may i quote you on that - a guide to grammar and usage - 1st edition (2015)

8/15/2019 May I Quote You on That - A Guide to Grammar and Usage - 1st Edition (2015)

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May I Quote You on Tat?


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May I uote You on Tat?

A Guide to Grammar and Usage

STEPHEN SPECTOR

1


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1Oxord University Press is a department o the

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For Mary, who makes everything possible

and everything better


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‘ContentsAcknowledgments ixIntroduction xiAbout the Companion Website xix. What Is Standard English, and Who Gets toDecide What’s Proper English oday?

. Some Really Basic Grammar erms

. ricky Words, Usage, and Grammar

. ricky Words o the wentieth Century and oday

. Look-Alikes

. Plurals

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index


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’I want to thank first o all the great scholars who taught me the historyo the English language. My deep gratitude and warm appreciation go toMarie Borroff. I ound her course on the history o the language to beinspirational, I’ve valued her mentorship, and I’ve treasured her riend-ship. I’m prooundly indebted to albot Donaldson. His brilliance and

humor in reading Chaucer made Middle English a delight. I’m verygrateul to John Pope, raugott Lawler, and Dorothee Metlitzki orsharing their immense knowledge o Old and Middle English and ormodeling personal kindness and generosity. I deeply appreciate NormanDavis’s patience and good humor in advising me when I was just out ograduate school, in the hope that I wouldn’t embarrass the Early Englishext Society too badly. Some o them are gone now, but what I learned

rom all o them enlivens this little book.Trough the entire process o writing this book, my wie, Mary, hasbeen a wise and loving support and comort, as she always is. My son,Dave, and my daughter-in-law, Şebnem, gave me great advice rom firstto last, drawing on their experience in English language instruction andtheir excellent judgment and cleverness. I’m very grateul to Leigh AnnHirschman and Betsy Amster or helping me find the right voice or the

book. It turned out to be my own voice, the one in which I actuallyspeak to my students. Afer I’d written the manuscript, I couldn’t haveasked or more talented, learned, and helpul riends than the ones whokindly read it and suggested changes: Henry Abelove, Paul Dolan,

Acknowledgments


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raugott Lawler, Lila Naydan, Roger Rosenblatt, and Howie Schneider.I’m very grateul to the terrific editors at Oxord University Press,Cynthia Read, who encouraged me to submit the book to OUP, and

Hallie Stebbins, who believed in it, edited it wisely, and shepherded it to publication. Tanks also to Marcela Maxfield, my ormer student whonow works at OUP, or reading the manuscript and making commentsthat made the book better and saved me rom big and small mistakes.

x Acknowledgments


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’Imagine or a moment that your boyriend, girlriend, or spouse wentaway or a week and orgot to call you. You’re pretty annoyed. Whatkind o language will the two o you use when you see each other? Yoursignificant other might begin with something loving, in a very inormal,intimate style, like this:

“Hey, sweetheart. Love you. Miss me?”

You might reply in a similar style, but a lot less sweetly, like this:

“Yeah, right! How come you didn’t call or text, you jerk?”

Now imagine how you’d talk in a job interview at Google. You’d prob-ably use a much more ormal level o speech. You might say,

“Good morning. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Tanks so much or invitingme here today.”

Te interviewer might respond,

“We’re very impressed with your credentials.”

Introduction


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We all use language in different styles, depending on the situation.1 You wouldn’t talk to a congressman the same way that you would to amisbehaving child, or example—though that depends on the con-

gressman, o course. And i you write a college application essay, yourlanguage should be a lot more ormal than it would be i you and yourriends were watching your team blow a lead in the ninth inning o a

playoff game. Te more ormal the context, the more appropriate it is touse a ormal level o Standard English, the style o writing and speechthat we’ll explore in this book.

My goal is to make the conventions o ormal English easier and more

un to learn than traditional approaches usually do. It’s the product omy orty years o teaching courses on the English language, and it differsrom most other usage and style guides in several ways:

It teaches by example, so you can learn rom context. Telessons start with quotations, not with rules or definitions.Reading these sentences may be enough or you to iner the

usage rules or the word meanings or yoursel.2

You may findthat some o these quotations are memorable. Tat’s good,because i you remember them, you can model your ownsentences on them. An incidental benefit is that theseillustrations can be useul or new learners o English.

Many o the quotations are unny, interesting, or instructive(I hope). Most are rom celebrities, great writers, or historical

figures. Mark wain is cited ofen. Jerry Seineld appears,as do Groucho Marx, Woody Allen, Billy Crystal, Jon Stewart,and Stephen Colbert. Lady Gaga and aylor Swif are quoted,as are Jennier Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, and GeorgeClooney. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Hemingway, and olkien arerepresented. So are Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln,Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi,

John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and theDalai Lama. Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra, and Michael Jordanappear. So do Marilyn Monroe, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winrey,and many others.

xii Introduction


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Each lesson includes a mini-essay telling the history o the rulesor the words being discussed. Tese discussions are written in aclear, accessible style. Tey put the traditional rules in the

context o historical changes and inormal or nonstandardspeech today. And they illustrate the act that the “right” usageis ofen a moving target and a personal choice. A living languagechanges over time, and so do ideas about what is appropriate inormal use. You may be surprised by what you learn about thecurrent views on some o the usage rules.

Tis is a book or the twenty-first century, and it includes many

requently misunderstood words that are relevant today. Just asH. W. Fowler’s old standby, A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, included terms that were especially significant or its time (),such as atom, electron, communism, and anarchism, this bookaddresses tricky words that are part o our current experience. Itcovers, or example, the difference between extremism andanaticism, the Holocaust and a holocaust, the Internet and the

Web, and the terms Islamic and Islamist . It also discusses thehistory and meaning o words like avatar, fundamentalism, jihad,metadata, racism, schizophrenia, and terrorism.

Te book has a dedicated website containing practice drills. Youcan find it at www.oup.com/us/MayIuoteYou. o master andretain Standard English grammar and usage rules, most o us needto learn them, then relearn them, with practice and guidance.

In that sense, writing a Standard English sentence is like doinga ballroom dance. Both involve graceul, varied, rhythmicmovement. Done right, both can be beautiul. But each has

patterns that aren’t amiliar rom everyday experience. When writers or dancers become technically skillul, we describe themas literate. Tose moves don’t always come naturally, though, soboth require practice and guidance. I’ve had over thirty ballroom

dance lessons (to please my wie, who’s a literate dancer). At thestart o every lesson my wie has had to remind me about the basicsteps. When she whispers in my ear as we begin to dance, she’s notsaying sweet nothings; she’s giving me the rhythm: “uick, quick,

Introduction xiii

http://www.oup.com/us/MayIQuoteYouhttp://www.oup.com/us/MayIQuoteYou


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slow. uick, quick, slow.” Ten I catch the beat and the dancemoves come back to me. Many o my students have a similarexperience with grammar and usage: through relearning,

guidance, and practice they gain confidence, grace, and mastery.

Tis book is or anybody who wants to write well. It’s or you i you’recomposing an essay or a report, taking the SA, or applying to a collegeor graduate school. It’s or anyone who’s answering an ad or a good jobor writing a school assignment, a ormal presentation, or a publication.eachers and editors certainly have to know the traditional rules and the

tricky word meanings that are covered in this book. And many everyday writers want to know how to select the precise word or phrase thatStandard English requires, the right choice between words that lookalike, the plural orm o a noun, etc., in order to communicate clearlyand effectively.

xiv Introduction

Here’s something that you probably didn’t expect to see: this book

also may be or you i you’re looking or love. A national survey in

ound that both single men and single women say that good

grammar is one o the most important qualities they judge in a

romantic partner.3 Tat’s actually not surprising i you think about

it. Your writing shows your ability to communicate, your style, and

your level o education, and those things can be very important to a potential mate.

Yet orty years ago, when I was first asked to teach my department’s re-quired course on the English language, many o our students dreaded acourse in which they’d have to learn grammar and usage. Very bright

English majors, including many who wanted to teach or do graduatestudy, had never been taught ormal Standard English. Tey ofen weren’t confident about when to say who as opposed to whom, or ex-ample. Now, it’s true that people don’t say whom very ofen nowadays,


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especially in conversation. Te humorist Calvin rillin said this aboutthe word:

“Whom is a word that was invented to make everyone sound likea butler. Nobody who is not a butler has ever said it out loud without eeling just a little bit weird.”

