Jose Carillo's Forum

USE AND MISUSE

The Use and Misuse section is open to all Forum members for discussing anything related to English grammar and usage. It invites and encourages questions and in-depth discussions about any aspect of English, from vocabulary and syntax to sentence structure and idiomatic expressions. It is, of course, also the perfect place for relating interesting experiences or encounters with English use and misuse at work, in school, or in the mass media.


Some syntax variations in English evoke practically the same sense

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (November 2, 2013):

Why should there be an in between the words “speaking” and “English” in the second sentence below but nothing between the same words in the first sentence?

“The last time I was heard speaking English fluently was when my grade-school assistant principal visited me in the ICU.”

“But that incident made me conscious of a divide between Filipinos who prefer speaking in English and those who prefer speaking in Tagalog.”

(These are quotes from my posting in the Advocacies section, “When speaking in English becomes a problem,” on October 27, 2013.)

My reply to Miss Mae:

Hmm… a very interesting grammar question.

In the first sentence, “The last time I was heard speaking English fluently was when my grade-school assistant principal visited me in the ICU,” the preposition “in” is not used between “speaking” and “English” because here, “English” is being used as an adjective modifying the gerund “speaking.” With such a construction in the form “gerund + adjective + adverb,” the implied sense is that the speaker speaks English fluently as a matter of course.

On the other hand, in the second sentence, “But that incident made me conscious of a divide between Filipinos who prefer speaking in English and those who prefer speaking in Tagalog,” the preposition “in” is used between “speaking” and “English” and between “speaking and “Tagalog” because in both instances, “English” and “Tagalog” are being used as objects of the preposition “in.” In this form, the implied sense is that the speaker has a choice of speaking either in English or Tagalog, and vice versa. This sense is, in fact, emphasized by the verb “prefer,” in such a way that the preposition “in” becomes functionally necessary to link the verb with the alternative objects “English” or “Tagalog.”

In informal English, however, these grammatical distinctions often get blurred without causing sentence dysfunction. In the first sentence you presented, the phrase “speaking English fluently” can also use “in” without raising eyebrows and yield practically the same sense: “The last time I was heard speaking in English fluently was when my grade-school assistant principal visited me in the ICU.” So with knocking off the “in” in the phrases “prefer speaking in English” and “prefer speaking in Tagalog” in the second sentence: “But that incident made me conscious of a divide between Filipinos who prefer speaking English and those who prefer speaking Tagalog.” English has the flexibility and tolerance for such minor deviations in syntax in evoking the same sense.

Follow-up question by Miss Mae, Forum member (November 4, 2013):

Wait. Let me understand.

If the reason why there is no in between the words "speaking" and "English" is because the latter was used as an adjective, then why there is also no in between the words "live" and "is" in the sentence below? 

Quote from: Miss Mae on October 27, 2013, 12:20:04 AM
About 140 kilometers away from the city where I live is Dubai.

 My reply to Miss Mae:

There’s no need for the preposition “in” in this sentence that you presented:

“About 140 kilometers away from the city where I live is Dubai.”

It’s because in the phrase “where I live is Dubai,” the noun “Dubai” is actually not an object of the preposition; instead, it is the subject of the sentence. You see, that sentence is what’s known as an inverted sentence, with the following construction as its normal form:

“Dubai is about 140 kilometers away from the city where I live.”

In this normal form, “Dubai” is the subject and the whole phrase “is about 140 kilometers away from the city where I live” is the subject complement that serves to describe it.

But let’s address the question as to whether the preposition “in” might hypothetically be needed in the original sentence you presented. Yes, it might, but that “in” would need an object of the preposition, say “my Filipina friend,” to function properly, as in the following sentence:

“About 140 kilometers away from the city where I live in with my Filipina friend is Dubai.”

In that form, however, “live in” becomes a prepositional idiom that could mean “to live in one’s place of employment” or “live in another’s home” or, in the derogatory sense, to live with a member of the opposite sex without benefit of marriage—an arrangement that’s legally known as “cohabitation.”

Another thing: Even if that reconstruction is grammatically and semantically airtight, it would be much more readable if it’s also rendered in the normal form as we had done to your original sentence. That normal form would read as follows:

“Dubai is about 140 kilometers away from the city where I live in with my Filipina friend.”

I trust that settles this matter about the usage of “in” for you.

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What are the nominative functions of nouns?

Question by Sky, Forum member (October 1, 2013):

Anyone who could help explain and give examples of the four nominative functions of nouns?

Thanks.

My reply to Sky:

I’m glad you raised this very interesting question about basic English grammar that I found neither the occasion nor need to take up since this Forum started four years ago.

To put my explanation in perspective, though, let me start by way of review that the nominative is one of the three cases in English. These cases—the nominative or subjectivethe objective, and the possessive—are the forms that a noun, pronoun, or modifier takes to indicate its functional role in a sentence.

In the nominative case, the noun or pronoun performs the verb’s action, as in “Evelyn nudged me” and “She nudged me.” The noun “Evelyn” and the pronoun “she” are both nominative because they do the action of the verb “nudge.” In the subjective case, the noun or pronoun is the subject of the sentence, as in “Mario is honest” and “He is honest.” 

In the objective case, the noun or pronoun receives the verb’s action either as its direct or indirect object, as in these sentences: (a) “Clara pulled the plug.” “Clara pulled it.” Here, the noun “plug” and the pronoun “it” are direct objects of the verb “pulled”; and (b) “We gave Norma the check.” Here, the noun “check” is the direct object of the verb “gave” and the noun “Norma” is the indirect object.

In the possessive case, the noun or pronoun indicates who or what possesses or owns something, as in this sentence: “That smartphone is Anita’s, this one is mine, and that one over there is yours.” Here, “Anita’s” is a possessive noun form while “mine” and “yours” are possessive pronouns.

Now that the definitions of the three cases are out of the way, let’s go back to the nominative case for a closer look at how nouns in this case work.

Nouns in the nominative case can function in four ways: as the subject, as an appositive, as a subject complement, and as a direct address.

A noun is functionally nominative when it names the subject of the verb or identifies the doer of the action of the verb in the active voice.  Thus, in “George is a risk-taker” (“George” is the subject) and in “George takes risks” (“George” is the doer of the action), both uses of “George” are functionally nominative. In contrast, in the passive-voice sentence “Risks are taken by George,” the noun “risks” is functionally objective.

A noun or noun phrase functions as an appositive when it’s placed next to some other nominative noun to identify or rename it, as in “George, a first cousin of mine, is a risk-taker” (“a first cousin of mine” as an appositive to the subject) and “George, a first cousin mine, took the risk of flying in bad weather” (“a first cousin of mine” as an appositive to the doer of the action).

A noun or noun phrase functions as a subject complement when it’s used in the predicate following a linking verb and serves to identify or describe the subject of the sentence. For example, in the sentence “Nadine is the winner of the beauty contest,” the noun phrase “the winner of the beauty contest” is the subject complement. 

Lastly, a noun functions as a direct address when used to refer to or talk directly to someone, as in “Grace, you are definitely my choice” and “Emilio, see me at my office after lunch.” A direct address is always a proper noun set off by a comma from the main structure of the sentence and doesn’t have a grammatical link to it.

This rounds up my discussion of the four nominative functions of nouns.

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Should we use “there was” or “there were”?

Question from jerbaks, new Forum member (September 25, 2013):

He told us ________ one man and six women applying for the job. 

(A) there was
(B) it was
(C) there were
(D) they were

Some say it’s A while others choose C. Which is correct? Thanks in advance!

My reply to jerbaks:

The test sentence you presented involves the so-called anticipatory “there are (were)”/”there is (was)” clause, and I must tell you right off that it’s not a good multiple-choice grammar test because it doesn’t have a single correct and unambiguous answer. Answer choices “(B) it was” and “(D) they were” are downright grammatically wrong, of course, but either “(A) there was” or “(C) there were” could be considered correct depending on whether your teacher subscribes to the descriptivist or prescriptivist position in English grammar.

Let me explain why this is so.

In sentences that use the anticipatory “there are (were)”/”there is (was)” clause, the pronoun “there” is used as a so-called anticipatory subject. As such, “there” actually carries little or no independent meaning; “there” is made to precede the notional subject just to give this subject end-weight or emphasis. In this sentence that you presented, “He told us (there was, there were) one man and six women applying for the job,” there are two notional subjects—“one man” and “six women.” What we have here is therefore a compound subject that intuitively should require the plural form of the verb, in which case “were” would logically be the correct answer: “He told us there were one man and six women applying for the job.”

Using “there were” for that sentence is actually the prescriptivist position, which maintains that after the expletive “there,” the verb should be singular or plural depending on whether the subject that follows is singular or plural—the familiar subject-verb agreement rule. Although grammatically airtight, however, the sentence “He told us there were one man and six women applying for the job” does look, feel, and sound awkward. (I presume you can sense the awkwardness yourself.) For this reason, regardless of the obvious plurality of “one man and six women,” many native speakers of English find it more natural and pleasant-sounding to use the singular-form “there was” instead for that sentence: “He told us there was one man and six women applying for the job.”

