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Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

 

Archive for November 2005

Number of comments in parentheses

30: I got it badly (and that ain’t goodly)

The misuse of “badly” is more of a problem in speech than in writing, and it is baffling. Here is an example: “I felt badly for Juan after he made that terrible mistake in the third quarter.” Perhaps the people who say “badly” when they should say “bad” are worried that they will sound ignorant. Here is the rule: After the verb “feel” and its forms, use the adjective “bad,” not the adverb “badly.” The verbs of the senses (feel, smell, look, sound, taste), like forms of “to be,” are followed most often by adjectives. “The car looked bad[.....]

29: I wish I may, I wish I might

A reader asks for clarification on “may” and “might.” The best advice I have found on this issue comes from two books, “The Careful Writer” by Theodore M. Bernstein and “Woe Is I” by Patricia T. O’Conner. Both writers point out that, grammatically, “might” is the past tense of “may.” But both words can be used in the present tense. “May,” Bernstein writes, “poses a possibility; might adds a greater degree of uncertainty to the possibility.” (p. 271, 1983 edition) So “I may get a raise” means that I am more likely to see more money in my paycheck[.....]

26: Infinitives and their pronouns

Here is a rule that many people don’t seem to know or remember: Use the objective case of a pronoun as the subject of an infinitive (a verb with the word “to”). Here are some examples:All three brothers had had lapses in judgment, and their parents didn’t know whom to trust. Because of the anonymity of the Internet, you often have no way of knowing whom to believe. We will publish the number for each county’s emergency office, so readers will know whom to call in a disaster. “The Writer’s Digest Grammar Desk Reference” explains the reason for this[.....]

21: The whole shebang

I ran across this phrase in my editing recently: the whole shebang. Actually, the writer had misspelled the word as “sha-bang,” so I checked the dictionary to make sure that the spelling is “shebang.” While I was there, I looked at the etymology and the definition. A “shebang” is a hut or a dwelling, the Webster’s New World says, and is derived from the Anglo-Irish word “shebeen,” a place where liquor is sold without a license. We use “the whole shebang” now to refer to a whole thing or affair. The Word Origins site attributes “the whole shebang” to[.....]

20: People, people

I have seen this mistake in print several times recently: peoples’. Although we may write about multiple peoples (“nationalities” would be a synonym), in these cases the writers were referring to many individual persons. The possessive should be people’s. Here is an example sentence: The city staff will listen to people’s ideas about the new park. Also, I have noticed another possessives error in print several times lately. The possessives of reciprocal pronouns each other and one another need ‘s, not s’. Here is an example: The two mothers looked after each other’s children while they were at the[.....]

18: Strunk and White illustrated

I first heard about the new illustrated edition of “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White in a report on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition.” I thought the idea of pictures to go along with one of the most revered books on style and usage was intriguing. I finally laid hands on the book last week. The artist is Maira Kalman. Her illustrations go along with the examples that the writers used to demonstrate their style rules. For instance, a fair-skinned, blue-eyed, red-haired baby’s face goes with “Chloe smells good, as a baby should.” Many[.....]

10: Many veterans, one day

Veterans Day: This is the day the United States honors men and women who have served in the armed forces. If you remember that it honors all veterans, not just one, and if you remember that it is a day for veterans, you can remember that it’s Veterans Day, not Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day, as it is so often spelled. The Department of Veterans (no apostrophe) Affairs has a good primer on Veterans Day. Click on this link to see an image of the official 2005 Veterans Day poster. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News[.....]