“Whom Says So?” Te Nation, June ,

What would a stranger think i he knocked on your door and you asked,“Whom do you wish to see?” He might be impressed and a little sur-

prised. Or he might think you’re a pretentious nerd. But there are times when whom is natural and appropriate in ormal writing, so it’s impor-tant to know when to use it. My students also had problems choosingbetween less and fewer, as and like, imply and infer, and lay and lie. Teyrequently weren’t sure i either, neither, and each are singular or plural.Most o them had never even been taught what the subjunctive mood is,much less how and when to use it. Sometimes they conused I and me intheir essays, and they employed other casual, nonstandard, and awkwardusages that don’t belong in ormal writing.

I ound that the solution was to try to make learning grammar andusage un. I immersed the class in unny or interesting sentences thatillustrated the ormal English usages. Only then did I teach the stan-dard rules. And I learned to use only the grammar terms that were ab-solutely necessary. Te result was surprising, especially to the students:they learned the standard usages and developed a sense o confidenceabout their writing. A lot o them said that they loved the experience.Te course became one o the most popular in the department, andmany students rom other departments tried to enroll, specifically tolearn grammar and usage. I’ve taught nearly five thousand students inthat course over the years, and in their course evaluations very many othem have said that they wished they’d had the grammar and usage in-struction earlier in their college careers. In response, my departmentchanged the rubric o the course so it would be one o the first coursesour majors take.

I use the same approach in this book. It’s based on these principles:

Introduction xv


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() People learn more naturally and more happily rom readingunny, instructive, or engaging illustrations o good writing thanrom memorizing grammar and usage rules.

() Most people don’t like having to learn grammar terms. So thisbook avoids jargon as much as possible.

() Te definitions o tricky words are easier to recall when peoplesee memorable quotations that exempliy them. And look-alike

words are easier to distinguish when interesting sentencesillustrate the differences between them.

() When you remember these illustrations o the usages and

meanings, you can use them as models in your own writing.

xvi Introduction

As you probably noticed, the spat between romantic partners at the

top o this introduction includes incomplete sentences and other

very inormal usages, including hey; loe you; miss me?; yeah, right;

how come; and jerk.Tat’s fine in an intimate conversation. But when you write in a

more ormal style, adjust your linguistic choices appropriately. Te

style you choose depends on the social setting, the audience, the topic,

whether you’re speaking or writing, and your mood. I’m writing this

book, or instance, in a conversational tone. I employ the standard

usages that I teach in the lessons, but my style is more casual than it

would be i this were an academic publication. For example, I’m usingcontractions, which usually are inappropriate in very ormal writing.

!

Have you ever been embarrassed (and maybe horrified) by a change

that the autocorrect unction on your computer or phone made in

one o your electronic messages? Many grandmothers reportedly

have been stunned to learn that Facebook’s interace automatically

changed “Love, Grandma” at the close o their postings to “Love,


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HOW SHOULD YOU USE THIS BOOK?

Te first ew chapters o the book are divided into lessons, with quota-tions at the start o each. I suggest that you read the quotations careullyand pay close attention to the underlined words. Tey illustrate the

point o the lesson, so you may be able to see the patterns even beore you get to the rules.

Ten read the mini-essays. Tey state the rules in boldface, but theyalso show that usage experts don’t always agree. Look for my sugges-tions, also in boldface, to see my best judgment about what to do in

those cases. Tese short essays use basic grammar terms. I you’re notsure what they mean, check their definitions in Chapter .

Do the exercises that appear at the bottom o most lessons, to be surethat you can apply the rules. Ten do the exercises on the website. Tey’llserve as both practice and diagnostic tools, so you can see i you need togo back to the lessons in the book or review.

Ten make your own decisions as you do your own writing, depend-ing on the style you’re aiming or and the audience you’re addressing.

SOME THOUGHTS BEFORE WE BEGIN

Afer a quick look at Standard English in Chapter and a brie review osome basic terms in Chapter , Chapter deals with tricky word meanings,

Introduction xvii

Grandmaster Flash” (a hip-hop artist). Well, the latest devices are

smarter and better attuned to you personally. In act, Apple says that

its iOS operating system adjusts its suggestions and corrections tothe style o language that it predicts you’ll use in different contexts.

It expects you to use casual word choices when you text and more

ormal language when you send email. What’s more, it assumes that

your style probably will be more inormal when you write to your

riends or your spouse than to your boss. It also bases its choices on

the words and phrases that you’ve actually used in the past.4


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xviii Introduction

usage, and grammar. It includes words that are disputed, misunderstood,conused, or requently looked up in online dictionaries. Chapter ocuseson examples o those issues that arose or became especially significant in the

twentieth century and later. Chapter , called “Look-Alikes,” addresses finedistinctions between similar-looking words that are ofen conused. Tefinal chapter is on plurals, including curious native English orms and

words that were borrowed rom other languages.Te quotations in each lesson illustrate the standard usage or word

meaning, unless otherwise noted. And when you’re asked to choose be-tween two versions o a passage, the actual quotation is the one that

properly illustrates the standard usage.You may want to look up specific entries. Tat’s good, but I suggestthat you also browse. Even i you’re pretty sure you already know therules, you might find that current opinion in some cases is more liberalor more conservative than you expect. And keep in mind that some les-sons address only the most important meanings o words, or the maindistinctions between look-alikes, and may not give a complete set o

meanings. So supplement those lessons with a good dictionary whenappropriate.One more tip: even when you write in a ormal style, always do your

best to keep your writing natural, relaxed, and above all, clear. Tatsounds very bland and general, I know, but it’s actually a main point omany o the lessons in this book. I you’re a little anxious about all othis, don’t worry: that’s understandable. It’s hard to write ormal English

with precision and clarity and still sound natural. It takes practice, thenmore practice. It’s easier to learn how, though, i you’re having un. Andthe good news is that a lot o people want you to succeed. Every teacherI know likes to see good, clear writing. In my experience, admissionsofficers, job search directors, and editors eel exactly the same way. Here’shoping that this book helps you to write well, and that your writinghelps you to be a huge success.


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’ www.oup.com/us/MayIuoteYou

Oxord has created a password-protected website to accompany May I Quote You on Tat?

Te reader is encouraged to consult this resource or a workbook with

additional practice exercises.

About the Companion Website

http://www.oup.com/us/MayIQuoteYouhttp://www.oup.com/us/MayIQuoteYou


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May I Quote You on Tat?


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Standard English consists o the grammar, vocabulary, and spelling thathave the most prestige in any English-speaking country. It’s the level ocommunication that people normally use in the news media, govern-

ment, and other leading national institutions, and it’s the type o Englishthat we learn in school. As the distinguished linguist David Crystal points out, Standard English is English on its best behavior. It’s widelyunderstood, but people use it mainly in writing, not speech. When wespeak, most o us use a regional English, or a mixture o regional andstandard Englishes.

NONSTANDARD ENGLISH

Using nonstandard orms isn’t lazy, immoral, or inherently wrong. Mosto us do it in inormal contexts. And nonstandard language can be rich,creative, and eloquent. Does that mean that it’s okay to say a sentencelike “I ain’t hungry”? Well, I’m a stuffy English proessor and I wouldn’tsay that, o course. But many linguists will tell you that it’s not wrong ithe people you’re talking with say it in casual conversation. It’s a questiono context—and, strangely enough, o history. Te word ain’t is con-demned in Standard English use today, so you may be surprised to hear

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that it once was considered perectly acceptable. Educated Englishmenand women said an’t , a orm o ain’t , colloquially in the seventeenth cen-tury. In the eighteenth century, though, Jonathan Swif and others dis-

paraged abbreviated words, and by the nineteenth century, grammariansspecifically denounced the word ain’t . Jane Austen, Charles Dickens,and others put it in the speech o uneducated and vulgar characters. So

when people say ain’t today, they’re simply using a word that once was part o “polite usage” but has gone out o style in standard use today.