This preference for the singular “there was” is the descriptivist position, which maintains that since the anticipatory “there is (are)”/“there was (were)” form is mostly followed by a singular subject in actual, spontaneously spoken English, it should be accepted as the standard way of introducing a subject, whether singular or plural, that’s preceded by an anticipatory “there” clause. This descriptivist position is particularly common in American English, which deems the construction template “There are shame and dishonor in being found to be unfit for public office” awkward and unpalatable; it would rather use the correct-sounding “There is shame and dishonor in being found to be unfit for public office” notwithstanding the apparent subject-verb disagreement involved. 

The continuing debate between the prescriptivist and descriptivist positions for the usage of the anticipatory “there” clause is what makes the test sentence you presented unsuitable in English grammar tests. The prescriptivists will always invoke the subject-verb agreement aspect to support their position, while the descriptivists will always invoke the need for natural sounding and euphonious sentences regardless of that subject-verb disagreement quirk. I doubt that they will arrive at a common ground sometime soon.

So then, since you asked for my advice, I’m saying for the record that I’m partial to the descriptivist position. I’m much more comfortable with “(A) there was” for the test sentence you presented: “He told us there was one man and six women applying for the job.” Despite likely brickbats from the prescriptivists, I think those who take their English seriously can make the same choice with confidence and equanimity.

RELATED READING:
The wisdom of routinely avoiding anticipatory “there is/are” clauses

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Isn’t “2,500 cringeworthy English” itself cringeworthy English?

Feedback posted in my Personal Box by aidsasis, new Forum member (September 1, 2013):

I read your article “2,500 cringeworthy English in DepEd’s Grades 8, 7 learning materials” (English Plain and Simple, August 30, 2013) in the Manila Standard, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t write that title. 

I do hope you spoke to them about that cringeworthy error.

My reply to aidsasis:

I did write that title. Can you please tell me what you find objectionable about it? That way, I can give you a proper response.

By the way, it wasn’t published in the Manila Standard-Today but in The Manila Times.

Rejoinder of aidsasis:

Isn’t it that the word “English” functions like a mass noun? We don’t say, “People should improve their Englishes,” or “My student made a mistake on 5 English today.”

That’s why I found the title cringeworthy.

My response to aidsasis’s comments:

The word “English” does function as a mass noun as you’ve pointed out, but depending on usage and context, it can also function as a count noun or an adjective.

It’s obviously a mass noun that’s singular both grammatically and notionally when used to denote English as a language, as in the sentence “English is a major hiring criterion today,” and as a field of study, as in “English is only an elective in my course.” A telltale sign of this mass-noun usage is the absence of the definite article “the” before the noun; in such cases, the verb takes the singular form. In contrast, “English” is a mass noun that’s plural both notionally and grammatically when used to denote the English people as a group, as in “The English speak what’s known as British English.” A telltale sign of this usage is the presence of the definite article “the” before the noun; in such cases, the verb takes the plural form.

“English” is a count noun that becomes plural both grammatically and notionally when used to denote the various kinds or varieties of English in use in various parts of the world, as in “Worldwide, scores of Englishes have been identified by the researchers.” (“Yes, there’s a plural for English and it’s ‘Englishes’”) As a count noun, however, “English” can also be singular both grammatically and notionally when preceded by the indefinite article “an,” as in “An English like yours won’t qualify you for a call-center job for the American market.”

Of course, when the word “English” modifies a noun, it functions as an adjective, as in “English idioms number several thousands, making it tougher for nonnative English speakers to speak the language with confidence.”

Now I think we’re ready to analyze my usage of “English” in that title of my column in The Manila Times last August 31, 2013: “2,500 cringeworthy English in DepEd’s Grades 8, 7 learning materials.” Is that usage aboveboard or, as you argue, itself a cringeworthy one?

Let’s consider that usage of “English” from two viewpoints.

From the first viewpoint, we can look at each of the 2,500 flawed passages identified by Mr. Antonio Calipjo Go in those two DepEd learning modules as a distinct and discrete kind of English, with what we might justifiably call a perverse grammar, syntax, and logic of its own. Each of them is therefore a countable noun or entity that not only can be modified as a grammatical term but also totaled in the following manner: “1 cringeworthy English + 1 cringeworthy English + 1 cringeworthy English + 1 cringeworthy English + …1 cringeworthy English = 2,500 cringeworthy English.” We can’t call their total “2,500 cringeworthy Englishes” because each instance of cringeworthy English identified by Mr. Go is distinct and doesn’t add up to a single, distinct cringeworthy language. This would be the semantically wrong sense if we use the phrase “2,500 cringeworthy Englishes” instead.  

From the second viewpoint, we can consider the noun phrase “2,500 cringeworthy English” as an ellipted or streamlined form of the longer phrase “2,500 cringeworthy English passages” or “2,500 cringeworthy English errors,” with the word “passages” or “errors” dropped for brevity and easier articulation. We use this kind of ellipsis quite often in such sentences as “We have already counted as many as 500 walking dead in that ongoing TV series on zombies.” This sounds much better and more forthright than this fully spelled out construction: “We have already counted as many as 500 walking dead people in that ongoing TV series on zombies.”

By the same logic and syntax, I used for that column of mine the more succinct title “2,500 cringeworthy English in DepEd’s Grades 8, 7 learning materials” instead of the longer, fully spelled out “2,500 cringeworthy English passages in DepEd’s Grades 8, 7 learning materials.” I think that apart from making that title more compact for headline purposes, dropping the noun “passages” or “errors” makes it more compelling and gives it a much greater sense of immediacy.

So then I must disagree with you that the English of that column title is in any way cringeworthy. I’m confident that its grammar, semantics, structure, and syntax are airtight, making the English of that title definitely way above the league of the 2,500 cringeworthy English found in those two DepEd learning materials.

Rejoinder posted by aidsasis, September 3, 2013:

Oh... 

So in effect, you’re saying that the following phrases are also acceptable because they’re “ellipted or streamlined forms” of their longer counterparts:
 
- three air (for three air pockets)
- six oxygen (for six oxygen particles)
- seven Chinese (for seven Chinese characters)

and so on...

My reply to aidsasis:

I can see that you’re either unfamiliar or just feigning unfamiliarity with the nature of elliptical construction and its limits. Otherwise, I don’t think you’d have proffered—whether in plain jest or with intent to obfuscate—these three obviously invalid, downright cringeworthy examples of ellipses:

“three air” (for “three air pockets”)
“six oxygen” (for “six oxygen particles”)
“seven Chinese” (for “seven Chinese characters”)

No matter your intention, I’ll share this caveat with you about elliptical phrase and sentence construction: it’s an advanced form of writing that absolutely shouldn’t be done in the slapdash, trigger-happy manner that you’ve done with your three examples. You do ellipsis—that is, drop certain words from a phrase or sentence for brevity and ease of articulation—only it if doesn’t put the ellipted phrase at risk of being misunderstood or put the sentence or exposition itself in danger of losing its sense or continuity. Three air! Six oxygen! Seven Chinese! Ellipses are obviously not done in the unthinking formulaic way you came up with these three examples. That’s done only by a rank amateur in the use of English or by an English-savvy person just trying to muddle an otherwise clear-cut issue.

Anyway, for a quick review of the basics of elliptical construction, I would like to invite you to check out two of my previous Forum postings on the subject. They discuss the various grammatically legitimate forms and patterns of the ellipsis, giving examples of each of them. I trust that when you are done with the readings, you’ll no longer be tempted to trifle with the earnest discussions in the Forum by coming up with obviously absurd examples that, frankly, don’t qualify as ellipses at all.

READINGS ON ELLIPSIS: 
Elliptical sentences often read and sound better than regular sentences
Deconstructing and understanding those puzzling elliptical sentences

Response of aidsasis to my rejoinder, September 4, 2013:

Haha! Cool it, Mr. Carillo! We’re just talking about proper usage here. 

I’m really just asking what makes “2,500 cringeworthy English” acceptable and my examples unacceptable.

Let’s just stick to your phrase. Your explanation seems to imply that a teacher can correctly tell a student, “You have 5 wrong English in your essay.”

Is that acceptable? I find that sentence cringeworthy.

My reply to aidasis:

Yes, I agree with you that the sentence “You have 5 wrong English in your essay” is unacceptable, even cringeworthy, but then that sentence is a semantically defective construct of yours, not mine. It’s a far cry from, say, Mr. Antonio Calipjo Go saying, “I found 2,500 cringeworthy English in DepEd’s learning modules for Grades 8 and 7,” and then proceeds to identify and list each one of them into a countable set. As I explained in my reply to your initial posting, the validity of an elliptical construction is selective and highly contextual.

