Q. What is the best strategy for dealing with
sentences which do not sound quite right?
A. It is usually much better to rewrite an awkward
or confusing sentence completely, rather than to try to patch it.
Often it is desirable to split a long
or convoluted sentence into two or more shorter ones.
Jargon or acronyms which the intended
audience might not understand are best avoided. At the very least, such
items should be explained when first used and/or they should be included in
a glossary.
See also Gobbledegook.
Q. A stockbroker recently wrote:
"The key assumption underpinning
our forecast EPS growth, is the successful move into the US."
Is the use of the comma in this way
correct?
A. No! A surprising and astonishingly common error
is the placing of a comma between a subject and the following verb. The
commas in such sentences utterly destroy the natural flow of the message
and should therefore be omitted. It is difficult to understand what logic
causes so many writers to commit this sin.
A simple sentence may help. Would
anybody really want to say the following:
"My wife, is pretty."
Q. Is it all right to say "have got"?
A. Usually not. The simple verb "have" in
the sense of "possess" should never be rendered as "have
got".
This combination of words would be
appropriate only in contexts in which "have received" or
"have acquired" or "have obtained" could be substituted
- in other words, where the present perfect tense of the verb "to
get" i s really intended.
Q. On a related matter, is it in order to say
"have gotten" in Australia?
A. No. The modern American phrase "have
gotten" is even uglier and thus more objectionable than the English
"have got".
Thus: "I have gotten
something."
could be rendered as:
"I have obtained something."
Actually, of course,
"gotten" is archaic rather than very modern. The "-en"
suffix for the past participles of strong verbs still survives in common
words such as written, given and driven, in the
biblical "ye have lien among the pots" (Psalms 68:13),
in expressions such as "we are beholden to him", in a
few adjectives such as begotten, cloven and stricken,
in forgotten, and in relation to the verb "to get"
itself in phrases such as "ill-gotten gains".
Q. Is there anything wrong with the following
sentence?
"I have got to do this
today."
A. Indeed there is. The verb "have to"
meaning "must" should never be rendered as "have got
to". Either of the following should be used instead:
"I have to do this today."
"I must do this today."
Q. Should a closing bracket precede or follow a full
stop?
A. Whether a closing bracket should precede or
follow a full stop always depends on the context. To illustrate:
"This is misleading (see page
17.)"
should be
"This is misleading (see page 17)."
because here the words in brackets are part of the main sentence.
"This is misleading. (The term is
explained on page 17)."
should be
"This is misleading. (The term is explained on page 17.)"
because here the words in brackets form a completely separate sentence.
Q. Should a closing quotation mark precede or follow
a full stop?
A. As in the above question, whether a closing
quotation mark should precede or follow a full stop always depends on the
context.
Contrast the following:
She said, "My husband works
hard."
Here the full stop comes first,
because the quoted words form a complete sentence by themselves.
The plural of "man" is
"men".
Here the full stop comes last, to show
the end of the sentence. The reverse order would be quite illogical, as the
plural word required is "men" and not "men." in this
context.
Q. One hears sentences such as the following all the
time:
"This is a worry for your mother
and I."
Why are they considered wrong?
A. The sentence should read:
"This is a worry for your mother
and me."
The preposition "for" needs
to be followed by the accusative case "me", not the nominative
case "I". The fact that "for" and "me" are
here separated by another object "your mother" makes no
difference, a point frequently misunderstood. The following expansion may
assist understanding:
"This is a worry for your mother
and for me."
In the same way the Prime Ministers's
famous "Who can you trust?" should, of course, have been
"Whom can you trust?"
Verbs also take the accusative case.
Thus:
"Please join Joan and I for
refreshments."
should be:
"Please join Joan and me for
refreshments."
Q. Which of the following sentences is correct?
"I approved of him coming to see
me."
or
"I approved of his coming to see
me."
A. The latter. The approval refers not to the person
him but rather to the event his coming.
Q. Is it better to write email or e-mail?
Both forms seem to be about equally popular.
A. This is largely a matter of taste. However, the
form e-mail is recommended over the alternative forms email,
E-mail and Email. This advice has regard to:
- the
origins of the term as representing electronic mail
- the
traditional way of expressing e-mail addresses in lower case
- the
use of "e-" as a living prefix in words such as e-commerce,
e-book and e-publishing
- the
desire to avoid confusion with the French word for enamel,
which is email
- the
desire to avoid confusion with the name of the Australian whitegoods
company, Email Limited (formerly Electricity Meter and Allied
Industries Limited)
- the
fact that, unlike the case with words such as U- turn and J-curve,
the shape of the capital letter would have no relevance.
However, once a particular spelling is
decided upon it should be used consistently.
The word e-mail is both an
adjective and a noun. The noun is used both for the system (for example,
"e-mail is a marvellous invention") and as popular shorthand for
"e-mail message". As in many other instances, the noun can also
be used as a verb (for example, "to e-mail something").
Q. Can an exchange of e-mail messages have
unexpected consequences? Furthermore, does style matter?
A. Indeed. The informal style acceptable in e-mail
messages enables them to be created with much less effort than formal
letters. However, this can also be a legal trap. For example, an exchange
of e-mails could constitute a binding contract; a carelessly worded comment
could become the basis of a libel action; and so on.