Ain’t still survives in nonstandard speech, though. Here’s a classic ex-ample by the great and beloved ormer New York Yankee Yogi Berra:

“Slump? I ain’t in no slump. . . . I just ain’t hitting.”Yogi Berra, Te Yogi Book ()

THE PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH

Te history o ain’t shows one o the ways in which usage rules became part o Standard English. As the Harvard linguist and psychologistSteven Pinker observes, there’s nothing inherently wrong with ain’t . Butin the nineteenth century, grammarians preerred isn’t because it hadbeen part o the dialect spoken around London hundreds o years ear-lier. Tis decision was really a matter o style: it involved a choice be-tween usages. Grammarians judged isn’t (and aren’t , hasn’t , etc.) to be

appropriate to “polite” or ormal English, while dismissing ain’t assubstandard.Tey made decisions like this because they wanted to refine and cor-

rect English, which, like other languages, is naturally messy. Teir dic-tums are called prescriptive because they prescribe how to speak and

write (the way that a doctor prescribes a medicine). Te grammariansenshrined the polite usage o a privileged language community, and they

tried to stifle new usages. Tat can never work: no one can reeze a livinglanguage. But many people in the rising middle class in the eighteenthcentury and later were eager to learn the prescriptive rules. Tey wantedthe status that came with speaking and writing like the social group they


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What Is Standard English, and Who Gets to Decide What’s Proper English oday?

aspired to join, so they bought huge numbers o these books. Oneeighteenth-century grammar book alone sold nearly two million copiesduring the next one hundred years.

Te ascination with books that prescribe proper usage has continued.A prime example is Fowler’s Modern English Usage. Published in , itquickly became so popular that people didn’t even eel the need to citethe title. Tey just called it “Fowler.” Its appeal cut across social classes.

Winston Churchill, or example, quoted rom it ofen. Churchill was agreat orator, a man who “mobilized the English language and sent it intobattle” during World War II. He insisted on the precision in language

that he thought Fowler provided. While planning the invasion oNormandy, or example, he reportedly snapped a command at an aide tocheck a word in Fowler. As prime minister he quoted Modern EnglishUsage in the margins o official documents and even sent a copy toBuckingham Palace as a Christmas present. Linguists today criticizeFowler or basing decisions on his personal prejudices and or ofenbeing judgmental about nonstandard usage. Tey’re right on both

points. But no book had a greater influence on attitudes toward Englishin Britain in the twentieth century.

WHO DECIDES WHAT’S PROPER ENGLISH TODAY?

Many o the prescriptive decisions stuck and are part o Standard

English. As Pinker notes, though, the stylistic choices that dictate properusage are only conventions. A virtual community o literate speakers and writers implicitly agrees to ollow those rules, and the rules serve an in-dispensable purpose: they govern the ways that words agree with eachother, fine distinctions in meaning, punctuation, and more. Tey “lubri-cate comprehension, reduce misunderstanding, provide a stable plat-orm or the development o style and grace, and credibly signal that a

writer has exercised care in crafing a passage.”

Tese choices o proper expression aren’t necessarily permanent,though. Tey depend on a consensus among literate users. And becauseeducated people don’t all use language in the same way, that consensus


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may change. Some so-called rules are what Pinker calls bubbe meises, aYiddish term meaning “grandmother’s ables.” Tey’re linguistic old

wives’ tales, patterns o usage that came rom a alse consensus. Te rules

that are likely to endure or a time, by contrast, are the ones that repre-sent the common knowledge o careul speakers.

Since this consensus shifs, how can we be sure which stylistic choicesare in avor right now? Well, one way is to read recent usage and styleguides and grammars, including ones that track the actual usage o edu-cated speakers and writers. We also can check the usage notes in theOxford English Dictionary and the major American dictionaries. And we

can look at the opinions o large usage panels consisting o proessionalauthors, scholars, journalists, teachers, editors, and others. Te mini-essays in this book review those sources in order to get a sense o currentopinion about some o the most common usage choices and distinctionsin word meanings. Tat way, you’ll be able make your own inormeddecisions about them as you write.


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I you’re like most people, you probably don’t love grammar terms. Sothis book uses only the terms that you really need in each lesson. Temini-essays include definitions o those terms, but here are some basicones that aren’t defined in the discussions, along with uller coverage oa ew that are.

GRAMMAR

Do you worry that your grammar isn’t good? People ofen think thatgrammar consists o the conventions o educated speech and writing,and they’re araid that they don’t know the prescriptive rules well

enough. In this book, we’ll define grammar much more broadly. And inthat sense, i people understand you when you speak, and you under-stand what you’re reading here, then you do know English grammar.

Te grammar of a language is how that language works. It consists

of the rules that let us make sense to each other in a sentence. Ourgrammar tells us, or example, how to change the structure o words toshow how they unction. It also tells us how to put words together in the

right order, and how to make them agree with each other. We learn thebasic grammar rules o our language as children, and we learn more as

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adults. Tat lets us invent grammatical sentences that have never beensaid beore, and it allows us to know intuitively when a sentence is un-grammatical. We know without having to think about it, or instance,

that “Call maybe me” isn’t in natural English word order. But we all un-derstand Carly Rae Jepsen when she sings “Call Me, Maybe,” because thegrammar makes sense to us.

USAGE

Usage is the way that people actually speak or write, depending on the

circumstances, the audience, the purpose, and the dialect. Since this is abook about expressing yoursel in a ormal style, it ocuses on a particu-lar type o usage: the linguistic choices that literate writers and speakersmake in ormal contexts.

NOUNS

“Man was made at the end o the week’s work, when God was tired.”Mark wain (pen name o Samuel Langhorne Clemens), Americanauthor and humorist (–), Notebook,

“I’m not a member o any organized party—I am a Democrat.” Will Rogers, American humorist, actor, and cowboy (–),

quoted in P. J. O’Brien,Will Rogers: Ambassador o Goodwill,

Prince o Wit and Wisdom ()

“You can lead a man to Congress, but you can’t make him think.”Attributed to Milton Berle, Emmy Award–winning Americancomedian and actor (–), quoted on Te Official Site oMilton Berle

“Cricket is basically baseball on Valium.”Robin Williams, award-winning American actor and comedian,quoted in “Robin Williams, Comedy Genius: His Greatest

Jokes,” nypost.com, Aug. ,


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Some Really Basic Grammar erms

Te word noun derives rom the Latin word or “name,” and that’s whata noun does: it names. A noun names or identifies a person, place, thing,idea, or quality:

man party week cricket work baseball member

Some nouns name particular people, places, or periods o time, or spe-

cific businesses, groups, organizations, products, and so orth. Tey’recalled proper nouns, and they’re usually capitalized:

GodDemocratCongressValium

PRONOUNS

“I you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”Mark wain, Notebook,

“Tis is not an easy time or humorists because the government isar unnier than we are.”

Art Buchwald, Pulitzer Prize–winning American humorist and writer (–), in a speech at an international meeting osatirists and cartoonists,

“I’m over the hill, but nobody prepared me or what was going tobe on the other side.”

Jane Fonda, award-winning American actress, writer, fitness expert,activist, and model, quoted in Mail on Sunday, Jan. ,

Lady Gaga, on not wanting to be grounded in reality: “In my showI announce, ‘People say Lady Gaga is a lie, and they are right.’”


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Lady Gaga (stage name o Steanie Joanne Angelina Germanotta),award-winning American singer-songwriter, businesswoman, andactress, quoted in Fiona Sturges, “Lady Gaga: How the World

Went Crazy or the New ueen o Pop,” independent.co.uk, May

,

“We used to lead the world in making things. But . . . we don’tmake anything anymore. I miss that. [But] Hollywood stillmakes things.”

George Clooney, Academy Award–winning American actor, filmdirector, producer, and screenwriter, quoted in Cal Fussman,“George Clooney’s Toughts or oday,” esquire.com, Dec. .

“I you’re trying to achieve, there will always be roadblocks. I’ve hadthem. Everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you.”

Michael Jordan, American proessional basketball player and teamowner, quoted in Ben Frederick, “Michael Jordan: uotes romHis Airness, the King,” csmonitor.com, Feb. ,

Te word pronoun derives rom the Latin meaning “in place o a noun or

a name,” and a pronoun is a word that you can use instead o a noun.Personal pronouns reer to specific people or things:

I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they me, you, him, her, it, us, you, themmy, your, his, her, its, our, your, their

Some pronouns don’t reer to anyone or anything specific. Sincethey’re not definite about whom or what they reer to, they’re called in-definite pronouns. Tey include anybody, anyone, anything, each, every-body, nobody, none, and somebody:

“nobody prepared me”“we don’t make anything anymore”

“Everybody has had them”

You can use a pronoun to replace a group o words that act like a noun.


