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THE GRAMMAR LADY'S SEVEN MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
(In alphabetical order)
"Affect" or "Effect"
This explanation is easy to remember and will work for you about 98% of the time.
"Effect" is the noun. The medicine had a strange effect, a bad effect, an interesting effect, almost no effect,
etc. You can remember this spelling because if a word is being used as a noun, then we often use the word "the" in front
of it. Therefore, we could say "The effect."
***Here's the trick to help you remember: "The" ends with an "e" and "effect" begins with an "e." These two words go together.
"The effect." Almost always!
"Affect," however, is a verb, showing action. The movie affected me strongly. This change won't affect my job.
***Here's the trick to help you remember: "Affect," the action verb, starts with an "a" and so does "action."
ONCE MORE: If it's being used as an action verb, it's spelled "affect." Radium affected Marie Curie's health.
If it's a noun and could have "the" preceding it, then it starts with an "e." The effect of radium of Marie Curie's
health was deadly.
HOWEVER, in very rare occurrences "effect" and "affect" can be used differently. (If you're really curious about this,
try www.dictionary.com. But I'm warning you, it may get you confused again!)
"Apostrophes and 'S' to show ownership and/or plural"
1. When a word or name ends in "s" but is singular, we still add an apostrophe and an "s." Mr.
Davis's words, Jess's shoes, the dress's buttons.
***There is one exception. Names that end in "s" from ancient literature or the Bible do not add a second "s" after the apostrophe.
Jesus' mother, Hercules' strength, Moses' son
2. When a word already ends in "s" and then becomes plural (NOT possessive), add "es." No apostrophe!
I enjoy spending an evening with the Davises. There are three Jesses in my class. It's hard to keep up with the Joneses.
3. When a word ends in "s" and needs to be plural AND possessive, add "es" and then add an apostrophe.
The Davises' new car is blue. Isn't that the Joneses' cat? The three Jesses' middle names are different.
"Bad" or "Badly"
"Bad" is an adjective used to describe a noun/pronoun. Examples:
This meat is bad. (Bad is describing the meat.)
The concert was bad. My class's behavior was bad.
"Badly" is an adverb. ("-ly" usually shows this.) Adverbs describe verbs, meaning the way an action was done.
Examples:
The class behaved badly. He played badly. She sings badly. ("Badly" is not describing the people, but rather the actions
that were performed: their behaving or playing or singing.)
HOWEVER there is an exception to this rule, and that is where all the problems arise. We use "bad," the adjective
form, when the sentence has verbs about our senses: feel, smell, taste.
Examples:
I felt bad about her grade. (Many people would incorrectly say "I felt badly," but that means you did a bad job of feeling
things, as if your fingertips didn't have good nerves in them.)
The dog smelled bad. (If you say "The dog smelled badly," that means that his nose didn't sniff things properly.)
This stew tastes bad. ("Badly" would mean that the stew had the capability to taste things on its own.)
"Myself, Yourself, Himself"
"Myself," a reflexive pronoun, shouldn't appear as a substitute for "I" or "me." Using it that way sometimes makes the speaker
seem more modest, but it is incorrect grammar.
Reflexive pronouns cannot stand alone, so it is incorrect to say this:
"Joe, Jane, and myself worked together." Reflexive pronouns such as "myself" must appear with their counterpart pronouns
or nouns, although they do not have to be placed side by side.
Examples:
Joe, Jane, and I worked together.
I myself have been late many times.
I could have kicked myself.
You should be ashamed of yourself!
You should be ashamed of yourselves! (plural)
I spoke with the President himself.
"That" or "Which"
"That" refers to people, animals, or things.
Mrs. Johnson is the woman that brought the cake.(OR Mrs. Johnson is the woman WHO brought the cake.)
There's the stray dog that ruined my garden.
What happened to the ship that sank in the harbor?
"Which" also refers to animals and to things, but never to people.
The dog which ruined my garden is a stray.
The ship which sank in the harbor was not seaworthy.
"Titles: Quotation Marks or Underlining?"
I call this Acton's Rule and it will never fail you!
*1. Any works that would take longer than 10 minutes or so to watch or read will use the L-O-N-G mark
for their titles. This means underlining, which is the same as italicizing, of course. Examples: movies, plays, TV series,
books, CD's or album titles, newspapers, comic strips, software, websites, AND artwork, aircraft, ships,and trains. (Think
of those last four as taking longer than 10 minutes to create.)
**2. Quotation Marks: Any works that would take
less than 10 minutes or so to read or watch, OR any work that is a shorter version of something lengthy, gets the "short"
marks: quotation marks. Examples: titles of TV episodes (not the series name), chapters, poems, songs, news articles, web
pages/subdivisions of websites.
***We do not use any marks for the title of the Bible or books of the
Bible or any legal documents.
ONCE MORE: Long works get a long line (underlining or italicizing), while shorter works
get the short marks (quotes).
Examples of both:
(Please note that I will use italics instead of underlining, as underlining is now considered correct only
for handwritten passages.)
The Simpsons (TV series), "Bart Gets Expelled" (episode title)
The New York Times
(newspaper), "Taxes To Be Raised" (headline)
Mariah Carey's Greatest Hits (title of CD), "Hero"(song title)
Writing
Your First Novel (book title), "Characters" (chapter title)
"Birches" (poem)
Entertainment Weekly (magazine),
"Top Ten Movies of 2006" (article)
April Acton: English(website), "Ask the Grammar Lady" (web page)
the
Mona Lisa (artwork)
the Orient Express (train), the Spirit of St. Louis (airplane)
"Who" or "Whom"
Here is an easy way to know whether to use "who" or "whom."
Who = he
Whom = him
Try substituting the word "he" or "him" for "who" or "whom."
Examples:
Who/whom is on the phone? He (not him) is on the phone. (Answer = who)
From who/whom did this letter come? From him (not "from he") (Answer = whom)
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REMEMBER THIS FAMOUS SPELLING HINT?
I before e except after
c,
Or when sounded as ay,
As in neighbor and weigh.
HERE IS THE REST OF THAT VERSE:
And except seize and seizure and also leisure,
Weird, height, and either, forfeit,
and neither.
THANKS TO A READER OUT THERE ON THE WEB FOR
SENDING ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THE EXCEPTIONS:
"Their weird foreigner seizes neither
leisure nor
pleasure from victory at its height."
Why is grammar important? (From the National Council of Teachers
of English)
Grammar is important
because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about language. Grammar names the types of words and word
groups that make up sentences not only in English but in any language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even
as children--we can all do grammar. But to be able to talk about how sentences are built, about the types of words
and word groups that make up sentences--that is knowing about grammar. And knowing about grammar offers
a window into the human mind and into our amazingly complex mental capacity.
People associate grammar with errors
and correctness. But knowing about grammar also helps us understand what makes sentences and paragraphs clear and
interesting and precise. Grammar can be part of literature discussions, when we and our students closely read the sentences
in poetry and stories. And knowing about grammar means finding out that all languages and all dialects follow grammatical
patterns.
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