But I can very well see now where you’re coming from—you want a rigid, formulaic rule for elliptical phrase and sentence construction. Since you are a former high school teacher who’s now a home-based English tutor, however, you should know very well that there’s no such thing. The rule that you have in mind applies only to simple statements that teachers use to drill basic English to entry-level kids. Outside academe, however, you have to deal with the real-life dynamics of language on a case-to-case, contextual basis, with special attention to the specific words used and their precise syntactic mix. This is as true for elliptical phrases and sentences as it is for idiomatic phrases and figurative expressions. They work properly and can be understood only if both speaker (or writer) and listener (or reader) implicitly and mutually know beforehand the unstated context of the statement that’s being made. I know this to be true in the case of most of the readers of my column in The Manila Times, so I had no qualms at all in writing the column title “2,500 cringeworthy English in DepEd’s Grades 8, 7 learning materials.” I was sure that the great majority of my readers would be perceptive enough to get from that title the gist of what it’s saying, and that if they were still in doubt as to its precise meaning, they would just proceed to dig into the column proper to resolve that doubt.

In contrast, a high school teacher who tells his or her student “You have 5 wrong English in your essay” should be prepared to hear a smart-alecky riposte like this: “Teacher, you have 1 wrong English yourself in your comment.” Why? Because there’s as yet no mutually understood context for that elliptical statement between teacher and student. The student won’t know that the teacher had unilaterally dropped the noun “sentence” from the phrase “5 wrong English sentences.” As I explained in my earlier posting, elliptical phrase and sentence construction is an advanced form of writing, not to be foisted whimsically on those who don’t know yet how ellipses work. 

Ellipsis is, in fact, a form of idiom itself. Every English teacher worth his or her salt should know this, so I was really taken aback when you proffered these three absurd ellipses in your previous posting: “three air” (for “three air pockets”), “six oxygen” (for “six oxygen particles”), and “seven Chinese” (for “seven Chinese characters”). Anyone who does that must have such a cringeworthy sense of humor indeed—and I must tell you that it’s absolutely no laughing matter when it comes from an English teacher and tutor like you!

Response of aidsasis, September 4, 2013:

Thank you for doing research on me, sir! I’m flattered.

Well, I guess we’ll agree to disagree on the acceptability of your use of “2,500 cringeworthy English” then. 

I don’t see a substantial difference between your phrase and the phrase “5 wrong English”. I think both are clearly understandable in their contexts, and yet, I don’t find either of them to be acceptable. 

I’ve asked some of my peers, and they also think your usage was wrong, but you seem to be very convinced, so I’ll just leave that at that. A suggestion -- Maybe you can ask your peers, too, just for confirmation purposes.

Anyway, there are many disagreements when it comes to allowed usage in the English language; maybe this is just one of them. 

I wish you all the best in your quest for excellence in the use of the English language. Cheers!

My reply to aidsasis:

Great! Let’s agree to disagree then, and I’ll certainly follow your suggestion to ask my own peers if indeed the phrase “2,500 cringeworthy English” is itself cringeworthy English. In the same token, please continue checking out with your own peers how they find that phrase. Tell them that the Forum has an open invitation to them to post their views and opinions in this discussion board. 

When some new Forum member either impresses or depresses me with their English or with their assertiveness, or both, I do a little check—not hard research by any means—where they are coming from. This just gives me a better handle on how best to read the mind behind the post—a practical routine that really should neither flatter nor fluster you.

You’ve offered your cheers and I’d like you to know that I’m delighted to toast to that! I hope to hear from you often in the Forum, whether to agree or disagree on things English or whatever.

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Judicious writing is the polar opposite of tendentious writing

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (September 7, 2013):

How judicious is “judicious writing”?

In H. P. Lovecraft’s Advice to Aspiring Writers, 1920, the author had advised: “No aspiring author should content himself with a mere acquisition of technical rules… All attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious reading, and the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost.” How judicious then “judicious writing” should be? I don’t think I have read more than a hundred...

P.S. According to her, too: “Popular magazines inculcate a careless and deplorable style which is hard to unlearn, and which impedes the acquisition of a purer style.” What would you say about this?

My reply to Miss Mae:

Judicious writing means writing that shows discernment, prudence, and sensibleness; it is writing that shows mental, grammatical, and stylistic discipline on the part of the author as well as respect for the reader’s intelligence and sensibility. In practical terms, judicious writing is good, understandable, level-headed writing.

The opposite of judicious writing is tendentious writing, which is writing marked by strong personal, social, racial, religious, political, or ideological bias; it is an exposition that’s more interested in giving vent to what’s in the mind of the writer than in what the reader wants or needs to know. In practical terms, tendentious writing is bad, prejudiced, sometimes muddle-headed writing.

This is really all I can say about the subject.

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Which usage is correct: “Did was…” or “did is…”?

Question by Sky, Forum member (August 27, 2013):

Which one is correct below?

1. “What I did is...”
2. “What I did was...”

Thanks.

My reply to Sky:

For such sentence constructions, either the past tense “was” or the present tense “is” can be used depending on context and what the speaker or writer has in mind. For describing a past action that one actually did some time in the past, “was” obviously should be used, as in “What I did was to call the police.” On the other hand, for describing demonstratively (especially when making or pointing to a diagram or illustration in full view of the listener) a method or procedure that one performed in the past, the present tense “is” can be used, as in “What I did is this: draw a circle first, mark its center with a dot, then draw a straight line from that dot to the circumference.” In this latter case, the diagram or illustration usually becomes the real-time peg for the use of the present tense.

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Four comprehensive lessons on proper preposition usage

Question by youngmentor, Forum member (August 19, 2013):

Hi sir,

I would just like to ask if there are any rules on the use the various prepositions such as “in,” “on,” “at,” “to,” “by,” “from,” “with,” and “of.” In most of my readings, writers or authors generally give advice that we should just read a lot to become familiar with the correct pairing of words and prepositions. Although I know the basic textbook rules for preposition usage, I often get into trouble applying them every time I encounter a new word; I become unsure precisely what preposition to use with that word to be able express my idea clearly and correctly. I know, of course, that there are times when certain prepositions could be used interchangeably, but could you give me some points on what aspects of the word and the preposition should be considered to ensure that my preposition choices are standard and acceptable?

An example of the predicaments I encounter in preposition usage is the choice between the prepositions “by” and “with” in the following alternative sentence constructions:

(A) “Do you know a person by the name Joe Carillo?”
(B) “Do you know a person with the name Joe Carillo?”

I know that sentence A is correct; in the case of sentence B, however, I’m not so sure. Which of the two prepositions is used in Standard English?

My reply to young mentor:

In the Forum’s “Getting to Know English” section, you’ll find four comprehensive lessons on preposition usage. Study them carefully and I’m sure that when you’re done, you’d have become much more confident and comfortable with your preposition choices.

Here are the lessons and I suggest you read them in the sequence indicated:

Lesson #7 – The Prepositions Revisited
Lesson #8 – Specific Rules for Preposition Usage
Lesson #9 – Getting to Know the Prepositional Phrases
Lesson #10 – Dealing with the Prepositional Idioms

As to the choice between “by” and “with” in the following sentences, “Do you know a person by the name Joe Carillo?” and “Do you know a person with the name Joe Carillo?”, both are grammatically correct usage. However, “by” in that sentence is the idiomatic usage—meaning that it’s the conventional choice of educated native English speakers; “with” is usually the groping, uncertain choice of nonnative entry-level English learners, who eventually gravitate to the idiomatic “by” as they get to know their English better.

(By the way, there are actually two more ways of correctly phrasing that sentence without using the preposition “by” or “with”: “Do you know a person named Joe Carillo?” and “Do you know a person whose name is Joe Carillo?” When you are unsure of your choice of preposition, you can get by with these alternative sentence phrasings without fear of losing face.)

P.S. Aside from memorizing and religiously following these rules for preposition usage, follow that general advice of those writers and authors you mentioned in your posting. Nonnative English speakers do need to read a lot of well-written English articles and books to become thoroughly familiar with the prepositions and confident in using them.

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Why use the preposition “with” repeatedly for each serial item?

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (July 26, 2013):

Why should there be a “with” to introduce every noun enumerated in the following sentence: “It was consolidated with SBN 617 by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, with SBN 935 by Sen. Lito Lapid, with SBN 2820 by Sen. Manny Villar, and with SBN 1843 and SBN 2999 by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, all of which intend to empower all citizens of the country not otherwise disqualified by law to exercise the right of suffrage.”

My reply to Miss Mae (August 9, 2013):

My apologies for overlooking this posting of yours.

In the sentence in question, it’s for clarity’s sake that we need the preposition “with” to introduce every item consolidated with the subject “it.” Strictly speaking, of course, that sentence should specify the consolidation process for each item as follows: “It was consolidated with SBN 617 by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, consolidated with SBN 935 by Sen. Lito Lapid, consolidated with SBN 2820 by Sen. Manny Villar, and consolidated with SBN 1843 and SBN 2999 by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, all of which intend to empower all citizens of the country not otherwise disqualified by law to exercise the right of suffrage.”