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“We all want to be in love and find that person who is going tolove us.”

Will Smith, Grammy Award–winning American actor, rapper, and producer, quoted in Stella Papamichael, “Will Smith, Hitch,” bbc.co.uk, Mar.

In this passage, her or him could replace “that person who is going to love us.”

ADJECTIVES

“o my mind, Judas Iscariot was nothing but a low, mean, premature congressman.”Mark wain, letter to the editor, New York Daily ribune, Mar. ,

An adjective describes a noun or a pronoun:

“low, mean, premature”

VERBS

“No one can make you eel inerior without your consent.”Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. First Lady, –, attributed in

Reader’s Digest, Sept.

“I think crime pays. Te hours are good; you travel a lot.” Woody Allen, Academy Award–winning filmmaker, actor,comedian, and writer, in the film ake the Money and Run

“You look mah velous!”Billy Crystal, award-winning American actor, writer, comedian,

producer, and director, as Fernando, telling guests that they lookmarvelous, on NBC-V’s Saturday Night Live, s

“No one washes a rented car.”Attributed to ormer Harvard president Lawrence Summers, butused widely in the s


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“A single Beyoncé video is capable o staggering the senses; thesimultaneous release o o them . . . was a lot to process.”

Jody Rosen, “Te Woman on op o the World,” tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com, June ,

Verbs describe actions and occurrences:

think paystravel

washes

Verbs also describe states o being and sensations:

eelarelook

wasis

See the discussion o linking verbs on pages –.

ADVERBS

“Bessie, my dear . . . you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow Ishall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly.”

Winston Churchill, British prime minister (–), to BessieBraddock, MP, who accused him o being “disgustingly drunk,”

“Writing is very pleasurable, very seductive, and very therapeutic.” Woody Allen, quoted in Michiko Kakutani, “Woody Allen, TeArt o Humor, No. ,” Paris Review, Fall

“I a man watches three games o ootball in a row, he should bedeclared legally dead.”

Attributed to Erma Bombeck, American humorist, columnist, andauthor (–), in A. J. Maikovich and M. Brown, eds., Sports

Quotations ()


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“I am an actor. But you can’t take things too seriously.”Scarlett Johansson, BAFA- and ony Award–winning Americanactress, model, and singer, quoted in star-magazine.co.uk , June ,

“People will say a movie bombed at the box office, but I couldn’tcare less.”

Johnny Depp, Golden Globe Award–winning American actor, film producer, and musician, quoted in “’I Don’t Want My Kids toGoogle Me and Read Lies and Rumours,” mirror.co.uk, May ,

About Robin Williams: “Mr. Williams was one o the most

explosively, exhaustingly, prodigiously verbal comedians whoever lived.”A. O. Scott, “Robin Williams, an Improvisational Genius, ForeverPresent in the Moment,” nytimes.com, Aug. ,

Also about Robin Williams: “He made us laugh—hard, everytime you saw him.”

Billy Crystal, Emmy Awards, Los Angeles, Aug. ,

Adverbs modiy verbs, as the word adverbs suggests:

“care less”“ever lived”“laugh—hard”

Adverbs also modiy adjectives:

“disgustingly ugly”“very pleasurable, very seductive, and very therapeutic”“legally dead”“explosively, exhaustingly, prodigiously verbal”

And adverbs modiy other adverbs:

“too seriously”

Adverbs can be used to negate:


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“Happiness never decreases by being shared.”Buddha, spiritual leader on whose teachings Buddhism is based(ca. th–th century BC), quoted in Te eachings o Buddha, ch., Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai ()

“I have never been lost, but I will admit to being conused orseveral weeks.”

Daniel Boone, American rontiersman, pioneer, soldier, politician,and olk hero, quoted in Rick Burke, Daniel Boone ()

“My job is not to be skinny. . . . My job is to act.”

Jennier Lawrence, Academy Award–winning American actress, quotedin Lynn Hirschberg, “Te Brave Ones,” W Magazine, Sept.

Adverbs also can modiy phrases, clauses, or whole sentences. Tey can, orexample, express a speaker’s attitude, or the likelihood or truth o an event:

“I believe there is something out there watching us.Unortunately, it’s the government.”

Attributed to Woody Allen

“With age, you see people ail more. You see yoursel ail more.How do you keep that earlessness o a kid? You keepgoing. . . . Luckily, I’m not araid to make a ool o mysel.”

Hugh Jackman, award-winning Australian actor and producer,quoted in Mike Zimmerman, “Te Hugh Jackman Workout: Te

X Factor,” menshealth.com, June

“Maybe my airy tale has a different ending than I dreamed it would. But that’s OK.”

Kim Kardashian, American V and social media celebrity, ashiondesigner, model, and actress, quoted in “Kim Kardashian’s Guideto Love,” huffingtonpost.com, Feb. ,

“I have flabby thighs, but ortunately my stomach covers them.”

Joan Rivers, Emmy Award–winning American comedian, actress, writer, V host, and producer (–), attributed onhealthline.com, Sept. ,


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Adverbs usually end in -ly, but some don’t, including very and hard inthe passages above.

PREPOSITIONS

A preposition shows a relationship between other words in a sentence.Many prepositions indicate position or direction. One way to re-

member them is to fill in the blank in this passage:

Iron Man flew _______ the clouds.

How many prepositions can you think o to complete the sentence?Here are several possibilities: aboe, across, against, along (with),

among, around, at, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by,

om, in, inside (o), into, near, next to, off o, on, onto, on top o, out

(om), out o, outside, over, past, through, to, toward, under, underneath,

up, upon, with, and within.

Prepositions also relate to time. Tey include about, afer, beore,during, ollowing, since, throughout, till, and until.

Prepositions can indicate many other kinds o relationships as well: or indicates support, or example, while against shows opposition andwith denotes accompaniment.

Other prepositions that show relationships include according to, as, as or, aside om, because o, concerning, despite, except, except or, in addi-

tion to, in ont o, in spite o, instead o, like, o, on account o, plus, re- garding, unlike, and without.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Prepositions appear in prepositional phrases. A phrase is a small group

o related words that lacks a subject, a verb, or both.Te subject either does something or is described or discussed in asentence:


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“One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got inmy pajamas, I don’t know.”

Groucho Marx, Academy Award–winning American comedian, filmand V star, and writer (–), in the film Animal Crackers

In Groucho’s quotation, I is the subject o the first sentence because that person did something: he shot an elephant.

He (the elephant) is a subject in the second sentence, because he, too,did something: he got into Groucho’s pajamas.

Te words in my pajamas orm a phrase. Since it includes the preposi-tion in, it’s a prepositional phrase.

Prepositional phrases can appear anywhere in a sentence. Here are aew at the start o sentences:

“At fify, everyone has the ace he deserves.”George Orwell, English writer, journalist, and critic (–),notebook, Apr. ,

“In the uture, everybody will be world amous or minutes.”

Andy Warhol, American artist (–), quoted in thecatalogue or his exhibit in a museum in Stockholm,

Here’s one in the middle o a sentence:

“A sore-aced baby, with a neglected nose, cannot be conscientiouslyregarded as a thing o beauty.”

Mark wain, “Answers to Correspondents” (), quoted in Earlyales and Sketches: – ()

Tese prepositional phrases appear at or near the end o sentences:

“I kept putting my wie underneath a pedestal.” Woody Allen, quoted in “Woody Allen: Rabbit Running,” time.com, July ,

“I have come to the conclusion there is an aferlie.”

“An aferlie?”“Right. I think lie goes on afer the children are grown.”Erma Bombeck, Te Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic ank, ch. ()


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“She was the people’s princess, and that is how she will remain inour hearts and in our memories orever.”

