We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Heads up! Sharpen those number two pencils. Time for a pop quiz covering previous Grammar Patrol columns.

Puzzled? Click on the links to our 2013 blog posts with more info for each question.

Can you spot the errors in these sentences in less than a minute?

On your mark. Get set. Go!

1. Felix was the man who Oscar called.

Who or Whom? A Writer’s Dilemma

2. Your help means a lot to my friend and I.

Put Out a BOLO [Be on the Lookout] on Pronoun Agreement

3. My favorite show is “The Big Bang Theory.”

The Italics vs. Quotes Debate

4. Sign: Holiday Wreath’s, $10

Apostrophes: Flowers or Weeds?

5. Magazine Cover: Let the Caribbean Peak your Interest.

Going on Blooper Patrol

6. “I feel nauseous,” said LaVon, who overindulged on Thanksgiving.

A Baker’s Dozen of Word Switcheroos

7. A musician must practice their instrument.

Put out a Bolo [Be on the Lookout] on Pronoun Agreement

8. My sweet Jonathan can be a rebel rouser.

Idioms, Malapropisms and Other Funny Expressions

9. Romeo’s and Juliet’s romance was doomed.

Apostrophes: Flowers or Weeds?

10. Who made this song famous—“Hello Dolly?”

Quotation Mark Questions? Think Symphony Orchestra.

11. Galloping around the corner, the castle loomed on the hill.

Dangling Participial Phrases Can Cause Confusion

12. Luella was on a journey of self discovery to become more well-rounded.”

Hyphens: Part I and II

How did you do? (You’re not being graded!)

Here are the fixes for these common errors:

1. whom  2. me  3. Big Bang Theory (italicized)  4. wreaths  5. Pique (Tip: Check out peek, peak, pique.)  6. nauseated  7. his or her, depending on musician’s gender.  8. rabble  9. Romeo and Juliet’s  10. Dolly”? (Louis Armstrong)  11. A galloping castle? Rewrite: “. . . corner, I saw the castle looming. . .”  12. self-discovery, well rounded.

Win More Nitty Gritty Grammar

Good holidays to you all from the Grammar Patrol! For much, much more on these sticky wickets, see our in-depth A-Z grammar guide, More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. Rumor has it that Santa calls it a great stocking stuffer.

To win a free copy of More Nitty Grammar, enter the raffle by posting your quiz score  and listing the questions you missed in the comments section. If you earned 100%, post your score and a grammar blog post suggestion for 2014. Everyone will be entered and the winning number will be selected randomly by the Grammar Patrol. Entries due by Saturday, December 14. Winner will be contacted directly and announced on Tuesday, December 17.

We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

In October, we covered some hyphen basics. This month, more hyphen tips.

More Hyphen Uses

• With the names of compound numbers from 21–99 and written fractions:

thirty-three                           eighty-seventh          five-eighths

six and two-thirds                fifty-four and three-fourths

• With numbers showing age or time:

ten-year-old spelling champ                      18- to 22-year-old undergraduates

two- to three-year period                            a 47-year marriage

• with highways and to designate aircraft:

I-805                F-16

Hyphens with Verbs, Nouns, Adjectives

•  If you’re thinking “action,” skip the hyphen. Make most compound verbs two words.

Back up your computer documents.

Pick up your room.

• Link the words in compound nouns and adjectives, either as a single word or with a hyphen.

Take this offramp [noun] for the off-road [adjective] rally.

You can borrow my pickup [noun] to haul the manure.

Provide backup [noun] for the back-up [adjective] team.

(While most dictionaries list the noun backup as a single word, a few recognize back-up. Just don’t use the two-word verb “back up” when you mean the noun. Write “The spy called for backup” (or back-up), not “The spy called for back up.”

(You’ll find more on two-word verbs like these, called phrasal verbs, in More Nitty-Gritty Grammar, page 131, including a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon!)

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

In a variation of Will Shakespeare’s oft-quoted phrase, “To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?—that is the question.”

We’ve chatted before on this blog about hyphens versus em dashes (—) and en dashes (–). See  Ems and Ens for Writers Tuesday, May 1st, 2012.

This month we’ll focus on the little guys, hyphens.

Hyphens (-) link words together and can help avoid confusion.

“Running mate” needs no hyphen, but does as an adjective, as in “running-mate criteria.” The hyphen shows that “mate” goes with “running,” not “criteria.” Think smoke-free airport, self-help books, cell-phone plans.

When to Use Hyphens        

• With some prefixes, especially when the root word is capitalized:

self-discovery, ex-president, pre-Oscar party, pre-Jurassic era, mid-January

• With blended double surnames:

Ochoa-Roberts                       Greenfield-Martin

• With compound modifiers:

a can’t-miss putt                      a first-ever book contract

Alas, hyphens don’t always stick to the rules. Different current dictionaries recognize both mouthwatering (no hyphen) and mouth-watering (with hyphen) as adjectives. Work-release has a hyphen; workroom does not. Witch-hunt, yes. Witchcraft, no.  Go figure!

