Grammar Ramblings

Articles: A Slideshow

2009-06-23T19:54:00.002-04:00

I just added this slide show on articles to Slideshare.

View more OpenOffice presentations from eslwebteacher.

Feedback on it is welcome.

Passive Voice on Slideshare

2009-04-02T20:26:00.002-04:00

I have added a PowerPoint presentation on the passive voice on Slideshare. It gives a few examples of the passive voice and some guidelines for use.

Passive Voice

View more presentations from eslwebteacher.

We don't teach much about the passive voice, but people use it all time, even those who advise against it according to the discussions on Language Log.

Suggestions for ESL Writers

2009-03-10T21:05:00.002-04:00

Grammar Gang in a post, "write like a native," gives three suggestions for ESL writers. The first one is to use Google as a resource for phrases that the writer is not sure about. The suggestion is to put the phrase in quotation marks and search for usage. They give the following two phrases as examples: "at the house of my mother" and "at my mother's house." The second suggestion is to use a thesaurus, which is a type of dictionary that contains synonyms for words. Teachers sometimes suggest careful use of a thesaurus, and I suggest using a thesaurus with a dictionary as a double check because English has so many words with multiple meanings.
The final suggestion is for writers to read their papers aloud to help the writer slow down and catch errors. The post is definitely worth reading and thinking about.

To use or not to use that

2008-06-14T16:54:00.001-04:00

Grammar Girl has a good post on when to leave out "that". To quickly summarize, a writer can leave out that when it is not needed or when it becomes confusing such as two thats close together. But she notes that sometimes that is necessary for understanding the sentence. Consider her explanation and example:

Sometimes "That" Is Necessary

Now, there are several cases when a “that” might be necessary. If your sentence already has another “that” or two, you might not want to complicate it more by adding yet another “that” (3). One of the sentences above falls into this category. I said, “Some people think adding ‘that’ improves the flow of the sentence.” I could have also said, “Some people think THAT adding ‘that’ improves the flow of the sentence,” but I thought two cases of “that” would be a bit much.

Another time you should consider using a “that” is when your sentence could be ambiguous or misunderstood. Steven Pinker, a linguist, warns about what he calls “garden path sentences” (4). These are sentences that seem to mean one thing but then turn out to mean something else. Sometimes, keeping a “that” can help you avoid such problematic sentences. Pinker explains, “These are called garden path sentences, because their first words lead the listener ‘up the garden path’ to an incorrect analysis.”

Here an example of a sentence that leads the reader down the wrong path when you omit the word “that”:

Aardvark maintains Squiggly's yard is too big.

Without a “that,” the reader is initially led to believe that Aardvark maintains, as in mows, Squiggly's yard. If you add in a “that,” it's clear from the beginning that Aardvark just has an opinion.

Aardvark maintains that Squiggly's yard is too big

Pinker goes on to say that garden path sentences are “one of the hallmarks of bad writing” because readers have to wend their way back to the beginning of the sentence to figure out its meaning.

It is sometimes tricky to know if your sentence is ambiguous because you, the writer, know what you mean. I always find it useful to put aside my work for a while and then read it again with fresh eyes. You could also consider having a friend or colleague read over your work.

I find the guidelines here very helpful and clearly explained. The concern for clarity should always be primary in deciding what to write. I also like the point about getting a second opinion or putting the text aside for a while and coming back with fresh eyes.
This post on that differs from my earlier post because my post concerned a situation when that actually was a the subject of a new sentence.

What as an object

2008-06-13T21:39:00.001-04:00

I saw this word combination in a paragraph I was reading:

"to know what is the meaning."

This is not a correct structure at least in the sentence was used in, which unfortunately I did not record. The phrasing here is not correct because "what" is not the subject of the clause after "to know". "What" is the object in this clause.

In other words, the clause has a subject, "the meaning", so it would be structured as "the meaning is what". In English, we can put the object question word in front of the subject when putting it in a relative clause. Consequently, we write

what[object] the meaning [subject] is [verb].

If we put these same words in an independent clause, they would either form a sentence, "the meaning is what" that would probably be concluded with a question mark, as in, "The meaning is what?" This particular sentence would probably express surprise with an emphasis on what.
Another way we can use these words in a simple sentence is as "What is the meaning?" which is structured like other "what" questions such as "What is your name?" or "What is the address?" in which the object comes before the verb.
To sum up, in the construction from the student's paper, the phrasing is incorrect because the object, "what", is being used in the subject place when it is not the subject.

Word sites

2008-06-10T21:22:00.001-04:00

Lifehacker has a page "Best Online Language Tools for Word Nerds" that word lovers will enjoy, but it also looks useful for language learners. The article includes the already mentioned VisuWords along with definr a site for a suggest-as-you-type dictionary, a confusing words site, and a site for the Firefox add-on for pronunciation. It is a good place to start finding new resources for improving a person's vocabulary.

Visuwords

2008-05-09T22:14:00.004-04:00

Visuwords is a good site for exploring words. It is similar to a thesaurus, but instead of a list of words, an image is generated with related words.

This looks like a useful site for expanding vocabulary since English has so many words that have similar meanings. However, for second language learners, it is important to double check the meanings in a dictionary.

than and then

2007-07-09T22:19:00.000-04:00

Check out the explanation for how to use than and then at WikiHow. The basic difference is that than is used to compare and then is used with time. If you read down a ways, you will find a good explanation of the difference between the two words by using the word next to decide whether to use than or then. Since next is a synonym for then, when you can use next, you can use then.

got passive

2007-03-01T22:46:00.000-05:00

While I know that English teachers discourage the use of the passive, and with good reason, sometimes we just have to use it. The most common form of the passive voice involves using a form of be with a past participle.

We were married in Manila.
Taxes were raised while we weren't looking.

We can use another auxiliary verb in passives. The word is get.

ESL Gold has a short description of the get passive form with the following explanation.

Get is often used in idiomatic expressions. For example,
What time will you get done? (What time will you be finished?)
James got drunk at the party. (He became drunk at the party.)
I hope you get better soon. (I hope you become well soon.)
We got engaged last week.(We became an engaged couple.)

This is a nice starting point. However, Julie Sevastopoulous provides a more complete explanation. In addition, the site has some good images to support the explanations. On this site, Julie explains and illustrates uses of the get passive.

The get passive is used for an unexpected action: "He got hit by a water balloon tossed from the balcony."

It is also used to show a change of status: "We got married in Manila."

These are used in addition to the common expression as illustrated above. The site also has a nice quiz at the bottom to try out some of these expressions.

Another site with a quiz can be found at English-Zone.com

Vocabulary Self-Testing

2007-01-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

I came across this site called Quizlet. It looks like a really useful site for learning vocabulary. From what I saw of it, the site could be used by a group of people to study for a test or just to learn the vocabulary for a class. On the site are several examples that can be practiced with. It is free to use the site, and a Quicktime video presents a good tutorial showing the different features.

compared to + ing verb

2007-01-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

As I wrote before, I use a general guideline that the simple form of the verb usually follows the preposition to. In the previous blog, I wrote how this does not work with advantages. In this post, I am going to look at another word that is not followed by to + the simple form of the verb. This word is compared. This came from Danny's paragraph and made me think more about what is going on in this combination.

In the following sentence, I like having several friends compared to having only one or two good friends. the -ing word following compared to is a gerund, that is an -ing word functioning as a noun.

The first two examples come from Just the Word
Everything was boring compared to the books he read.
Well it was useless compared to the amount I'd been using.
Or this sentence from the concordancer on Lexical Tutor:
Also, it requires more time as compared to the automatic approach.

The common pattern for compared to is that it is followed by a noun or noun phrase. I did not find any infinitive, that is to + the simple form of the verb in my searches.

In the future, I will keep these examples in mind and warn that the pattern of to + the simple form of the verb usually holds true.

Advantage and to

2007-01-02T22:57:00.000-05:00

In class, I generally use the guideline that the preposition to is followed by the simple form of the verb, in other words, the infinitive form. For example,

I am happy to see you.
The girls are ready to work.
The first group to visit us was the girl scouts.

However, a student, Hanna, turned in a paper using advantages to introduce her supports and followed my guideline. It didn't work. Advantage is usually followed by the -ing form.

The first advantage to working part time...
Another advantage to studying each day...

This pattern proves consistent when other prepositions follow advantage:

The advantage of walking for exercise...
The advantage of memorizing...

Thus, advantage proves to be an exception to the to + simple verb form guideline. I will add to this list now of one word when I find other exceptions.

Just the Word

2006-12-31T23:37:00.000-05:00

On the blog, English Jack, which offers thoughtful and sometimes thought provoking discussion of grammar points, is a list of tools. He links to one tool that I think could prove useful. The site Just the Word provides a way to look up words with their common collocations in different patterns. Use the link, Getting Started, to see how it works or, better yet, type in a word in the box and explore.

Correction about Guide to Grammar and Writing

2006-12-26T09:31:00.000-05:00

I wrote too soon it seems. Guide to Grammar and Writing remains available. Some of the former links don't work, but this one does http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/.
As Ronald Reagan said, "trust but verify", and I forgot the second part, to verify.

Grammar Resources on line

2006-11-25T08:45:00.000-05:00

The site for Guide to Grammar and Writing seems to work no longer with the death of the webmaster, Charles Darling. Here are a couple of sites that can serve as replacement resources.

