Something I Promise not to Do

First panel. People who do this are sometimes called “grammar nazis.”

(I’m sorry, but Comics Kingdom links are bad) The comic is down a ways in this Comic Strip of the Day post: https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2024/07/06/csotd-the-lion-always-gets-his-share/

And actually, in this case he’s defending a spurious rule. That “to” is an adverb at the end of the sentence, part of a separable verb. It’s not a preposition, even though it looks like one.

I’ll save the lesson in the next-to-last panel for another day.

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

At least I think this is unusual. Normally you can put the separable verb’s adverb right after the main verb or at the end of the sentence, and you get basically the same meaning. But here’s an example of doing that, and getting the opposite meaning!

Can you think of any similar examples?

Well, maybe I should say a poor sentence. Last sentence in the comic. How would you make it better?

Okay, in my opinion, “from the agent” goes with “hiding,” so that’s where the phrase should go: “hiding from the agent in that cardboard box.” But wait! that implies that the agent was in the cardboard box!

Hmm. Both phrases could be interpreted to go with “hiding.” How would you rewrite the sentence?

“Seek out” is a separable verb—no hyphen!

“Half-dollar store” is okay. “Half” is an adjective and “dollar” is a noun.

Separable verbs don’t need hyphens.

She got the verb wrong. Should be “seek out.”

The compound adjective is good, though: “half-dollar.”

End of lesson.