Grammar Made (Relatively) Painless

Transcription

1 Grammar Made (Relatively) Painless Subjects Where s the subject? The subject is the main person, place, or thing in a clause or sentence, always paired with a verb. You must know how to locate the main subject of any sentence, as the dynamism and clarity of your sentences rely on your using an actor of a tangible object as your subjects in most sentences. To pinpoint the main subject of any sentence, find the independent clause in it. You can recognize independent clauses, as these can always be split off from the rest of the sentence and stand on their own, without reading like either a sentence fragment or an unfinished sentence. Example: Before he became the original James Bond, Sean Connery had worked as both a bricklayer and a truck driver. Note how the second clause can stand completely on its own, if severed from the rest of the sentence: Sean Connery had worked as both a bricklayer and a truck driver. If you try the same tactic with the first clause, however, the result reads like a sentence fragment, a piece of sentence that's clearly missing something: Before he became the original James Bond. Now find the main actor or thing in the sentence's independent clause the noun or pronoun that refers to the main action or verb in the sentence. Sean Connery is the main noun in the sentence, since that proper noun refers to the main verb. "He" in the first clause doesn't count, as the first clause is a dependent clause. Incidentally, Sean Connery is a proper noun, since this is the individual name of a person, place, company, product, or object. Proper nouns are always capitalized; common nouns, which refer to general categories of objects, places, and things, are never capitalized. Some problems relating to subjects: Subject-verb agreement refers to how the subjects and verbs of sentences must be consistent in both gender and number. Gender refers to masculine or feminine; number refers to singular or plural. 1. When you have two nouns or pronouns as your subject linked by "and," the verb should be plural, since the subject is multiple:

2 The buoyant economy and astronomical growth of the Internet have contributed to the attractiveness of investing in high tech startups. 2. When you have two nouns or pronouns linked by "or" or "nor" (usually preceded by "either" or "neither"), the verb is singular: Neither Carlos nor Adele was able to accurately forecast the market trend. 3. Be wary of collective nouns, which include the names of companies and institutions, as well as groups. These usually refer to groups acting as a single unit: General Motors is holding its annual meeting in Dearborn. International note: British speakers of English tend to refer to companies in the plural, presumably because they are made up of scores of people, not because Brits are a fractious lot who have difficulty working in groups: Cunard are pleased to offer their passengers the first-ever cruising awards incentive programme. 4. Be wary when using "their" to escape identifying a person or position with a gender when you've been using the singular. While this is acceptable in spoken English, pronouns and nouns be consistent in number and gender in written English: Wrong! The employee had left their files in an utter disarray. Correct versions: The employees had left their files in an utter disarray. The employee had left his files in an utter disarray. The employee had left her files in an utter disarray. The employee had left his/her files in an utter disarray. 5. Beware of seizing on the number or gender of the noun closest to the verb and allowing that to determine the number and gender of the verb: The task, which was loaded with complex details and hours of mindnumbing repetitions, seem endless.

3 Pronouns Pronouns replace nouns, relieving us of the need to repeat the same noun in a sentence or string of sentences. Potential problems with pronouns: 1. Unclear reference to a single noun in a sentence. Since your readers will have to hunt back through an entire preceding sentence, or sentences, or, worse, may assume you're referring to the wrong noun, ensure your pronouns clearly refer only to a single noun, preferably one reasonably close to the pronoun. Guilty, bitterness, and cruelty can be emotionally destructive to you and your family. You must get rid of them. Corrected versions: Guilt, bitterness, and cruelty can be emotionally destructive to you and your family. You must get rid of these emotions. Guilt, bitterness, and cruelty can be emotionally destructive to you and your family. You must get rid of these destructive feelings. Unless, of course, you actually mean to get rid of your family. 2. Even if you use a string of pronouns, you can ensure their references are all clear by making each pronoun refer clearly to a single noun: The office manager bought cheap, knock-off keyboards for his steno pool, but they fell apart quickly because they were not suited to heavy use. 3. Ensure your pronouns are as close to their referents as you can place them, since the more distance between the pronoun and the noun it refers to, the greater the likelihood your reader may get muddled: The statement that the supervisor made and that she issued it as a formal policy inflamed the city council, who knew it would result in widespread anger. Correct version: The supervisor made a statement and the Mayor issued a formal policy. This, however, inflamed the City Council, who knew the policy would result in widespread anger.

4 4. Ensure that the pronouns it, this, that and which refer to only one referent, since these can make sentences especially difficult to understand:!confusing! According to some sources, the Federal Reserve ought to intercede before the bull market spirals out of control and crashes. That was the primary cause of the Great Depression. Clear version: According to some sources, the Federal Reserve ought to intercede before the bull market spirals out of control and crashes. Speculation and trading on margins were the primary causes of the Great Depression. 5. Who versus that or which: Who always refers to people or groups of people (even companies); that or which refers to animals and inanimate objects, as well as some groups. 6. Some grammarians and people of a certain age, as the French like to say, insist that should be used only for restrictive adjective clauses, while which should be used solely for non-restrictive adjective clauses. In a restrictive clause, the clause identifies the object being modified absolutely, nailing its identity down to a single thing: The book that I had laid on the table has been stolen. In a non-restrictive clause, the clause only provides more information about the object being modified: The book, which has grease spots on its dust cover, is one I consult frequently. While the Oxford English Dictionary the Bible of modern English usage and grammar no longer observes the rule governing when you use that and when you use which, some fogeys out there will swear by it. The only rule that still does legitimately refer to the difference between the two: never place commas around a restrictive clause; always place commas around a non-restrictive clause. 7. Pronouns fall into four cases: nominative, objective, possessive, and reflexive. Use nominative case when your pronoun is the subject of a sentence or a predicate pronoun. A predicate pronoun is a pronoun that restates the subject of the sentence and always follows a passive verb or verb of being. Nominative case pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, we, they, who, whoever: I know of no other person in the company who is as smarmy as he. [Here, "he" refers to an implied "is" that is commonly left unstated after an "as" clause.] Yes, this is she. [Predicate pronoun restating the subject "this"] It is me.

5 Who did this? Use objective case pronouns to refer to a pronoun or noun that receives action or to pronouns that function as indirect objects or which follow prepositions. You can always tell a word is an indirect object if you can insert "to" or "for" before it without changing the meaning. Objective case pronouns include: me, you, him, her, it, us, them, whom, whomever: Whom can you send to help us? [Whom is the direct object of send] The Internet gave my sister and me some interesting ideas. Use possessive case pronouns to indicate possession. Possessive pronouns include its, your, their, whose, hers, his, mine, my, yours, ours, whose, whosever. Note that it's, you're, they're, and who's are all contractions, that is, combinations of words where a missing letter is represented by an apostrophe. Note: Possessive forms of pronouns are dicey only when they modify entire phrases, when most writers tend to mistakenly rely on the objective form: We were miffed at him running out on us like that. Correct version: We were miffed at his running out on us like that. [His modifies the entire phrase running out on us like that which acts as a single part of this sentence]