In regard to style issues, some
correspondents overdo the informality and do not even use a spelling
checker. At the very least this would enable them to fix typographical
errors.
Furthermore, e-mails are more easily
read if they contain a series of short paragraphs, separated by blank
lines, rather than just a single jumbo paragraph.
Q. Why is the following sentence considered wrong?
"I met a man whom I knew was an
agent."
Is not "whom" the object of
"knew"?
A. No, the correct word in constructions such as
these is "who". The sentence should be:
"I met a man who I knew was an
agent."
Here "who" is the subject of
"was". This becomes obvious if the parenthesis in the middle is
disregarded:
"I met a man who ... was an
agent."
However,
"I met a man whom I knew to be an
agent."
would be in order. Here
"whom" is the object of the verb "knew". The sentence
is now equivalent to
"I met a man and I knew him to be
an agent."
Many persons are so scared of using
"who" when "whom" is required that they finish up using
"whom" when "who" is required, as in the following very
typical further example:
"She completed a sentence for the
murder of her husband whom she said had subjected her to years of
violence."
Q. Which of the following is correct:
"It is I who is leaving."
"It is I who am leaving."
A. The relative pronoun "who" would often
be followed by the third person of the relevant verb, as in:
"It is my brother who is leaving."
Here the antecedent of "who"
is "my brother" and the sentence means in part:
"My brother is leaving."
But in the case of the sentence in the
above question the antecedent of "who" is "I", a first
person pronoun, and the sentence means in part:
"I am leaving."
Thus here "who" is also
first person and the correct form is thus:
"It is I who am leaving."
If that sounds odd, consider the
plural:
"It is we who are leaving."
See also the Johnson quote at the top
of this page.
Q. Is the following sentence correct?
"I can go with whomever is
free."
A. No. This should be:
"I can go with whoever is
free."
Here "whoever" is the
subject of the verb "is", not the object of the preposition
"with". The sentence is short for:
"I can go with him whoever is
free."
However, the following would be
correct (but not because of the preposition "with"):
"I can go with whomever you
suggest."
Here the "whomever" is the
object of the verb "suggest".
Q. Can "whose" be used with inanimate
objects?
A. The relative pronoun "whose" should
preferably be used only with personal antecedents. In other cases "of
which" should be used instead. Thus:
"The brands whose prices are
going up will be announced each week."
should be recast as:
"The brands the prices of which
are going up will be announced each week."
Nouns such as "company" and
"party", despite such concepts representing people indirectly,
are also regarded as inanimate for this purpose and therefore require the
use of "of which" rather than "whose". Thus:
"The company of which I am head
is now listed on the stock exchange."
On the other hand, "whose"
can be used with household pets, where these are treated as virtual members
of the family.
It should be noted that the possessive
case of "who" is "whose", without an apostrophe; the
word "who's" stands for "who is" or "who
has".
Q. What is the possessive case of "who
else"?
A. This expression is regarded as a single pronoun.
The possessive case is "who else's", as in:
"Who else's views were
sought?"
Q. Is the following sentence correct?
"This is the same letter that I
had."
A. No. After the demonstrative adjectives
"same" and "such" and a few other words the correct
relative pronoun is "as" and not "who",
"which" or "that". Thus the sentence should read:
"This is the same letter as I
had."
Other examples of "as" as a
relative pronoun are:
"Such people as turned up greatly
enjoyed the show."
"She is as worthy a scientist as ever received this award."
Q. Should marketing brochures be written in the
first person?
A. Not necessarily. Many different styles can be
used when designing such a brochure, according to taste - for example, the
various topics could be given headings as follows:
(1) Straight Narrative:
· Benefits of shopping at XYZ
· Opening times
· Discounts
· Web site
(2) Questions and Answers in the first
Person:
· What will I experience when I
shop at XYZ?
· When can I go shopping at XYZ?
· Will I get any discounts at XYZ?
· Can I get further information
about XYZ on the Internet?
(3) Questions and Answers in the
second Person:
· What do you get when you shop at
XYZ?
· When can you go shopping at XYZ?
· Do you get discounts at XYZ?
· Can you get information about XYZ
on the Internet?
(4) Questions and Answers in the third
Person:
· What does one experience when
shopping at XYZ?
· When can one go shopping at XYZ?
· Does one get discounts at XYZ?
· Can one get information about XYZ
on the Internet?
(5) Impersonal Questions and Answers:
· What are the benefits of shopping
at XYZ?
· When is XYZ open?
· What discounts are available?
· What is XYZ's web address?
However, once a particular style has
been chosen it needs to be used consistently.
Q. Should instruction manuals be written in the
active voice?
A. Not necessarily. Once again, many different
styles can be used, according to taste.
To illustrate, any of the following
would be amongst those that can be regarded as acceptable:
· Update the page by clicking
"Refresh".
· You should update the page by clicking
"Refresh".
· Users need to update the page by
clicking "Refresh".
· The page should be updated by
clicking "Refresh".
· Updating can be achieved by
clicking "Refresh".