The first one, Grammar Slammer, has some good grammar explanations available in a simple format that makes finding what you want fairly easy although it doesn't have the richness of explanations of the Guide to Grammar and Writing. The site appears to be a site aimed at selling a more complete product, which I have not tried and cannot endorse.

and

The second one, the OWL (On-Line Writing Lab) - Purdue University, has a wealth of materials on different grammar, writing, and punctuation topics. I have used this site off and on for several years. I particularly like the option of downloading pdf files of many of the explanations. While Grammar Slammer provides short and clear explanations, OWL (On-Line Writing Lab) - Purdue University supplies more in-depth explanations and exercises for practice.

due

2006-11-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

In class, the question arose because a student reported that she got the answer wrong on a test because she thought due was always followed by a time. But due when followed by to means caused by. Another synonym for due is attributable according to the Columbia Journalism Review site. The explanation further notes that "due to" is usually preceded by some form of the verb be or words that function like it, that is, linking verbs.

Their examples are:

"The power failure was due to a lightning strike."
"Their exhaustion seemed due to the humidity rather than the heat."

Here is a little more about due. Due with prepositions can connect with money and time.

Due to is also used with money.

Ten dollars for the tickets is due to Mr. Jones.

To return to the original point about due to. When due is used with on or in, it often refers to a time.

The paper is due on the last day of the month.
Your answer is due in ten minutes.

Due has several uses beyond pointing to time including causes and money.

Because

2006-11-09T21:13:00.000-05:00

Because is a commonly used subordinate conjunction. The word because is not followed by very many parts of speech except in this sentence where because is not a subordinator but the word being talked about. Consider the following concordance results from VIEW: Variation in English Words and Phrases.

As we can see of the 9 lines from the results, 2 are nouns, workers and germs, one is a gerund, shooting, and 3 are personal pronouns:they or she. In one sentence because introduces another dependent clause beginning if you do not pay. In line 6, the prepositional phrase like Jesus follows because. Nine lines are not enough lines to make any serious generalization from.

However, using another online concordance, Lexical Tutor, similar results were found.

These results, based on many more lines, indicate that a noun or noun phrase, pronoun, or preposition are most likely to follow because. Consequently, when writing clauses that begin with because, we should make sure the word or words that follow include a noun, pronoun, or preposition. The most common preposition that follows because is the preposition of. Do not use a verb after because unless you are writing about the word because.

a couple

2006-08-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

The word couple poses some problems when we deal with subject verb agreement. First of all, even with the phrase a couple, we have to be careful. In American English, we expect a couple to be singular, which means we add an -s to the present tense verb that follows it.

Example: John and Mary are a couple. This couple is traveling with us to Jacksonville on Saturday.

So far, we are doing well with singular subject verb agreement. However, consider the following sentences.

They/It disagree/s about where to eat, so we went to separate restaurants, me with the husband, my wife with the wife.

Obviously, in this example, it doesn't make sense because the couple we refer to in the previous sentence now becomes two. This shift leaves us with a choice between remaining consistent or adjusting as we write.

Consistent: John and Mary are a couple. This couple are traveling with us to Jacksonville on Saturday. They disagree about where to eat, so we went to separate restaurants, me with the husband, my wife with the wife.

Adjusting: John and Mary are a couple. This couple is traveling with us to Jacksonville on Saturday. They disagree about where to eat, so we went to separate restaurants, me with the husband, my wife with the wife.

I like the second choice, adjusting, because I understand the couple to be a single unit when they are traveling, but they become two, the meaning of couple, when they disagree about the restaurant.

plural gerunds

2006-06-20T21:54:00.000-04:00

A general rule for gerunds that our workbook gives is that gerunds are singular. This is accurate in most cases because most gerunds serve as non count or uncountable nouns and do not have a plural form. For example, in the sentence, Skiing is my favorite winter activity., skiing is always singular and can not be counted. As I wrote before, this guideline is accurate in most cases. However, a few gerunds can be countable and have a plural form. In the Collins COBUILD English Grammar, there is a list the more frequent gerunds that have plural forms.


    beginning      feeling        meeting        setting        turning
    being          finding        offering       showing        warning
    building       hearing        painting       sitting
    drawing        meaning        saying         suffering    (page 28)

The writers point out that many of these words have different meanings in the plural form than in the verb form. One example of this difference is the word feel.

As a verb, feeling refers to the sense of touch, health or mood.

She is feeling the roughness of the fabric.
He is feeling a little sick from the long ride.
She is feeling sad that her sister could not come along.

As a noun, feeling refers to the sense of touch, emotions, or opinions.

The feeling in his hands returned as his hands warmed up.
His has mixed feelings about this trip.
Their feelings were that the judge was unfair.

When we rely on the guidelines that gerunds are singular, we should keep in mind the exceptions listed above.

continual and continuous

2006-05-28T20:29:00.000-04:00

There is a good explanation of continual and continuous at
AlphaDictionary.
The explanation is as follows:

Notes: Continual is often confused with continuous. However, the meanings of these two words differ significantly and they cannot be used correctly as synonyms. Continuous refers to an action that continues in an unbroken fashion, as a continuous hum or buzzing sound. Continual refers to a repeated action that is periodically interrupted, as continual complaints about the dog from the neighbors.

Both of these adjectives come from continue, but the differ in meaning so much that they can not be used interchangeable, that is they cannot be synonyms. If I want to write that something happens without stop, then I use continuous.

There was a continuous whistle in my ears while I had a cold.
Her continous complaining made her uncomfortable company.

Continual, as the explanation points out, means a repeated action.

He made continual use of the whistle to stop play.
The protestors faced continual pressure from the police.

In an earlier post, I wrote about time and times as noncount and count. It would seem that continuous is like the noncount time in that it is not broken into different actions. Continual is like the count time because it refers to several actions that keep getting repeated.

FANBOYS

2006-04-29T21:52:00.000-04:00

The Triangle Grammar Guide has a fine post on the FANBOYS, the coordinating conjunctions For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So. This blog is written by Pam Nelson, an experienced journalist for the The NewsObserver of Raleigh, North Carolina. As is clear from the title, she writes about grammar.

A few points that she makes are:

"The words can connect words, phrases or clauses. They are called coordinating conjunctions because they join equal things."

and

"Newspaper style varies from academic style on commas and items in a series. In newspapers, we drop the comma just before the coordinating conjunction:

Stir in sugar, oil, beaten eggs and vanilla."

finally

"You have probably heard that you should not begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction. Piffle! You shouldn't begin every sentence with a conjunction, but you can use the conjunctions sometimes. But don't put a comma after the conjunction."

I found a few things interesting in her discussion of the FANBOYS. I liked that she pointed out how journalistic style is different from academic style. Second, she points out that we can use a coordinating conjunction at the beginning of a sentence. There is no rule that a sentence cannot begin with a coordinating conjunction, but there are some teacher rules that forbid the use of coordinating conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence. Finally, remember the final sentence I quote above:"But don't put a comma after the conjunction."

By the way, for those who do not know, according to Merriam Webster's on line, piffle means "trivial nonsense".

That

2006-03-31T20:30:00.000-05:00

That can serve different functions in English. I will discuss four uses.

Pronoun
As a pronoun, that usually refers to something specific.

What kind of car is that?

That can be used to refer to an event.

The bicycle race finish was very close. That was really exciting.

That can be used to refer to something farther away in contrast to this.

That calculator is mine; this one is hers.

Relative Pronoun

That can be used to form two kinds of clauses: noun clause and adjective clauses.

Noun Clause:

That he was wrong is very clear now.
The important thing is that she did not panic.

Adjective Clause:

The store that used to be on this corner was my favorite place to buy magazines.
Storm is the name that her mother gave her.

Conjunction

With some adjectives and verbs, that can serve as a subordinate conjunction.

He is sorry that he missed her performance.
I wish that she would pay closer attention.
She knew that she should wait longer.

so that

I worked hard all afternoon so that I could pay my rent this month.

Adjective

That is used to point at a specific thing.

That rose is my favorite one.
He brought that guitar to the party.

Leaving out that

In some cases, that can be left out.

So that clauses

She baked a cake so that her sister would have something special for her birthday.
She baked a cake so her sister would have something special for her birthday.

That can be left out of clauses when it is the object of the clause.

She went to the store that sold the best watches. (that is the subject so it can not be left out.)
She went to the store that her sister told her about. (that is the object – her sister told her about that store- so it can be left out)
She went to the store her sister told her about.

all the time, every time

2006-02-14T22:01:00.000-05:00

There is some confusion between every time and all the time in a couple of papers. Every time refers to several different events. All the time consists of an extended event.

At McDonald's, I work every time. (In this sentence, it is a little unclear, but the sentence suggests that when McDonald's needs me to work, I work. It means several different times.)
At McDonald's, I work all the time. (In this sentence, the writer is saying that the person works the full time that he or she is at McDonald's.)

a number of

2006-01-25T09:21:00.000-05:00

In an exercise we were working on in class, a sentence began with A number of students. This caused confusion because a number indicates one, so it would seem that the verb should be has. However, the correct answer is A number of students have. The reason the plural verb form is used is that a number of is an idiom. The idiom, a number of, means several. With this in mind, we can go back to our sentence

A number of students (has, have) problems with pronunciation.

and substitute several for a number of.

Several students (has, have) problems with pronunciation.

With several, it is clearer that the correct verb choice is have.

Several students have problems with pronunciation.

A number of students have problems with pronunciation.