To streamline and make that sentence concise, however, we can use elliptical construction by using the verb “consolidated” only at the first instance and dropping all of its repeated uses thereafter, as follows: “It was consolidated with SBN 617 by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, with SBN 935 by Sen. Lito Lapid, with SBN 2820 by Sen. Manny Villar, and with SBN 1843 and SBN 2999 by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, all of which intend to empower all citizens of the country not otherwise disqualified by law to exercise the right of suffrage.” Note that in this form, the sentence still makes perfect sense because it’s clear that the verb “consolidated with” applies to all items in the serial enumeration.

But see what happens to that sentence when we knock even the preposition “with” along with the verb “consolidated”: “It was consolidated with SBN 617 by Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, SBN 935 by Sen. Lito Lapid, SBN 2820 by Sen. Manny Villar, and SBN 1843 and SBN 2999 by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, all of which intend to empower all citizens of the country not otherwise disqualified by law to exercise the right of suffrage.” The syntax of the sentence has been disrupted. The sentence has become nonsensical because there is now a serious semantic disconnect between the enumerated items. Figuring out precisely what and which have been consolidated has become extremely difficult. To prevent the sentence from degenerating into syntactic bedlam, we need the preposition “with” as a grammatical and semantic binder for each item in the serial enumeration.

What this state of affairs is telling us is that there are limits to what words can be safely dropped when constructing enumerative sentences elliptically. We should be sensitive to these limits to make sure that our efforts at streamlining sentences won’t render them confusing or, at worst, meaningless. 

FURTHER READINGS ON ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES:
Deconstructing and understanding those puzzling elliptical sentences

Elliptical sentences often read and sound better than regular sentences

The proper way to construct elliptical sentences

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Instances when the article “a” can be dispensed with

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (July 26, 2013):

Why can’t the article “a” be placed between the words “still” and “lack” in the following sentence: “There is still [a] lack of awareness of the social problems encountered by the physical disabled.”

In contrast, why is “a” needed between “give” and “20%” in this other sentence: “If passed, House Bill 12147 will require all transportation services, hotels and lodging establishments, theaters, government hospitals, and other medical institutions all over the country to give a 20% discount on PWDs’ purchases.”

My reply to Miss Mae (August 9, 2013):

You will recall that in the usage of articles in English, the articles “a” and “an” generally can be used only with count nouns, as in “She wants a piece of bread” and “He asks for an hour of silence.” On the other hand, the article “the” generally can be used with noncount nouns or can be omitted entirely, as in “They had an argument over the land” (referring to a specific piece of land) and “They flew over land” (referring to land as a surface).

As to the noun “lack,” it just happens to be a noncount noun that can use either the definite article “the” or the indefinite article “a”—and in some cases no article at all—for particular usages of that noun. In fact, whether to use “a” or no article at all is oftentimes a matter of personal preference of the author. In my case, as a matter of style, I prefer not using “a” in the particular sentence you presented: “There is still lack of awareness of the social problems encountered by the physical disabled.” My basis for that choice is that both the word “lack” and “awareness” are noncount nouns, and that the sentence reads perfectly in order even without the article “a.” This doesn’t mean though that its use in this sentence that you presented is grammatically wrong: “There is still a lack of awareness of the social problems encountered by the physical disabled.” It’s just that I feel “a” is uncomfortably extraneous in that construction. (On the other hand, I wouldn’t hesitate to use the article “a” for this sentence using the noncount term “lack of evidence”: “A lack of evidence has jeopardized the prosecution of the suspected thief.” It’s because the noun “evidence” is clearly countable in this particular case.)

As to the other sentence you presented, the article “a” is obviously needed between “give” and “20%”: “If passed, House Bill 12147 will require all transportation services, hotels and lodging establishments, theaters, government hospitals, and other medical institutions all over the country to give a 20% discount on PWDs’ purchases.” Anyway we look at it, the term “20% discount” is undoubtedly a count noun, so not to use the article “a” for it definitely will make the sentence look and sound out of kilter.

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Situations when middle names are uncalled for

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (July 26, 2013):

I just wonder why “Delaraga,” which is the middle name of the late Ramon Bagatsing, has to be shortened to “D.” in the following sentence: “The late Ramon D. Bagatsing was another PWD who had held a major government post.” Can’t middle names—which refer to the mother’s maiden surname in the Philippines—be used in formal writings?

My reply to Miss Mae (August 9, 2013):

Unless absolutely called for, providing the middle name of a person identified in published articles is a needless imposition on the reader, an eyesore in the mass of text, and a drag to the flow of the narrative or exposition. This is why it has become axiomatic and a matter of style for published works to do away with middle names and middle initials. The only instances that middle names or initials are allowed or condoned in published work are (a) when the person has to be distinguished from another who has the same first name and surname, (b) when the person is a well-known female who gets married, in which case it becomes desirable to use both her maiden name and her married surname to alert the reader that she is the same person, or (c) when the person is convicted of a crime, in which case it becomes absolutely necessary to provide his or her middle name to clearly distinguish him from others who may have the same first name and surname. To provide surnames in published articles for reasons other than these three is likely to be misconstrued as an affectation on the part of the writer or an attempt to patronize the person being identified.

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The difference in sense between the prepositions “like” and “as”

Question by Wentfor10, new Forum member (June 18, 2013):

Hi, sir.

I want to know if there is any difference between “like” and “as.”

For example: 
“He speaks English like an Englishman.”
“He speaks English as an Englishman.”

Do these two sentences have the same point or not?

My reply to Wentfor10:

The sentences “He speaks English like an Englishman” and “He speaks English as an Englishman” mean two different things altogether.

Depending on context, the conjunction “like” can mean “as if” or “in the same way that” or “in a way or manner that.” In the first sentence you presented, “He speaks English like an Englishman,” “like” is used in the sense of “as if,” so the sentence is synonymous with “He speaks English as if he is an Englishman.” Aside from this sense, “like” can also be used in the sense of “in the same way that,” as in the sentence “They detest each other like children do bad-tasting medicine”; and also in the sense of “in the way or manner that,” as in the sentences “He negotiates deals like an old entertainment impresario should” and “She testified unconvincingly in court like you told me.” 

In contrast, in the sentence “He speaks English as an Englishman,” the conjunction “as” is used in the sense of “in the way or manner expected of”—meaning in this particular case that the speaker is, in fact, an Englishman and speaks English in the way or manner expected of an Englishman. This sense is entirely different from that of the sentence “He speaks English like an Englishman,” which means that the speaker is, in fact, not an Englishman but can speak it as well as an Englishman does.

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Not being clear enough doesn’t necessarily mean being wrong

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (July 2, 2013):

Working online, I had to explain to my boss why I could only do two articles during weekdays for him. “I have to take a nap every afternoon, Sir. But if necessary, you can assign 3-4 articles to me every Wednesdays and Thursdays. Only that I would ask that what I would do for Wednesdays are for Thursdays and that what I would do for Thursdays are for Fridays.”

“Huh? Can you make it simple? I will assign articles for you on a Wednesday but you can write them Thursday, the following day?” my boss replied.

I repeated what I had said in our country’s standard native language. What I asked was that if I could start working on Wednesdays what I had to submit on Thursdays, and on Thursdays what I had to submit on Fridays. Why did he think that I just want to know a day earlier what I would do a day after? What have I said wrongly?

My reply to Miss Mae:

I agree with your boss that you could have made your request simpler. I must admit that I myself couldn’t figure out what you meant by saying “Only that I would ask that what I would do for Wednesdays are for Thursdays and that what I would do for Thursdays are for Fridays.” It just seems to me that although you didn’t say anything wrong, you didn’t make yourself clear enough to your boss. In short, what we have here is a failure to communicate.

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“As if” and “as though”--Is there a difference?

Question from jhun bartolo, Forum member (June 7, 2013):

Hello, sir. 

Do “as if” and “as though” have differences with their use? When I posted these sentences, “Pray as though everything depends on GOD. Work as though everything depends on YOU,” somebody commented that it should be “as if” and not “as though.”

My reply to jhun bartolo:

Practically all of the authoritative dictionaries today tell us that the conjunctions “as if” and “as though” are synonymous in the sense of “like something was actually so,” “as it would be if,” “as to suggest the idea that,” or “as would be true if.” Personally, though, I am stylistically partial to “as though” because I think it sounds more accepting of the stated presumption than “as if,” which seems to me to convey a somewhat weaker belief in that presumption. 

