QUESTION Which of the following is correct? I say #2 is correct, but I can't convince my friends.
Also, I would like a recommendation of a good book on grammar as I get into this type of discussions often--I came to America when I was 18 and I want to improve my English.MP> Thank you
- I will show him who is the boss.
- I will show him who the boss is.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Los Angeles, California Wed, Jun 5, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE When "who" acts as an interrogative pronoun, of course, we invert the subject-verb relationship, as in "Who are you?" When the same word behaves as a relative pronoun, however (as it does in your sentence), the subject-verb relationship will not be inverted. You have this same normal order with other relative pronouns: "This is where he lives," "That is how he does it," "That's when he proposed."
As for a grammar book, you probably need to consult our annotated list, Grammar's Bookshelf.
Authority: A Grammar of Contemporary English by Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. Longman Group: London. 1978. p. 862-3.
QUESTION My company is putting together a Human Resource Manual. I am concerned with what seems to be grammatical inconsistency in the structure of what we are calling "KEYS TO SUCCESS." They are as follows:
- Creativity and Ingenuity
- Encourage Unique Approaches
- Problem Solving
- "Out of the Box" Thinking
- Technical Excellence
- Highly Motivated
- Cutting Edge Technology
- Dedication to Learning
- Accept Work Challenges
- Openly Communicate and Share Information
- Foster a Climate of Cultural Diversity
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Unknown Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE Your keys to success should be either all verbs or all nouns. It's not a good idea to shift between a noun like "creativity" and a verb like "encourage" (or "dedication" to "accept"). And try to avoid what has become a cliché,"out of the box"which is probably the same as "encourage unique approaches" anyway.
QUESTION In writing, specifically, transcribing, if the dictated phrase is forty Celsius, should this be written 40 degrees Celsius or 40 Celsius or 40 C. Is is permissible to leave out the word "degrees" when transcribing this phrase? Thank you! SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Huntsville, Ohio Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE In normal text, you'd write it as 40°C, with no space between the degree symbol and the "C." But you're asking about transcription, and I'm afraid that might have its own set of rules.
Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. p. 148
QUESTION What is the difference between "whether" and "if?" And when do you use which one? Thank you. SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Whittier, California Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE Bernstein says that "whether" is the word we normally use to introduce a noun clause, as in "They asked whether we should attend the dinner." And then he goes on to say that if is well established to serve a similar function, and it does so in a perfectly acceptable manner (i.e., you could substitute if for whether in our dinner sentence). However, when a noun clause begins a sentence, it's a good idea to use whether, not if, because the if can throw off the reader, suggesting that a condition is being implied when that is not the case: "If [should be whether] the Pilgrims were truly Puritans was the object of his inquiry."
Authority: The Careful Writer by Theodore Bernstein. The Free Press: New York. 1998. p. 222.
QUESTION My friend and business partner has recently starting using the word 'as' in a particular way in his sentences and it's sending me around the bend. Some examples:
He never did this before and now suddenly, it's in every sentence! I am desperate for a clue as to why this irritates me so much!! Is this grammatically correct? What is your opinion on this usage? Thanks for listening... I feel so much better :)
- Call me on the cellphone as it will be on"
- "I didn't do anything today as i spent an hour on the phone with Theresa"
- "I like option B as it sounds EASIER"
- "we didn't order them til thursday as that's when he sent the money"
- "incorporate it in the gimmick section as it gets people thinking in PICTURES more"
- "Bali is a good idea as we will be doing a fair bit of traveling"
- "hey can you reauthorize me as I'm setting up my laptop"
- "that's a relief as I thought it may have gone out"
- "I have lots to do as we are only two working days away"
- "it used to work so well in my old box as I had a drop down list"
- "Send me the URL for this as I can't wait to see"
- "sure I will call you on the cell as it is cheap for me today"
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE The original Fowler's Modern English Usage promulgated the view that as should not be used to mean because or since, but Burchfield declares that that view is old-fashioned and when as means "in consideration of" or "it being the case that," as can nowadays be used at the head of a clause at the beginning or elsewhere in a sentence.