Or again:
· Remember that ...
· You should remember that ...
· It should be remembered that ...
Q. Can the verb "to skyrocket"
legitimately be used figuratively?
A. Yes, it is in order to say that prices or values
have skyrocketed, meaning that they have increased rapidly.
This verb is one of a number that in
their figurative applications can be combined with only a narrow range of
nouns as their subjects.
Other examples include the following:
· only a telephone or some similar
piece of equipment can "run hot"
· only alleged facts can be
"taken at face value"
· only an unpleasant incident can
"come back to haunt a person"
· only a joke or a funny story can
"fall flat"
· only an argument can be
"shot to ribbons"
· only information can be
"brought out into the open".
These comments are based on material
in Renton's Metaphors.
Q. A recent circular from an estate agent said:
"Each of these properties will be sure to compliment your investment
portfolio."
Did that make sense?
A. Not really. A property is unlikely to say nice
things about an investment portfolio or anything else. The agent no doubt
meant that any of the properties concerned would fit in well with the
reader's existing investment portfolio ; the word that should have been
used was "complement".
A spelling checker cannot pick up
errors of this type.
Q. Should "worth while" be written as two
words or one?
A. The word "while" is clearly a noun in
sentences such as:
"This is worth my while."
It is also a noun in the shorter
version:
"This is worth while."
Thus "worth while" in such
constructions always needs to be rendered as two words.
On the other hand,
"worthwhile" as an attributive adjective needs to be rendered as
a single word - for example:
"This was a worthwhile
exercise."
Q. A recent brochure included the following
sentence:
"This approach only works for
skilled users."
Is this placement of the word
"only" in order?
A. No. Subject to the comments below, the adverb
"only" should always be used "immediately before" the
word it is intended to modify. In some cases a failure to do this can
result in an ambiguity - consider, for example, the different meanings in
the following five sentences:
"Only I wanted to eat fish."
(No one else wanted to eat fish.)
"I only wanted to eat fish." (I wished to eat fish, but did not
actually do so.)
"I wanted only to eat fish." (I wanted to eat, rather than just
look at or smell, fish; or, alternatively, if the adverb "only"
is regarded as modifying the entire following phrase: I did not want to do
anything other than to eat fish.)
"I wanted to eat only fish." (I wanted to eat fish, as distinct
from meat or other food.)
But there is no harm in using
"only" after the word or phrase being modified where
this does not lead to an ambiguity - for example, "for your eyes
only".
However, while the sentence:
"I will work for food only."
means
"I will work for food without requiring anything in addition to
food."
the sentence:
"I will work for American dollars only."
means
"I will work for American dollars, but not for any alternative."
Q. When should one use "whether" rather
than "if"?
A. The two conjunctions "if" and
"whether" are not interchangeable. Contrast the following
sentences:
"Please advise whether you want a
hard copy."
"Please advise if you want a hard copy."
The first sentence sensibly requires a
reply which says either that a hard copy is desired or that it is not. The
second sentence requires a reply only where a hard copy is actually desired.
The word "if" should be used
only to introduces a condition, without alternatives. The word
"whether" is used to indicate doubt as to which of two possible
alternative scenarios is the correct one.
Thus:
"Let me know if the applicant is
a boy or a girl."
needs to be rendered as:
"Let me know whether the
applicant is a boy or a girl."
Q. Is not "or not" following
"whether" superfluous?
A. It can be, although it is often used just for
emphasis or euphony.
Technically, the words "or
not" following "whether" imply "regardless of the
outcome", as in:
"I will call on him whether or
not he sends a letter of apology."
Q. Which of the following four sentences is correct?
"This type of plant is very
popular these days."
"These types of plant are very popular these days."
"This type of plants is very popular these days."
"These types of plants are very popular these days."
A. All four are grammatical and thus acceptable.
However, the first two seem more logical for the singular and the plural of
"type" respectively.
Such a usage would also ensure
consistency with that employed with nouns that do not take a plural - for
example:
"Any type of litigation is
expensive."
"Many types of skilled labour are scarce."
Similar remarks apply to the following
expressions:
· sort of
· kind of
· class of
· category of
On a related aspect:
"I do not like those kind of
things."
needs to be rendered as
"I do not like that kind of
thing."
or alternatively as
"I do not like those kinds of
things."
The singular noun "kind"
here needs to be qualified by the singular form of the demonstrative
adjective.
Q. What do the abbreviations "BCE" and
"CE" in relation to dates mean?
A. It has been customary, when referring to
historical events, to specify that a year or a century is either BC
("before Christ", meaning before a very approximate date of
Christ's birth) or AD (anno domini, Latin for "in the year of
the Lord").
This nomenclature is well established,
despite being unpopular with many non-Christians. However, most people in
countries such as Australia are not particularly conscious of the religious
connotations in these abbreviations. On the other hand, some persons are
concerned that these labels could give offence to the adherents of some
non-Christian faiths.
They have therefore started to use CE
(for "common era") and BCE (for "before the common
era"). These new abbreviations may be more politically correct, but
they also seem to involve change for the sake of change.
Some problems are:
· The use of one symbol (CE), which
is two characters long, and another (BCE), which is three characters long,
is rather untidy.
