This week's blog is inspired by a help wanted ad in an IL newspaper. It read
Now Hiring
Students, Retiree's, Mother's, Others
Apparently students and others are plural, but retirees and mothers are possessive. As you know, all four singular nouns, should merely have an s added to make them plural. By adding 's, the words become singular possessive. Compare these two sentences.
The retirees enjoyed two weeks of travel last month.
The retiree's pension allowed her to travel.
The first is plural, talking about more than one retiree, and the second is talking about the pension that is the property of one retiree. Therefore, it is possessive rather than plural. Using the correct form of a word makes the meaning much clearer, and it makes the writer appear singularly intelligent.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Watch the Words!
An Illinois newspaper printed the following story:
Police say a 15-year-old boy has died and eight people wounded in a shooting at a party.
One of the criteria for a group of words to comprise a sentence is that they have to make sense. In the above sentence, wounded needs a helping verb unless the people did the wounding. I am sure that the writer intended to say and eight people were wounded in a shooting. We now have two subjects and two complete verbs as part of the police description.
You may have noticed that there is no comma after died. That is because the sentence is an informal quote from the police rather than a sentence describing the tragedy. If it were just a news story, it would read A 15-year-old boy has died, and eight people were wounded in a shooting.
To clarify our example sentence, it would accurately read Police say a 15-year-old boy has died and eight people were wounded in a shooting at a party. What is the lesson here? Don't bring guns to a party. It can be more dangerous than lawn darts. Also, watch what you write to make sure it makes sense.
Police say a 15-year-old boy has died and eight people wounded in a shooting at a party.
One of the criteria for a group of words to comprise a sentence is that they have to make sense. In the above sentence, wounded needs a helping verb unless the people did the wounding. I am sure that the writer intended to say and eight people were wounded in a shooting. We now have two subjects and two complete verbs as part of the police description.
You may have noticed that there is no comma after died. That is because the sentence is an informal quote from the police rather than a sentence describing the tragedy. If it were just a news story, it would read A 15-year-old boy has died, and eight people were wounded in a shooting.
To clarify our example sentence, it would accurately read Police say a 15-year-old boy has died and eight people were wounded in a shooting at a party. What is the lesson here? Don't bring guns to a party. It can be more dangerous than lawn darts. Also, watch what you write to make sure it makes sense.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Anyway You Splice It
An e-mail ad contained the following sentence:
We know how important giving is to you, we're no different, we feel the same way.
Admittedly, advertising isn't always textbook writing, and it can be creative. However, this example feels and sounds wrong, even for advertising. This is an example of comma splice. The term comma splice refers to the use of commas to separate sections of a sentence that should be separated by periods or semi-colons. There are three independent clauses in the example, and no conjunction is used.
The best way to write the sentence is
We know how important giving is to you. We're no different; we feel the same way.
Three separate sentences would also be correct, but it would feel more choppy because of the short phrasing. When you write, check for complete sentences containing a subject and verb, and make sure that you don't join them with a comma. Punctuation is important for comprehension, comfort, and accuracy of a sentence. Period.
We know how important giving is to you, we're no different, we feel the same way.
Admittedly, advertising isn't always textbook writing, and it can be creative. However, this example feels and sounds wrong, even for advertising. This is an example of comma splice. The term comma splice refers to the use of commas to separate sections of a sentence that should be separated by periods or semi-colons. There are three independent clauses in the example, and no conjunction is used.
The best way to write the sentence is
We know how important giving is to you. We're no different; we feel the same way.
Three separate sentences would also be correct, but it would feel more choppy because of the short phrasing. When you write, check for complete sentences containing a subject and verb, and make sure that you don't join them with a comma. Punctuation is important for comprehension, comfort, and accuracy of a sentence. Period.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Hay You!
There is a handy little word in the Spanish language. It is hay, and it means there is or there are. For example, Hay una escuela en la esquina means There is a school on the corner. Hay dos pajaros en el arbol means There are two birds in the tree. In other words, number, or singular and plural, doesn't matter in the case of hay.
In English, however, it is important for accuracy and understanding to make them agree in number. Read these two quotes from Illinois and Georgia newspapers.
A little bird told me there's some voters here.
There's so many venues in the city, and they keep building more.
These lines should read there are some voters and there are so many venues because both refer to plurals. You will be happy, as I was, to read the following correct usage in a Georgia newspaper:
There are many ways to lose.
The plural ways corresponds to the plural there are. If it isn't clear, try turning around the order, as in Some voters are there or Venues in the city are there. The meaning is different, but it helps with whether to use there is or there are. And hay, it does make a difference.
In English, however, it is important for accuracy and understanding to make them agree in number. Read these two quotes from Illinois and Georgia newspapers.
A little bird told me there's some voters here.
There's so many venues in the city, and they keep building more.
These lines should read there are some voters and there are so many venues because both refer to plurals. You will be happy, as I was, to read the following correct usage in a Georgia newspaper:
There are many ways to lose.
The plural ways corresponds to the plural there are. If it isn't clear, try turning around the order, as in Some voters are there or Venues in the city are there. The meaning is different, but it helps with whether to use there is or there are. And hay, it does make a difference.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)