Like/As if

2006-01-20T10:41:00.000-05:00

Here is a very helpful post from Triangle Grammar Guide on the use of like and as if:

Write as if you know what you are doing
"Like" is a preposition and should not be used at the beginning of a clause. Here is an example I encountered in my editing recently: The two friends look like they’d be more at home knocking the stuffing out of people on a football field. I changed that "like" to "as if." I seem to do that a lot, so it occurs to me that writers either don't know the correct usage or are deliberately ignoring it in favor of "conversational" writing.

John Bremner in "Words on Words" has a clear rule for determining whether to use "like" or "as/as if." Remember that "like" means "similar to" or "similarly to." Substitute "similar to" in the sentence above: The two friends look similar to they’d be more at home knocking the stuffing out of people on a football field. You can see that how wrong that is or hear how incorrect it sounds.

The post clears up for me the difference between like and as if in a way that helps me understand how the words differ in use.

Noun adjuncts

2006-01-09T20:42:00.000-05:00

Even an old dog can learn something new.

I have taught for years that the noun coming before another noun and describing the second noun is simply a noun acting as an adjective. But there is a name for this noun. It is a noun adjunct.
Here is what I am talking about.

In the phrase raisin bread, the word raisin is a noun adjunct. It is a noun describing a second noun, bread.

This differs from a compound noun like toothbrush which is two nouns combined to form one word.

Although noun adjuncts will not be on any tests that I give, it is nice to learn something new. By the way, I checked my old grammar books, and there is nothing in them about noun adjuncts, so I guess I have an excuse for my ignorance.

suppose / supposed

2005-12-05T20:40:00.000-05:00

1) I suppose I should go.
2) I am supposed to go.
3) He is the supposed leader.

The first difference between suppose and supposed is that suppose is a verb and supposed is an adjective. With this difference in mind, we can begin to understand the differences in meanings.

In 1), suppose has a meaning similar to think. Suppose generally expresses a belief that lacks certainty or an opinion.

In 2), supposed means required or obliged. It is similar in meaning to the modal should.
In 3), supposed means either mistakenly believed or based on not very strong evidence.

In 3), the meaning is closer to the verb meaning 1) than is 2).

Since 3) and 1) are somewhat similar, how can we tell them apart in reading?

Here are two sentences with supposed in them.

A. After waiting for a half an hour, she supposed her friend was not coming.
B. Her supposed friend had failed to support her in the disagreement.

In the first sentence, the verb, supposed, follows directly after the subject. In the second sentence, supposed is in the adjective place in a noun phrase, that is, it is in front of the noun.
The most common use of supposed, however, is after the BE verb as an adjective. In writing, don't forget the adjective form looks like the past tense, but it isn't really a verb, so it doesn't agree with time of the other verbs.

Suppose is sometimes used at the beginning of a sentence in an imperative sentence.

Suppose your parents don't come.

This sentence is used as a hypothetical statement, a sort of if-clause. It is similar to:

What if your parents don't come?

This use of suppose occurs when a writer wants the reader to think of something in a way that is different from the current reality.

WordWeb

2005-11-29T19:46:00.000-05:00

If you bought a Longman , Oxford , or Cambridge dictionary, you may have gotten the cd with it. Then you don't really need a another dictionary on your computer. But if you don't have a dictionary cd or other type of dictionary for quick reference, I suggest you download WordWeb from http://wordweb.info/free/. This is a good dictionary, and the free version should work well enough for most of us. I have been using it now for about half a year and rely on it much of the time. It not only provides information about words, but it also has a thesaurus, so I can look up related words.

Future time in complex sentences

2005-10-16T22:17:00.000-04:00

When we write complex sentences combining dependent and independent clauses, we use the same tense in each clause.

When I visited Miami, I went to Coconut Grove. (past)
When I eat at a restaurant, I order fish. (present)

If we want to use future time with a complex sentence, we use the future form with either will or be going to in the independent clause only. We use the present tense in the dependent clause.

I will go to the Mall of America when I travel to Minnesota.
When he gets home, he is going to be hungry.

Conclusions

2005-09-21T20:45:00.000-04:00

The conclusion of a paragraph consists of one or two concluding sentences. The conclusion should accomplish at minimum the task of reminding the reader of the main idea of the paragraph. It can also be used to recall the key points in the paragraph. Furthermore, the conclusion can include the writer’s comment on the paragraph.

The difficulty of hitting a baseball should not be underestimated. First of all, the baseball is moving and hitting anything moving is obviously much more difficult than when it is sitting still. Hitting a mosquito squatting on my arm challenges my abilities some, but whacking one in the air requires great hand to eye coordination, which I don’t have. The baseball is not very large. It fits into a person’s hand and is smaller than only a part of the bat. So a batter only has a few inches of wood that they have to move to the correct spot at the exact time that a ball moving at speeds of up to 90 miles an hour gets there. If that isn’t difficult enough, the ball has been thrown by someone who does not want the batter to hit it. The pitcher throws the trying to make the batter miss it. He tries to make it elusive by making it curve, sink, or rise so the batter can not hit it. With all these challenges, it is a wonder anyone hits a baseball at all.

Three Strategies illustrated:
Restatement: As we can see, hitting a baseball is very difficult.
Summary: A pitcher throwing a baseball as fast and as elusively as possible makes it difficult to hit a baseball.
Comment: With all these challenges, it is a wonder anyone hits a baseball at all.

We can use the comment with either the restatement or the summary, or we can use the comment alone.

To summarize, we have five possible ways to conclude a paragraph. We can use restatement, summary, comment, restatement plus comment, or summary plus comment.

Fragments and Relative Clauses

2005-09-11T21:57:00.000-04:00

As we talked about in class, fragments are pieces of sentences instead of complete sentences. Sometimes, it is easy to see that a sentence is a complete sentence. But the kind of fragment I find most difficult is one with a relative or subordinate clause in it.

Here is an example:

The car that has worked fine for the last five years

This is a fragment. It looks good because it has a verb, has worked, and appears to have a subject, car. However, the subject is the relative pronoun, that, which admittedly does refer to car. In this sentence, car does not have a verb.

Other examples of this kind of fragment are:

The boy who ran through the park on his way to the hospital

The regiment of soldiers who fought alongside each other during the last war

The building, which has stood in that location for over a hundred years

In each case, the subject, boy, regiment, and building, does not have a verb. There is a verb that looks like a main verb, but it follows a relative pronoun and is, therefore, in an adjective clause.

The relative pronouns are that, which, whichever, whatever, who, whom, whomever, and whoever.

Vocabulary Notebook

2005-08-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

A recently published book by Keith Folse is Vocabulary Myths: Applying Second Language Research to Classroom Teaching. He writes about how he has his students keep their vocabulary notebooks. He has them write four types of information for each new word or phrase they put in their notebook:

the word or phrase
the definition
a translation
and the words used with the word.

This information is put into two columns. In one column is the word and the definition. Across from the word is the translation. Under the translation are the words used with the new word with a blank used to show where the word was in the original phrase.

Let's look at how this works. I will use French as the first language.

The word I will use is knife. Under knife I write a definition: a tool with an edge used for cutting. Across from knife I write couteau, the French translation. Underneath couteau, I write _______ to cut the meat, which is the phrase I found the word in.

It would look something like this.


knife      couteau
a tool with an edge used for cutting  ______ to cut the meat.

Make sure to skip at least one line before starting a new word.

To review the new words, use a notecard or piece of paper that will cover the vocabulary information. But cut out one corner.

Use this card to review by putting the open space over the part of the vocabulary information you want to use and try to remember the other information. In other words, you could show the translation and try to remember the English word. Put the empty space over the definition and try to remember the English word or translation. There are four possibilities.

Vocabulary Resources

2005-07-12T20:21:00.000-04:00

This is a little pitch for a website I maintain that links to many vocabulary resources that are available on the internet. It includes general vocabulary resources, dictionary sites, idiom, and wordlist sites. Check it out. If you have suggestions for additional sites, just let me know.

Site for finding word partners

2005-06-13T21:47:00.000-04:00

Adding to our resources is the link for Variation in English Words and Phrases. This resource enables a person to research the words that go with a particular word. For example, I entered the word "paragon" which Merriam-Webster defines as "a model of excellence or perfection," and found that the most common phrase that follows it is "of virtue." I did this by skimming down the list of uses that was returned.
This can be a useful site for finding out what words follow a word you want to use.

A quiz site

2005-04-24T21:16:00.000-04:00

Here is a site where there are several quizzes of different levels. Try some of them out.

always, nearly, only

2005-04-23T22:01:00.000-04:00

Almost, nearly, and only are three adverbs that can work interesting changes of meaning on sentences depending on where they are placed in the sentence. They are three words that can cause misplaced modifier errors.

Almost and nearly are synonyms, so they can be used interchangeably.

Start with the sentence: Stuart won fifty dollars.

Add almost before the fifty dollars to have the sentence,

Stuart won almost fifty dollars.

This sentence says Stuart won less than fifty dollars but only a little less that fifty dollars.

In contrast,

Stuart almost won fifty dollars.

This sentence indicates Stuart did not win fifty dollars, but he came close. Perhaps he was playing blackjack and drew cards for 22 when 21 is the winning number.

A few days after I took my masters comprehensive exams, I went to the departmental office to get my results. The secretary told me I was the only one, and my stomach almost hit the floor. Perhaps she saw the look on my face, for I thought I was the only one who failed the exams. She then added that I had received honors. That news made me feel a little better. Well, to be honest, it made me feel a lot better.