· The letter "C" can
easily be mistaken for "Christian".
· The two new symbols are not as
distinct from each other as AD and BC are from each other.
· The departure from the
conventional BC/AD symbols is offensive to some fundamental Christians.
· Some dictionaries do not even
include the phrase "common era".
· It seems undesirable to use two
different sets of notation for the same concept concurrently.
The International Organization for
Standardization has laid down a standard, ISO 8601, which prescribes a new way for setting out dates.
This is YYYY-MM-DD (for example, 2005-07-31), with the greatest unit being
to the left, as in the case of ordinary numbers. However, BCE and CE are
not recognised by ISO 8601.
Furthermore, the new notation fails to
correct the major flaw of the present BC/AD system, namely, the absence of
a year zero. This could be overcome by using CE with negative numbers in
the same way as temperatures can involve negative numbers for degrees - see
column (4) below:
Column (1) is the traditional system.
Column (2) is a more consistent approach.
Column (3) is the system favoured by historians, secularists and others.
Column (4) is a more logical approach.
(1) (2) (3) (4)
AD 3 3 AD 3 CE 3 CE
AD 2 2 AD 2 CE 2 CE
AD 1 1 AD 1 CE 1 CE
1 BC 1 BC 1 BCE 0 CE
2 BC 2 BC 2 BCE -1 CE
3 BC 3 BC 3 BCE -2 CE
Q. Is the following sentence correct or should the
verb be in the plural?
"A record number of members was
present at the meeting."
A. The sentence is correct. The relevant principle
is as follows:
· The expression "the number
of" with the definite article "the" always takes a singular
verb in the usual way because here "number" is being used in its
literal sense. Thus:
"The number of bodies found has
increased." (The number has increased.)
"The number of people coming is
large." (That number is large.)
· On the other hand, the expression
"a number of" with the indefinite article "a" often
takes a plural verb because the phrase is a synonym for "many" or
"some".
In the same way "a large number
of" can be a synonym for "very many" and "a small
number of" can be a synonym for "few". Thus:
"A number of bodies were
found." (Some bodies were found.)
"There are a number of
applications waiting to be processed." (There are many applications
waiting to be processed.)
"A large number of people are
coming." (Very many people are coming.)
"A small number of people are
already here." (Few people are already here.)
· However, with more general
adjectives as in this question a singular verb is called for - for example:
"There has been a growing number
of inquiries." (There has been a growing total of inquiries.)
"An unusually high number of
members is here." (An unusually high head count of members is here.)
"An equal number of men and women
is ideal." (The equal representation of men and women is ideal.)
Similarly, "A record number of
members was here" is correct. It may help to consider the following:
"Many members had come from afar.
As a result, a record number was here."
Q. Should hyphens be used in short Latin phrases
such as "bona fide", "de facto", "ex parte" and
"pro rata"?
A. No. See also Common Latin Phrases.
Q. What is the difference between "in
arrear" and "in arrears"?
A. These two expressions should not be confused.
· The phrase "in arrears"
with the "s" refers to a debt, in particular to an overdue or
outstanding amount - for example, "this tenant's rent is badly in
arrears".
· However, the phrase "in
arrear" without the "s" is used in a different context. It
is used in contrast to the phrase "in advance" when dealing with
periodical payments - for example, "interest shall be payable
quarterly in arrear", in other words, at the end rather than at the
beginning of each quarter.
Q. Is the following sentence correct?
"Deductions from certain items
like interest may be made."
A. No. The sentence should read:
"Deductions from certain items
such as interest may be made."
The preposition "like"
implies similarity or resemblance or comparison, as in "he looks like
me". It should not be used as a synonym for "such as" (or
"for example").
Q. What are the correct abbreviations for the
computer terms "bit" and "byte"?
A. These terms are not interchangeable.
A bit, abbreviated "b", is a
Binary DigIT, either a 0 or a 1.
A byte, abbreviated "B", is
a set of eight bits that represent a single character.
Five kilobytes (5120 bytes) would be
written as 5KB (or sometimes just as 5K or even injudiciously as 5k). It is
conventional to use k (lower case) for 1000 and K (capital) for 1024 (2 to
the power 10).
In contrast to the style used for
metric units (discussed below) there is usually no space between the number
and the symbol.
Q. When should metric units be capitalised?
A. In the case of terms written out in full, only at
the beginning of sentences.
However, the rules for metric symbols
are different:
· Basic units derived from the
names of persons should always be capitalised - for example, V for volt, W
for watt, Hz for hertz, Pa for pascal.
· Other basic units should always
be written in lower case - for example, m for metre, g for gram. The only
exception is the litre, which can optionally be rendered as L to stop
confusion between l and 1.
· Metric prefixes up to and
including that meaning 1000 (kilo-) must be written in lower case - for
example, mg for milligram (0.001 gram), kg for kilogram (1000 grams).
· Metric prefixes representing
higher multiples must be written in capitals - for example, MHz for
megahertz (1,000,000 hertz), GHz for gigahertz (1,000,000,000 hertz).
Some other aspects should be
mentioned:
· Full stops are never used with
metric symbols (other than at the end of sentences).