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Word mix-ups can flummox even people who work with words daily.

Long ago Judith interviewed news anchor Allison Ross. Were it not for a last-minute word check, Judith might have called Ross’s on-air presence “enervating” (wearying), rather than “energetic” (lively).

Later, in her children’s biography about detective Allan Pinkerton, she almost had Pinkerton charging with Union troops at Antietam with the “calvary” (hill near Jerusalem), not the “cavalry” (soldiers on horseback).

Edith had to triple-check her weekly columns for your/you’re bloopers caused by flying fingers. And once, reporting on a cool field trip to a water treatment plant, she wrote about “effluent,” which a well-meaning, but dictionary-impaired, copy editor changed multiple times to “affluent.”

A Baker’s Dozen of Word Mix-ups

1. nauseous/nauseated

“I feel nauseous,” complained Buffy, after a garlic-laden dinner.

Whoops! Buffy is making others “feel sick or disgusted.”

If you feel unwell, use nauseated.

2. lend/loan

Did you lend or loan your sister your chartreuse pumps?

No matter which word you used, it was an ill-advised move, since Sis stepped in a mud puddle while wearing them.

Banks lend (verb) money. But if you buy a house, you apply for a loan (noun).

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Dangling Participial Phrases!?

Isn’t dangling for earrings, bungee jumpers, or grapes on the vine?

Alas, no. Participial phrases can also dangle, like this:

   Rounding the bend, the medieval church loomed in the distance.

That ancient church is on the move!

English runneth over with modifiers: adjectives, adverbs, clauses, phrases, and participial phrases. Participles and other modifiers are easily (and often humorously) misplaced. In addition, they distract your readers. Today we’ll concentrate on dangling participial phrases.

What is a participle anyway?

You’ll recognize these verb forms. With regular verbs, participles end in ing (present tense), and d, ed, or t (past tense).

giggling           cleaning          dreaming

giggled            cleaned           dreamt

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 We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.
Does your head spin with questions about quotation marks?

• Do commas go inside or outside of quotation marks?

• What about question marks?

• Colons? Semicolons?

• Those pesky dashes and exclamation points?

Take a moment to think of soothing music. In a symphony orchestra, some instruments, like second violins and bass violins, are workhorses. They do their jobs and follow the rules. But some all-stars take the spotlight. Oboes sound that pivotal “A” for tuning. Trumpets announce themselves. Ta-da!

The same goes for punctuation marks when used with quotation marks. Some are steady. Some are splashy.

First, we’ll share a grammar rarity: some always rules for periods, commas, colons, and semicolons.

Second, sound the trumpets! Think of question marks, exclamation points, and dashes as the prima donnas. They get special privileges. There’s no always with them.

Here are three cool “Inside/Outside” rules for remembering how punctuation works with quotation marks.

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Apostrophes: Flowers or Weeds?

Oh, those pesky apostrophes. We use them in contractions. We use them in possessives. They’re easily (and often) muddled.
The Grammar Patrol loves Frazz, the erudite cartoon strip by the Jef Mallett. In one, a student tells Frazz, the school custodian, “Violets are like flowers in the right place, and weeds in the wrong place. Like apostrophes!”

Take this sign: “Bouquet’s $7” sign. That apostrophe is a weed for sure.

The same goes for the mailbox that says “The Smith’s.” That’s two bloopers in just one sign. First, “Smith” is singular. “Smiths” is plural—more than one Smith lives there. An apostrophe added correctly (as in “The Smiths’ ”) shows possession. But why use the possessive? The Smiths’ what? The Smiths’ mailbox? Keep it simple. The sign should read “The Smiths” as in “the Smiths live here.”

* Apostrophes in Possessives

When Edith was in eighth grade, she was clueless about where to put apostrophes to show ownership. By guessing, she was right about 50% of the time.

That’s when Miss Hoezel, her English teacher, donned her blue grammar cape and flew to the rescue. As the Grammar Patrol, we’ve used her clever trick many times when teaching grammar basics. We call it the arrow method.

Here’s the key: To use apostrophes correctly, first be able to identify if a word is singular or plural, then place the apostrophe.

Miss Hoezel’s Arrow Method:

1. Draw a line under the word you want to make possessive.

If there’s one cat and one dish, underline the word “cat.”

If there are several cats and dishes, underline the word “cats.”

2. Where the line ends, draw an “up” arrow.

3. Make an apostrophe at the tip of the arrow!

(Add s to singular words.)

You can also name the apostrophe. Call it “OF.”

The dish OF the cat. The dishes OF the cat. Wherever you say “of” is where the possessive apostrophe goes.

Now it’s your turn. Give the Arrow Method a try.

Where would the possessive apostrophe go?

1. the wheels of the wagons: wagons wheels

2. the feather of the hat: hats feather

3. the votes of the alumni: alumnis votes

4. the van of the Albertsons: the Albertsons van

5. the tail of the lizard: lizards tail

6. the hair spikes of the teen: the teens hair spikes

* Apostrophes in Contractions

Contractions use an apostrophe to shorten a subject-verb form.