For this reason, I think your choice of “as though” for these two sentences of yours is perfect for their context: “Pray as though everything depends on GOD. Work as though everything depends on YOU.” It’s unmistakable that a believer in God is speaking here. In contrast, see what happens when “as if” in used instead for those two sentences: “Pray as if everything depends on GOD. Work as if everything depends on YOU.” Somehow, although both affirmative-sounding, these “as if”-using sentences seem to convey a hint of cynicism towards the stated presumptions.

This isn’t to say, though, that there are no contexts in which “as if” and “as though” are not perfectly equivalent. Consider the following three sets of examples:

“She rushed out of the house as if goblins were chasing her.”
“She rushed out of the house as though goblins were chasing her.”

“It looked as if he had not slept all night.”
“It looked as though he had not slept all night.”

“They looked at us as if we were from another planet.”
“They looked at us as though we were from another planet.”

I think you’ll agree with me that there isn’t any perceptible difference in meaning between the sentences in each of those pairs.

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When the perfect participle and present participle hardly differ

Question sent by e-mail by FH, an English teacher in Iran (May 20, 2013):    

Suppose that I sent you an e-mail but you haven’t answered it yet. Now, you want to answer it. Which of the sentences below would you use at the beginning of your reply, A or B? Please explain why.

(A) “Farhad, I apologize to you for not having responded to your e-mail sooner.”
(B) “Farhad, I apologize to you for not responding to your e-mail sooner.”

I look forward to hearing from you.

My reply to FH:

I must admit that I puzzled over your grammar question for quite a while before composing this answer.

My opinion is that since the act of answering the e-mail is being done at the very moment of writing the reply, the perfectly grammatical answer to your question is Sentence A: “Farhad, I apologize to you for not having responded to your e-mail sooner.” 

What we have here is a sentence that uses the so-called perfect participle to express a state (or an action) as just finished right before another action is consummated. The earlier state in such sentences is denoted by the perfect participle form “having + past participle of the verb,” which in this case is the negative verb phrase “not having responded”—meaning a state that was subsisting until the action was taken by the writer to apologize.

This answer, of course, immediately brings up the question of why Sentence B couldn’t be the answer: “Farhad, I apologize to you for not responding to your email sooner.” As you know, this other sentence uses the negative present participle form “not responding”—meaning an action not done until sometime in the past before the later action (the action taken by the writer to apologize) took place. The difference is that when the negative present participle is used, a significant length of time should have elapsed between the earlier action and the later action. This is in contrast to the negative perfect participle, where a particular state ends or an action is finished right before or while the later action is taking place.

The time that elapses between the earlier action (or state) and a later action could be of any length, of course. In this particular case, a delay of a few days or several weeks in the response to the e-mail would make the intervening time between the two actions significant and a cause for concern. The use of the negative present participle form “not responding” would then be called for: “Farhad, I apologize to you for not responding to your email sooner.” Indeed, it’s likely that this statement would be made if Farhad had already sent a follow-up e-mail calling attention to the delayed response to his earlier e-mail.

As we all know, however, our perception of the intervening time between two actions is a subjective thing. Depending on our point of view and attitude towards those two actions, that intervening time could seem very long or very short or practically nonexistent. It is when we perceive that intervening time to be unimportant or inconsequential that we are likely to choose—and for good reason—the present participle as a more natural and logical choice for that statement than the perfect participle. 

In such situations, in fact, the semantic distinction between the perfect participle and the present participle gets blurred. The two become practically interchangeable in everyday usage, with hardly any perceptible difference in meaning. Sentence B, “Farhad, I apologize to you for not responding to your email sooner,” then becomes a correct and perfectly defensible grammatical construction as well for that reply.

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Modals denote conjecture, never absolute certainty

Here’s a fascinating question on modals from FH, an English teacher in Iran, that came by e-mail last May 2, 2013:

As you know, we use the structure “must have + past participle” when we are sure that an action happened in the past. For example, “I rang the bell several times, but they didn’t open the door. They must have gone out.”

Here’s my question: What’s the negative form of the structure “must have +past participle”? My friend says that when we are sure an action did NOT happen in the past, we should use the structure “can’t/couldn’t have + past participle.” For example, “Where is she? She couldn’t have gone out—the door’s locked.”

I disagree with my friend. I think when we’re sure that an action has NOT happened in the past, we should use the structure “must not have + past participle.” For example, “Where is she? She must not have gone out—the door’s locked.”

What do you think?

My reply to FH:

You and your friend are fundamentally mistaken in thinking that the negative modal forms “must not have + past participle” and “couldn’t/ can’t have + past participle” can be used to denote with certainty that an action didn’t happen in the past. On the contrary, these forms denote only a strong belief or conjecture that the action didn’t happen.

Remember now that the auxiliary verbs “can,” “could,” “must,” “might,” and “may” are modals that indicate conjecture, supposition, or belief rather than established facts or absolute certainty.

“Can” and “may” are often interchangeably used to denote possibility or permission, as in “She can go” or “She may go.” On the other hand, “could” is used as the past tense form of “can,” as in “We discovered she could sing”; for the past conditional, an in “She assured me that she would come if she could”; and as an alternative to “can” in suggesting less force or certainty, as in “I hope you both could come.” (In negative constructions, though, “may” is rarely used; instead of “mayn’t,” what’s usually used is “cannot” or “can’t.”)

“Must” is used to denote what can logically be inferred or supposed, as in “It must be risky to sail in such bad weather,” and “may” is used to indicate possibility or probability, as in “You may be right that he took the money.” “Might” is used to indicate a lower probability or possibility than “may,” as in “We might catch up with you if the rain stops,” and to express probability or possibility in the past, as in “She might have sold her car after all.” It is also used as a polite alternative to “may,” as in “Might I ask who’s on the line?” or to “should,” as in “You might at least express appreciation.

We can thus see that the positive modal forms “must have + past participle” and “could have + past participle” couldn’t be expressions of certainty at all. And neither could their negative modal forms “must not have + past participle” and “could not have + past participle” denote certainty that the action didn’t happen. They just express strong supposition or conjecture.

So, for actions that surely happened in the past, we absolutely can’t use the positive modal form “must have + past participle” as in this example of yours: “I rang the bell several times, but they didn’t open the door. They must have gone out.” Instead, we must establish the action in that second sentence as an objective fact: “I rang the bell several times, but they didn’t open the door. They surely had gone out.”

For actions that surely didn’t happen, neither can we use the negative modal form “must not have + past participle” as in your friend’s example: “Where is she? She must not have gone out—the door’s locked.” We also must establish that the woman is indeed still inside the house: “Where is she? The door’s locked so she surely had not gone out.”

In each case, the subject’s going out or not going out must be an absolute certainty.

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Yes, “nor” can be used without “neither” in tandem with it

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (April 23, 2013):

Can nor be used without its “partner,” neither?

My reply to Miss Mae (April 26, 2013):

Sorry for this delayed reply. I missed reading your posting and it’s only now that I got to see it in the discussion board.

Definitely yes, the conjunction “nor” can be used without the conjunction “neither.” On its own, “nor” is used to introduce the second or last member or the second and each following member of a series of items, each of which is negated, as in the sentence “The burden wasn’t carried by you nor me nor by anyone for that matter.” 

Of course, when only two members of a series of items are involved, “nor” works with “neither” in the negative correlative form “neither…nor,” as in “Neither you nor me carried the burden.” This construction follows the traditional grammar rule that the negative correlative “neither…nor” should only be used to mean “not one or the other of two.” When the reference is to “none of several,” “none” instead of “neither” is used: “None of the five reelectionists passed the advocacy group’s integrity test.”

Also without the conjunction “neither,” the conjunction “nor” is used to introduce and negate a following clause or phrase in a sentence, as in “The candidate didn’t mind being labeled a family dynast, nor did she mind being deemed unqualified.” On a more profound note, the same stand-alone usage of “nor” is used in Psalm 121:6 of the New International Version of the Bible: “The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.”

Comment from Musushi-tamago, Forum member (April 26, 2013):

In your example for the use of “neither…nor,” “Neither you nor me carried the burden,” I think the “me” should be “I” because it is a doer of the action. Am I right?

My reply to Musushi-tamago:

You’re absolutely right and I’m sorry for the oversight! The pronoun “me” should be “I” instead because it’s in the nominative case, meaning that it’s doing the action of the verb, not receiving that action. That sentence should therefore read as follows: “Neither you nor I carried the burden.” 

This usage of the nominative pronoun “I” in that sentence is in contrast to that of the objective pronoun “me” in the example I presented earlier, “The burden wasn’t carried by you nor me nor by anyone for that matter.” Here, “me” is correct usage because the sentence is in the passive voice. In that passive voice construction, “me” isn’t a doer of the action but an object or receiver of the action of the passive verb form “wasn’t carried.”

For a discussion of how the nominative case differs from the objective case, click this link to this earlier posting of mine in the Forum, “Lesson 3 – The Matter of Case in English.”  

Thanks for the feedback!