· The same symbols are used for
both singular and plural.
· Except in the case of degrees, a
space is required between a number and a symbol - for example, 450 mm.
· Only one prefix should be used at
a time - for example, a nanosecond rather than a millimicrosecond.
· The unit of absolute temperature
is the kelvin (K), not the degree kelvin.
Q. When discussing changes in interest rates the
media often refer to house purchasers as "mortgagees". Is that
correct?
A. No. The lender under a mortgage is the
"mortgagee" and the borrower is the "mortgagor", not
the other way round.
This confusion arises because the
precise nature of the activity being referred to is misunderstood. The
transaction being described by the technical term "to mortgage
something" is the giving of the security by the debtor rather than the
advancement of the money by the creditor.
Q. Should cardinals of the Catholic Church be
referred to using a style such as "Cardinal John Smith"?
A. No. The correct style is "John Cardinal
Smith".
The style for peers and peeresses is
slightly different, using a comma after the given name - for example:
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson", "Ada, Countess of Lovelace".
Q. In order to be politically correct how should the
term "midwife" be rendered these days, especially when the person
attending the birth is a male?
A. The enthusiasm to find gender-neutral synonyms
should always have regard to linguistic considerations. To remove the
female-sounding suffix in "midwife" would be a nonsense. The word
is cognate with the German "mit Weib", meaning "with
woman", in reference to the sex of the mother giving birth, not the
sex of the person in attendance on her.
Q. It has been suggested that there is no such thing
as a "PIN number", yet that term is encountered all the time.
What is going on?
A. "PIN" stands for "personal
identification number". Thus a "PIN number" would be a
"personal identification number number", an obvious nonsense.
Other common tautologies of this type
include "CPI index", "BAS statement" and "ATM
machine".
Q. How should dates be written?
A. The best style for writing a date in words is
"11 October 2003", without a comma and without the suffix used
for ordinal numbers, as in "11th October, 2003".
Dates written in figures can be
rendered as day/month/year - for example, "31/09/05", preferably
with a leading zero for numbers less than 10.
The American convention of
month/day/year - for example, "09/31/05" - does not place the three
elements in either ascending or descending order of size and is therefore
quite illogical. If there is any possibility that a reader might assume
that the absurd American convention is being used for figures then the
problem should be avoided by expressing the month in words.
However, the most logical order for
dates would be year-month- day, which would fit in with the left-to-right
large-to-small order for digits in ordinary numbers and which would
facilitate sorting.
The International Organization for
Standardization has laid down a standard, ISO 8601, which prescribes the
preferred way for setting out dates. This is YYYY-MM-DD - for example,
2005-03-04. This format is unambiguous and can be regarded as a metric date
format suitable for use universally.
The calendar year is expressed using
four digits, thus avoiding another possible ambiguity familiar to readers
of millennium bug stories: does 00 mean 1900 or 2000?
The separator is standardised as a
hyphen rather than as either a slash or a full stop - this change in itself
serving as a subtle reminder that a modern date format is being used. Of
course, the two hyphens can be omitted in contexts where saving space is
more important than readability.
The use of the ISO 8601 format is
strongly recommended.
Q. What does a "500 per cent increase"
really mean?
A. It means a six-fold increase - for example, by
5000 from 1000 to 6000.
On a related aspect, a common source
of error is illustrated by the following:
If the rate of inflation falls from,
say, 5 per cent to 4 per cent then the reduction is "one percentage
point", not "one per cent". (It actually represents
a 20 per cent reduction, but this fact is probably not very helpful.)
Q. What is the plural of "criteria"?
A. This question highlights a frequent
misunderstanding. The word "criteria" is actually the plural of
the word "criterion".
English uses the Greek form of plural
for a number of common nouns. Thus:
a criterion, several criteria a phenomenon, two phenomena
Perhaps the confusion comes about
because some Latin plurals end in "-a" - for example:
one erratum, two errata
Q. Many people use "disinterested" when
they mean "not interested". Should they?
A. No. The word "disinterested" means
"impartial or unbiased or without any vested interest". It does
not mean "uninterested or lacking in enthusiasm".
Q. Is it better to use single or double quotation
marks (inverted commas)?
A. This is purely a matter of taste - neither format
is "right" or "wrong". Many publishers choose one or
the other as their house style.
However, on no account should the two
formats ever be mixed within the same publication - other than for quotes
within quotes, when single go within double and vice versa:
He said, "I meant `no'." He
said, `I meant "no".'
Q. Is "alright" a proper word?
A. No, the correct expression is "all
right".
The word should not be confused with
the form used for "already".
Q. When should one use "e.g." rather than
"i.e." and how should these terms be punctuated?
A. Both terms are Latin. They should not be confused
with each other.
The first one stands for exempli
gratia and means "for example". The second one stands for id
est and means "that is".
Both abbreviations require two full
stops and the terms should normally be followed by a comma, as in
"e.g., fish" or "i.e., cash".
The full English phrases are
preferable in formal writing.
Q. Some forms used by companies or government
agencies ask persons to state their gender. Is this correct?
