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.

 

 

What do music and grammar have in common? More than you think. Both genres contain codes and signs for the musician or reader to follow.

In a musical work, a double line with two dots before or after it means “repeat.” A curved line over a dot signals, “hold this note longer.” A rest sign means pause and for a singer, that’s a good time to take a breath. Without observing a repeat sign, half the orchestra might repeat a passage, and the other half might simply plow forward. Cacophony! If a singer misses a rest, her entrance will be early, plus she might collapse from lack of breath.

Likewise in writing, punctuation marks guide the reader, despite recent rumors of punctuation’s demise. (Thank the shorthand of emails, texting, and tweeting!) The Grammar Patrol thinks punctuation marks add clarity. For us, in writing and reading, punctuation is a code to help readers ride smoothly through the written word.

Let’s review common marks and some of their vagaries.

One way to do this is to think of punctuation marks as traffic signals:

.   Period = Stop Sign

“Come to a full stop. No sliding through.”

(One space after a period)

 

,  Comma = Flashing Yellow Light

Slow down. Look left and right. Then continue.

• Tip: Confuse a comma with a period and presto! Run-on sentence!

• Tip: In the U.S., periods and commas always go inside quotation marks.

(Not so in England.)

 

 ;  Semi-Colon=Flashing Red Light

Stop briefly; forge ahead.

(Often used when two sentences relate to each other, or for a list of items with interior commas)

 

:  Colon = Arrow or Road Sign

“Listen up! What follows explains, adds information, or a list.”

• Tip: Colons and semi-colons always go outside quotation marks

 

• Tip: Exclamation marks ( ! ), question marks ( ? ) , and dashes ( — )can be inside or outside depending on the meaning of the sentence.

(More on this later. Read on.)

 

Pop Quiz!

(Answers below. No peeking.)

Can you spot the punctuation bloopers in these sentences?

 

1. The feisty jockey’s nickname is “Spitfire”.

 

2. Florists like romance, it’s their business.

 

3. The whirlwind tour includes London, England, Mont Saint Michel and Paris, France, and Frankfurt, Germany.

 

4. Political campaigns always include the same elements, flag waving, baby smooching, and lofty speeches.

 

5. Amy’s airy office, “the treehouse”, was her refuge.

 

Recent bloopers spotted by the Grammar Patrol:

“Food and wine lends itself to adjectives, to metaphors.”

“You may not realize that myself and my sisters . . . ”

 

So remember, whether you’re singing, playing an instrument, writing, or reading, look for those all-important codes, musical or grammatical.  Those are the traffic signals to guide you on your adventure. For more on all things grammatical, consult our two lighthearted grammar guides, Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar.

 

Attention, Grammar Bargain Hunters!

Need more specifics on punctuation or other grammar conundrums? We’re excited that Ten Speed/Random House is holding a big promotion on our Nitty-Gritty Grammar through BookBub and other retailers (At Kindle:  http://amzn.to/2bTAvhU). You can get this zany grammar guide—loaded with cartoons, tips, and blooper pitfalls—for just $1.99 from August 28–September 11. What a bargain. Order ahead for birthdays, holiday gifts, work promotions, graduation, and quick reference for school, home school, and office. Tell your grammar-challenged pals!

Remember to send us bloopers you hear or see. We love hearing from you.

 

(Answers to Pop Quiz: 1. “Spitfire.” 2. romance; it’s 3. England; France; 4. Same elements: 5. “the treehouse,”)

 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.

 

Capitals (and Capitols) are Capital!

Fireworks flew on the Fourth of July, illuminating the nation’s Capitol building. A capital idea! We all know the basic rules about when to use capitals: for the pronoun “I,” beginnings of sentences, people’s names, place names. But let’s look at some of the trickier situations.

 

Titles

Titles of plays, books, television series, movies, poems, magazines, journals, and articles can trip you up. Use capitals for the first word and all others—except prepositions, articles (a, an, the), and conjunctions.

Play: Two Gentlemen of Verona

Book: A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

TV series: House of Cards

Movie:            Words and Pictures

Journal: School Library Journal

Magazine: In Style (Cap the preposition “in”: first word in this title.)

Poem:  “Genie in a Jar” by Nikki Giovanni (No cap on “in”; not first word.)

Article: “Ford SUV to Challenge Jeep Wrangler”

 

Proper nouns

A second grader once told the Grammar Patrol that a proper noun is “a fancy noun that gets a capital.” Exactly right.

Capitalize proper nouns, including days of the week, months, and holidays, specific people & things, buildings, companies, organizations, and schools:

Sunday, August, Valentine’s Day, John Smith, Toyota, the Capitol, Pfizer, DreamWorks, Amnesty International, Baseball Hall of Fame, Bolshoi Ballet, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Southern Poverty Law Center, Howard University, Stanford University.

Historical events, documents, or government programs

Gettysburg Address, World War II, Bicentennial, Emancipation Proclamation, Civil Rights Act of 1964, Medicare, Social Security

People’s titles

Capitalize civil, religious, military, and professional titles when they appear before a person’s name. If the title follows the name, don’t capitalize the title. If a title appears without the name of a person, do not capitalize it.