Only John got honors.
John only got honors.
John got the only honors.

The first sentence indicates that John was the only one to earn honors. The second sentence indicates that getting honors is not important because there are higher awards. The third sentence is similar to the first sentence in meaning.

Select the correct place to put the adverb so your sentence will clearly express your meaning.

Fast

2005-04-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

Fast is an interesting word because two of its meanings seem contradictory.

As an adjective, fast means swift or quick.

She is a fast runner.
The internet is very fast.

But fast also means firm or without movement.

The farmer made fast the door to the storage shed.
He is my fast friend and has stood by me in difficult times.
The desk drawers were stuck fast.

The second meaning according to Merriam-Websters Online dictionary is the original meaning historically.

When we use fast as a verb, it means to eat little or no food.

Christians fast during lent, and Moslems fast during Ramadan.

marry/get married

2005-04-06T21:52:00.000-04:00

I got married in 1989.
I married in 1989.

These two sentences have basically the same meaning. The use of get married works with the singular but probably is more comfortable with the plural.

We got married in 1989.
We married in 1989.

Personally, I think the plain verb marry is better than get married, but since get married is in common use, I am sure I will see it again and again.

Marriage, however, is a noun. A person or a couple cannot get marriage. They can have a good marriage, a happy marriage, a bad marriage, or an unhappy marriage. If they have a bad marriage they might choose to get a divorce or to divorce.

used to

2005-03-20T21:33:00.000-05:00

Used to is always used in the past tense when the writer refers to a habitual action from the past.

He used to build model airplanes.
Stephanie used to study until 1:oo a.m.

When used to is preceded by a be (am, is, are, was, were, been) verb, used to can be followed by either a simple form of the verb or the -ing form. However, there is a big difference between the meanings of sentences with the simple form and with the -ing form.

Examples
Cement is used to make the walls stronger.
I am used to seeing her every day.

In the first example, the sentence is in the passive voice. The subject of this sentence is the object used by someone one or something to accomplish or do something. In other words, in the first sentence, the cement is used to accomplish the goal of making the walls stronger. We do not know who or what is using the cement. This sentence is in the present tense in the passive voice. If we did know who or what, it would follow the preposition by and be placed after the verb.

Cement is used by engineers to make the walls stronger.

In the second example, the sentence is an active voice sentence. The subject (the one doing the acting) is at the beginning of the sentence. The sentence expresses the idea of something that was habitual and true in the past, so it expresses past tense. This sentence uses the -ing form of the verb.

That is essential

2005-02-27T16:06:00.000-05:00

This sentence was in a paper. I marked it wrong and labeled it as a run on.

I like to waterski that is fun.

In the above sentence, that is a demonstrative pronoun. As a demonstrative pronoun, that can refer to a sentence or a noun. As a relative pronoun, that would refer only to the infinitive to water ski. However, in the run-on sentence, that would not work because that is fun is nonessential information and should have a comma in front of it. That can not be used in a nonessential clause.

But if I make them into two sentences, the two simple sentences are good.

I like to water ski. That is fun.

The clause, that is fun, can not serve as a nonessential adjective clause in the sentence above. Indeed, using it that way results in a run on.

If we make the sentence into a nonessential clause, it is acceptable.

I like to waterski, which is fun.

This is one case where the difference between essential and non essential clauses is important.

I would probably use the second sentence with the nonessential clause unless I want to emphasize fun more than water skiing.

Make and Subject Verb Agreement

2005-01-21T13:10:00.000-05:00

In class, we were working on subject verb agreement when we came across a sentence like

She makes him work harder.

From the sentence we can see that makes agrees with the pronoun she (3^rd person singular). The question was what about the verb work? We do not have to worry about subject verb agreement with the verb after make.

Make is one of three verbs called causative verbs, that act in this way. These other verbs are have and let.

She makes her try. (causes her to try)
She has her fix her hair. (causes her to fix her hair)
He lets her drive his car. (allows her to drive his car)

The structure is Subject + Verb + Object + Verb + (Adverb or Adjective or Noun Phrase or Clause).

I think that the second verb is actually an infinitive without the to for two reasons. When we restate the sentence in another way as in causes or lets her, we have to use an infinitive form as in to try, to fix, to drive. Another reason it seems to be an infinitive is that the other causative verbs are followed by infinitives.

She gets him to work for her.
She allows him to return late.
She convinces him to stay home.

A list of causative verbs of this second type is: let, help, allow, have, require, allow, motivate, get, make, convince, hire, assist, encourage, permit, employ, force. The list comes from The Guide to Grammar and Writing.

The structure for these verbs differs only in the use of the preposition to.
Subject + Verb + Object + to + Verb + (Adverb or Adjective or Noun Phrase or Clause).

Subject-Verb Agreement (3)

2005-01-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

I recently saw a general rule for subject-verb agreement. The rule is put the s with the noun when it is plural, with the verb when the noun is singular except with I.

Examples:

The artist draws well with charcoal. (singular subject)
The artists draw well with charcoal. (plural subject)

This is a good rule for nouns that are regular in forming plurals. It also covers the countable nouns because they do not have a plural form so they will have an s on the verb.

Examples:

The rice is ready so we can eat.
Activity is what you need.

Collective nouns (class, government, family, jury, committee, group, couple, or team) are usually singular.

The class begins at noon.
Government is a necessity though sometimes not desirable.

Note that on occasion when the group is thought of as individuals, and the writer wants to emphasize disagreement or differences, then the noun can be used as a plural.

The family are teachers and government employees.
The committee feel they can not make a decision at this time.

There are several nouns that form their plurals differently. These can be found here. These nouns in the plural form will not be followed by a verb with the s.

Children play in the park until dark.
The women sing well together.

So the rule works well with nouns that form regular plurals. It also works well with most pronouns except the pronoun I mentioned above. I is singular but does not require an s on verbs.

A group of pronouns also can cause problems. These are the indefinite pronouns, which include some pronouns that can be either singular or plural depending on the noun they refer to. By that I mean that if the noun is countable, the indefinite pronoun can be plural. These include the pronouns (all, any, most, none, and some).

The milk is fresh. All is ready for drinking right now.
The artists are present. All are ready to show their work.

This group of pronouns includes some pronouns that are plural (both, several, many, others, more).

Both boys are tired.
Several girls have come to the game.
Others are absent.
Some people ride bicycles. More drive cars.

Also, there are several words that look plural but are singular (news, politics, economics, civics, measles, mumps, physics, statistics, and mathematics.)

At the Purdue OWL site, they point out that dollars causes some difficulties. When dollars follows a number, in other words, there is an amount of money, the verb is singular.

Five dollars is enough to pay for the ring.

But when dollars is used alone to refer to the money, it is plural.

Dollars are needed to buy that.

Words like trousers, scissors, tweezers, shears, pants, and shorts are plural.

In summary, a simple rule like put the s with the noun when it is plural, with the verb when the noun is singular except with I looks good, but in English (as usual) there are some exceptions to keep in mind.

Subject-Verb Agreement (2)

2005-01-10T22:29:00.000-05:00

Another problem that can arise in identifying subjects is when the subject is separated from the verb by phrases or clauses.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

Women is the subject of are, but they (the women) are also the subject of drove because the relative pronoun who refers to women. Consequently, both drove and are have to agree with the subject, women.

Textbooks often discuss the fact that many words can be used between the subject and the verb as we saw above with the relative clause and the prepositional phrases.

Driving to Miami from Gainesville takes several hours.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

In the first case, the prepositional phrases come between the subject and the verb. In the second case, the relative clause (adjective clause) comes between the subject and the verb.

In each case, we can examine the sentence, locate the verb and look for the subject of the verb. In the first case, only driving is left as a possible subject after we remove the prepositional phrases.

Driving ... takes several hours.

This sentence is not very informative, but it is stripped down to subject and verb phrase to illustrate my point. In the other sentence, we can do the same thing.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

If we remove the adjective clause, we have a simpler sentence:

The women are now asleep in the hotel.

Another way to approach this problem of identifying the subject is to identify the verbs and identify the subjects of the verbs.

The women who drove the trucks are now asleep in the hotel.

Drove is our first verb. The relative pronoun who doesn’t tell us very much. With relative pronouns, we should identify the reference for the pronoun. So who is the subject, and who refers back to women. The verb has to agree with the subject, women.

Are is our second verb. Now we need to work backward. First, we eliminate the adjective clause. That leaves us with women as the only noun in front of the verb and thus the subject.

To summarize, we can approach the problem of identifying the subject and verb by beginning with the subject or by beginning with the verb. Identifying the subject and the verb will help us make our decisions about subject-verb agreement.

Subject-Verb Agreement

2005-01-06T21:05:00.000-05:00

In working on subject-verb agreement, we begin by identifying the subject and the verb. Looks easy when I write it, but it isn’t always so easy in practice.

Subjects are usually nouns or pronouns.

Tom dives into the pool with no fear.

He dives from the diving board.

The car sits in the driveway.

In these cases, the subject is relatively easy to find. It is close to the verb and is a noun or a pronoun.

Now there are cases where a noun comes in front of the verb but it is not the subject.

In the driveway sits my new car.

In this example driveway is a noun, but driveway is the object of the preposition in. When a noun follows a preposition it can not be the subject of a sentence. The phrase, In the driveway, is a prepositional phrase showing location. In this sentence, the subject, car, follows the verb.

Gerunds and infinitives are two groups that can function as subjects and can be difficult to identify. A gerund is an –ing form of a word that functions as a noun.

