January « 2007 « Grammar Guide « copydesk.org

Pam Nelson: The Grammar Guide

Archive for January 2007

Number of comments in parentheses

29: On the Q.T.

Keith Olbermann joked on MSNBC’s “Countdown” on Monday night that Lewis “Scooter” Libby is “the last person in America to use the phrase ‘on the Q.T.’” Indeed, the phrase, which came up in testimony at Libby’s trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in the disclosure of a CIA operative’s name, probably struck many people as old-fashioned and maybe even unfamiliar. Ari Fleischer, former White House press secretary, testified that Libby talked to him at lunch about Valerie Plame Wilson and told Fleischer that the information was “on the Q.T.,” meaning that it was secret. Here is[.....]

28: Stereotypes

What stereotypes in the news media annoy or enrage you? I attended a seminar sponsored by the Southeast chapter of the American Copy Editors Society on Sunday in Chapel Hill, and one of the liveliest discussions we had was about stereotypes: generational, racial, ethnic, political, sexual, socioeconomic. For copy editors and other journalists, it’s a matter of accuracy, clarity and fairness. Cliches figure into our choices, too. Is it accurate to label conservatives “right-wing”? Are all liberals “left-leaning”? Is it news when a woman who happens to have grandchildren is arrested on a drug charge? Does the word “elderly”[.....]

28: Oh, those foreign phrases

If I were ever a contestant on “Jeopardy!,” you would probably never hear me say, “I’ll take ‘Foreign Words and Phrases’ for $1600, Alex.” Like a lot of English speakers and writers, I often mess up on words from other languages. I just ran across this in a piece of copy: objects d’art. I thought it was spelled objets d’art, but, of course, I wasn’t sure. So I looked it up, something professional copy editors do many times a day. Indeed, it’s objets d’art. It’s easy to let this slip by, I’d say. The Columbia Guide to Standard American[.....]

25: Brethren and sistren

Writer G.D. Gearino employed a little-used word in his Sunday Journal story about three guys who go water-skiing every month, regardless of how cold it is. Gearino wrote this sentence: Suppose you decide that you’re going to climb inside a refrigerator-sized box in the middle of the city and refuse to eat for a day (and that you’re not doing this as a show of support for your homeless brethren and sistren). The Ask Oxford site has a short post about sistren. The Mavens’ Word of the Day has a post about plurals made with -en. This article was[.....]

22: The great verb shift

We Americans are fond of creating verbs from nouns. We speak of how the war “impacts” the president’s popularity, how the schools “mainstream” children and how a company can “leverage” its high bond rating. Bryan A. Garner calls this functional variation, “the ability of a word to shift from one grammatical function to another.” Garner also writes about phrasal verbs, which are noun phrases turned into verbs. We had one of those in a story (American dream leads many here) Sunday: Eric and Cristina Middleton house-hunted in the Washington area for a year before finally giving up and moving[.....]

15: Brio!

At least one reader asked a colleague about the word brio in this headline Coble brings brio to county. The reader joked that it sounded as if Paul Coble, the Wake County commissioner who was the subject of the story, had brought some tasty soft cheese to the county. Brio (bree-oh) is Italian and means “enthusiastic vigor.” Its synonyms are zest, vivacity and verve. The story was about how enthusiastically Coble is going about his duties on the board of commissioners, so the headline certainly reflects the story. [More:] Is brio then a better word than, say, zest or[.....]

14: Concrete thinking

One of our Home & Garden columnists reminded me recently of the difference between concrete and cement. Cement is the dry powder that is mixed with other things (water, sand, gravel) to make concrete, which is the hardened stuff used for sidewalks and some roads. Cement is only cement as long as it’s dry. Another way to think of it is that cement is to concrete as flour is to bread. If you are interested a more technical (and rather interesting) explanation, here is one from the WiseGeek. This article was originally posted by the Raleigh News & Observer,[.....]

