STUDENTS’ SOUNDING BOARD

“Advanced” or “advance” Merry Christmas?

Question by forces20, Forum member (December 24, 2012):

I would like to ask, sir, which of these two is more appropriate to use: “Advanced Merry Christmas!” or “Advance Merry Christmas!”?

My reply to forces20 (December 24, 2012):

As greetings, I think both “Advanced Merry Christmas” and “Advance Merry Christmas” are grammatically incorrect as well as semantically incorrect. Christmas is reckoned not as a single day but as a holiday season that lasts so many days, so when we say “Merry Christmas!”, it’s understood that our greeting applies to the whole season and not just to a single day nor just to Christmas Day on December 25 alone. To append either “advanced” or “advance” to “Merry Christmas!” is therefore unnecessary if not entirely nonsensical.

We must keep in mind that a Christmas greeting isn't the same as, say, a birthday greeting. Someone’s birthday falls on just a single day, so if the greeting is being made a few days ahead of that particular birthday, it makes sense to greet that someone “Happy Birthday in advance!” If the greeting is being made after that birthday, it also makes sense to say “My belated warm wishes on your birthday last (date).” But it would be terribly unidiomatic if not totally out of line to greet someone “Advance Merry Christmas!” or “Advanced Merry Christmas!” before the Christmas season and “Belated Merry Christmas!” after the end of the Christmas season.

So today in particular, December 24, don’t make the mistake of greeting someone “Advanced Merry Christmas” and “Advance Merry Christmas” simply because Christmas Day is still a good 4-1/2 hours away. Whether you say it in advance or on the day itself, just say “Merry Christmas!” and you couldn’t go wrong with it.

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When to precede or not to precede nouns with the article “an”

Question from youssef, Forum member (September 17, 2012):

I need advice if I need to remove “an” in the sentence below.

“An affordable transient rooms in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people.”

Thanks.

My reply to youssef:

I would like to apologize for this very belated reply. Due to an oversight, I missed out your question altogether and it was only a while ago that I was able to read it.

Yes, you need to remove the indefinite article “an” altogether from that statement you presented. It’s because “an” is an indefinite article that’s used to precede a singular noun whose spelling begins with the vowel “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” or “u,” as in “an apparent mistake,” “an elegant gown,” “an iconic personality,” “an overland trip,” and “an umbrella.” When the singular noun begins with a consonant like “b,” “c,” “d,” and “z,” the indefinite article is used instead to precede that noun, as in “a ball,” “a caravan,” “a doll,” and “a zebra.” (In the case of definite nouns but not proper nouns, of course, the definite article is used to precede them, as in “the wall,” “the ocean,” and “the apartment.”)

By the way, I used the word “statement” for what you presented above because it really doesn’t qualify as a sentence in the absence of an operative verb. An even more accurate description of that nonsentence is a “fragment”; this is because unlike a sentence, it doesn’t convey a complete thought. Now, when we drop the grammatically faulty article “an” from that fragment, it becomes what’s called an extended noun phrase: “affordable transient rooms in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people.” We can then use it as a subject in sentences like “Affordable transient rooms in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people are hard to find in the height of summer” or as a direct object in sentences like “We found affordable transient rooms in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people” (the whole noun phrase “affordable transient rooms in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people” is the direct object, or receiver of the action, of the verb “found”). 

Of course, the noun phrase “affordable transient rooms in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people”—without the “an” preceding it—can also be used as a stand-alone tag in, say, a classified ad like the following:

Affordable transient rooms in
Baguio that can accommodate 
almost 8 people. Along Kennon
Road. See to appreciate. Call
Tel. 444-9XXXX.

When only one transient room is involved, meaning that the noun is singular, that's the time “an” will be needed to precede the noun, as in “an affordable transient room in Baguio that can accommodate almost 8 people.”

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What happens when people don’t know that they don’t know

A link to “Don’t know enough to know that they don’t know,” a very intriguing 2010 web posting by Matt Young on how not-so-bright-students tend to grossly overestimate their own abilities, was sent to me recently by Forum contributor Frank A. Tucker. Young says this finding, known as the Dunning-Kruger effect after the Cornell University researchers who made the study, indicated that college students who scored in the lowest quartile on several tests grossly overestimated their own abilities compared to everyone else’s, probably because they did not know enough to know that they did not know, but that oddly, students in the highest quartile slightly underestimated their own abilities.

The paper by Justin Kruger and David Dunning appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,1999, Vol.7, No. 6 1121-1134.

Read Matt Young’s “Don’t know enough to know that they don’t know” in Panda’s Thumb now!

Read the Dunning-Kruger paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology now!

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What’s the difference in meaning between “spend” and “expend”?

Question by Harvin Puno, new Forum member (June 28, 2012):

Hello Sir! I would like to ask if there is any difference between the words “spend” and “expend”?

