Another Dieresis

I wrote about this little-used punctuation back in October, so click the link to see the lesson. Today you just get an example of correct usage. It’s from 1955, so it fits the pattern of the dieresis being an old usage. Middle panel. 

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A lightweight post today (after all, I mention this feature of English grammar rather often). Actually it’s whomever. But it’s correct!

You could even say the “whomever” is correct for two reasons:

1. The noun clause “whomever she wants” is the direct object of the main verb, “can date.”
2. “Whomever” itself is the direct object of the noun clause’s verb, “wants.”

The second reason is the real reason, by the way.

Why is the second reason the real one? The rule is this: you go from the inside out. Rule 2 describes what’s going on inside the clause, which is inside the sentence. 

Here’s a sentence with similar construction that uses “who” to begin a noun clause that’s a direct object, and it’s correct:

Detailed new risk maps show who should really flee a threatening storm.

Scientific American Oct 2018, page 1

“Who” is the subject of the verb “should flee,” inside the noun clause. The noun clause is the direct object of “show.”

Is “bacteria” singular or plural? Well, it’s plural. The singular is “bacterium.” But here’s an example of using the singular to refer to a whole bunch of the little critters. Twice:

A bacterium named Moorella thermoacetica won’t work for free. But UC Berkeley researchers have figured out it has an appetite for gold. And in exchange for this special treat, the bacterium has revealed a more efficient path to producing solar fuels through artificial photosynthesis.

The writer isn’t referring to a single bacterial cell, but the whole species. 

We do this a lot in American English, refer to a collective noun in the singular. We say “the team is,” for example.

People sometimes use “as” when they mean “because.” Well, don’t. Use “because.”

“As” means something like “at the same time as,” and here’s an example of how “as” should be used:

Now the company has removed a link from its download site, and updated a support page to say “We have paused the rollout of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809) for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating.”

This is The trade rag Engadget quoting Microsoft. Guess Microsoft got something right, eh?

We think of “much” as a measure of part of a group of things, so it has a plural feel to it, but it’s a singular! (The equivalent plural is “many.”) So we ask, “How much is enough?” But take a look at this sentence, taken from Bruce Schneier’s book on cyber security, Click Here to Kill Everybody, page 147.

So much of Internet+ hardware, software, protocols, and systems overlaps between wildly different applications.

Shouldn’t that be “overlap”? Nope. Look closely. That list of things, two of which are plurals, is the object of “of.” The subject of the sentence is “much”! My compliments to Bruce for getting this sentence right; it would be an easy sentence to get wrong.