British prime minister ony Blair, speaking o Lady Diana, Aug. ,

George Clooney, reerring to his role as Batman in the film Batman and Robin: “I’m not going to do any more films inrubber suits.”

uoted in Linda Holmes, “George Clooney on Acting, Fame, andPutting Down Your Cellphone Camera,” npr.org, Feb. ,

Many words that are used as prepositions also can be used as adverbs,depending on the context. For example, up is a preposition in Teyclimbed up Mount Everest. But it’s an adverb in Tey woke up, since it’s

part o the phrase woke up.A challenge or you: how many prepositional phrases are in the sen-

tence below?

Lady Gaga said in an interview with Howard Stern on July ,, that she lives in Brooklyn, in a tiny -a-monthapartment.

“Lady Gaga Opens Up to Howard Stern,” huffingtonpost.com, July,

Te answer is five: “in an interview,” “with Howard Stern,” “on July ,,” “in Brooklyn,” and “in a tiny $-a-month apartment.”

Te word that the preposition connects a noun or pronoun to iscalled the object of the preposition. I the object o a preposition is a personal pronoun, it should be me, you, him, her, it, us, or them:

“I that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’llregret it.”

Humphrey Bogart, American actor (–), in the filmCasablanca

“Winning an Oscar is an honor, but, between you and me, itdoes not make things easier.”


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Robin Williams, interview in “Não Me Contem Piadas,”Veja (Brazilian magazine), Nov. , , translated inAnderson Antunes, “’Don’t ell Me Jokes,’” orbes.com,Aug. ,

See the lesson on “I or Me” on pages –.

CLAUSES

A clause is a unit o words that has a subject and a verb.A main clause makes a complete statement and can stand as a sen-

tence by itsel. Since it can exist independently, it’s also known as anindependent clause. Ofen a sentence consists o a single main clause,such as these two by Mark wain:

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influencein society.”

Mark wain, quoted in More Maxims o Mark, ed. Merle Johnson()

And here’s a short but sweet one by Lady Gaga:

“I love glamor.”Lady Gaga, in John Dingwall, “Lady Gaga Used ough imes asInspiration or Her New Album,” Daily Record (Scotland), Nov. ,

MOOD

Te grammatical term mood is a different word rom the mood thatdescribes how you’re eeling. It’s actually a variant o mode, which reersto the manner in which something is done or expressed. And yet thesetwo words overlap in meaning. Grammatical mood is a verb orm that

indicates your attitude. It tells whether your sentence expresses a act, a wish, uncertainty, a command, etc. Tat can reflect your emotionalmood, which may be matter-o-act, wishul, doubtul, or demanding.


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We use the indicative mood to indicate a act or an opinion, as in this passage by Woody Allen:

“Te message is, God is love, and you should lay off atty oods.” Woody Allen, quoted in ime magazine, July ,

Another grammatical mood is the imperative, which we use to givecommands or exhortations, and to make requests:

“Always obey your parents, when they are present.”Mark wain, “Advice to Youth,”

“When in doubt, tell the truth.”Mark wain , Following the Equator, ch. ()

“Never give a sucker an even break.”Popularized by W. C. Fields, American comedian, actor, juggler,and writer (–), in the play Poppy

“I at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Ten quit. Tere’s no

use being a damn ool about it.” W. C. Fields, quoted in Reader’s Digest, Sept.

“When you[’ve] got it, flaunt it!”Zero Mostel, American actor and comedian (–), in MelBrooks’s film, Te Producers

“Eat my shorts!”Bart Simpson, on Matt Groening’s V series Te Simpsons, Jan. ,

“Don’t make me come down there!”—GodSign in ront o Cornerstone Christian Church, quoted in “FunnyChurch Signs,” belienet.com

Te subjunctive mood conveys a wish or a desire, or it states hypothet-ical or contrary-to-act conditions. You also can use it to suggest, urge,or require something. See “I I Were a Rich Man” on pages –.


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A or AN

“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member o

Congress. But I repeat mysel.”1

Mark wain, quoted in Albert B. Paine, Mark wain: A Biography ()

“I a man could be crossed with a cat it would improve the man,but it would deteriorate the cat.”

Mark wain, Notebook,

“I want . . . people in the universe, my ans and otherwise, toessentially use me as an escape. . . . I am the jester to the kingdom.I am the route out .”

Lady Gaga, quoted in Jonathan Van Meter, “Lady Gaga, Our Ladyo Pop,” Vogue, Mar.

Jack Nicholson, breaking in on an interview with JennierLawrence: “You look like an old girlriend o mine.”Lawrence: “Oh really? Do I look like a new girlriend?”

Jack Nicholson is an Academy Award– and Golden GlobeAward–winning American actor, director, producer, and writer;this interview aired on ABC-V, Feb. ,

‘

’Tricky Words, Usage, and Grammar


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ricky Words, Usage, and Grammar

Let’s start this book with one o the easiest lessons in it. I you’re a nativeEnglish-speaker, you almost always know when to use a or an withoutthinking about it. I you’re not, here’s a general rule. It’s pretty simple,

except or several words that begin with h:Use a beore words beginning with a consonant sound.

Use an beore words beginning with a vowel sound.

a member o Congress an idiota man an escapea cat an interview

Remember, it’s the first sound (not the first letter) o the next word thatmatters. For example, the word unicorn begins with the vowel u but is

pronounced with a y- sound in this context (YOU-ni-corn). So we say a unicorn. We also say an H-bomb, an MBA, an NCAA record, and aunited ont .

✻ A or An Before Words Tat Start With H-

an heiran honoran hour

Languages are messy, and much o the conusion about whether to say a

or an beore words that begin with h is a result o the messy way thatEnglish developed over time. Words like honor, heir, and hour came intoEnglish rom medieval French with the h silent. In act, Middle Englishscribes ofen wrote those words without an h. Other words, includinghereditary, were borrowed directly rom Latin with the h pronounced.And some, like historian, had a silent h that people later started to

pronounce.Speakers commonly said an beore words beginning with h when the

first syllable was unstressed. By the late nineteenth century, though,


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educated people generally pronounced the h in those words, and beganto write a beore them. But the truth is that even today many people,including some very amous historians, still say an historian and an

historic(al). Some people also say an beore habitual, hereditary, heroic,hotel, hysterical, and a ew other words beginning with h-.

So where does that leave us? Several language critics and usage guidesinsist that we should say a historian . Some o them call an historian a vestigial or pedantic usage, or a stylistic oddity with no phonetic

justification.My advice is that you can’t go wrong saying a historian, a his-

toric(al), etc .In American English, herb is pronounced erb, so Americans say “anherb.” Te British pronounce the h in herb, so the right orm or them is“a herb.” Herbal has traditionally been pronounced with the h- sound,but most Americans now say erbal . So “an herbal tea” is correct or them.But speakers who pronounce the h in herbicide should say “a herbicide.”

Which version o the sentence below is correct?

(A) An X-Man is a superhero mutant who is part o a groupounded by Proessor Charles Francis Xavier.

(B) A X-Man is a superhero mutant who is part o a group oundedby Proessor Charles Francis Xavier.

Since we pronounce the letter x as ex, it begins with a vowel sound. So

precede “X-Man” with an, as in version A.

A and an go so naturally with the words that ollow them that the

n- sound sometimes has jumped rom one to the other. A nickname,

or example, should be an ickname. In early English it was an eke-name

(an “additional name”). In everyday speech over time, though, the -n

rom an became attached to the phrase that came afer it. Our wordumpire is another case. It was originally a noumpere, but the n attached

to the a that preceded it. So a noumpire became an umpire.


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AIN’T

“I it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Bert Lance, director o the Office o Management and Budgetunder President Jimmy Carter (–), quoted in Nation’s Business, May , (OED)

“Te uture ain’t what it used to be.”Yogi Berra, American major league baseball catcher and manager,in Te Yogi Book ()

Don’t use ain’t in ormal speech and writing. It’s considered a classicexample o substandard usage.

Te word ain’t first appeared in writing in the early eighteenth cen-tury, and educated speakers had used an earlier orm o the word evenbeore that. But since the nineteenth century, ain’t has been denouncedas an illiterate vulgarism. Webster’s Tird New International Dictionary () was widely mocked because it said that many “cultivated”

American speakers say ain’t, especially in the phrase ain’t I (“am I not?”).Te Chicago Daily News, or example, reviewed that dictionary underthe sarcastic headline “Good English Ain’t What We Tought.” Many

people still say ain’t in conversation, though. It flourishes in CockneyBritish usage and in Black English in the United States. Ain’t also iscommon in song titles and lyrics. It appears in olk expressions, catch- phrases, and much inormal speech. People sometimes use the word hu-

morously, playully, or or effect, but otherwise ain’t isn’t appropriate inStandard English.