My reply to Harvin Puno:

The verbs “spend” and “expend” are synonymous in the sense of using up or paying out for something, but they differ in the purpose of or expectation from the act. To “spend” is to use up or pay out for something without a deliberate purpose or conscious expectation of a return from the spending; in contrast, to “expend” is to pay out or make use of money or some resource for a specific purpose or return from the expenditure.

Generally, then, spending is done habitually or freely or as a matter of course, as in the sentence “They spent most of their allowance on video games,” while expending is deliberate and purposive, as in the sentence “They expended most of their savings to the education of their children.”

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The uses of the “is to +verb”/“are to + verb” grammar structure

Question e-mailed by Jhumur Dasgupta (Jun6, 2012):

I have frequently come across sentence structures such as “is to”/“are to” such as the one given below:

“Four of Greece’s leading banks are to receive a $23 billion capital injection to replenish reserves that were hit by country’s massive debt restructuring deal.”

I prefer not using those structures as I don’t have much clue about them, instead opting to use “will” structures. Can you please explain in detail the usefulness of “is to”/“are to” structures and when to use them?

My reply to Jhumur:

In formal English, the “is to”/“are to” grammatical structure is often used to state officially mandated arrangements, plans, or regulations. In the present tense, they evoke the sense of a definite expectation that the action or activity referred to will be undertaken or will take place in the near future, as in the sentence you presented as example:

“Four of Greece’s leading banks are to receive a $23 billion capital injection to replenish reserves that were hit by country’s massive debt restructuring deal.”

Such sentences that use “is to” or “are to” in tandem with the verb—“receive” in the case of the sentence above—convey the idea of a very strong certainty, in contrast to sentences that use the usual future-tense structure “will receive,” as in the following construction:

“Four of Greece’s leading banks will receive a $23 billion capital injection to replenish reserves that were hit by country’s massive debt restructuring deal.”

In this simple future-tense version of the “are to receive” sentence, the element of the mandate to make the action happen is absent, and only the futurity and not the strong certainty of that action is evoked.

When the “is to”/“are to” structure is in its past-tense form “was to”/“were to” and is followed by the base form of the verb, their combination forms the so-called perfect infinitive tense. This tense describes a planned action or activity that didn’t take place for a stated reason, as in the following hypothetical variation of the sentence you presented:

“Four of Greece’s leading banks were to receive a $23 billion capital injection to replenish reserves that were hit by country’s massive debt restructuring deal, but the plan was aborted due to strong opposition by general public.”

The “is to”/“are to” grammatical structure also finds common use either to issue or acknowledge instructions or orders, as in the following examples:

Issuing an order: “You are to report to work at exactly 8:30 a.m. Mondays to Fridays.”
Acknowledging an order: “We are to report to work at exactly 8:30 a.m. Mondays to Fridays.”

Note that the aspect of compulsion to do the stated action is markedly absent or at most weak when the simple future tense is used:

At best an expectation: “You will report to work at exactly 8:30 a.m. Mondays to Fridays.”
At best a promise: “We will report to work at exactly 8:30 a.m. Mondays to Fridays.”

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Options for avoiding officious subjunctive sentences

Question from leelee, new Forum member (January 9, 2012):

I got a G-TELP today, and I found some confusing questions. 

1. S recommended that ----------- ~  
(a) should meet (b) must meet (c) meet  
<- I know that the sentence including request, order, ask, command... can omit should, but if there are two options, which one should I pick?

My reply to leelee (February 25, 2012):

Sorry for this much delayed reply, leelee. Your question got buried in the flurry of postings in the Forum at that time, so it’s only now that I’m able to answer it.

That sentence in the G-TELP multiple-choice test that baffled you is one of the forms that sentences in the subjunctive mood can take. Recall that the subjunctive mood denotes acts or states that are conditional or contingent on possible outcomes of the speaker’s wish, desire, or doubt, as in “I’ll forgive her if she apologizes.” This is as opposed to denoting acts and states in real-world situations, which is what the indicative mood does (“She just took the risk.”), or to expressing direct commands, which is what the imperative mood does (“Take your time!”).

Now, the form of the sentence in that G-TELP test is what’s called the parliamentary motion or jussive form of the subjunctive. It can denote an indirect demand, strong suggestion, or pointed request, as in “We ask that the Impeachment Court act on this matter without delay.” Take note that here, the main clause states the speaker’s desire (“we ask”) and the subordinate “that”-clause describes the nature of the desired action (“that the Impeachment Court act on this matter without delay”). Also, we must firmly keep in mind that in this form of the subjective sentence, the operative verb in the “that”-clause oddly takes the third-person singular form minus the “-s” or “-es” at the tail end, or what’s known as the base form of the verb (in this particular case, “ask” is used instead of “asks”).

Based on these considerations, it becomes clear that the sentence contemplated by that G-TELP question is a sentence in the subjunctive mood. The correct answer choice is therefore “(a) meet,” so the correct form of that sentence should be this: “S recommended that we meet.” The answer couldn’t be “(b) must meet,” for using the verbal auxiliary “must” in the sentence “S recommended that we must meet” will make it semantically defective. Indeed, the verbal auxiliary “must” is redundant in that sentence because both its sense and purpose are already subsumed by the subjunctive character of the construction itself.

