts. Bryan Garner in “A Dictionary of Modern American Usage” calls “snuck” nonstandard. But it appears that the usage might be changing. As in this partial sentence from a News & Observer editorial — “North Carolina’s new lottery snuck into being through the state legislature’s back door …” — “snuck” is used quite often as the past tense. The venerable James Kilpatrick says whether[.....]

16: Along the midway

The State Fair reminds me of the origin of the “midway” as the term for the place where games, rides and amusements are. The term is not old. It originated with the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Midway Plaisance was the name of the park, a strip of about 80 acres, that the exposition organizers turned into an amusement area. One feature of Midway Plaisance was the Ferris wheel. The Columbian Exposition has had a lasting influence on the country. You can read more about it and even view a clickable map of the Midway at this[.....]

15: None, not one, not any — nary a one

The word “none” gives us fits. Many people were taught that “none” is always singular. Indeed, if you think of “none” as “not one,” then it is singular. But sometimes “none” means “not any” and needs a plural verb. You should choose the verb depending on your meaning. Both of these sentences could be considered correct:None of us knows the trouble she has seen. (Not one)None of us know the trouble she has seen. (Not any) Does the second sentence sound better to you? That is because of the plural pronoun “us” in the prepositional phrase after “none.” In[.....]

15: It is I

When I pick up a ringing phone and hear the caller ask to speak with Pam Nelson, I say, “This is she.” Am I being stuffy and formal? Maybe I am, but I prefer this form. It is the way my mother taught me to answer. Is it wrong for someone else to answer the same sort of question with “This is her” or “this is me”? Apparently, it is not considered wrong in today’s informal speech to use the objective case of the pronoun in these instances. (But it makes my skin crawl, to tell the truth, to[.....]

12: Fit the bill?

I have come across “fit the bill” a few times lately. The expression, which means that something is just right, is a variation of “fill the bill.” I don’t always change the phrase in copy because I think people understand it and I worry that “fill the bill” will appear to be a mistake to most readers. “Fit the bill” and “fill the bill” are odd expressions, but then most idioms are. You can turn to Professor Brians for a explanation of why “fill the bill” is better than “fit the bill.” Keywords: grammar guide, language, writing This article[.....]

6: Sick about it

I ran across a quote that used the word “nauseous,” as in “Even the thought of broccoli makes me nauseous.” Most usage experts say that the speaker should have said “nauseated.” “Nauseous” is an adjective that describes something that makes you sick to your stomach. “Nauseated” is the word to describe being sick. However, some observers of the language say that usage has changed and “nauseous” is a perfectly good word to describe being sick enough to lose your lunch. I don’t hold with that group. Here is the American Heritage Book of English Usage discussion of “nauseous” and[.....]

4: Are you eager or anxious?

Writers and speakers sometimes mix up “eager” and “anxious.” Here is a sentence from a wire service story about a football player who was returning to play with his team: Anxious to get on the field, Davis temporarily was held up when he couldn’t find his helmet. Earlier in the story, the writer had described the player as “eager.” I don’t think “eager” and “anxious,” in this particular case, can apply to the same state of mind or demeanor. “Anxious” connotes dread or apprehension: The 16-year-old girl was anxious about taking the driving test because she feared that she[.....]

1: A vs. an

In most instances, the choice between the articles “a” and “an” is easy. Use “a” before a word beginning with a consonant, and use “an” before a word beginning with a vowel: a ball, a cat, an apple, an orange. Then we encounter “an hour” or “an NCSU student” in print. Those are easy, too, though, because we remember that the sound, not the letter itself, determines the article used. Although “hour” is spelled with an “h,” it begins with the sound of an “o.” If we read “NCSU” by the individual letters, it also begins with a vowel.[.....]