One of our readers, Justin, recently wrote to ask: When proofreading a peer’s article on the solar system, I realized that she, and I, are unsure of the proper use of “that” and “which” in a sentence. Below is [SIC] two examples of the same sentence, one using “that” and the other “which.” “To our … Read more
Reader Eric wonders about the uses of will and shall. When do you use “will” and “shall?” I know that [they] mean the same thing, but I would like to know when to use them in the correct grammatical sense. In modern English will and shall are helping verbs. They are used with other verbs, … Read more
In preparing to write a review of No Country for Old Men, I glanced at some online discussions of the film to see what other people were saying. The grammarian in me overcame the movie critic as I found myself paying more attention to the mode of expression than the thoughts being expressed. In Dustin’s … Read more
Most people who advise on writing tell you to check the spelling and grammar on your work. This is good advice. However, the trouble is that the tools we often use just aren’t up to the job. Many of us use Microsoft Word for writing, and its built-in spelling and grammar checker for checking our … Read more
The indefinite articles a and an both mean the same thing. The definite article the refers to a particular thing (“Give me the ring! The wedding ring!”) while a and an refer to any item of a certain type (“Please hand me a nail, any nail.”) But when do you use a and when do … Read more
Commenting on one of my posts about prepositions, Annette writes: When did the rule about ending the sentence with a preposition change? It’s always been one of my pet peeves (in written word more than spoken) because we learned it was wrong in high school grammar…. but now I’m reading that it’s acceptable? Could all … Read more
A common error in modern writing looks a little like this: “Microsoft announced they are releasing a new Xbox console next week…” Since Microsoft is a company made up of many people, it’s easy to make this mistake. But companies are always its, not theys. “Microsoft announced it is releasing…” Another variation on this rule … Read more
Thomas, one of our readers, asks, “What is the difference between “these” and “those”? Can they just be interchanged?” In order to understand the difference between these two terms we need first to understand the difference between “this” and “that,” since “these” is the plural of “this” and “those” is the plural of “that.” The … Read more
Television scriptwriters — or perhaps actors who are failing to read what has been written for them–seem to be determined to reverse the functions of the pronouns “I” and “me” in American speech. Refresher I is the subject form of the first person personal pronoun. It stands for the person speaking. This subject form is … Read more
If you want to write proper English, you have to follow a rule called “subject-verb agreement.” That means that if the subject is plural (ducks), then the verb needs to be plural (quack). If the subject is singular (duck) then the verb needs to be singular (quacks). This issue is not as picky and unimportant … Read more
Adjectives have inflections. That is, adjectives change in spelling according to how they are used in a sentence. Adjectives have three forms: positive, comparative, and superlative. The simplest form of the adjective is its positive form. When two objects or persons are being compared, the comparative form of the adjective is used. When three or … Read more
In the past, English teachers used to preach that one should never start a sentence with conjunctions like and or but. Does this rule still apply today? Not entirely. It is already acceptable to start sentences with such conjunctions. Some authorities, in fact, even defend that for some cases conjunctions will do a better job … Read more