Swimming is good exercise.

Driving to Miami from Gainesville takes several hours

In these two sentences swimming and driving are the subjects. The first one seems a little more obvious than the second one. It looks like the sentence.

Milk is a nutritious drink.

Driving though at first may not seem quite as obvious but remember that a noun in a prepositional phrase can not be a subject. Since to Miami and from Gainesville are both prepositional phrases, neither Miami or Gainesville can be subjects in this sentence.

Infinitives function as nouns also. Infinitives are to and the simple present form of the verb. (Infinitives as subjects are not very common in writing because they may seem awkward.)

To succeed takes work.

The subject of takes is to succeed.

Both infinitives and gerunds are singular and in the third person, so they require the singular verb form, that is, the addition of s to the verb.

To summarize, nouns, pronouns, gerunds, and infinitives can all serve as subjects. Only nouns and pronouns can be either singular and plural.

Too and Very

2005-01-04T22:10:00.000-05:00

Too and very are intensifiers that express different ideas about the words they modify.

They have too many children. (They can not provide for all of the children.)

They have very many children. (They have a large number of children.)

Too is used to express the idea of more than is needed, wanted, or desirable.

He is too loud.

She is too tired.

Very expresses the idea of a large amount or a high degree. Very is often used for emphasis.

He has very many CDs.

She earned very good grades.

She drives very fast.

Damage/Harm/Injure

2005-01-03T20:19:00.000-05:00

Sometimes the word damage is misused when the writer should use either harm, injure, or hurt.

Damage has several meanings that include the idea of changing something for the worse, changing the integrity or value of something, doing something legally wrong to someone, or the cost of something.

My car was damaged in the wreck. (changing something for the worse)

She damaged her knee in the game.(changing the integrity of something)

Her lies damaged his reputation. (to affect negatively)

The damage comes to $498. (This is an idiomatic use and not usually used in formal writing).

Harm shares two senses with damage but has one that differs which is physical injury.

Shared

She harmed her knee in the game. (changing the integrity of something)

Her lies harmed his reputation. (to affect negatively)

Differs

The broken glass harmed his foot. (physical injury)

Injure includes two senses that are similar to damage and harm, that is to affect negatively but includes one meaning it shares with harm.

Shared

She injured her knee in the game. (changing the integrity of something)

Her lies injured his reputation. (to affect negatively).

Shares only with harm

The broken glass injured his foot. (wound)

The senses come from WordNet.com

From these examples, it looks like damage has several meanings which makes it a good word to use with something that is negative and causes some type of change to something. However, when we write about a physical wound or a physical injury to a person’s body, then harm, injure, or hurt work better.

Damage does not refer to the wound, but it does describe something that is more long term and usually means an injury or hurt that results in a change in the body part or parts.

So I can injure my knee in a game. This injury becomes damage when my knee is negatively affected so that it causes pain or doesn’t work as well after the injury occurred.

Adverbs of Frequency

2004-12-26T18:08:00.000-05:00

There are several adverbs that tell the reader or listener how frequent an action occurs.

These are listed from 100% to 0% in frequency with always indicating 100% frequency and never indicated 0% frequency.

Adverbs of Frequency list

always

often

frequently

usually

normally

sometimes

occasionally

seldom

rarely

never

In constructing a sentence with these adverbs, we commonly use the adverb before the verb.

I always make a plan before I travel.

She frequently stops to adjust her backpack.

Note: There are some collocations (word partnerships) which allow the adverb to follow the verb. For example, I can write

She stops frequently to adjust her backpack.

But this does not work with the verb make or many other verbs, so the sentence

*I make always a plan before I travel.

is not a good sentence.

When we use the present perfect, the adverb is put between the have/has auxiliary and the main verb which is a past participle.

I have never seen such a mess before in my life.

He has occasionally forgotten to bring his textbook.

In writing, the adverb can be put at the beginning of the sentence for emphasis. It is not commonly done, so when it is done, it makes a strong statement.

Frequently she stops to adjust her backpack.

Never have I seen such a mess.

Notice that with the present perfect, the auxiliary verb moves in front of the noun.

To repeat, putting the adverb first is not commonly done, so use it rarely if at all. I don't think I have used it in my own writing.

2004-12-25T17:03:00.000-05:00

Instead of for example

There are several ways to write and not use for example or for instance to introduce an example. Here are two sentence. The first sentence introduces a subtopic or support. The second sentence provides the specifics through use of example.

The bank has several helpful services. For example, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for quick withdrawal or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

Use in particular or specifically.

The bank has several helpful services. In particular, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services; in particular, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services. Specifically, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services; specifically, it provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

Use such as or like.

The bank has several helpful services such as providing drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

The bank has several helpful services like providing drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available.

Begin with the examples.

My bank provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, has an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and maintains a website where up-to-date information about a person's account is available which are several helpful services for its customers.

Put the supports in a noun clause at the beginning of the sentence

Providing drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money, an ATM machine for quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed, and a website with up-to-date information about a person’s account are several helpful services a bank provides for its customers.

Use the supports as direct objects of the subject (topic or area).

The bank provides drive up services for cashing checks and withdrawing money and an ATM machine for making quick withdrawals or deposits when the bank is closed along with a website where up-to-date information about a person’s account is available which are several helpful services for its customers.

Also there are several ways to make variations on for example/for instance such as by changing the word before the noun.

An example / an instance
Some examples / some instances
A few examples / a few instances
Several examples / several instances

2004-10-20T22:27:00.000-04:00

One of

When we use one of, the object of the prepositions is a group that the one belongs to.

One of the players is my brother.

One of the team is my brother.

One remains the subject; thus, subject-verb agreement requires the subject to have an –s for the third person singular present tense.

One of the players has the ball.

One of the swimmers races for our team.

The group that the one belongs to must be a countable noun or a unit which has countable members such as a dance troupe, a team, an organization, or a class. The countable group such as players or students is plural; however, the unit such as team or troupe is singular.

In the sentence

One of the greatest players is Barry Bonds.

Players is plural even with the use of the superlative, greatest. If we want to say that Barry Bonds is the greatest player, we would not use one.

Barry Bonds is the greatest player. (No other player is as great as Barry Bonds.)

Barry Bonds is one of the greatest players. (Barry Bonds belongs to the group of greatest players.)

When we have a uncountable noun in this construction, we have to use the countable member or quantity to use this construction.

One of the pieces of luggage is lost.

One of the grains of rice is red.

One of my homework assignments is finished.

2004-10-10T22:02:00.000-04:00

Building a paragraph with Given-New

As we build a paragraph, we keep in mind this given new contract in our attempt to make our writing clear to our reader. We do this in several ways.

The primary way we do this is by making clear the connection between the controlling idea or statement and each support. This is done through the transitions between supports. Each transition can be used to point back to the controlling idea. It can be done through the ways we repeat the same information. For example, if I am writing about astronomers, I can repeat astronomers in the following seven ways:

Restated Given Information ==>Form of Restatement

astronomers ==>repeated
scientists ==> category or more general
star gazers ==> synonym (informal)
people who study the stars ==> definition
they ==> pronoun
these/ those scientists ==> demonstrative with repeated word
astronomical ==> different part of speech

Now these seven ways work better with topics than with controlling ideas which are more adjectival. So lets look at how they might work with adjectives. Here we will use the adjective important to show seven forms of restatement.

Restated Given Information Form of Restatement

important ==> repeated
significant ==> synonym
importantly, importance ==> different part of speech
more important(ly) ==> comparative
most important(ly) ==> superlative
equally, not as, ==> comparison/contrast
unimportant ==> antonym

How this can work is shown in this paragraph.

Kansas(t) is probably one of the most boring states in the United States, but I dearly love(ci) that state. Because it (pronoun [t]) is the state where I was born and grew up in, I can only think of how much it means to me (ci [explanation]) as the location of my family's history, my cousins and their children, and one of my brothers. Furthermore, the part of the Jayhawk state (synonym [t]) has gentle rolling hills of the countryside that make me yearn (synonym [ci]) to return there (pronoun [t]) when I feel the frustration of living with traffic and people rushing everywhere. Most of all, I miss the gentle knowledge of my father in evening talks on the front porch as he greeted people out for walks, for he discussed how people should live and do with the insights that I still treasure (synonym [ci]). Kansas (repeated [t]) probably still is boring though I haven't been there in a long time, but it remains in the center of my heart (definition [ci]) because it was the place where I learned some key lessons for my life's journey.

2004-09-27T21:44:00.000-04:00

Given-New (2)

The given-new relationship in communication is like a contract. When someone speaks to me or writes something I will read, I expect that person to begin with what I know. In other words, the contract says speakers and writers begin with something the audience knows before introducing something the audience might not know.

To give an example. If I meet someone and the first thing that person says is “She was really excited last night,” I am lost if I do not know who she is or that she was excited. My first question would be who? In other words, what is the given I am supposed to know?

Given-new patterns can vary from paragraph to paragraph. Three common patterns are:

A=>B=>C

In this pattern the new information is introduced by connecting to the given information. Then the new information becomes given information to introduce new information.

A dog is a very good pet. This pet will meet you affectionately at the door everyday. This affection will not be lost if you fail a test or have a bad day.

Another pattern is

A => B
A => C
A => D

This pattern connects to the same given information to introduce different kinds of new information. For example, in this paragraph dog is the repeated given information.

