One of My Rules!

rogersgeorge on July 24th, 2021

Well, rule of thumb, that is. A recommendation, really. Third panel. He stated the rule a bit more strongly than I do.

Frazz Comic Strip for November 20, 2008
https://www.gocomics.com/frazz/2008/11/20

My rule is that your writing is generally better if you can think of a good verb and dispense with the adverb. Unless your emphasis is on the adverb, maybe.

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Another Who-Whom Lesson

rogersgeorge on July 18th, 2021

Maybe it’s a subordinate clause lesson, because that’s the key here.

From the June 2021 Scientific American, page 62:

In Lisbon, Portugal, the social centers Disgraça and RDA69,
which strive to re-create community life in an otherwise highly
fragmented urban situation, reached out with free or cheap food
to whoever needed it.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/index.cfm/_api/render/file/?method=inline&fileID=5F31A1C3-AF1A-4CF0-A00D504B5F075088 (probably a paywall)

Last line. Shouldn’t that be “to whomever…”? After all, “to” is a preposition, so we should use the objective case, right? Nope.

Here’s the rule:

  • Go from the inside to the outside.

What’s inside the prepositional phrase? A noun clause! And “who” (well, “whoever”) is the subject of “needed,” so it gets the nominative case!

So there you have it. Sometimes you can say “to who.”

A Diaresis I Don’t Often See

rogersgeorge on July 16th, 2021

A diaresis is two dots above the second of a pair of vowels to show that you pronounce each vowel; it’s not a diphthong. Perhaps the most common example is in the word coöperative, or maybe naïve.

Here’s another, from the New Yorker, of course:

Last summer, a coalition of environmental groups around the country sent T.N.C. a letter asking it to reëvaluate support for promoting forestry as a “natural climate solution” and, in particular, to come out against burning trees to produce electricity—the so-called biomass energy that scientists now understand to be a major climate threat and that sociologists know to be a prime example of environmental racism.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/its-not-the-heat-its-the-humanity

Usually people use a hyphen because they don’t know how to make a diaresis. Hence, re-evaluate and co-operative. That’s okay.

Here’s a picture of the ASCII codes for the diaresis:

An Infrequently-used Punctuation Mark
Hold down the Alt key while you type the appropriate code on the numeric keypad. Then release the Alt key.

PS—I think it’s slightly funny that we don’t spell it diäresis…

Here’s the comic:

https://www.gocomics.com/humble-stumble/2021/06/20

That kid knows grammar! Elision is when you leave something out that should really be there, usually.

  • In the first panel he left off the subject, “I,” though the cartoonist doesn’t mention that elision.
  • In the second panel, he could also have said “take it along,” but she has a point, I guess.
  • In the last panel, I agree with her strongly. Should be “to be toasted.”

Examples Illustrating Conciseness

rogersgeorge on July 6th, 2021

Or concision if you want to be fancy. I got this from a Facebook post, so no useful credit.

May be an image of text

Rules of thumb:

  • if you can leave out a word without changing the meaning, leave it out.
  • If you think of a shorter way to say something, say it that way.

PS—the picture disappeared from Facebook. Sorry. You can find another post on this subject dated August 4, 2021.