A. No. The word "gender" is a grammatical
term. It refers to masculine, feminine and neuter nouns, pronouns and
adjectives - for example:
· testator, testatrix
· he, she, it
· his, her, its.
The word should not be used as a
synonym or a euphemism for "sex" when discussing male or female
persons or animals.
Q. A leading newspaper likes to show share prices
which end in a half-cent by using a vulgar fraction - for example, $2.30½.
Why does it do that?
A. Probably because the newspaper's writers are
stupid or ignorant. Such a notation is:
· not mathematically correct
· confusing to readers
· at variance with the practice of
the Australian Stock Exchange
· inconsistent with the newspaper's
own style for fractions of a cent other than one-half.
The correct expression here would be
$2.305.
Non-integral decimal numbers should
always be expressed in figures - for example, "The average family has
2.6 children."
If a quantity is less than unity then
a nought should be used before the decimal point - for example, "0.9
litres".
Q. Is it in order to speak of "the moon's
gravitational pull on the earth"? The moon does not actually own
this feature.
A. Yes, this is perfectly correct English. While it
is true that the prime use of the genitive case is to denote ownership or
possession the concept is far wider than just legal ownership or physical
possession. It also includes man y figurative usages, as, for example, in
the following sentence:
He noted John's approval of Mary's
plan regarding Bob's neighbour and the dog's fierceness.
In fact, the genitive case is used in
a great many miscellaneous constructions unconnected with its prime use.
These include:
· Authorship - for example: Mozart's
works, Einstein's theory.
· Purpose - for example: children's
clothes (in the sense of clothes intended to be worn by
children), a visitors' book (in the sense of a
book intended to be signed by visitors), a teachers' college
(a college used for training teachers).
· Distance - for example: a
stone's throw away, a day's journey even by car.
· Time - for example: a
day's journey to get there, three weeks' annual
leave, one year's experience.
· Physical attributes - for
example: the moon's gravity, the
earth's axis, the stone's colour.
· Travel - for example: Cook's
circumnavigation of the island, the moon's orbit.
· Emotion - for example: the
boy's fear of the dark, the doctor's love for
mankind.
· Subjective relationship - for
example, the King's abdication (an act done by
the King).
· Objective relationship - for
example: the King's assassination (an act done to
the King).
For the sake of consistency an
apostrophe should be used for nouns in all the above cases and in any other
similar constructions. The view held by some people that an apostrophe is
needed for children's clothes and one week's leave but
not for visitors' book and two weeks' leave seems to
suffer from a distinct lack of logic.
Of course, a misplaced apostrophe, as
in the Smithville Miner's Canteen, is even worse.
Q. People say "similar to". What
preposition should "different" take?
A. The word "different" should be followed
by "from" rather than by either "to" or
"than".
Q. Which of the following is correct?
"The teacher didn't use to
come."
"The teacher didn't used to come."
A. Neither. The verb "used to" exists only
in the past tense. Its negative and interrogative forms do not take the
auxiliary verb "do". The sentence should read:
"The teacher used not to
come."
Similarly, the following are wrong:
"Didn't you use to be a chief
executive?"
"Didn't you used to be a chief executive?"
The question with "used to"
needs to be:
"Used you not to be a chief
executive?"
However, rewording it would not hurt -
for example:
"Were you not once a chief
executive?"
Q. Should "reason" and "because"
be used in the same sentence?
A. Generally speaking, no. To illustrate, consider
the following sentences:
"The reason why he came is
because he was lonely."
"The reason he came is because he was lonely."
These should both be rendered as one
of the following:
"The reason he came is that he
was lonely."
"He came because he was lonely."
But, of course, in other contexts the
one sentence can contain both "reason" and "because":
"He lost his reason because he
was lonely."
Q. Should "reason why" be avoided?
A. Preferably. For example, the "why" in
the following sentence adds nothing to the meaning:
"The reason why he came is that
he was lonely."
Q. Should "reason" and "due to"
be used in the same sentence?
A. No. To illustrate, consider the following
sentence:
"The reason for the smaller
numbers is due to the recession."
This should be rendered as one of the
following:
"The reason for the smaller numbers
is the recession."
"The smaller numbers are due to the recession."
Q. What is the difference between "due to"
and "owing to"?
A. The adjective "due to" should be
distinguished from the preposition "owing to". It implies
"resulting from".
Consider the sentence:
"Prices are up due to higher wages."
This should be rendered as one of the
following:
"Prices are up owing to higher
wages."
"Prices are up because of higher wages."
"The higher prices are due to higher wages."
Q. Is the following sentence in order?
"It must be a bad year for
farmers because so many are leaving the country."
A. No. The words after the conjunction
"because" do not give the reason for the bad year which
is being experienced by farmers. The sentence needs to be reworded on the
following lines:
"It must be a bad year for
farmers, as evidenced by the fact that so many are leaving the
country."
It should be noted that in some cases
the conjunction "as" can be used as an alternative to "because":
"As it has not rained for many
months, the farmers are in deep trouble."
Q. What are the plural and possessive forms of
"brother-in-law" and similar words?
A. The first word takes the plural "s".
The last word takes the possessive "s". Thus:
"My brothers-in-law are
coming."