A dog makes a very good pet. A dog will remain a true friend even when it is ignored. A dog will help you through times when a person feels sad or does not do well.

There are other patterns of development with the given new relation connection, but they are basically variations on these two.

2004-09-11T16:07:00.000-04:00

Given-New

When a writer wants to communicate with someone, he or she begins with something the reader knows about. This is the topic since topics are usually somewhat general. The topic links the reader and the writer because there is a common place or idea to begin with. The writer then provides a statement or controlling idea which tells the reader what the writer wants to say about the topic.

Another way to look at this is that the topic is the given information and the statement is the knew information. The reader knows at least something about the topic; the reader does not know what the writer wants to say about the topic, so this information (the statement) is new information. From this point, the writer begins with given information and uses it to introduce new information.

This pattern of given and new information is common in writing and speaking because it enables the reader (or listener) to make a connection and prepare for something they don't know. In speaking, the new information usually gets more stress than the given information. In writing, the given information usually comes before the new information. Knowing this, we can understand how paragraphs and longer pieces of writing are constructed.

The topic sentence consists of the topic (given) and the statement (new). After the statement is introduced, it is given information. Thus writers use connections between the given information (the topic sentence) and the new information, the supports, to help the reader understand the piece of writing. In other words , the topic sentence provides the given information for the rest of the paragraph, and the supports provide the new information.

When we talk about the structure of supports as containing a connection (a so what?), an area, and details, we are saying that each support has a given (the so what?). This given helps the reader understand that each support is connected to the topic sentence. The connection can be made through connecting to the statement or the topic. The statement, however, limits the choices of supports because the supports must develop the statement. When I say that the supports must develop the statement, I mean that each support provides more information about the controlling idea (statement). To give an example, if my statement (controlling idea) is about the strengths of Santa Fe Community College, each support must be a strength of SFCC. Consequently, I can not choose a support that is weakness of SFCC and write a good paragraph.

In this example, strength becomes the given information for each support. This is why we restate in some way the statement in each support. This restatement helps the reader see the connection because the writer starts from the known (the given) before introducing the new (the area and supporting details).

This introduction is somewhat general and theoretical. I will try to explain the details more clearly in another post.

2004-08-30T22:47:00.000-04:00

More on Linking Verbs

There are only three verbs that are always linking verbs: be, become, and seem.

She is tired.
He becomes angry when he doesn't get his way.
She seems sleepy.

However, there are several verbs that can be linking verbs or transitive verbs. These verbs can be divided into two groups.

One group consists of current verbs. These verbs describe states and are sometimes called stative verbs.

They are : appear, be, feel, lie, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste

The other group of linking verbs are resulting verbs. These verbs are: become, get, grow, fall, prove, run, turn.

As I wrote, except for three verbs (be, become, and seem), linking verbs can also be transitive. When they are linking verbs, they do not pass the action from the subject to the verb. When they are transitive verbs, the subject passes the action to the object.

Examples:

He got angry. (Linking)
He got a job. (Transitive)

He feels sick. (Linking)
He feels the child's throat. (Transitive)

She sounds nice. (Linking)
She smells the flower. (Transitive)

For more information look at Grammar Bytes and Katrien Vanassche's site.

2004-08-27T22:02:00.000-04:00

Linking Verbs

There are basically two types of verbs: action verbs and linking verbs. I want to discuss linking verbs now. A linking verb makes a connection between the subject and some information about the subject. The information identifies or describes the subject.

Examples:

The girl is tall. (describes)
The girl is a student. (identifies)
The girl is a good student. (identifies)

When describing, we tend to use adjectives because adjectives work very well in describing by making the noun more specific through giving more information about the noun.

Identification actually works in a similar way because we are giving more information about the noun, and the information helps us identify the noun and separate it from other similar nouns. Another way to describe it is that the subject is renamed by the noun that follows the linking verb as in the girl = student.

But when we use linking verbs, we don't want to just write simple sentences like the example sentences above. We can make the sentences more interesting by adding information.

We can add more adjectives.
The girl is tall, blond haired, and soft-spoken.

We can add prepositional phrases.
The girl is a student at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida.

We can add an adjective clause.
The girl is a good student, who gets As on most of her tests.

We can even use all of the information is one sentence.
The tall, blond-haired, and soft-spoken girl is a good student at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida, who gets As on most of her tests.

These are just a few examples of how to expand a sentence using a linking verb.

2004-08-25T20:12:00.000-04:00

Time and times

Time is one of the words in English that can be either countable or uncountable.

There is not enough time to finish.
He spends most of his time with her.
At the time of their arrest, they were drunk.

Versus

He kicked the ball several times
In colonial times, there were few printing presses.
She went to the movie four times.
These times are difficult.

What seems to be going on here is that when time refers to an abstract idea, it is uncountable. It is a general idea that can be broken down into countable units like hours, or minutes. Thus, this use of time is like money. Time is a large or abstract category.

But when times refers to a concrete action or period of time, it is countable. In this case, it is not broken down into smaller units.

He saw her several times last week.

Here it is countable because the times were separate units (each time he saw her) and countable. Unlike spending most of his time, in which case, the time could be broken down into smaller units such as hours or minutes.

2004-08-08T23:07:00.000-04:00

Amount or Number; Fewer than or less than

Both of these pairs concern agreement with count or uncountable (also called noncount) nouns.

In English something that is uncountable is an amount. Money is one example. Yes, I know you can count dollars, pennies, and the government counts in millions and billions, but money itself is uncountable because it is a generalization. So we talk about amounts of money, such as a large amount of money.

Number is used with countable things. The number of coins in your pocket tells us how much money you have in your pocket. So money acts like luggage and homework as an uncountable. They describe a general category.

Uncountable: money, luggage, homework

Countable: coins, suitcases, assignments

Another thing to notice about amount and number is that they are often accompanied by the preposition of.

The amount of money you will need is $75.00.

The number of coins you will need is four.

Fewer (than) and (less) than also relate to countable and uncountable nouns. Despite the fact that grocery stores and discount stores have signs that say Less than 8 items in this aisle, the sign should read fewer than because if you can count them then the are fewer.

The less money I have, the more bills I seem to have.

I have fewer dollars for this week than last week.

Fewer and less are used in comparison, so they must agree with the nouns that are being compared.

I have less money than my wife.

I have fewer dollars than my wife.

2004-07-25T21:48:00.000-04:00

Most and Mostly

The words came up in a discussion recently. They look so similar that it seems like they would follow the pattern of other adjectives and adverbs.

quick (adj.), quickly (adv.)

painful (adj.), painfully (adv.)

slow (adj.), slowly (adv.)

With these words, the adjectives have a meaning that is very similar to the adverb. Thus quick and quickly both mean in a rapid way. Painful and painfully both describe strong or severe pain while slow and slowly synonymously refer to doing something at a low speed.

Most and mostly don't follow that pattern. They are a little like another pair, hard and hardly.

Most is an adjective, but it usually is used with another adjective to show the superlative degree, that is, the highest or only one of something as in this sentence:

He is my most trusted friend.

This means that I trust no friend more than him.

Now when I change most to mostly, there is a change in meaning.

He is my mostly trusted friend.

Mostly here means that I usually trust him, but it also implies that he is not my most trusted friend because I can't trust him all of the time.

Most also behaves a little like an adverb because it is usually found with an adjective next to it. It modifies the adjective. But dictionaries classify it as an adjective. Also, most is usually preceded by the article, the, unless there is a possessive, which is even more definite than the article.

Hard and Hardly

When I was young, I would often hear one person trying to be a little funny asking another person,

Are you working hard or hardly working?

Hard and hardly mean the opposite, thus the use of or. Working hard means a person is doing the job to the best of his or her physical or mental powers. Hardly working means the person is doing as little as possible. This contrast is much stronger than most and mostly.

Of the other superlatives, least, worst, and best, there is no adverb (-ly) form, so they have nothing to be confused with like most and mostly.

2004-07-24T21:51:00.000-04:00

Gerunds and Infinitives: Three Verbs with Meaning Changes

Some sources have a short list of verbs that can be followed by gerunds or infinitives, but the meanings differ. With some of the verbs like try, the difference in meaning is subtle and difficult to explain or even at times to see. However, three verbs that can be followed by either gerunds or infinitives have clear differences in meaning. These verbs are: forget, remember, and stop.

Stop

To show the difference, let's look at stop.

Gerund: I stopped smoking.

Infinitive: I stopped to smoke.

The first sentence has at least two different meanings. One is that I stopped smoking (cigarettes) and did something else. The second one is that I stopped my habit of smoking cigarettes. A third meaning could be that I have cooled down and no longer have smoke coming off of me. Another possible meaning might be applied to sports, in particular baseball, where a pitcher might be declaring that his fastball is no longer as fast as it was. In all of these meanings, the person speaking talks about something that happened in the past.

With the infinitive, the speaker (or writer) says that he or she stopped doing something (what is not stated here, but it could be). In other words, two actions are indicated first the action that is now finished and the second one that was begun – to smoke.

Now it is possible to write a sentence with stop that uses both a gerund and infinitive which might show this difference.

I stopped running to smoke.

One action now is in the past, running, while the second action has begun.

Remember and forget are related though opposite mental activities, but they differ in their meanings and use.

Remember

Infinitive: I remember to mail the letter. ( less likely to be used)

I remembered to mail the letter.

Gerund: I remember mailing the letter.