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How infinitives and gerunds work in comparative sentences

Question e-mailed by FH from Iran (April 2, 2013):

I have a question: Which choice is correct? Please explain your reasons.
 
“A teacher can receive no greater gift than ________ she or he has had a positive influence and has been helpful to someone else.”
 
(a) to know
(b) knowing
(c) know 
 
Thank you for taking the time to help me.

My reply to FH (April 7, 2013):

Dear FH,

Answer choice (c) “know” is definitely wrong. Both (a) “to know” and (b) “knowing” are possible answers from a grammar standpoint, but I think the semantically and idiomatically correct answer is “to know.” This is because the infinitive phrase “to know” somehow gives the sense that the subject—in this case the “teacher”—still hasn’t received or doesn’t possess yet the gift being referred to, a situation that matches the sense of possibility denoted by the modal “can.” In contrast, the gerund phrase “knowing” gives the sense that the subject is already in possession or has already received such a gift—a situation that doesn’t seem to logically match the modality of “can.” 

It would seem to me that the gerund “knowing” might work in, say, a present-perfect sentence like this one: “As a teacher, I’ve received no greater gift than knowing I have had a positive influence and has been helpful to someone else.” Still, the semantics of the gerund “knowing” seems odd or askew in such constructions because “knowing” denotes a continuing state or permanent condition. In contrast, the one-time action denoted by the gerund “discovering” might work in such constructions: “As a teacher, I’ve received no greater gift than discovering I have had a positive influence and have been helpful to someone else.” Even better is the semantics of this sentence that uses the gerund phrase “receiving the compliment”: “As a teacher, I’ve received no greater gift than receiving the compliment that I have had a positive influence and have been helpful to someone else.” 

What these examples is telling us is that some verbs lend themselves semantically well to taking the infinitive form, while others don’t and could only take the gerund form to work properly in certain sentence constructions.

I hope this explanation helps clarify the usage for you.

Sincerely yours,
Joe Carillo

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The proper tense use of the tenses in main and subordinate clauses

This is a follow-through to the discussion on the question on “Not until Usage” by youngmentor (March 25, 2013).

Feedback from Mwita Chacha, Forum member (April 4, 2013):

If I’m not mistaken, grammar rules require that when the main clause is in the past tense, the independent clause also should be in the past tense. So my revision sentence would further be ‘‘Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March did I find out that my service record had not been closed yet because your office had not received the endorsement letter.’’

My reply to Mwita Chacha:

I don’t think there’s any grammar rule in English that requires the dependent or subordinate clause to be also in the past tense when the independent or main clause is in the past tense; that would make English an impossibly restrictive language for describing with events as they happen in time. You are perhaps referring by mistake to the so-called normal sequence-of-tenses rule for reported speech or indirect speech. Reported speech is, of course, the kind of sentence someone makes when he or she reports what someone else has said. And under the normal sequence-of-tenses rule, when an utterance takes the form of reported speech and the reporting verb is in the past tense, the operative verb of that utterance generally takes one step back from the present into the past: the present becomes past, the past usually stays in the past, the present perfect becomes past perfect, and the future becomes future conditional. (Click this link to my forum posting on “The proper way to construct sentences for reported speech”

Nevertheless, let’s see if it’s correct to use the past perfect for the verb phrases in the “that”-clause of the sentence in question, as you have done: “Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March did I find out that my service record had not been closed yet because your office had not received the endorsement letter.” 

In that sentence, the operative verb of the dependent clause is “requested” and that of the main clause is “did I find out,” both of which are in the past tense. We must keep in mind, though, that they are both in the past tense not because there’s a grammar rule requiring them to be always so together, but only because it just so happens that it’s what the particular situation requires. As to the verb phrases in the “that”-clause of the main clause, namely the verb phrases “has not been closed yet” and “has not received,” there is actually no rule whatsoever that requires them to have the same tense as the operative verb of the main clause. This being the case, the tense they will take will not be automatically the past tense but will be dependent only on the sense of the situation being described. In this particular case, they have to be in the present perfect because at the time the letter was written, the two conditions described—”has not been closed yet” and “has not received”—are still subsisting; in fact, they are the very basis and justification for the letter-writer’s request.

The past perfect would apply to those two conditions if they are no longer subsisting. Indeed, only in that event can we use the past perfect for those verb phrases, as you have done in this rewrite:  “Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March did I find out that my service record had not been closed yet because your office had not received the endorsement letter.” But the use of the past perfect here would wrongly imply that after the letter-writer discovered the problem, that office thereafter received the endorsement letter and duly closed his service record. This isn’t the case at all, though. Those two conditions are still subsisting up to the time of writing, so it’s logical for the letter-writer to use the present perfect tense for those two verb phrases: “Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March did I find out that my service record has not been closed yet because your office has not received the endorsement letter.”

I hope I have adequately clarified the tense usage for that sentence. 

Rejoinder from Mwita Chacha (April 8, 2013):

So you suggest ‘‘I failed to attend the meeting yesterday because I’m ill’’ is grammatically correct as long as the writer was still ill at the time he was making the sentence? It’s for the first time I hear that.

My reply to Mwita Chacha:

That’s right. And if you put the subordinate clause up front, the grammatical correctness of using the present tense for the state of the speaker’s being ill won’t look as questionable as you think:

“Because I am ill, I failed to attend the meeting yesterday.” (The speaker continues to be ill until the time of speaking.)

Contrast that sentence construction with this one:

“Because I was ill, I failed to attend the meeting yesterday.” (The speaker is no longer ill at the time of speaking.)

Keep in mind that the state of being ill is not necessarily the direct cause of failing to attend a meeting. A slight headache, for instance, won’t prevent one from making it to a meeting. It’s just becomes a subjective justification--a reason in the mind--for not attending the meeting.

In contrast, a real physical constraint like being hogtied by robbers definitely will prevent one from attending a meeting. That’s a direct cause--a consummated action done to the speaker--that will absolutely need the past tense in the construction that you have in mind:

“Because I was hogtied by robbers, I failed to attend the meeting yesterday.” (The speaker is no longer bound like a hog and has lived to tell the tale about his misfortune.)  

And to further emphasize my point that the tense of a subordinate clause is not dependent on the tense of the main clause, take a look at the following sentence with two separate actions in the main clause:

“Because I am ill, I failed to attend the meeting yesterday and won’t be able to fly to Frankfurt tomorrow.”(Three tenses are at play here: the present tense, the past tense, and the future tense.)

I hope this adequately clarifies things for you.

Response by Mwita Chacha (April 8, 2013):

It has indeed clarified things for me. There are some grammar books strictly insists that once the main-clause verb is in past tense the subordinate-clause verb must always be in past tense. My sympathy goes directly towards those who are not Forum members and who, like me hours ago, believe that’s the truth what is said by those books.

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Don’t be caught using “yesternight” these days!

Question by jhun bartolo, new Forum member (April 8, 2013):

Hello, sir!

I would just like to know if the word “yesternight” can still be used? According to what I have researched, this word can no longer be used. I hope that you can answer this question. Thank you.

My reply to jhun:

“Yesternight” is an archaic word for “last night,” dating to as far back as the 1500s and has long fallen into disuse. You’d sound decidedly Shakespearean if you used it in your spoken or written English today, so I suggest you don’t.

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Usage of the definite article “the” in serial lists is a matter of style

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (March 25, 2013):

When is the article “the” necessary? In the sentence “She beat the bushes offering her free-lance services to Look, the Milwaukee Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the New York News SyndicateNewsweekEsquire, and the Saturday Evening Post,” the writer seems to be taking liberties in using it.

My reply to Miss Mae:

As we know, the definite article “the” indicates that a following noun or noun equivalent is definite or has been previously specified by context or by circumstance, as in “reading the morning paper.” Another use of “the” is, of course, to indicate that a following noun or noun equivalent is a unique or a particular member of its class, as in “the President of the Philippines.”

There are two general styles in the use of “the” for serial listings of definite nouns. The first style is to have each of the definite nouns preceded by the article “the,” as in this sentence: “The tailor, the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick-maker all went on Holy Week vacation.” The second style is to use “the” only once before the first item in the list of definite nouns, as in “The tailor,  butcher, baker, and candlestick-maker all went on Holy Week vacation.” In this second style, it is implied and understood that the first “the” applies to all of the items, which then are all presumed to be definite nouns.

established stylistic preference in the use of the definite article “the” for their names. In the case of The New York Times and The Saturday Evening Post, for instance, they specify and prefer that the article “the” always precede the name, and that the first letter of “the” should be always in capital letters at that. This is why when these two publications are listed with other names of publications, we must not miss out on their “The’s,” as in this serial listing: ““She beat the bushes offering her free-lance services to The New York Times, Newsweek, Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, Look, and Time.” Other publications aren’t as demanding.