• Civil Titles

President Adams

John Adams, president of the United States

I spoke with the president. (not the President)

• Religious Titles

Capitalization of titles varies among different religions and denominations. Some examples:

Rabbi Benno Scheinberg

Benno Scheinberg, the rabbi

• Professional Titles

Dr. Sujan Wong, chief of Surgery

Sujan Wong, surgeon

• Some titles, such as “Speaker of the House,” are always capitalized, with or without the person’s name.

• Names of companies and academic departments, even when they appear after a person’s title.

Ronald Josephson, professor of Foods and Nutrition

Jenni Prisk, president of Prisk Communication

Family names

If you can substitute a person’s name for a relationship name like “uncle” or “grandmother,” capitalize.  If not, use lower case.

I’m writing Aunt Kirsten Josephson.

but

My aunt bought us all ice cream.

I spoke with Mother.

We sat with Bill’s grandfather, Norman Hope.

Seasons

Don’t capitalize seasons: summer, fall, winter, spring.

In the summer, we head for Hawaii.

When seasons denote specific academic semesters, use a capital letter, but no comma: 

Fall 2014

Summer 2015

Religions and holy books, days, and words for a Supreme Being

Talmud, Bible, Koran

Passover, Christmas, Ramadan

Yahweh, God, Allah

Geographic regions

New England, Pacific Northwest, the South

Don’t capitalize directions: We’re fifty miles north of Atlanta.

Languages

Mona speaks Farsi at home and English at the office.

Names of computer programs

Quicken, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat

Book series and editions *

Capitalize titles of book series and editions. Use lowercase letters for the words “series” and “editions.”

Gary Paulsen’s Culpepper Adventure series, large-type Reader’s Digestedition

Within parentheses

If a complete parenthetical sentence stands alone, capitalize the beginning letter.

He asked if she’d heard the news. (She hadn’t.)

With colons

• Capitalize a complete sentence or a full quotation after a colon.

Remember Murphy’s Law: Any horizontal surface fills up.

• Do not capitalize phrases, lists, or incomplete sentences after a colon.

For the big game, he wore University of Michigan’s colors: maize and blue.

* Some sources now say to use Roman rather than italics with series names: Betty Birney’s rollicking According to Humphrey series. Consistency is the key.

 

That’s it from the Grammar Patrol! Hope you’ll capitalize on this info! When in doubt, consult our zany Nitty-Gritty Grammar and More Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides.

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.

 

The Grammar Bear

When our Nitty-Gritty Grammar guides first came out, we hit seven bookstores in one day along with our Grammar Bear, thanks to Guy Hill Cadillac. Such fun. Along the way people shared their top grammar pet peeves. Ever since, we’ve collected bloopers heard and seen today. This month we’ll focus on the (alliterative!) preponderance of pronoun problems. We’ve omitted names and sources to protect the guilty. Spot the bloopers before reading the explanations!

 

 

 

• “What would you say to the idea of you and I becoming friends?”

We hear pronouns used incorrectly so often they start to sound correct. The word “of” is a preposition. Prepositions take objective pronouns (me, you, him, her, whom, us, them), not subjective pronouns (I, you, he, she, who, we, they). The secret is in the words themselves: subjective and objective. Subjects and objects! (Luckily, “you” stays the same whether subject or object.)

So here’s the fix: We like the idea of you and me becoming friends!

 

• “That’ll buy Rick and I enough time.”

Vacuum out “Rick.” Would you say, “That’ll buy I enough time”? “That” is the subject of the sentence. Use the objective “me”: “That’ll buy Rick and me enough time.”

 

• “Jason introduced you and I back in 2010.”

Jason is the subject. He did the action. “You and I” are used as objects of the verb “introduced.” Wait a sec! Objects! We can’t use “I” as an object. We need objective pronouns: Jason introduced you and me.

 

• “One of the differences between Mark and I is that I flunked and he didn’t.”

Remember Edith’s mom’s ditty: “Between thee, me, and the gatepost.” “Between” is a preposition. You know that prepositions take objective pronouns: between Mark and me.

 

• “Being in this play gave my son and I a chance to work together.”

Change the subject (“Being in this play”) to “it.” Would you say, “It gave I a chance to work together with my son”? No: “It gave me a chance . . .” Make this sentence “Being in this play gave my son and me a chance to work together.”

(For those inquiring minds deeply into grammar: The subject, “Being in this play,” is a gerund phrase: the gerund “being,” plus the prepositional phrase “in this play.”)

 

• “Who should I serve next?”

Do a turnaround: I should serve who/whom next. Since “I” is the subject, the question of the person to serve is the object. Quick trick: Substitute a different pronoun. Would you say, “I should serve he” or “I should serve him”? Him, because it’s the objective pronoun: Whom shall I serve next?” (Or: “Who’s next?!”)

 

• “Her and Ms. Dickerson now get along fine.”

Glide now from objective to subjective pronouns. The two women are the compound subject of the sentence. Use a subjective pronoun: “She and Ms. Dickerson get along . . .”

 Please share

Send us bloopers you spot! Next month, capital fun with capitals.

 

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. 