I remembered mailing the letter.(less likely to be used)

With the infinitive, I think we are more likely to use the infinitive with the past tense of remember because we mean that mailed the letter and we remembered to do it in the past. In other words both the remembering and mailing took place in the past perhaps in the order of remembering and then mailing. That is why we are unlikely to use the present tense of remember. I can think of one possible use of the present tense which is to describe someone's daily actions.

With the gerund, we are more likely to use the present tense with the gerund because the remembering is occurring in the present while the action, mailing the letter, occurred in the past. So we are not likely to use the past unless we are reporting the sequence of events to someone else.

Another way to look at remember and infinitives and gerunds is sequence.

Infinitive

remember then action

Gerund

action then remember

In using remember with gerunds and infinitives, one way to think about which one to use is to consider when the action happened. Did it happen before or after the remembering?

We can also use gerunds and infinitives together after remember.

I remember running to catch the bus.

Forget

Forget presents more of a yes and no meaning.

Infinitive: I forgot to pay the bill. (No, I did not pay the bill.)

Gerund: I forgot paying the bill. (Yes, I paid the bill.)

With forget, which feels more comfortable in the past tense, the meaning is determined by whether or not the action occurred or was done.

2004-07-18T17:17:00.000-04:00

Gerund and Infinitives alone and in phrases

When I write about gerunds and infinitives, I usually use examples that contain one gerund or infinitive.

Examples:

Running is good exercise.
To run was my choice.

However, both gerunds and infinitives can be used with adverbs in prepositional phrases or as objects.

With adverbs:

Gerund: Running slowly is the best can do.
Infinitive: To run slowly will be easier for me.

With prepositional phrases:

Gerund: Running in a race is fun for many people.
Infinitive: To run in a race is better than to sit in front of the tv.

In the textbook, Grammar Sense 3, Susan Kesner Bland points out that although we can use an infinitive as a subject, it not common. Usually, the infinitive is replaced by it as the subject and the infinitive occurs later in the sentence.

Example:

It is easier for me to run slowly.

She further points out that only a few verbs are used after it.They are:

appears

cost

look

seem

take

Usually the infinitive is not used immediately after these verbs, but it can be done.

2004-07-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

Apostrophes with Possession

We can start with a simple rule for apostrophe use from my colleague, Carole Marquis: use 's for all cases of possession except when the word is a plural with s. When the word is plural and ends in s add an apostrophe after the s.

To expand on it with a few examples to see how it works, here are some sentences.

Doug's car is parked on the street. (singular subject)
Doug's cars are parked on the street. (singular subject with one possessor)
James's car is beside Doug's. (singular subject with one possessor that ends in s)
The children's helmets are on the shelf. (plural subject with plural possessor formed without an s)
The boys' helmets are on the shelf. (plural subject with more than one possessor)

There are a couple of cases where the rule needs expansion. In a compound construction, the apostrophe is used appropriately with the final word in the compound.

Carlos and Juan's bikes are in the repair shop. (Two or more possessors in a series)
My brother-in-law's phone was stolen. (singular compound noun possessor.)

When we use a possessive noun, that is, when we use an apostrophe to signal possession, the noun acts like an adjective in most sentence constructions.

The blue car is parked on the street.
adj. n.

Doug's car is parked on the street.
poss. n.

The noun is car and the word modifying or limiting its meaning in the first sentence is new. When we use the possessive in the second sentence, it serves a similar purpose of modifying or limiting the meaning of the noun. In the second sentence, the noun is limited to a car belonging to Doug.

Knowing that possessives precede a noun tells the writer to anticipate possession when a person's name or family name is in front of a noun. This helps in determining whether or not to use an apostrophe in some sentences.

Test clue: Adjectives are not plural in English, so most adjectives do not have an s at the end of the word. If you have a sentence on a test and the word before the noun has an s at the end of it, it will often be possessive, either singular or plural.

Adding a little confusion

This is all well and good, but what about this sentence?

The Ford car is parked on the street.

Ford is a family name, the family name of the Ford car manufacturing company's founder, Henry Ford. Ford is the car's brand name.

The Ford's car is parked on the street,

In this sentence, the apostrophe tells the reader that the car belongs to a family named Ford. If the car was a Ford, then it would read.

The Ford's Ford car is parked on the street.
Or more likely
The Ford's Ford is parked on the street.

2004-06-25T14:45:00.000-04:00

-ing words in English

The –ing words in English do not help us to know the part of speech. To know the part of speech, we have to look sat the company the –ing word keeps. The company a word keeps consists of the words around it. By looking at the words around the –ing word, we can determine its part of speech.
The easiest way for me to determine whether the –ing word is a main verb is to look in front of it for a be verb (be, am, is, are, was, were, been). When there is a be verb in front of the –ing word, it is usually a verb as we can see in these sentences.

active

I am looking at used cars.
I was looking at new cars until I saw their prices.
I should have been looking for a used care from the beginning.
I will be looking for another two weeks.

passive

The cars have been inspected.
The cars are cleaned and polished.
The cars will be sold within a month.

When the be verb is not in front of the –ing word, it is probably not functioning as a verb. It can then be either a gerund or a participle. Particles were discussed in the June 3 post. To recall, the present participle is the –ing word functioning as an adjective as in the following sentences.

The boring book put him to sleep.
The running girl escaped the mugger.
The dancing man felt happy to be at the party.

-ing words can also function as nouns. When they do, they are called gerunds. Gerunds are usually singular so they agree with the singular third person form of the present tense verb (the form with the added s).

Dancing is an activity that is both fun and good exercise.
She gave playing basketball a try.
Playing basketball in the NBA was his goal twenty years ago.

To briefly summarize, the –ing word can be either a verb, noun, or adjective. When it is a verb, there is usually a be verb (be, am, is, are, was, were, been) before it. The –ing word that acts as an adjective is called a present participle. When the –ing word is used as a noun, it is called a gerund.

2004-06-22T22:05:00.000-04:00

Same and articles with quantity adjectives

Same

Same is a word which is generally preceded by the.

I would like the same thing she is having.

a few, a little, a great many

Certain adjectives that quantify are preceded by the indefinite article when they modify generic or nonspecific nouns.

I would like a little more milk if you please.
A few more minutes won't hurt.
A great many people came to the games.

The can also be used with these words, but the usually points to a specific or definite noun.

The few who helped will be reward.
The little wine that remains will soon spoil.
The many who came were not disappointed.

It seems like there should be an adjective clause to follow the noun to justify the definite article in these cases, but a prepositional phrase is also possible.

The few of humble beginnings served honorably as well.

Few, little, and many can also be used without an article in front of them.

Few people like to sit in the rain waiting for a bus.
Many people attended the concert.
Little is done when there is much talk.

In these cases, we seem to be making a general observation.

2004-06-13T20:31:00.000-04:00

Gerunds and infinitives cause problems because the guidelines for using them are not always clear. I use guidelines instead of rules because the best grammarians and linguists seem to be able to do is give some guidelines and lists of words.

A gerund is an -ing form of a verb used as a noun.

Dancing is a lot more fun than studying.
I like swimming more than water skiing.
He is a fool when it comes to dancing.

A gerund is different from a present participle because it functions as a noun while a participle functions as an adjective.

The dancing girl left everyone watching in admiration. (participle)
The girl excels at dancing. (gerund)

Gerunds come at the beginning of a sentence more often than infinitives. They also can be possessed. In other words, a noun or pronoun coming before a gerund should be in the possessive.

I really admired his dancing last night.
John's dancing shows a definite need for lessons or an operation because he seems to have two left feet.

2004-06-03T21:36:00.000-04:00

Present and Past Participles

Present participle and past participle adjectives can be confusing. Present participles are verbs ending in -ing that are used as adjectives. Past participles are the forms used with the perfect tenses. With regular verbs, they are formed by adding -ed, but with irregular verbs, the past participles are the ones like known, gone, taught.

Present participle:
The boring book put me to sleep in record time.

Past participle:
The bored reader fell asleep very quickly.

One way that the difference between the meaning of the two participles is explained is that the present participle describes something happening or a quality. In our sentence above, the quality of the book for the reader is that it is boring. This is contrasted with the past participle which is supposed to show that something has happened. While this explanation works somewhat for the present participle, it doesn't work for me with the past participle. So it seems like this explanation works when the participles are used as verbs.

This explanation is not very satisfactory for the participles when they work as adjectives. It fails to explain to me the meaning of bored reader. Instead, I think that boring is the quality that the book gives to others. In contrast, the past participle describes the feeling of the person.

In other words, present participle adjectives are used to describe feelings or reactions that other people have of the subject or the noun modified. Past participle adjectives describe the feelings of the subject.

The book is boring. (This is the feeling of the reader.)

Now we can't say in English, except in literary terms, that the book is bored. Books do not have feelings.

The bored reader fell asleep very quickly. (This is the feeling of the reader.)

The boring book put me to sleep in record time. (This reader has these reactions or feelings about the book.)

So if I say that

I am confusing.

I am describing the reactions of other people to me.

If I say that

I am confused.

I am describing my feelings about something.