“Do not erase that board” becomes “Don’t erase that board.”

The apostrophe replaces the o in not.

TIP: it’s versus its:

It’s is the contraction of “it is.” One of our students gave us this great mnemonic: “Possessive its never splits.” A dog wags its tail, (never it’s tail—that means it is tail”). The tail belongs to the dog. Think ownership. No weedy apostrophe, please.

Arrow Method Answers

1. wagons’ wheels

2. hat’s feather

3. alumni’s votes

4. the Albertsons’ van

5. lizard’s tail

6. teen’s hair spikes

Please share

We send huge bouquets your way for using the possessive properly. We’d never send you weedy bouquet’s! Do post more egregious apostrophe bloopers. We love hearing from you.

 We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

For those new to English, many expressions pose puzzling challenges. Can something really “drive you up a wall”? Read on.

Idioms

Idioms are expressions with understood meanings, but are figurative, not literal.

In our neck of the woods, we’re pleased as punch when it rains cats and dogs.

Our gerbil kicked the bucket.

We burn the midnight oil.

The Cabbage Patch doll was a flash in the pan.

Your optimistic grandmother may have a pie-in-the-sky attitude.

Actress Blythe Danner has worked “Break a leg!” into an osteoporosis drug ad.

I’m under the weather.

Sports idioms have crept into everyday communication:

They’re out in left field.

Mosley got it straight from the horse’s mouth.

Let’s touch base on Tuesday.

Idioms abound in work settings:

Our design team thinks outside the box.

The comptroller is crunching the numbers.

Bubba LaRue is climbing the corporate ladder.

Beef up your resume.

As an added challenge, idiomatic expressions can change, especially in “teen speak.” “I could be up with that” once meant you liked an idea.  Now it’s “I could be down with that.” Go figure!

As Ziva from TV’s popular NCIS perfects her English, her idiomatic mismatches amuse her colleagues: “Stay focused on the job in my hand” or “You are a broken tape, Gibbs.” She was “close, but not cigar”; she meant “job at hand” and “broken record.”

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

In Perfect Grammar Land, you’d hear, “Put out a BOLO for a blue station wagon, license ISPKGOOD.” We want you to put out a BOLO on agreement bloopers when prepositions pair with incorrect pronouns. Such errors abound, especially in speech and on TV and radio shows.

The Grammar Patrol winces when a best-selling writer says on NPR, “It was a big thing for my wife and I to take the plunge.” Would you say, “It was big for I?” or “Where are the Girl Scout cookies for I?”  (No way: for me . . . me . . . me!)

Can you spot the bloopers? Clues are in boldface.

1. Here’s a picture of Sam and I holding hands.

2. He said it to Alex and I many times.

3. The photocopier decision was made by he and she.

4. Between you and I, I’m not a Downton Abbey fan.

5. Our cow costume won for she and I.

All five examples have incorrect pronouns used with prepositions. This is an easy error, made by the most erudite among us.

To get this straight, you need to know three things:

• what a preposition is

• what a prepositional phrase is

• which form of a pronoun to use.

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We (Edith Hope Fine and Judith Josephson) are the Grammar Patrol. Both of us taught for years and are now writers, with thirty plus books between us, including our two popular grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. For close to twenty years, we taught writing and grammar basics and now we blog about grammar for writers.

Thanks to computers, we can now italicize with a keystroke. But that doesn’t solve this dilemma: When to italicize words and when to use quotation marks?

Is it “Harry Potter” or Harry Potter? “Sixty Minutes”or Sixty Minutes? “Madame Butterfly” or Madame Butterfly?

Let’s face it. Sometimes you just have to memorize the rules. If memorization isn’t your forte (and yes, we still say “fort,” but dink around on the Internet: the two-syllable “for-tay” is on the rise and no longer considered incorrect), we suggest consulting your favorite grammar book. Might we suggest our Nitty-Gritty Grammar  or More Nitty-Gritty Grammar. (True confession: We both keep these grammar guides handy, especially for rules surrounding today’s topic.)

One friend, now a retired middle school English teacher, used this trick to help her students. She told them to think about this in terms of big pieces or little pieces. Big = italics. Small = quotation marks.

Check out these specifics:

Italics

First, some of the easier-to-remember uses of italics. Use italics:

• for scientific names: Tyrannosaurus rex

• for emphasis: “The will, as only Maxwell knew, made him the sole heir to their parents’ fortune.”

• for screen play directions, to show how a character should speak a line: Kermit (innocently): “It’s not that easy being green”

• for words from other languages: bon ami, piéce de la resistance, c’est magnifique, mea culpa, c’est fini, feng shui, E pluribus unum, Hasta mañana, baby!

Tip: Some foreign words (shish kebab, en masse, cafe latte, and maven) have been used so often that they are no longer italicized.

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