Having said that, however, I see your point and sympathize with you. Your friend is overworking this little word and ought to use, instead, the highly useful, predictable, and universally accepted because or since or even consider not subordinating some of those clauses. The causal connection in some of those sentence is either so strong that the subordinator is not necessary and the clauses should be presented as separate clauses or so weak that a because or since would do the job much better. I think that your colleague should remember that every time he uses as in this manner, the listener is having to provide "it being the case that" or "in consideration of," and it gets tiring after a while.
Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press. (under "as")
QUESTION I'm sure we shouldn't capitalize the second word of hyphenated words (as in Non-Disclosure Agreement) but would like to have it from a reliable source (to prove to my co-workers that I don't make this stuff up!) :-) Thanks! SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Akron, Ohio Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE If that compound were to appear at the beginning of a sentence, you would write it "Non-disclosure agreements." If you're using it as a title of something that really needs capitals, though (as it might appear in a heading, say), then capitalize the part of the compound that comes after the hyphen also, as in "Non-Disclosure Agreement." You might (or might not) be interested in knowing that my Merriam-Webster's includes "nondisclosure," without hyphens.
Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. p. 108.
QUESTION Here is a conundrum for you (or at least for me!) The second seems to be a stylistic improvement on the first, but how can this be explained, given the necessity for a complete sentence to have a verb?!
I can't explain why the second sentence seems better.
- "The higher the number of matching terms are, the stronger the coherence of the shared relationship between the 2 documents is."
- "The higher the number of matching terms, the stronger the coherence of the shared relationship between the 2 documents."
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Unknown Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE I don't know the answer to this, so I'll leave an e-mail icon here in case someone else can suggest an answer. I agree with you, though, that the second version is a slight improvement. For now, we can explain this as a stylistic fragment and accept it as another example of how linking verbs ("are" and "is" in this case) are often so weak that we can forgo them altogether.
QUESTION I work for a management consulting company. We produce lots of long documents. One of the consultants here insists that the bulleted text in our templates should be indented at the right margin, as well as the left. He believes that this will 1) make the bulleted text stand out and 2) make the document more appealing by giving it more white space.
I don't believe that I've ever seen a document formatted that way before. Is there any basis for his arguement? Is there any standard for margins and bulleted text? Shouldn't the right margin be consistent through the document? Thanks. PS: I love your site and use it all the time. Thanks.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Evanston, Illinois Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE The Gregg Reference Manual allows for that option, indenting the right-hand margin of vertical lists half an inch. But it's just an aesthetic option, not a requirement. The Chicago Manual of Style, on the other hand, apparently believes that a consistent right-hand margin is a good thing.
Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
Authority: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed. U of Chicago P: Chicago. 1993.
QUESTION We have a client with "the" as the first word of their name. When the client's name appears in the middle of a sentence should we capitalize "the?"
Example: The Flower Source
Thank you for your help.
- We get our soil from The Flower Source.
- We get our soil from the Flower Source.
SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Greensboro, North Carolina Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE Generally, no, you won't capitalize the "the" in such a sentence. If that's the full legal name of the business, you might want to capitalize "The" when you're using the name in that manner (in a legal document, say). For instance, we would say "I picked up a copy of the Los Angeles Times this morning," but "He was employed by The New York Times" (because the capitalized "The" is part of that newspaper's legal name).
Authority: The Gregg Reference Manual by William A. Sabin. 9th Edition. McGraw-Hill: New York. 2001. Used with the consent of Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. p. 96.
QUESTION I want to know the number of reflexive verbs in English and if there are some verbs that are only reflexive and others that can be reflexive only sometimes. I would like examples too. thank you very much in advance. SOURCE OF QUESTION & DATE OF RESPONSE Somewhere, Spain Thu, Jun 6, 2002 GRAMMAR'S RESPONSE English doesn't have reflexive verbs like Spanish, French, German, Romanian, and virtually every other European language. We have something close to it in a construction like "The cat washed itself thoroughly," but it's not the same as a true reflexive verb, whose subject pronoun is virtually part of the verb itself. You will see the residual effect of a reflexive noun construction in the old child's prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep," where the "me" is the object of the verb and is built into the verb construction. (Nowadays, we would say, "Now I lie down to sleep.") However, I am not a historical linguist, not by any means, and I will leave an e-mail icon here in case someone else can illuminate this subject for us.
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