2004-05-30T22:07:00.000-04:00

Here are some more cliches with their everyday meanings. Because the table left such a big gap, I am going to post this set differently.

cliche ----> everyday meaning
through thick and thin ----> through good times and difficult times
hate with a passion ----> hate strongly
break a sweat ----> make a strong effort
window of opportunity ----> a brief time when there is an opportunity
got a handle on ----> got control of
live life to the fullest ----> enjoy life fully
last but not least ----> the last one mentioned is not the least important
seems like only yesterday ----> time (usually years) has passed very quickly
go with the flow ----> do not resist
set in stone ----> permanent
see the light ----> understand
a pat on the back ----> encouragement
a slap on the hand ----> a light punishment
life flash before one's eyes ----> life reviewed quickly (as when a person is in great danger)
few and far between ----> rare
brush off ----> refused to talk to or acknowledge

2004-05-23T21:00:00.000-04:00

More about articles:

Today, my daughter and I had this brief conversation.

Daughter: "I finished reading the book."
Me: "Lestat."
Daughter" "No, Pigman."

Lestat and Pigman are names of books. She had to read Pigman for school while she had checked out Lestat from the library on my library card.

She said the book because she knew which book and assumed I knew which book. Assuming we had the same book in mind, the would be the correct article. She and I found out, however, that I didn't know which book she was referring to.

The is used when both the speaker and the listener know which specific thing or person is being referred to. The same goes for writer and reader.

What my daughter would have said, if she knew I did not know which book she was talking about is: "I just finished reading a book." Or "I just finished reading Pigman."

2004-05-20T21:07:00.000-04:00

Cliches are often used in speaking and sometimes in writing. They are a type of figurative language, so they are a less direct way of making a statement. When new, they were creative and fun. However, they have become old and boring through constant use.
Here is a table with some cliches and what they mean.

cliche	meaning in plain English
sent chills down my spine	felt terrified
seemed like an eternity	seemed like a very long time
roll with the punches	adjust to difficulties or problems well
is a tower of strength	is a person who provides support
thin as a rail (stick)	very thin
is a breeze	is easy
velcroed to	tightly attached or bonded to
got the ball rolling	began, got something started
moved like lightning	moved very quickly
out in left field	not paying attention, unaware
hot as hell	extremely hot
like a chicken with its head cut off	running around without knowing what to do
like two peas in a pod	very similar
security blanket	something that makes one feel safe
still as a statue	stationary, not moving
iron out the wrinkles	work out the difficulties
right on the money	perfect

2004-05-16T22:25:00.000-04:00

Absolute Phrases

I was looking over some information about absolute phrases because of a recent discussion. Essentially an absolute phrase consists of a noun and a participle.

His worries causing him to lose sleep, Devin began to have trouble staying awake at work.

She almost did not get home, her car running low on gas.

The absolute phrase modifies the independent clause or sentence, so they are sentence modifiers. Sometimes,the absolute phrase may have the more important information from the sentence in it.

The absolute phrase can be made by removing the helping verb from an independent clause connected to another independent clause. Also, the connecting word, either a subordinator or coordinating conjunction, would also be removed. So the first sentence could have been written as

His worries were causing him to lose sleep, so Devin began to have trouble staying awake at work.

By making the first clause into an absolute phrase, the writer modifies the following clause, not just Devin.

The absolute phrase differs from the participial phrase in two ways. First, the participial phrase does not have a noun in front of the participle, and the participial phrase modifies the subject.

Participial Phrase
Losing sleep because of all his worries, Devin began to have trouble staying awake at work.

2004-05-14T15:39:00.000-04:00

In discussing articles, we often use the word definite to describe one type of article, the definite article which is the.

Definite means specific or particular, in other words, I know what you mean on the part of the reader. Definite also means unique; that is, it is the only one or only group.

When there is only one, that is unique and definite.
The earth, the world, the universe

When there are many in a category, the category or group is definite.
The stars, the planets, the Great Lakes, the Himilayas

Superlatives are definite because these are usually one or few.
The best, worst, finest, brightest, most, least
the brightest stars, the tallest buildings, the fastest runners

Prepositional phrases and adjective clauses after a noun usually make the noun more definite especially when they add information that the reader already knows.

The wing of the building
the woman who grew up in Honduras

Context influences the use. In the follow sentence, I can use either the indefinite or definite article. My choice here depends on whether or not I think the reader knows the woman I refer to.

A woman who grew up in Honduras took my class a year ago.
(I know who the woman is but the reader does not.)
The woman who grew up in Honduras took my class a year ago.
(Both I and my reader know this woman or she has been introduced before this sentence.)

Often we use the guideline that in a paragraph after the first use of the noun with an indefinite article, the definite article is used with the noun when we use the noun. This is a good general guideline, but it is not always accurate. Consider these two pairs of sentences.

My teacher assigns a paragraph every week. The paragraphs are
hard for me to write.

Here the writer refers to the paragraphs the teacher assigns. In this context, the paragraphs are definite because they are the paragraphs the teacher assigns.

My teacher assigns a paragraph every week. A paragraph is hard for me to
write.

In this sentence, the writer makes a more general statement about about paragraphs using the indefinite article to say the writing of any paragraph is difficult.
So the guideline of repeating the same idea in the next sentence works most of the time, but it is not an absolute or unbreakable rule.

2004-04-30T14:44:00.000-04:00

A, an and the in use (What the writer assumes the reader knows).

Examples: I got an A on the test.

More than one A was given, or at least the writer thinks so, and the writer got one of them. The writer assumes the reader knows which test.

I got the A on the test.

Only one A was given on the test, and the writer got it. The writer assumes the reader knows which test.

The car is in the parking lot.

Both reader and writer know which car and which parking lot.

A person could be in danger here.

Both reader and writer do not know the specific person.

2004-04-26T14:26:00.000-04:00

Articles a/an and the

The articles can cause some problems.
I am going to discuss some examples in today. I will use elementary school as an the example phrase.

The paragraph:

Elementary school was difficult for me. I attended an elementary school in Chicago. It was a very big school with many students. I never really felt comfortable with all of those students around. The school had many very good teachers who I still remember fondly. However, the classes they taught were sometimes very hard for me.

I attended an elementary school in Chicago.

An – there are several elementary schools in Chicago but I am not identifying the specific school.

The elementary school had many good teachers.

The – Here the is used because the elementary school is now definite because it has been referred to before.

Elementary school was difficult for me.

__ - Elementary school here is a generalization and refers to the experience of attending elementary school.

Since school is a countable noun, there are three different possibilities.
No article when the noun is a generalization.
A or An when the noun is not specific in its reference. In other words, the reader and the writer do not share the same idea of the specific item referred to.
The is used when the noun is specific either because it has been mentioned before or the writer is using a noun that the reader already knows about.

This is a good place to start.

2004-04-20T13:38:00.000-04:00

I find that my previous posting on the country is not accurate. The country can be used when the nation is the meaning. To revise my statement about the country, I would say that when the verb live is used.

Examples
I have lived in the country for five years. (First meaning is a rural area unless there is a previous reference to nation).
People in the country want a more social type of government. (Out of context, the country is ambiguous.)
The Belgian civilians remained in the country. (Here, the country probably means in the nation, but context might change the meaning.)

2004-04-15T16:03:00.000-04:00

Just a little note about using the articles a and the with country.

When a writer uses a with country, the writer is using the meaning of nation.

He comes from a country in South America.

However, when a writer uses the with country, the meaning of country is a rural area.

My cousin, Sarah, lives in the country.

This can change when a writer uses more specificity about the country. In other words, the writer adds information to help the reader know that the nation meaning of country is being used instead of the rural area meaning.

My cousin just came from the country that is near Colombia.

2004-04-11T22:05:00.000-04:00

There are a few verbs that belong to the class known as causative verbs. Causative verbs are verbs that "cause" their objects to do something. The four most common causative verbs are: have, make, let, and get.

These verbs make, have, and let are used in this type of construction:

Causative Verb + Object + Verb

The police officer made me walk a straight line.
The doctor has his nurse call the hospital.
My brother lets me use his car.

Get is used in a different construction.

Causative Verb Get + Object+ to + Verb

I get my son to answer the phone in the evenings.

On the Verb page of Guide to Grammar and Writing, there is a list of several causative verbs.

2004-04-09T08:28:00.000-04:00

Here are a few more points about none.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines the pronoun meaning of none as not any, not one, nobody. With these several meanings, it is possible that none takes on both singular and plural meanings. However, if we use not one or nobody, these are both singular.

Not one of the boys is aware of the monster approaching.
Nobody comes when I call.

The explanation for none does note that there are some sentence structures where none must be plural in agreement.

Almost none of the students were finished with the assignment.
None but the players on his team supported him.

None is used with noncount nouns .

None of the milk is in the glass because it is all on the table.
None of the furniture was damaged in the storm.

2004-04-06T10:23:00.000-04:00

Someone asked about the use of none in phrases with of as is none of the days, none of the people. Is the subject none singular or plural? The answer seems to be both.

I found examples of the writers writing a sentence like None of the boats is in the water. But I also found another writer using a sentence like None of the papers have my signature.

In Keys for Writers by Ann Raimes (2nd edition, published by Houghton Mifflin), she says that both forms are historically acceptable with count nouns.

2004-04-05T14:36:00.000-04:00

Here is the table with some words that commonly follow either make or take.
Other words may be used, but it is rare when one of the words in the make column is used after take or word in the take column is used after make.

Make	Take
a choice a difference a change a living a point a report a sound a start adjustments an effort an impression available a mistake a promise a decision money possible	a bite a break care of a chance a drink a gamble a look a picture a photograph a seat a trip it easy it from here offense out over an opportunity

2004-04-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

The first thing I want to discuss is the words that partner with make and take. These word partners like make a mistake are usually used together. There are several, so I will post a table soon that shows some common word partners with these words.