Yet Another Correct “Whom”
Normally I tend to avoid political stuff, concentrating on grammar and writing instead. My interest here is no exception. I like to point out any time someone uses “whom” correctly, politics or not. It’s in the third panel:
“Whom” is the object of the separable verb “vote for” even though “whom” comes first. And objects take the objective case!
This sentence has an interesting ambiguity, by the way. The verb in question is an infinitive (to vote for) and the subject of an infinitive takes the objective case in English; hence, that “whom” here could be considered the subject of the verb!
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How to Tell a Noun from a Verb
Nouns are one word, verbs are two words. —What???
Here’s what I mean. It’s part of a headline to an info security article.
Breaches don’t actually happen at the speed of light: Security firm CrowdStrike has determined that the average time to breakout is less than two hours.
What’s “breakout”? Here’s a definition, using “breakout” as an adjective (okay, a noun used attributively, but that’s another lesson):
The breakout time is the time that it takes for an attacker to escape the initial beachhead machine that they were able to compromise.
Here the word is a verb:
How long does it take to break out of the system?
Seeing that article reminded me that the habit of making nouns out of separable verbs is common in English. A common example of getting this wrong is misusing the words “login” and “log in.”:
Verb: Enter your password to log in. (NOT Enter your password to login.)
Noun: Your login succeeded.
Here’s another:
Turnover in low-paying jobs tends to be high.
How often do you turn over in bed?
So remember, if you’re doing something, use two words.
Yes, English has other ways of relating verbs and nouns, but I’ll save that for later.
An Error I Mentioned Before
I mentioned this error before, so here’s a grim reminder not to make it. Perry Bible Fellowship is a rather grim comic anyway, even if it is funny to those of us with a grim mind set.
The error is made by both the students and the, um, professor, and the error is promulgated by lots of stuffy English teachers, so it’s fairly common.
That “preposition” at the end of the sentence isn’t a preposition. It’s an adverb! It’s part of a separable verb, of which English has many. (Or I might say, “…which English has many of.”)
Those words, which can also be used as prepositions in other contexts, are perfectly correct at the end of a sentence when they’re part of the verb. It brings to mind the apocryphal Winston Churchill quote, said when someone correct his English, “Impertinence, young man, is something up with which I will not put.”
Watch your Place!
This kind of mistake is mainly a result of carelessness, I think. Some words refer to points in space, not general areas. These include “center,” and “base.” Here are two examples of doing it wrong. They both treat these points as vague areas that you hang around the edges of.
Usenet’s creation was based around the idea that computers were becoming sophisticated enough that they could be used to hold conversations, and there was plenty of conversation going on.
Beverly Hills, 90210 originally centered around Brenda (Shannen Dougherty) and Brandon Walsh (Priestley), middle-class high-school-age twins from Minnesota who relocate to ritzy Beverly Hills with their parents.
Your base is a single place—you’re based on something. (Don’t say “based out of,” either.) Same for “center.” You should be centered on something.
These examples of muddy thinking are not a good thing when you explain something. You need to be precise. Maybe you can get away with it when you do a grocery list. That food is around here somewhere…
PS—After I finished this post, I ran into a good example of “based out of,” which I repeat, you shouldn’t write. Use
based in” or “based at.”
The Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group, based out of Tufts University is leading the charge to build a consensus on how math can make better districtings.
It’s a graphic article, but it’s worthwhile. Find the article here.
In, Into, and Even In To
German has in, but nothing exactly equivalent to into. The reason is that German uses case to indicate motion or lack of motion. In with the dative case means the same as English in; in with the accusative means into, because the accusative (among other things) implies motion.
Okay, in English and German, here’s a simple example:
I climbed into the car; ich steig in das Auto.
I did it in the car; ich habe es in dem Auto getan.
However, you can also use in and to next to each other as two separate words, and your spell checker is even likely to get this wrong! It’s when you use a separable verb (aka phrasal verb) followed by a prepositional phrase or infinitive. Here are some example separable verbs with in: give in, put in, break in, chip in, fill in.
An example of getting it wrong, from a passage at history.com about Son of Sam:
On Christmas Eve, 1975, he gave into these internal voices and severely wounded 15-year-old Michelle Forman with a hunting knife.
And getting it right:
I chipped in to help the cause.
I shouldn’t break in to their conversation.
So be careful: this is easy to get wrong.