ALLUDE, ALLUSION

✻ Allude

On the influence o Star Wars: “People can’t oandedly alludeto the Bible, or Milton, or Shakespeare anymore with certaintythat everyone’s going to know what we’re talking about, but


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everybody instantly understands ‘these aren’t the droids you’relooking or’ . . . or ‘a great disturbance in the Force.’”

Douglas Wolk, “What Star Wars Means to Me,” time.com, Aug. ,

In his book Mickey and Willie, sports journalist Allen Barra“continually alludes to the similarities o these Hall o Famecenterfielders.”

Kirkus Reviews, Feb. ,

Te phrase “loss o innocence” alludes to the Garden o Eden

story in Genesis.

✻ Allusion

“Brevity is the soul o lingerie” was Dorothy Parker’s playulallusion to Shakespeare’s line “brevity is the soul o wit” in Hamlet (act , sc. ).

Dorothy Parker, American poet, critic, and satirist, in Vogue, ,quoted by Alexander Woollcott, While Rome Burns ()

uarterback im ebow threw or exactly yards in theDenver Broncos’ upset victory in the AFC wildcard game in. Some people took that to be a mystical allusion to John:, a biblical verse that has special meaning to the evangelicalebow.

“May the odds be ever in your avor” is an allusion to the HungerGames.

How is an allusion different rom any other kind o reerence? Te shortanswer is that it’s a reerence that you make indirectly or in passing. Allude comes rom the Latin or “play with, touch lightly upon.” In English, it

once reerred to playul punning. Tough it no longer has that meaning, allude still has the sense o touching lightly on something:o allude is to hint at or suggest, or to mention indirectly.


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Tat’s the strict definition that language critics gave these words in thenineteenth century, and many usage handbooks still adhere to it. In

practice, though, there’s ofen ambiguity about how direct or indirect a

reerence is when someone speaks o it as an allusion.o allude to also can have the sense o mentioning something in

passing.

Allusion is the noun orm.

ALTERNATE or ALTERNATIVE

✻ Alternate

“I never had the courage to talk across a long, narrow room. . . . II attempt to talk across a room I find mysel turning this way andthat, and thus at alternate periods I have part o the audiencebehind me. You ought never to have any part o the audience

behind you; you never can tell what they are going to do.”Mark wain, “Courage,” speech in New York City, Apr. ,

His children stay with him on alternate weekends and someholidays.

✻ Alternative

“Men and women do behave wisely, once all other alternativeshave been exhausted.”

Israeli oreign minister Abba Eban (–), quoted in Vogue, Aug. ,

“Most allopathic doctors think practitioners o alternativemedicine are all quacks. Tey’re not.”

Dr. Mehmet Oz, urkish American surgeon, author, and V personality, quoted in Jane E. Brody and Denise Grady, Te NewYork imes Guide to Alternative Health ()


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I you’re not sure which o these words to use, that’s easy to understand,because more and more, alternate is replacing alternative as an adjective,especially in American English. Te traditional difference is that alter-

nate reers to something that alternates, in the sense that it happens orappears by turns. Alternative, by contrast, reers to having a choice. Butsince the s, Americans have used the word alternate to reer to achoice. It’s become so common that most Americans probably don’tthink twice about it. Book clubs, or example, offer alternate selections,and Americans ofen speak o taking an alternate route when they drive.

Alternate as an adjective means “one afer the other, alternating in

a regular pattern.”

at alternate periods

Alternate also can mean “every other, every second (one).”

on alternate weekends

In North America, alternate is ofen used in the sense o

alternative:

alternate universes

Other examples include an alternate route, an alternate school, an al-

ternate reality game, and alternate technologies.Te British are more likely to say alternative in contexts like these. As a noun, an alternate is someone who alternates with somebody

else in doing something.

In North American English, an alternate also can be a substitute

or reserve or someone else:

“Being snubbed or the Pro Bowl didn’t really bother veteranstrong saety Bernard Pollard. Named as a first alternate, Pollardcould still be added to the AFC Pro Bowl squad i another playerbows out due to injury or other reasons.”


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park overnight on or near East th Street in Manhattan, and two daysa week I had to move my car by : a.m. and hope to find another spot.I hated it. Version A is correct.

AMONGST

“Reality is the leading cause o stress amongst those in touch with it.”

Jane Wagner, playwright, actress, and writer or Lily omlin, in TeSearch or Signs o Intelligent Lie in the Universe, pt. ()

Every now and then, one o my students uses the word amongst in a paper.Sometimes one o them even throws in amidst or whilst . Tese orms endingin - st may seem archaic and quaint to Americans, who are much more likelyto say among, amid, and while. But most commentators consider bothorms to be grammatically correct. And one word o this kind has turnedout to be a winner on both sides o the Atlantic today: against .

AMOUNT or NUMBER

✻ Amount

“Hugs can do a great amount o good—especially or children.”

Diana, Princess o Wales (–), quoted in Diana Remembered, – ()

“I don’t eel comortable taking my clothes off. . . . I wouldn’t weartiny amounts o clothing in my real lie, so I don’t think it’snecessary to wear that stuff in photo shoots.”

aylor Swif, award-winning America singer-songwriter, quoted inusmagazine.com, Apr. ,

“My ather ran or Congress in , and I got a sense that thereis no way to achieve much success without a certain amount ocompromise.”


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George Clooney, quoted in “ uestions or George Clooney,”time.com, Oct. ,

“Every day, three times per second , we produce the equivalent othe amount o data that the Library o Congress has in its entire

print collection, right? But most o it is like cat videos on Youubeor -year-olds exchanging text messages about the next wilight movie.”

Nate Silver, American statistician, elections analyst, and writer,quoted in John Heilpern, “Silver Streak,” vanityair.com, Nov.

“It’s amazing that the amount o news that happens in the worldevery day always just exactly fits the newspaper.” Jerry Seineld, award-winning American comedian, actor, writer, and Vand film producer, quoted in “What’s the Deal with . . . : Jokes rom

Jerry Seineld on His Birthday,” wcbsm.cbslocal.com, Apr. ,

“Athletes and musicians make astronomical amounts omoney. . . . Shouldn’t we all take less and pass some o that money

on to others? Tink about firefighters, teachers, and policemen. We should celebrate people that are . . . trying to make this worlda better place.”

Kid Rock, American musician, music producer, and actor, quotedin Andy Greene, “Kid Rock on his our and ‘DumbassRepublicans,’” rollingstone.com, Apr. ,

✻ Number

In a “grain o salt there are about . . . million billionatoms. . . . Now, is this number more or less than the number othings which the brain can know?”

Carl Sagan, award-winning American astronomer, cosmologist,astrophysicist, and writer (–), in Brokaw’s Brain: Te

Romance o Science ()

“New York now leads the world’s great cities in the number o people around whom you shouldn’t make a sudden move.”


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Award-winning American V host David Letterman, Late Nightwith David Letterman, CBS, Feb. ,

“A lot o the younger Indian generation are either I geniuses ordoctors. Te number o doctors I’ve seen in LA who are Indian is

just crazy.”Freida Pinto, award-winning Indian actress and model, quoted in“Freida Pinto’s Love ‘Understanding,’” timesofindia.com, Aug. ,

“I don’t pay attention to the number o birthdays. It’s weird when

I say I’m . It’s just crazy that I’m . I think I’m very immature.I eel like a kid.”Ellen DeGeneres, award-winning American comedian, V host,and actress, quoted in David Hochman, “Ellen DeGeneres: NiceGirls Finish First,” goodhousekeeping.com, Oct.

Amount reers to things that can’t be counted. It means “quantity.”Use it with singular nouns that you think o as a mass. Tese nouns ofen

are abstractions, but not always.

a great amount o goodtiny amounts o clothing a certain amount o compromiseastronomical amounts o money

Say number to reer to people or things that can be counted individ-ually. Tese nouns are plural.

the number o thingsthe number o peoplethe number o doctorsthe number o birthdays

People increasingly are saying amount when they think o countablethings as an aggregate or collection (“a large amount o jelly beans,” “ahuge amount o calories,” etc.). According to the traditional rule, they


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should say number in these cases. Some usage guides complain about thisuse o amount but acknowledge that it’s becoming pervasive. Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary o English Usage sees no reason to condemn it.