In the case of the serial listing your presented, “She beat the bushes offering her free-lance services to Look, the Milwaukee Journal, the Chicago Tribune, the New York News SyndicateNewsweekEsquire, and the Saturday Evening Post,” you need to check one by one if any of the listed publications have a stylistic preference for the article “the.” Wikipedia is a good place to find out what those stylistic preferences are. Offhand, I know that Look, Newsweek, and Esquire don’t demand the use of “the” ever. On the other hand, the Milwaukee Journal, Chicago Tribune, and New York News Syndicate don’t demand “The” before their names but when these names are serially listed, they’d rather that “the” precede them. In fact, the writer of the serial sentence you presented appears not to have taken stylistic liberties with the use of “the” at all; on the contrary, she seems to have scrupulously researched the stylistic preferences of those publications in the use of the article “the” before their names.

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Constructing a sentence that starts with “not until”

Question by young mentor, Forum member (March 25, 2013):

I was seized by doubt on the use of “not until” in starting this sentence: “Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March I would have not found out that my service record has not been closed yet due to non-receipt of the endorsement letter.”

I would be needing your expertise regarding this sentence construction.

My reply to young mentor:

This sentence of yours has faulty tense usage and its construction can stand improvement:

“Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March I would have not found out that my service record has not been closed yet due to non-receipt of the endorsement letter.”

The present perfect conditional “would have not found out” should be in the simple past tense “did I find out” instead.

That sentence should then read as follows:

“Not until I requested for my GSIS claim this March did I find out that my service record has not been closed yet because your office has not received the endorsement letter.”

As to your letter itself, I’m afraid that it sounds very officious and wordy. You can write it much better by imagining that you are face-to-face with the recipient. Then you won’t have need for those big words like “consonance,” “perusal,” and “good office” and won’t have the urge to sound bureaucratic or legalistic in making your request.

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Puzzling variation in the use of the indefinite article “a”

Here’s an interesting grammar puzzler e-mailed to me yesterday, March 15, 2013 by FH, an English teacher in Iran:

Dear Mr. Carillo,

Please look at options (A) and (B)

(A) It was a hard work.

(B) A good knowledge of French.

As you know, (A) is wrong but (B) is correct. But why? Both “work” and “knowledge” are uncountable, both have an adjective in front of them. But why (A) is wrong and (B) correct?

I am really confused. The issue of using the indefinite article “a” in front of uncountable nouns has really confused me.

All the best
FH

Here’s my reply to FH:

March 15, 2013

Dear FH,

Here’s my grammar analysis of the two grammatical constructions you presented:

  1. “It was a hard work.”
  2. A good knowledge of French.”

 

The first, “It was a hard work,” is grammatically flawed and unidiomatic because it needlessly uses the indefinite article “a” to precede “hard work.” It’s true that here, “work” is an uncountable noun that’s preceded by the adjective “hard,” but “hard work” is actually functioning in that sentence as a compound noun—a figurative expression or idiom—meaning “difficult labor.” The words “hard” and “work” are therefore not working as separate grammar entities in this case.

As a compound noun, “hard work” in that sentence serves as a predicate nominative to the subject “it” following this pattern:

It           +      was         + (hard work)
Subject + linking verb + predicate nominative

By definition, a predicate nominative follows a linking verb and tells us what the subject is. In the sentence in question, although the predicate nominative “hard work” is a compound noun, it serves as an adjective describing the subject “it,” in much the same way that the predicate nominative “big trouble” works as an adjective in the sentence below:

“She was big trouble.”

We don’t say “She was a big trouble,” which is grammatically wrong and awfully unidiomatic. In the same way, we don’t say “It was a hard work” but say “It was hard work” instead.

(The grammatical situation would be different if “work” is used in a sentence as a stand-alone noun in its literal sense modified by a preceding adjective phrase. An indefinite pronoun would then be needed, as in “It was a hard piece of work” and “It was an infuriating kind of work.”)

The above analysis, to my mind, explains why we don’t use the indefinite article “a” in the sentence “It was hard work.” But if this is the case, why then is the indefinite article “a” necessary in this other sentence that you presented?

A good knowledge of French.”

Let’s see why this phrase needs a different grammatical treatment although it also uses an uncountable noun like the sentence we analyzed.

Although both “work” and “knowledge” are uncountable nouns, they are generically different. “Work” in the sense of the sentence you presented is uncountable because it’s a thing that can’t be physically counted like, say, marbles or houses. However, “work” as a uncountable noun can take either a singular form (“work”) or plural form (“works”). We therefore can construct sentences like “It was productive work,” “It was a difficult piece of work,” “She did many different works,” or “His works in modern architecture made him famous.”

In contrast, “knowledge” belongs to the class of abstract ideas or qualities that don’t have and can’t take a plural form at all, like “ignorance,” “courage,” “cowardice,” and “patriotism,” so we can’t use “knowledges,” “ignorances,” “courages,” “cowardices,” and “patriotisms” in any kind of sentence construction whatsoever. But being always singular, such abstract nouns need to be preceded by the indefinite article “a” or “an” to work properly in a sentence, whether or not there’s an intervening adjective between the noun and the indefinite article. Not to do so would result in faulty syntax.

Consider these three sets of examples:

“He showed an ignorance that’s shocking.” “He showed an abysmal ignorance that’s shocking”

“She demonstrated a courage that amazed his peers.” “She demonstrated an indomitable courage that amazed his peers.”

“They showed a cowardice that disappointed us.” “He showed an ignoble cowardice that disappointed us.”

All of the sentences above will grammatically malfunction—or at least sound unidiomatic—if we knock off the “a” or “an” preceding the abstract nouns.

This need for the indefinite pronoun “a” or “an” by an abstract noun when used in a sentence obviously applies to the noun “knowledge” as well: “She has a knowledge of French.” “She has a good knowledge of French.” “She has an amazing knowledge of French.”

This rule is not absolute, however. When no postmodifying phrase follows a noun preceded by an adjective, however, the indefinite pronoun “a” or “an” can be dropped for both brevity and euphony:

“He showed shocking ignorance.” “He showed abysmal ignorance.”

“She demonstrated amazing courage.” “She demonstrated indomitable courage.”

“They showed disappointing cowardice.” “They showed ignoble cowardice.”

I hope you will find this explanation helpful.

Sincerely yours,

Joe Carillo

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How “Whenever we go (for, on) vacation...” differ in meaning

The following question was posted in my Personal Messages Box by chiccoloco, new Forum member (February 20, 2013):

Hi, Mr. Carillo! I’m one of your avid followers. I find your site helpful especially when I find myself confused with some grammar things in my job as an online English teacher. 

I wrote to ask if there’s any difference between saying “Whenever we go for vacation...” or “Whenever we go on vacation...” Are the prepositions “for” and “on” correct in both sentences? Or is it a matter of a missing article in the first phrase?

I hope you could shed some light on this. Thanks.

My reply to chiccoloco (February 23, 2013):

The expressions “Whenever we go for vacation...” or “Whenever we go on vacation...” are practically semantically equivalent ways of saying “Whenever we take a vacation,” which, of course, means spending a period from home or business in travel or recreation. The use of the prepositions “for” and “on” is grammatically correct in both sentence constructions. The sense of the two expressions is slightly different, however. The expression that uses “for” has the nuance that the speaker is referring to the vacation as the purpose for taking time out from home or business; on the other hand, the expression that uses “on” has the nuance that the speaker is referring to the vacation as the act of taking the vacation itself. This distinction, however, largely resides in the mind of the speaker; to the listener, that distinction would be hardly discernible. Whether “for” or “on” is used in saying it, the speaker will be understood to be taking a vacation.

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How “can’t help but + verb” differs from “can’t + help + (verb+ing)”

Question by Miss Mae (February 17, 2013):

Is there a valid reason for writers to refrain from using the idiomatic expression "can't help but"? That instead of the form “can’t + help + but + (verb),” it should be “can’t + help + (verb+ing)” instead?

My reply to Miss Mae (February 19, 2013):

Both the idiomatic expressions “can’t help + but + verb” and “can’t help + (verb + -ing)” are acceptable, and there’s really no valid reason why the first should be preferred to the second. This is because aside from being different in construction, each conveys a different sense when used in a sentence.

The first form, “can’t help + but + verb,” is a formulaic rendering of the idiomatic expression “can’t help but do something,” which means to be unable to choose any but one course of action. Consider this sentence using that form: “I can’t help but cry.” Here, with the expression using the bare infinitive “cry” (meaning the infinitive “to cry” with the “to” dropped), the sentence is complete in itself, and the sense is that under the circumstances, the speaker is unable to do anything else except to cry. 

However, when the form “can’t help + verb + -ing” is used, the sense is that the speaker just can’t prevent himself or herself from crying. When this form is used, some qualifying phrase after the “-ing” form of the verb is often required to make the sentence complete and make sense. In the case of the verb “cry,” for instance, we can’t simply say “I can’t help crying”; both the grammar and the semantics of the sentence would be flawed in that case. However, if we say “I can’t help crying all night,” “I can’t help crying out loud that I’ve been robbed,” or ““I can’t help crying after all the terrible things that happened to us,” the sentence becomes grammar- and semantics-perfect.

