The Danger of an Elipsis
An elipsis is when you deliberately leave out part of a sentence because you figure the missing part is easy to figure out. That’s the danger. Panel 2:
He should have said “what part of California” but you knew that.
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The Difference Between Nominative and Objective
English Doesn’t have case the way many other languages do. We don’t name dative case and accusative case, we just say “objective case.” We also don’t say “nominative case” (but that’s changing). I remember my teacher calling it the “subjective” case because the word was the subject of the sentence. Just the same, we do […]
The Difference Between a Predicate Nominative and Predicate Adjective
Linking verbs (mainly forms of “to be”) are tricky because they don’t take direct objects. They take predicate nominatives. Think of linking verbs as equivalent to an equals sign. The nouns on both siides of the linking verb are the same in some sense, so they both get the nominative. Predicate adjectives are tricky because […]
Another Subjunctive-Indicative Lesson
Maybe I should have posted this one before the previous post. but the lesson is the same. Should be “If Lassie were a cat.” (“Into” instead of “in” is another lesson.) Both this and the previous post owe credit to Comic Strip of the Day.
Use the Subjunctive With “If”
“If” implies a situation we call “contrary to fact.” Speculation regarding situations contrary to fact requires that the caption read “I wish I were rich.” Otherwise, it’s plain old past tense, as the fortune teller knows.
