Grammar and Word Choice 101
Published October 1st, 2006 in English LanguageSeeing as how I am on my way toward becoming an English teacher, I thought I would lay out a few of the still-far-too-common mistakes I see in writing. With the rise of the blog, less reviewing of articles happening, more simple errors are making it online. Fortunately, OSX has built-in spellchecking, the Google Toolbar has a spellchecking feature, and Firefox 2.0 is going to feature spellchecking. That means spelling is usually not too terrible, but computers have a long way to go before they will “understand” grammar (but I guess that’s true of most people too).
This article will likely be followed by more about grammar and basic word choice. Since this is the first installment, I’ll cover the most basic and most common of errors.
Well and Good
An adjective is a word that describes a noun and an adverb is a word that modifies a verb (or adjective). Most people know this, yet many people still make some of the simplest mistakes. “Well” and “good” are commonly swapped. “Good” should describe a noun and “well” should not. You should say “I am doing well” rather than “I am doing good.” Well, if you’re a superhero, the case might be different. One of the things I enjoy about this common mistake is the wanna-be grammar nazis who correct “I feel good!” The word “feel” is largely used as a linking verb (like “am”); however, you can say “I feel well.” The problem is that “good” is never an adverb and “well” can be. Using “well” like an adjective refers to health (e.g., “Ever since they replaced my heart with a lump of coal, I have felt well.”). Want to be confused? “He runs well when he feels well” is telling us that he is good at running when he is in good health.
Contractions and Possession
I think I probably didn’t help the world at all with that last paragraph, so let’s try a much easier topic: contractions. Contractions are words that use an apostrophe to cut out certain letters because we are too lazy to say/write those letters. “They’re” means “they are.” It does not ever mean something belonging to them. “They’re playing with their ball over there,” means that they are playing with the ball that they possess/own over away from here. People commonly mix up “it’s” and “its.” Since “The turtle’s shell” means the shell that belongs to the turtle, people assume “it’s shell” means the same thing, but it does not. The possessive form that means “the object belonging to the genderless, singular thing” is “its.” The word “it’s” always is used for “it is.” Similarly, “who’s” means “who is” and “whose” is the possessive form of who (e.g., “The blogger whose grammar is terrible needs some lessons” tells us the terrible grammar belongs to the blogger.).
Then and Than
Another one that really surprises me is “then” and “than.” If you don’t know the difference between these, then the average person is smarter than you. “Then” refers to time or cause and effect (e.g., “If they win another election, then we are doomed.”). When it is used for cause and effect, “then” can nearly always be dropped from the sentence. “Than” is for comparison.
Negatives
I’m sure at one time or another everyone has heard about the horror of double negatives. All but the most clueless know that “He’s not the guy who doesn’t have bad grammar” is a terrible sentence; however, some people do not realize words like “hardly” are considered negative. “He hardly cares about grammar” is a correct usage. “He doesn’t hardly care about grammar” is incorrect.
Who and Whom
This is one that most people simply don’t understand and don’t care about. “Whom” is not the “formal” version of “who,” so do not think that. “Whom” is the objective form. As a parallel, “who” is like “he” and “whom” is like “him.” You always look at the clause that “who(m)” is being used in. “The man who quit reading this blog post is writing a blog for those who don’t care about grammar.” In the first instance, the clause is “who quit reading” and in the second instance the clause is “who don’t care.” Notice that even though the second one comes after a preposition (”for”), you do not use the objective form (objective forms of words are used in instances such as “for him.”). If the word comes after a preposition and is not part of a clause, you use “whom.” “For whom am I writing this?” The trick is that sentences can be all mixed up in English, particularly with questions. That sentence is “I am writing this for whom?”
Lose and Loose
“Those who have a loose understanding of grammar are likely to lose credibility in an educated crowd.” The word “loose” (rhymes with “moose”) means not tight. The word “lose” (rhymes with “shoes”) means not win.
Affect and Effect
“A good effect will affect the entire audience.” An “effect” is a thing. The word “affect” is a verb. “The effect I am going for with this post is to affect grammar use on the net.”