Having said that, I must say that subjunctive sentences of the form presented by Leelee can sometimes sound very formal and officious. Indeed, the use the subjunctive “that”-clause in that manner can justifiably be used only by individuals who can invoke a vested power to compel other people beholden to them to follow what they say, such as statesmen, legislators, bureaucrats, jurists, lawyers, ideologues, and clerics.

So for laypeople like me, I would recommend a grammatically simpler and less formal-sounding alternative: use the auxiliary verb “should” together with the operative verb in the “that”-clause, as in “S recommended that we should meet.” This, in fact, was what you cited as a grammatically correct alternative to the subjunctive construction, except that “should” is really optional grammatically and can thus be dropped altogether. So perhaps using plain and unpretentious English would be an even simpler and more forthright alternative: “S says we should meet.”

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Positioning pronouns in complex sentences largely a style decision

Question by Chase, Forum member (January 24, 2012):

I am having difficulty with the placement of pronouns in complex sentences. In the following examples, do we place the pronouns in the subordinate clause or the independent clause?

Juan and Maria went to the movies. Juan and Maria finished studying.
A. After they finished studying, Juan and Maria went to the movies. 
B. Juan and Maria went to the movies after they finished studying.

John did not win the competition. John was disappointed. 
A. Much to his disappointment, John did not win the competition. 
B. Much to John's disappointment, he did not win the competition. 

The chicken was delicious. The chicken was spicy.
A. Though the chicken was spicy, it was delicious.
B. Though it was spicy, the chicken was delicious.

Jenny queued outside the shop for five hours. Jenny wanted to buy the limited edition bag.
A. As she wanted to buy the limited edition bag, Jenny queued outside the shop for five hours.
B. As Jenny wanted to buy the limited edition bag, she queued outside the shop for five hours

Alice put the ingredients on the table. Alice baked some cookies.
A. Before Alice baked some cookies, she put the ingredients on the table
B. Before she baked some cookies, Alice put the ingredients on the table.

Mary walks to school every day. She wants to keep fit.
A. Since she wants to keep fit, Mary walks to school every day.
B. Since Mary wants to keep fit, she walks to school every day.

My reply to Chase:

In complex sentences, whether to position pronouns in the subordinate clause or in the independent clause is largely a stylistic decision. That decision will be based on these considerations: (1) the type of composition, whether narrative, expository, argumentative, persuasive, etc.; (2) the position of the sentence in the paragraph, whether lead sentence or part of the development of that lead sentence; and (3) the function of the sentence, whether a topic sentence, an explication sentence, or a transition sentence. 

As a general rule, when a composition is started by a complex sentence with a front-end subordinate clause, that subordinate clause should carry the nouns to clearly identify them to the reader before anything else, after which the independent (main) clause can use the pronouns for those nouns.

Applying this general rule to your first example, the composition should start with the complex sentence in this form:

“After Juan and Maria finished studying, they went to the movies. Juan was so tired that he went to sleep as soon as they were seated, but Maria stayed awake until the end of the film…”

Starting with a complex sentence using the pronouns in the front-end subordinate clause undesirably postpones the identity of the subjects—a state of affairs that could confuse some readers as to the identity of the subjects (in particular, it could conceivably give rise to the question of whether the pronoun “they” refers to persons distinct from “Juan and Maria”) :

“After they finished studying, Juan and Maria went to the movies. Juan was so tired that he went to sleep as soon as they were seated, but Maria stayed awake until the end of the film…” 

On the other hand, when a complex sentence serves as a transition device in a composition, using pronouns in the front-end subordinate clause becomes not only desirable but functional. See how this applies to your second example:

“John was so keen on getting the gold medal in the swimming Olympics. He practiced long and hard for it, doing several laps in the pool even past midnight in the run-up to the event. Much to his disappointment, however, John did not win the competition...”

In the last sentence of the passage above, putting the proper noun “John” in the front-end subordinate clause doesn’t work and sound as well in the context of the total narrative:

“John was so keen on getting the gold medal in the swimming Olympics. He practiced long and hard for it, doing several laps in the pool even past midnight in the run-up to the event. Much to John’s disappointment, however, he did not win the competition...” 

For a stand-alone sentence, of course, it’s much more preferable to put the pronoun in the front-end subordinate clause:

“Though the chicken was spicy, it was delicious.”

In contrast, putting the pronoun in the main clause can make some readers momentarily—and unnecessarily—wonder what the sentence is talking about:

“Though it was spicy, the chicken was delicious.”

Although it’s ultimately the writer’s stylistic decision whether to put the pronouns in the front-end subordinate clause or in the main clause of complex sentences, I must say that the discerning reader is the best judge of the wisdom of that decision.

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