"My brother-in-law's case was heavy."
Technically, the plural possessive
form is:
"My brothers-in-law's cases were heavy."
However, this sounds awkward. It would
be better rendered as:
"The cases belonging to my brothers-in-law were heavy."
The main component (the noun) of a
compound word normally takes the plural form, even where this precedes an
adjective or adjectival phrase. Other examples include the following:
· agent-general, agents-general
· aide-de-camp, aides-de-camp
· annuity-certain,
annuities-certain
· attorney-general,
attorneys-general
· auditor-general, auditors-general
· commander-in-chief,
commanders-in-chief
· cul-de-sac, culs-de-sac
· governor-general,
governors-general
· heir-apparent, heirs-apparent
· loan-back, loans-back
· maid-of-honour, maids-of-honour
· passer-by, passers-by
Q. The phrase "beg the question" is
frequently heard. What does it really mean?
A. It means to commit the logical fallacy of
assuming the truth of the very matter in dispute.
The phrase does not mean
"to raise the question". Neither does it mean to "to avoid
the question".
Q. Which of the following is grammatically correct?
"You loved him as much as
me."
"You loved him as much as I."
A. both sentences are grammatically correct, but the
two sentences have very different meanings.
"You loved him as much as
me."
means
"You loved him as much as you loved me."
whereas
"You loved him as much as I."
means
"You loved him as much as I loved him."
Q. Can an index contain a word that does not
actually appear in the text being indexed?
A. Certainly, if it is likely to help a reader who
is searching the index (myths to the contrary notwithstanding).
As a matter of principle, the keywords
to be used for the indexing of any subject should include also synonyms
and/or related terms of the word actually appearing in the text, so that a
user with a particular perspective will be able to locate the desired
material. Usually the author and indexer will be in a much better position
than the reader to identify suitable keywords.
Furthermore, where an author has dealt
with a topic using different keywords in different places the index should
contain all the relevant references under each of the
keywords concerned.
Q. What are the principles that should be applied
when preparing the index of a book?
A. See http://nickrenton.com/939.htm.
For many non-fiction works a good
index is virtually essential.
Q. How should the following question be punctuated?
"Did the Prime Minister really
pose the question, `When will the Opposition stop asking, "Where is
the money?"?'?"
A. Because of the visual pollution at the end of
this sentence the question should not be written as above. It should
instead become:
"Did the Prime Minister really
pose the question, `When will the Opposition stop asking, "Where is
the money?"'"
The question mark in the most embedded
of the three questions takes precedence and the other two question marks
are suppressed.
The point of concern here may be at
its most obvious when three consecutive question marks are involved, but
the principle applies equally for full stops and for exclamation marks, and
when only two rather than three stops are involved.
Q. Which of the following common words should be
capitalised when not used at the start of a sentence?
· 20th century
· act of God
· autumn
· blacks
· catch-22
· catholic (when meaning
"universal")
· clause 43
· communism
· court
· fifth column
· from a to z
· heaven
· hell
· hemisphere
· royal assent
· section 459
· spring
· subparagraph (d)
· summer
· third world
· twentieth century
· whites
· winter
A. None of them.
And naturally the same principle also
applies to similar words.
Q. How should carbon copies of printed letters be
headed? An example would be the carbon copy of a letter where the original
is to go to the Prime Minister and carbon copies are to go to other
politicians such as the Leader of the Opposition and others.
A. The usual place for the cc information is
underneath the signature.
Thus one would do a letter to the
Prime Minister in the usual way and then type "cc Leader of the
Opposition" or whatever at the foot, either with or (more frequently)
without that person's full address. An exact photocopy of this letter would
then go to the Leader of the Opposition.
The effect of this to put the primary
recipient on notice that the correspondence is going to other persons as
well and to indicate to those other persons that they are being kept in the
loop.
However, in the case of some political
submissions it may be more effective to send each recipient an individually
addressed communication instead. This is easily done on a word processor.
The term "cc" is still used,
despite the fact that carbon paper is, of course, no longer employed.
With e-mail things are even easier -
the cc header is used.
Q. In what circumstances should "myself"
not be used?
A. Normally the pronoun "myself" is not an
appropriate synonym for "I" or "me", even if its use in
this fashion is inspired by modesty.
Thus:
"It was a present for John and
myself."
should be rendered as:
"It was a present for John and
me."
Similarly:
"Both myself and the board felt
that the time had come."
should be rendered as:
"Both the board and I felt that
the time had come."
The word "myself" has two
legitimate uses:
· as an emphasising pronoun - for
example, "I myself saw it."
· as a reflexive pronoun - for
example, "I shaved myself."
In the latter situation the expression
"I shaved me" would not be idiomatic and "myself" has
to be used.
Q. Is anything wrong with the following sentence?
"It should not be assumed that if
he wins in court that he will get damages."
A. Yes. The "that" should not be
duplicated. The sentence should read:
"It should not be assumed that if
he wins in court he will get damages."
Q. When should one use "principal" and
when "principle"?
A. As an adjective, "principal" means
chief; as a noun, either a chief person (headmaster, proprietor of a
business, partner in a firm, star performer, person who appoints an agent,
and so on) or the capital sum in a loan transaction.