 

Spring House Cleaning—Easy Mix-Ups

Time to dust off your grammar and mop up those bloopers. Here’s another baker’s dozen of easily confused word pairs.

 

1. AMONG, BETWEEN

Conventional wisdom used to call for using the preposition “between” with two, and using the preposition “among” with more than two.

• Jake forced me to choose between Brussels sprouts and cauliflower.

• Jake forced me to choose among Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli.

This rule is relaxing, but do use “between” in one-to-one or direct relationships. Hint: Use “and,” not “or,” to connect the two words:

• He juggles a balancing act between work and family.

Use “among” when the relationship is less specific, broader.

• Among the many descendents of Johann Sebastian Bach, four became musicians.

“Don’t use “amongst” or “whilst” unless you are writing a period piece.

 

2. BOTH, EACH

The words “both” and “each” can be used as adjectives or pronouns.

Use “both” when it applies to two words.

• Both Steve Jobs and Donald Duck liked bow ties.

Use “each” as an adjective when it applies to one word.

• Each Rose Bowl float is unique.

 

3. BRING, TAKE

Use a “come, go” analogy to help remember these two. “Come” is like “bring.” “Go” is like “take.” Is the action coming toward you?” If so, use “bring.” If the action is away from you, use “take.”

• Please bring me this hot cocoa. (Come to me with the cocoa.)

• Take toilet paper to the outhouse. (Go re-supply the outhouse.)

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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.

Have you ever heard someone say “guh NOME” instead of “nome” for the word gnome? We’ve all had those moments.

Here’s a true tale told by a student from our days teaching a one-day grammar refresher through San Diego State University Extension. An English prof—engaging, funny, full of intriguing information—frequently read aloud to his students. One day, introducing Robert Frost, he read, “ . . . Then for the house that is no more a house/But only a ‘be-lilaced’ cellar hole/. . .”

“Excuse me, sir,” said a guy. “Might ‘belly-laced’ perchance be ‘be-lilaced,’ as in wreathed in lilacs?”

Sometimes when a person misspeaks, it’s cringe-inducing. At a solemn memorial service for a prominent citizen, a grieving friend read a poem about crossing the chasm, but three times pronounced the “ch” in chasm as in chair, rather than saying “KA sm.”

Edith grew up hearing and saying “ascertain,” “sword,” and “colonel” correctly. But when reading these words in books, they sounded in her head like “uh SIR tan,” “sword” with the “w,” and “CAH luh nul,” as in her book, The Little Colonel. To her, these were six words, not three.

Everyone has examples of words they’ve pronounced incorrectly for years.

The state of Illinois is “Il lih NOY,” not “Il lih NOISE.” Hyperbole is “high PER buh lee,” not “HIGH per bowl.” Epitome is “eh PIH tuh mee,” not “EH pih tome.” The Army Corps of Engineers is the “core,” not “corpse” of engineers.

Those who sell houses and properties are “REE uhl ters,” not “REAL uh ters.” There’s no “real” in realtor. Neither is there a “cue” in nuclear. Say, “NU clee er,” not “NU cue ler.” This month is not “FEB you air ee.” Note the “r.” We salute our sweeties on “FEB roo air ee” fourteenth.

Your chic outfit isn’t “chick.” It’s “sheek.” When seeking respite from onerous chores, you look for “RES pit,” not “re SPITE.” That diamond necklace isn’t “JOO la ree.” It’s “JOOL ree.” “Drowned” is just one syllable. “Drown-ded” is egregious.

 

Measurement Words

Take care with measurement words. For height, say, “hite,” not “hithe.” For length, say “lengkth,” not “lenth.” For width, say the “d” in width, not “with.”

Some mispronounced words can be funny. Some people call the famous pie place Marie Colander’s (“COLL enders”—so handy for rinsing pie berries) rather than the correct Marie Callender’s (“CAL enders”).

A radio announcer said, “Let this music of Beethoven envelope you.” She read the word envelop (“en VEH lup”) as “envelope” (“EN veh lope””). Likewise, if you witness a clash of wills, pronounce the word conflict as “CON flict.” But if your views differ from another’s, say “con FLICT.”

Here’s one final example encompassing the whole kit and caboodle of this topic. You “pronounce” or “mispronounce” a word. But the very word mispronunciation is often pronounced wrong! The word “pronounce” does not lurk within. Say, “mis pro nun see A tion.” Both pronunciation and mispronunciation have “nun,” not “noun” in the middle.

May we commend to you The Big Book of Beastly Mispronunciations: The Complete Opinionated Guide for the Careful Speaker by Charles Harrington Elster. It’s funny. It’s thorough. You can even learn from the cover: “There is no . . . ‘berry’ in ‘library,’ no ‘store’ in ‘pastoral,’ no ‘ant’ in ‘defendant,’ no ‘x’ in ‘espresso,’ and no ‘home’ in ‘homicide.’ ”

For a more complete list of commonly mispronounced words, see pp. 157-160 of our More Nitty-Gritty Grammar guide.

Please Share

Do send the mispronunciations you grew up with. Happy Valentine’s (not “Valentime’s”) Day! We love to hear 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.

 

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.

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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