We can generalize on this usage by saying that we can ensure that the expression “can’t help + verb + -ing” will always work properly in a sentence if it’s immediately followed by a complement, which can be any word or phrase that completes the sense of the verb. In the three sentences given as examples in the preceding paragraph, the complements are, of course, “all night,” “out loud that I’ve been robbed,” and “after all the terrible things that happened to us.”

Rejoinder by Miss Mae (February 20, 2013):

I see. I have refrained from using the construction “can’t help + but + verb” for years for a false reason after all!

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Is the use of the word “anyways” acceptable?

Question by nutcracker, new Forum member (February 6, 2013):

I often hear youngsters using “anyways.” Is this also acceptable?

My reply to nutcracker:

Many youngsters often use “anyways” instead of “anyway” these days largely because of the influence of watching too many Hollywood movies on cable TV or video, where characters of low educational level use it habitually. This is a pity because “anyways” is American slang or colloquialism that’s considered nonstandard usage in the United States and Canada. I don’t think “anyways” is proper and acceptable usage for nonnative speakers or learners of English, so I believe it should be discouraged as a matter of course in schools and in everyday discourse.

RELATED POSTING IN THE FORUM:
“Is a professor’s use of the word ‘anyways’ acceptable in class?”

Rejoinder by nutcracker (February 7, 2013):

I am also guilty of using it sometimes, going after the trend when even local  DJs and native speakers use it. I remember a speaker in one seminar I attended saying “ English is a growing language.” 
Definitely not in this case, especially for  those learning English as a second language.  I agree that nonstandard usage should be discouraged in formal school.

Thanks again for this enlightenment.

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Should the conjunction “or” be preceded by a comma?

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (February 3, 2013):

When listing options, should or be introduced with a comma, too?

 My reply to Miss Mae (February 10, 2013):

Sorry for this delayed reply. I missed reading your posting and it’s only now that I came across it in the ‘Use and Misuse” discussion board.

Normally, the conjunction “or” is used to indicate an alternative or distinguish between two choices, as in “You can take the morning flight or the one in the evening?” or “Do you prefer coffee or tea?” In the case of one-word alternatives or those that consist of a phrase of just a few words, there’s no need for a comma to precede the “or.” When the alternative or choices are in the form of rather long phrases, however, using a comma before the “or” may become advisable for clarity’s sake, as in “It’s possible that the newly married couple will consider buying a condominium unit when they move to the city proper next month, or they might just rent an apartment if they can find one near enough to the university where they’ll both be teaching.” Now imagine that long sentence without the comma before “or” and read it.

RELATED READINGS:
“On the question over my use of the serial comma”

“Why I consistently use the serial comma”

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Using some idiomatic variations of the preposition “about”

Question by maria balina, Forum member (January 19, 2013):

Hi, Mr. Carillo!

How do I respond to a question asking me how to use the expressions “when it comes to,” “in terms of,” and “about?”  These expressions are similar in meaning but I'm sure there are certain rules on their usage.

I would really appreciate an immediate reply from you. Thank you.

My reply to maria balina:

You’re correct in saying that “when it comes to,” “in terms of,” and “about” are similar in meaning, for they all convey the sense of “with regard to” or “concerning” something. They have different shades of meaning, though, and there are really no hard-and-fast rules on their usage. The choice among them largely depends on the chosen or habitual tone of voice—the so-called “language register”—of the writer or speaker.

Let’s start with the preposition “about.” It’s obviously the no-frills, no-nonsense, direct-to-the-point choice when you want to refer to something very quickly: “About the inconsiderate thing I said last night, I really didn’t mean it.” There are several close synonyms of “about,” the most common of which are “concerning,” “regarding,” “as regards,” and “with regard to,” but using them can make that same statement unnatural-sounding and ponderous. In particular, to say “Concerning the inconsiderate thing I said last night, I really didn’t mean it” sounds officious and bureaucratic, and to say “With regard to the inconsiderate thing I said last night, I really didn’t mean it” sounds like legalese or lawyer talk. I think you’ll agree that neither is the way to express yourself if you want to sound natural and unaffected.

As to “in terms of,” it’s an idiomatic expression that means “as measured or indicated by” in its original mathematical sense, and “in relation with,” “with reference to,” or “on the basis of” in its wider sense. Using it in its original sense gives a patina of precision and accuracy to statements, as in “Fifty years is a very short period in terms of evolutionary time, but a manageable interval for population geneticists.” In contemporary usage, however, “in terms of” is often loosely used in the sense of “regarding,” as in “The couple’s relationshipin terms of intimacy is now practically zero.”

Much more idiomatic than both “about” and “in terms of” is the expression “when it comes to.” It means “when the subject being discussed is a particular thing,” and is often used as a grammatical transition to a different topic or a new aspect of the topic being talked about. Typical of its usage is effecting a change of subject, as in this statement: “In mathematics my professor is nothing less than a wizard. When it comes to social interaction skills, however, he is a hopeless incompetent.”

In present-day usage, however, “when it comes to” is now often used to mean simply “about,” “as to,” “as for,” “in relation to,” “speaking of,” or “on the matter of.” Note that the sense of transition in “when it comes to” is no longer as evident in this Canadian Press news report: “Statistics Canada says people over 65 use the Internet more than they did a decade ago, but there’s still a wide generation gap when it comes to videos and music.” 

Indeed, that sense of transition is sometimes dispensed with altogether in the journalistic usage of “when it comes to,” which retains only the sense of “about.” This is the case in this sentence that starts a news report in The Guardian in the UK: “When it comes to air pollution, the long-suffering residents of Beijing tend to think they have seen it all. But this weekend, instruments measuring the levels of particulate matter in the city’s famously noxious air broke all records.”

So when uncomfortable or doubtful about using the various idiomatic variations of “about,” stick to “about.”

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Should the number of a parenthetical agree with that of its subject?

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (January 31, 2013):

How on earth can I make the subject of the following sentence agree with the noun in the parenthetical?

“Entry-level attorneys (Lawyer I) must have passed the state’s bar.”

My reply to Miss Mae:

There’s really no need for the subject in the following sentence to agree with the noun in the parenthetical: “Entry-level attorneys (Lawyer I) must have passed the state’s bar.” Here, the subject “attorneys” is a plural noun, but the parenthetical “Lawyer I”—although a singular noun in form—is actually a category or classification. As such, it functions as an adjective modifying the noun phrase “entry-level attorneys.” In English grammar, as we know, adjectives don’t have a plural form; they don’t inflect or change regardless of whether the noun they are modifying is singular or plural. It is therefore grammatically incorrect to seek agreement in number between the subject and the parenthetical in that sentence in this way: “Entry-level attorneys (Lawyers I) must have passed the state’s bar.” Indeed, as a rule in the English language, agreement in number (whether singular or plural) should be sought only for the subject and the verb in a sentence.

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The proper tenses for actions happening at different times

Question by Miss Mae, Forum member (January 28, 2013):

Does this rule I read from your third book, Give Your English the Winning Edge, apply to more than one statement as well?

“If the statement is about events or action happening at different times, a different tense with the appropriate verb form should be used for each event or action.” (Jose Carillo, 2009, Chapter 46, “Tense in Cases of Clause Dependency”).

My reply to Miss Mae:

Yes, definitely, that general rule in English grammar applies to both single statements and multiple statements. We must clearly distinguish, though, between a “statement” and a “sentence.” 

By definition, a statement is a single declaration, remark, or assertion that could be simply a single word of warning like, say, “Fire!”, or a long speech or perhaps a press release consisting of so many sentences or paragraphs. Obviously, a statement could invoke or involve several events or actions at different times, so to put those events or actions in context, the sentences describing them would have to use the appropriate tense for each of them.

In contrast, a sentence by definition is “a word, clause, or phrase or a group of clauses or phrases forming a syntactic unit which expresses an assertion, a question, a command, a wish, an exclamation, or the performance of an action…” (This is from the definition by the Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary.) Within a sentence, there are specific grammatical rules for verbs that describe events or actions that happened at different times, so the verbs will need to use tenses that will clearly give a sense of when the events or actions happened in relation to one another.  

Take this sentence, for instance: “I’m telling you that when I met with my best friend yesterday, she claimed that she had seen your fiancée having dinner last Sunday with another man your age in that fancy bayside restaurant.”  Here, “am telling” is in the present progressive tense, “met” and “claimed” are both in the simple past tense, “had seen” is in the past perfect tense, and “having dinner last Sunday” is in the past progressive tense.

In a statement consisting of several such sentences describing events or actions happening at different times, each of the sentences could have different interplays of the various tenses. The task of the writer or speaker is to make sure that such interplays of the tenses will make the sequence or progression of the events and actions unmistakably clear to the reader or listener.

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