In contrast, "principle"
means a fundamental idea or doctrine.
Q. Is there a difference between "oral"
and "verbal"?
A. Yes, indeed there is: "verbal" means
"concerned with words". Technically these words can be either
written or spoken.
Thus the expression "a verbal
agreement" is really ambiguous and is best avoided. The best term for spoken
as distinct from written words is "oral". An alternative
legal term is "parol".
Q. Is it correct to say:
"The vehicle went down a 15 foot
embankment"?
Or should this be:
"The vehicle went down a 15 feet
embankment"?
A. Neither. The correct phrase in constructions of
this type would be "a 15-foot embankment", using a singular noun
preceded by a hyphen.
Q. Should there be a space between a number and a
following or preceding word or symbol?
A. It depends.
Expressions such as the following do
not take a full stop and there should be no space between the figures and
the following character:
· 4th
· 4c (four cents)
· 4to (quarto)
· 4° (four degrees in
temperatures or angle measurements)
· 4% (four per cent)
· 4KB (four kilobytes)
· 2235h (2235 hours)
In contrast, expressions such as the
following do require a space between the figures and the following
character:
· 14 million
· 14 dollars
· 14 per cent
· 14 percentage points
· 14 miles
· 14 kg (14 kilograms)
· 4 p.m.
The arbitrary but conventional
distinction between computer terms - such as 5MB (no space) - and
weights and measures - such as 5 lb (a space) - should be noted.
Nor should there be a space between
the figures and the preceding character in expressions such as the
following:
· $4
· $A4 (four Australian
dollars)
· AUD4 (four Australian
dollars)
· –4 (minus four)
· ~4
(approximately four)
Q. One issue of concern that I have is that of
typing dates. Which of the following is correct: "3 January 2007"
or "03 January 2007"?
A. Both styles are equally correct.
The former, being shorter, would
usually be used when only a single date is involved.
The latter is more suitable when a
series of dates is involved, as then there is consistency between days 01
to 09 and days 10 to 31.
This principle also applies when the
months are shown in numbers.
Q. What is the correct usage of that in
sentences such as the following?
"He states that he was told that
too much ..."
"He states he was told that too much ..."
"He states that he was told too much ..."
A. I take it that you mean sentences such as the
following:
"He states that he was told that
too much money had been lost."
"He states he was told that too much money had been lost."
"He states that he was told too much money had been lost."
"He states he was told too much money had been lost."
All four are grammatically correct.
The use of that in such constructions is optional, although its
inclusion can help meaning, especially when writing for non-native
speakers.
Of course, too many uses of that
in the same sentence can jar and probably the third version would be the
best choice.
Q. We are announcing that a new company will shortly
begin using our system. I feel that this should be written as:
"ABC has announced that they are
..."
But a colleague thinks that it should
be:
"ABC have announced that they are
..."
A. Actually, both are wrong. You have a choice:
"ABC has announced that it is
..."
"ABC executives have announced that the company is ..." (or
similar)
"The management of ABC has announced that the company is ..." (or
similar)
Q. What is wrong with the following sentence?
"Everyone knew each other."
A. In such contexts the two pronouns everyone
and each clash. The sentence needs rewording - for example, to one
of the following:
"They all knew each other."
"All the people knew each other."
"Each person knew every other person."
Q. Is the following sentence in order?
"The company has no plans to, and
will not be, changing the date of this event."
A. No. "plans to" needs to be followed by
the rest of the infinitive.
The sentence should be altered to
read:
"The company has no plans to change,
and will not be changing, the date of this event."
or alternatively to:
"The company has no plans to
change the date of this event and will not be changing it."
Q. Why is the following considered wrong?
"There are hardly no apples
left."
A. In English the temptation to use no or not
to reinforce the negative connotations implicit in the word hardly
must be resisted, although interestingly enough the corresponding French
expression ne ... guère approaches the matter the other way round.
The sentence should be altered to
read:
"There are hardly any apples
left."
or possibly to:
"There are virtually no apples
left."
Q. How should a letter signed on behalf a boss be
signed?
A. Letters can be signed by a subordinate on behalf
of a superior in one of two ways:
(a) using Latin
J M Smith
pp BKJ
J M Smith, Sales Manager
where:
- the
first "J M Smith" is an obviously fake manuscript
signature of the superior
- "pp"
stands for per procurationem, Latin for "through the
agency of"
- "BKJ"
are the manuscript initials of the person who physically signed the
letter, whether or not that person also composed it
- the
second "J M Smith" and the title are typed.
(b) using English
Bruce Jones
Bruce Jones
for
J M Smith, Sales Manager
where:
- the
first "Bruce Jones" is the genuine manuscript
signature of the subordinate
- the
second "Bruce Jones" and the remaining lines are typed.
Signatures that take the form
"Clerk pp Boss" are back-to-front and thus clearly wrong.
Copyright © N E Renton 2006
Many points similar to those
outlined above are discussed in Compendium
of Good Writing by N E Renton (John Wiley & Sons Australia,
Ltd, 2004), a book which also deals with a number of other issues relating
to writing, including editing and indexing.
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