Too Correct!

Brooke McEldowney is one of my favorite cartoonists, partly because he does his grammar well. I’m certain this is intentional:

I’ve written about separable verbs (e.g. to gross out, to put up with) before. In the upper right corner you can do a search on “separable” to find my other posts on the subject. He’s following the bogus rule not to end a sentence with a preposition. (See those previous posts.)

And the “whom” is correct. “Whom” is the direct object, even though it serves as an interrogative.

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The rule used to be that, for the future tense, you used “will” in the first person and “shall” for second and third person. I will jump, you shall jump, etc.

This rule went away and now we use “will” for everyone. I think it happened about the time I was in sixth grade. I remember “shall” being taught then, but heard only “will” when I got to high school.

For what it’s worth, I remember Gen. MacArthur’s “I shall return” after retreating from Corregidor in World War II being discussed as technically incorrect, and that his intent was to express emphasis.”

So here:

So is she right or wrong? Maybe okay if she wants emphasis.

Somewhat off topic: The Army style guide says to use “shall” as an imperative. Something like “You shall open the valve slowly.”

This guy gets it wrong. (You’ll find the rule after the comic.)

• When you have two choices, use the comparative, in this case, the word “better.”
• When you have more than two choices, use the superlative, which is what he does.
• When you have no choice, use the positive, in this case “good.”

Make that a habit.

Okay, I wouldn’t actually do this, but this solecism is one of my favorite hobby horses. I just wonder how he could tell in spoken English!

Get your and you’re correct!

Slightly interesting remark on the link’s web page.

“Less calories”? That can’t be right, can it? We count calories! Ah, but look at the whole sentence.

We measure sugar! The list of those two items allows us to go with the second item.

Well, technically, perhaps, he should have said “33% fewer calories and 33% less sugar,” but I don’t see that happening, except maybe in technical writing.