10: Wailin’ and whalin’

Words labeled as “informal” or “colloquial” in the dictionary show up in print in our conversational age. Yesterday, I ran across a sentence that referred to a man who “wails” on another. I thought the word was spelled differently, but I had to look it up. It’s “whales.” Webster’s New World Dictionary defines whale as “to beat, whip or thrash.” It calls the word colloquial and suggests that it comes from wale “to mark the skin with wales” (A wale in this case is a welt raised by a striking the skin with a whip.) This is apparently a[.....]

9: Today’s tip: The sound of history

A colleague and her friend asked about whether we should use “a” or “an” with “history” and its derivatives “historic” and “historical.” The answer was easy: Use “a.” But many people, especially the folks who read or report the news on TV, use “an.” And that usage leaches into writing. We choose “a” because American speakers and writers use “a” in front of consonant sounds and “an” before vowel sounds. The “h” in “history,” “historic” and “historical” is sounded, unlike the “h” in “honor” or “hour.” So it’s “an hour” but “a history.” Bill Walsh of The Slot makes[.....]

8: Watch the modifiers

A phrase at the beginning of a sentence often modifies the subject of the sentence. Sometimes writers confuse us by using a phrase to modify the wrong thing. For example, a story about a writer contains this sentence: Once extremely shy, writing gave her solace. The writer of the piece meant the phrase “once extremely shy” to describe the subject of the piece. However, the structure of the sentence puts “once extremely shy” in the position to modify “writing.” Here is another example of a misplaced modifier: At 16, his father taught him how to drive a tractor. In[.....]

7: Hold the reins

A story I was copy-editing a few days ago had a homonym problem. Near the top of the story was this sentence: Here are 10 ways to get back on track and reign in the shopping budget for 2007. The writer confused reign (to rule or hold sway over) and rein (to stop a horse or to slow down). The interesting thing is that the story was consistent. Later in the story was this sentence: This is another exercise in restraint that can help reign in spending. I was lucky to spot this because, frankly, I have trouble with[.....]

4: Where “frag” comes from

This headline on newsobserver.com this morning sent me to my dictionary: Defense in ‘fragging’ case asks for expert help Fragging is military slang, the dictionary says, for intentionally killing or wounding a superior officer, especially with a hand grenade. The Online Etymology Dictionary reports that the term comes from the Vietnam War and derives from fragmentation grenade. An entry on Wikipedia says that grenades were preferred because they left no fingerprints. The Wikipedia entry also notes that the assassination could be of an officer or even an unpopular member of the unit. This article was originally posted by the[.....]

4: Questions – direct and indirect

A reader asked about these two sentences: * Analyze three situations to determine what the unacceptable behavior is and what the next steps are. * Analyze three situations to determine what is the unacceptable behavior and what are the next steps. The reader wondered why the first seemed correct to one person while the second seemed correct to another. The reader wanted to know which was right. I had to do some research before I felt confident about answering the question. The answer lies in word order. These sentences have indirect questions in the “what” clauses. If they were[.....]

3: Confession: I changed a sign

We grammar geeks often wince at the sight of misused words in signs we see in public places. We threaten to carry a red pen and fix them. I didn’t use a red pen, but I did edit in a public place recently. I was in a large antiques store somewhere in North Carolina, looking at an old kitchen table. A handwritten sign with the details about the table was taped to the top, which was a bright, 1960s yellow. The sign suggested that black chairs would “compliment” the table. In a split second, I decided to make the[.....]

2: Today’s tip: gibe, jibe and jive

I wish I could figure out an easy mnemonic to remember the difference between gibe and jibe. It helps to know the derivation of the words. To gibe someone is to jeer or taunt him; a gibe (the noun) is a jeer. It comes from an Old French word giber, meaning to handle roughly. The first meanings of jibe have to do with changing a ship’s course, but to jibe can mean to be in accord with something. Jibe derives from a Dutch word gijpen that means to shift, as in shifting a ship’s sails. Actually, gibe doesn’t come[.....]