Here’s an illustration o, first, the standard use o the word amount, thenits controversial use in a single quotation by the inimitable Louis C.K.:

“I’m still editing Season . Tere’s still a tremendous amount o work to do. I have a crazy amount o different jobs, so the way Imanage that is to not do more than one at a time.”

Louis C.K., Emmy Award– and Grammy Award–winningAmerican comedian, screenwriter, actor, director, producer, and

film editor, quoted in Dave Itzkoff, “Emmy Nominees: LouisC.K.,” nytimes.com, July ,

I suggest that, in ormal speech and writing, you ollow the tradi-

tional rule distinguishing between amount and number . It’s a useuldistinction, and many traditionalists insist on maintaining it.

So say “the amount o gratitude,” meaning the quantity o it, whichcan’t be counted or put in numbers. But say “the number o things to be

grateul or,” which you can count.Say “the amount o success” but “the number o victories.”

Which word do we use with money? When we speak o “counting your money,” that’s really a figure o speech. You can count dollars, quar-ters, dimes, euros, liras, etc. But the word money is a singular noun andan abstract concept that can’t be counted in individual units. So we say“the amount o money,” not “the number o money.”

Some nouns take amount when they are singular but number whenthey are plural and can be counted.Say “the amount o success” but “the number o successes.”

Which version o the sentence below is correct?

(A) An amazing number o ans waited or hours or the MonsterBall concert.

(B) An amazing amount o ans waited or hours or the MonsterBall concert.

Since the ans can be counted, the right choice is number , as in version A.


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AND/OR

Tis construction first appeared in the middle o the nineteenth centuryin a maritime shipping contract, and it wasn’t long until two parties

went to court because they disagreed about what it meant in a contract. And/or is usually said to be restricted to legal and business writing. Itsometimes does appear in general contexts, though, and since the s,stylists have attacked it as ugly and possibly ambiguous. I and/or reersto only two people or things, the meaning is usually clear. Tings can getconusing, though, i three or more are involved. Tis construction canbe economical, but many purists will object to it. I do when students use

it in papers. So unless you’re writing a business or a legal document, Isuggest that you don’t say and/or in ormal contexts. Instead, use the

construction A or B, or both:

I’m in the mood or chocolate or vanilla ice cream, or both.

ANXIOUS

“Love is a thing ull o anxious ears.”Ovid, Heroides, I, (first century B.C.)

“Recently I was directing an episode o Glee and I lost my cell phone—and I didn’t have time to buy a new one or three weeks. Well, the first two days I was anxious as hell, suffered thedelirium tremens, didn’t think I could make it through, etc. Tensomething kind o curious happened—I began to eel great,really great.”

Eric Stoltz, award-winning American actor, director, and producer,quoted in guardian.co.uk, Jan. ,

“I get anxious—[I eel] that lovely Jewish guilt that comes withancestry.”


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Maya Rudolph, America actress and comedian, quoted in DaveItzkoff, “Juggling a Comedy Series About Juggling Lie’s asks,”nytimes.com, Sept. ,

“A dog makes [your] eelings tangible by mirroring them back to you. ‘Te dog is imitating the energy that is in your bubble. . . . I you eel anxious, the dog becomes anxious with you.’”

Cesar Millan, Mexican American dog trainer known as the “Dog Whisperer,” quoted in Lisa Yeung, “Cesar Millan eaches Me Howto rust My Instincts,” huffingtonpost.ca, Nov. ,

Anxious comes rom a Latin word meaning “to choke, squeeze, strangle,inflict pain.” You have to admit, that’s a pretty disturbing and graphicimage o what anxiety eels like. Te word is related to anguish and to itsGerman cousin angst .

Anxious came into English in the seventeenth century, meaning

“troubled, distressed.” Te quotations above illustrate that meaning othe word.

A little over a hundred years later, anxious took on a new meaning:

“eager, ull o desire,” as in the phrase anxious to please. Tis may seemto be a very ar cry rom the original meaning o the word anxious and itslinguistic ancestry in “painul distress.” Since the early twentieth cen-tury, a number o American usage books have rejected this new meaningo anxious. Some complain that it obscures the sense o stress and anx-iety in the earlier meaning o the word. In act, though, this use o anx-ious ofen blends worry with eagerness.

Careul speakers, including at least one prime minister and a queen oEngland, have used the word anxious in its more recent sense. Here aresome examples:

“Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tellthe truth.”

Benjamin Disraeli, English politician, writer, wit, and prime

minister, Te Young Duke ()

“Te ueen is most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked olly o ‘Woman’s


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Rights,’ with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor, eeblesex is bent, orgetting every sense o womanly eeling and

propriety.”

ueen Victoria, correspondence, May ,

“We are always more anxious to be distinguished or a talent which we do not possess than to be praised or the fifeen which we do possess.”

Mark wain, Te Autobiography o Mark wain, vol. ()

“A woman who is very anxious to get children always reads

‘storks’ or ‘stocks.’”Sigmund Freud, Austrian ather o psychoanalysis (–), Te

Psychopathology o Everyday Lie ()

“I try to stay fit and eat healthily, but I’m not anxious to starvemysel and become unnaturally thin. . . . I don’t find that lookattractive [in] women.”

Scarlett Johansson, quoted in heraldsun.com, Sept. ,

Both o these meanings o anxious are well established. o avoid ambi-guity in ormal writing, though, I suggest that you say anxious whenthe situation you’re describing mainly involves worry or stress, and

eager to describe happy anticipation and enthusiasm.

AS or LIKE

✻ As

As You Like It .Shakespearean comedy (–)

“I the man doesn’t believe as we do, we say he is a crank, and thatsettles it. I mean it does nowadays, because now we can’t burn him.”

Mark wain, Following the Equator ()


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“Ten Oz got into the basket and said to all the people in a loud voice:‘I am going away to make a visit. While I am gone the Scarecrow willrule over you. I command you to obey him as you would me.’”

L. Frank Baum, American writer (–), Te WonderulWizard o Oz ()

“Tey cry a lot during the show, as do I.”Lady Gaga, speaking o her ans, on Te Ellen DeGeneres Show, Apr. ,

O aylor Swif: “As she puts it, ‘I think I am smart unless I am

really, really in love, and then I am ridiculously stupid.’” Jonathan Van Meter, “aylor Swif: Te Single Lie,” vogue.com, Jan.

Te little word as is one o the most requently used words in our lan-guage, but are you always sure whether to use it or to say like instead?

Use as when it is ollowed by a clause (a group o words including

a subject and a verb). Te passages at the top o this lesson illustrate

this: in each, as is ollowed by a subject and a verb:

As You Like It as we doas you wouldas do Ias she puts it

✻ Like

“Nothing helps scenery like ham and eggs.”Mark wain, Roughing It ()

“Women are like teabags: you never know how strong they areuntil they get into hot water.”

Eleanor Roosevelt, attributed by Hillary Clinton, quoted in NewYork imes Magazine, Aug. ,


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“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”Muhammad Ali, American three-time heavyweight boxingchampion, quoted in George Edward Sullivan, Te Story o CassiusClay ()

Hemingway “uses those short, sharp words just like hooks anduppercuts. You always know what he’s saying because he alwayssays it very clearly.”

Mike yson, American heavyweight boxing champion, who readHemingway while in prison, quoted in Independent on Sunday, Feb. ,

“Man! I Feel Like a Woman!”itle o Shania wain’s hit song, written with Mutt Lange

“I always acted like a star long beore I was one.”Madonna, award-winning American singer-songwriter, actress,author, and director, quoted in Andrew Morton, Madonna ()

“Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting or the other person to die.”

Carrie Fisher, American actress, writer, and perormance artist, inWishul Drinking (), citing an old proverb

“I’m like inker Bell. . . . You know how she dies i you don’t clapor her? . . . Scream or me!”

Lady Gaga, quoted in Christine Spines, “Lady Gaga Wants You,”Cosmopolitan, Apr.

“Do I eel like a loser sometimes? Yes, o course I do. We all eellike losers sometimes.”