Lay and Lie
How many times have you heard a doctor tell you, “Okay, I need you to lay down.” Well, he or she went to seven or more years of college in order to sound dumb and learn terrible handwriting. If you are talking about not sitting up or standing you can lie on the bed today, you can already be lying on the bed, you lay on the bed yesterday, or maybe in the past you have lain on the bed. The word “lay” used as present tense requires an object. You can lay pillows on the bed, can be be laying pillows on the bed, maybe you laid pillows on the bed yesterday, or in the past you may have laid pillows on the bed. After reading all that, you might need to lie down. A parallel set of words is “rise” and “raise.” You can rise up or you can raise your hand up.
Both and Among
If something is between two people, it is between both of them. If something involves more than two people, it is among all of them.
Less and Fewer (Note: The following paragraph was changed on 15Nov06 per John’s comment)
“Less” should be used for any noun that you cannot count (e.g., “There is less water in here than I expected”). “Fewer” is used for some count nouns, but not all. According to the language log, “less” is most common in “distances, sums of money, units of time, and statistical enumerations.” Though this isn’t as clearcut as one would like (especially someone who didn’t learn English as a primary language), I thought keeping this section would show that English is complicated and I am certainly willing to hear thoughtful critiques and different viewpoints.
With all those quotes, I’m sure I made some mistakes somewhere, but hopefully this post clears up some common mistakes for people. Feel free to refer back to it. If you have any questions about these or any other grammar-related topics, please comment. I plan on posting a few more entries like this so I can continue to deceive myself into thinking that I am going to make a difference out there…
I don’t think the distinction between “less” and “fewer” is as clear cut as you say.
in ten words or less
less than a thousand dollars
less than four days
less than five cups of coffee
These are all acceptable. Also, whether you use “less” or “fewer” can change the meaning:
I walked 1000 meters today. That’s fewer than yesterday.
I walked 1000 meters today. That’s less than yesterday.
I don’t think there is a tendency to use “fewer” for mass nouns, the trend seems to be only toward using “less” for plurals in general.
The traditional view is that “fewer” applies to numbers and count nouns and that “less” applies to mass nouns, degree/extent, non-whole nouns, etc. Of course, that has changed some in the past several centuries.
Less than half of a cake
Less likely
Less surface area
Fewer cars
Fewer than thirteen players
Fewer casualties
I agree that there is a trend in moving toward using “less” for plurals, but there’s also a trend that involves adding “like” throughout sentences as an expletive.
I think this starts to hit on some of what we were talking about in the other post about formal and informal writing/speech. I would rather someone say: “I make fewer mistakes” than “I make less mistakes,” but I know their meaning either way.
Using “less” where “fewer” would be expected is most common in distances and monetary units. In many cases, either one sounds correct: “You will have fewer/less than two hours to complete this test.”
I have to admit that I do not see a difference in the meaning of your two “walked 1000 meters” examples. Both seem to mean that the subject walked over 1000 meters yesterday.
If it’s changed in the past several centuries, maybe it’s time to acknowledge that it’s part of normal usage?
ok how about this
“There are less trains” - the trains are less frequent
“There are fewer trains” - the number of trains is reduced
Perhaps it is time, but I’m not going down without a fight
At some point, when the same mistakes are repeated enough, they become “normal.” I don’t feel that we are quite at that point with less/fewer for formal writing, perhaps for semi-formal writing though. As far as the less/fewer trains, I don’t see a direct difference. I think the difference in meaning is contextual. If I was at a train yard, either statement would mean “a smaller number of trains.” If I was at a train station, waiting for a train, the statement could mean that trains come by less frequently, but that would seem to be due to the smaller number of trains. This could be a regional difference though; I don’t know.
Here’s some background on the less/fewer thing.
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003775.html
It seems that this usage of “less” you’re objecting to has always been standard. The prescriptive rule apparently comes from someone’s misguided opinion in 1770.
Thank you for the input, John. I’ve updated the Less/Fewer section accordingly. It’s interesting that King Alfred used “less” in the way we’ve been talking about way back when translating Latin to Old English was controversial. I had thought the shift was more recent, but perhaps it’s really a rebound back to the way “less” was used prior to the input by Baker.
I recommend looking at Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage. They give examples from real writing, tells you want other usage guides say, then lets you make up your own mind.
I don’t think it’s a rebound. “Less” has always been used for count nouns, even though many usage advice givers believe that it’s incorrect.