Lady Gaga, on Te Ellen DeGeneres Show, Apr. ,

Many women in New York are getting nose jobs to makethemselves look like Kate Middleton.

Use like afer a verb when it’s ollowed by a noun or a pronoun butnot by another verb. In other words, use like when what comes next

isn’t a clause.


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are like teabagsfloat like a butterfly, sting like a beeeel like a woman

acted like a star

Some common idioms use like in this way, including:

drinks like a fishfits like a glovelooks like a million dollarsruns like the windselling like hotcakessings like an angel

Tat’s the rule in ormal English. Since the ourteenth century, though, writers have ollowed like with a clause. Chaucer did it. Shakespeare did,too, though not ofen. Tat usage became more common in the nine-teenth century and is widespread today. Te New Yorker, or example,

printed it in an article that described a legendary disk jockey: “Murraythe K tells it like it really is” (even though the rule calls or “as it reallyis”). Te colloquial expression “tell it like it is” was popular in the sand later, as we aging ans o Murray the K remember.

Tere’s no clear linguistic reason or the rule requiring as beore aclause, and it’s not certain who introduced it, or when. But or morethan a century language critics and usage guides have strongly con-

demned using like in that context, and very many traditionalists still do,including me. Over percent o the Harper Dictionary Usage Panel,or example, objected to that usage in writing, and about percentrejected it even in conversational speech. Panel member Isaac Asimov

joked that he wouldn’t accept it until someone puts on a version oShakespeare’s As You Like It and calls it Like You Like It . Still, like beore a clause is very widely used in ormal as well as inormal

contexts.You can use like within a phrase set off by commas, even when

there’s no verb in ront o it in the phrase:


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“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true or your work as it is or your lovers. . . . Don’t settle. As with all matters othe heart, you’ll know it when you find it. And, like any great

relationship, it just gets better and better.”Steve Jobs, American pioneer o the personal computer revolution,co-ounder, chairman, and CEO o Apple, Inc. (–), incommencement address at Stanord, June ,

Like can mean “such as, or example”:

“I have been looking at your report card & find it remarkable. Why, I never was marked up in my lie, when I was a boy,

except or one or two commonplace things, like Good Spelling& roublesomeness. You seem to be tolerably slim in the mattero History (), but you make up or it in other things.”

Mark wain, letter to a young student, Mar. ,

“Poems are made by ools like me,But only God can make a tree.”

Joyce Kilmer, American poet (–), “rees” ()

But be careul to avoid ambiguity . Tere aren’t many great actors like Robert De Niro, or example, could mean either “resembling RobertDe Niro” or “such as Robert De Niro.” I there can be any doubt about your meaning, it’s a good idea to say such as instead.

Like is gaining ground in some contexts where the standard rulerequires as or as i . It can have the sense o “as i,” especially in casualspeech. It appears in constructions like She was spending money like therewas no tomorrow and I remember it like it was yesterday. Some tradition-alists preer as i in ormal writing, but like in this context is widespread,especially in America and Australia:

“When I was on SNL [Saturday Night Live], people would walkup to me and talk to me like they were old riends o mine. Now

that I’m just doing movies, they act nervous, like they don’t know what to do around me.”Eddie Murphy, American comedian, actor, writer, musician, anddirector, quoted in interviewmagazine.com, Sept.


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“I tend to sleep in the nude. I’m an innately tactile person and a very sensual-leaning woman. You have to use the word ‘leaning’or it sounds like I’m boasting!”

Padma Lakshmi, Emmy Award–winning Indian-born cookbookauthor, actress, model, and V host, quoted in Allure magazine,May , reprinted in hindustantimes.com, Apr. ,

“I’m ar rom earless. I’m araid o everything. But maybe when you’re araid o everything, it sort o seems like you’re scared onothing.”

Natalie Portman, Academy Award–winning Israeli American

actress, quoted in Interview Magazine, Sept.

“Confidence is key. Sometimes you need to look like you’reconfident even when you’re not.”

Vanessa Hudgens, American actress and singer, quoted inseventeen.com, Apr. ,

Like beore verbs is becoming more acceptable, or at least neutral, in

three other main senses as well:

() Meaning “in the way that” ( I you knew Susie like I know Susie)() Used interchangeably with “as” in some fixed phrases (like

I said )() In comparisons (like you always used to do)

Although these uses are very common in casual English, they aren’taccepted in ormal writing, at least not yet.

Casual: Tis turned out just like I expected. Formal: Tis turned out just as I expected.

Te amous mid-twentieth-century advertising slogan quoted below con-

tained this casual usage. It got a lot o attention because it broke the ormal ruleor as, and that must have pleased the advertising company that created it:

“Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.”


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In ormal English, this would have been:

“Winston tastes good, as a cigarette should.”

“AS GOOD AS . . . OR BETTER THAN”

When you use a construction like “as good as” ollowed by “or better

than” in ormal speech or writing, be sure to include the second as.

Strunk and White suggest rewriting a sentence that doesn’t have the

second as:

My opinion is as good or better than his

can be revised to

My opinion is as good as his, or better.

Here are some more examples:

Colloquial Formalas ast or aster than her as ast as she is, or asteras tall or taller than him as tall as he is, or talleras useul or more useul than that at least as useul as thatas bad or worse than them as bad as they are, or worse

Which version o the sentence below is correct in Standard English?(More than one may be right.)

(A) I think oy Story was as good or better than the earlier oyStory movies.

(B) I think oy Story was as good as or better than the earlier oyStory movies.

(C) I think oy Story was as good as the earlier oy Story movies,or better than they were.


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Version A o the statement about oy Story is nonstandard because itomits the second as. Version B is fine. Version C is a perectly acceptable

variation.

BEGGING THE QUESTION

“Begging the question is the allacy o assuming what you aresupposed to be proving. . . . Such a ‘proo ’ proves nothing.”

William Safire, American author, columnist, and presidential

speechwriter (–), “Brother, Can You Spare a uestion?,” New York imes, Nov. ,

An example o begging the question:

Parallel lines will never meet because they are parallel.

Have you ever heard someone say that an answer “begs the question,”meaning that it invites another question? Tat sense is pretty common incasual use, but it’s not what begging the question actually means tradi-tionally. Te phrase, which dates rom the sixteenth century, is a badtranslation o a Latin term that reers to a specific logical allacy: the erroro assuming that something is true even though it hasn’t been proved.

So begging the question means “trying to prove something by using

an argument that itsel hasn’t been proved.” A person typically begsthe question when he makes a circular argument, claiming that an idea istrue because it’s true. Here’s an example:

“YOU: I can’t understand why the news media give so muchcoverage to Lindsay Lohan. It’s ridiculous. She’s not thatimportant or newsworthy.

ME: What? O course she’s important and newsworthy!Lindsay Lohan is a big deal. Why, just look at the newsstand.[She’s in] People magazine, Te Post, you name it. She’severywhere.


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YOU: Tat begs the question.

ME: Huh?”Philip B Corbett, “Begging the uestion, Again,” blogs.nytimes.

com, Sept. ,

In this conversation, you doubted that Lindsay Lohan is newsworthyand I begged the question by saying that she’s newsworthy because she’sin the news a lot. In other words, I claimed that she deserves to be a ce-lebrity because she’s a celebrity.

Since that sort o reasoning dodges a question, many people con-

clude that i you beg the question you’re being evasive. hat’s true in a way, but it misses the point o the phrase, which reers to a logicalailure.

Also, i people think o the word begging in its amiliar sense o “askingor something,” it’s natural or them to misconstrue begging the question to mean “asking or a question.” Tat’s how the phrase ofen is usedtoday: to mean “inviting a question that no one has addressed yet,” or

“raising another question.” Tat usage is very common, but traditional-ists object to it.

In ormal speech or writing, when you say begs the question, be

conservative and stick to its original sense o “assumes something is

true without proo.” Keep in mind, though, that the phrase can beconusing.

BETWEEN or AMONG

✻ Between

“As long as you are in your right mind, don’t you ever pray ortwins. wins amount to a permanent riot. And there ain’t any

real difference between triplets and an insurrection.”Mark wain, “Te Babies” toast, Chicago, Nov. (obviously, ithis were ormal English, “ain’t

may i quote you on that - a guide to grammar and usage - 1st edition (2015)

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