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Are double negatives okay? Yes!
Posted by words on Saturday, October 20 @ 01:05:16 EDT (565 reads)
Topic English Grammar
|  I'm going to go out on a limb here and contradict most of the books ever written on the subject of grammar. (Who said I wasn't brave?) Traditional advice has always been not to use double negatives. For example, sentences such as these are traditionally frowned on: I didn't do nothing!
Don't give me no lip!
There ain't no such thing.
Detractors will argue that such sentences involve a contradiction of the intended meaning. In the first sentence, if the speaker didn't do nothing then he or she must have done something. In the second sentence, the speaker seems to be asking to be given some lip and, in the third sentence, the speaker is arguing that there is such a thing.
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What’s in a Name:
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 01:14:15 EDT (516 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Juliet’s Question Revisited
During the American Translators Association's Spanish Division Conference in San Anwordso earlier this year, I was browsing through my favorite bookseller's offerings when he took my arm and quietly led me to a 225-page book by Virgilio Moya entitled La traducción de los nombres propios1 (The Translation of Proper Names). He sat me in a chair and then went about his business, catching my eye every now and then to throw me a crooked smile. A friend wandered by and glanced over my shoulder. "Vero," he said, "you're not going to buy a book that should never have been written, are you?" He was referring, of course, to one of translation's coziest fortresses: 'Proper names are not translated; not ever.' "This book must be nonsense," he added. And in one sense, he was right: Moya's siege engine gave the fortress a tilt, and then its portcullis buckled and its mighty ramparts tumbled down into the sea.
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Does Juliet's Rose, by Any Other Name, Smell as Sweet?
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 01:12:04 EDT (584 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| What is going on with Merriam-Webster, Mom?” 1 My daughter was boiling mad and in the middle of writing a restaurant review when she phoned me from New York. "Why on Earth," Andrea asked, "does Merriam-Webster not cap 'french fries' when it caps French beans, French bread, French pastry, and French toast? Is it that 'french fries'—alone amongst its French culinary brethren—has become a common noun much like 'frankfurters,' 'hamburgers,' and 'wiener schnitzels'?" Andrea's rationale sounded plausible, so I said that I would explore it and call her back with an answer.
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Comparative structures in English
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 01:07:15 EDT (455 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| A review of comparative and superlative forms in English, and ways of expressing degree of comparison. Depending on the person's own language, comparative structures do not generally pose too many problems for non-native English speakers. This is because the structures are often similar, with equivalents (in Dutch and French for example) for the English forms "more than", "-er than", and "as... as", by way of example.
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Stuck for words? A rough guide to Conversational Fillers
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 01:05:46 EDT (412 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| One of the grammar/vocabulary areas that causes most problems for students of English is phrasal verbs, and not surprisingly. Although discussed in previous columns, this difficult area (where the expression "you've just got to learn them" applies) is worthy of further attention. This time we turn the spotlight on phrasal verbs with the same base verb - "get".
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Understanding headlines
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:15:42 EDT (389 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Many non-native English speakers wishing to practise their English comprehension will at some point pick up an English newspaper and read a few articles. Here are one or two pointers if you, too, decide to do this. Journalistic English has a style all of its own, and this is most evident in headlines. The body text of an article should simply describe an event or occurrence, giving the details in a clear, well-ordered, easy-to-understand way, yet using such typical "journalese" expressions as, for example, the passive structures "is known to..." (for a definite fact), and "is thought to..." or "is believed to..." to express what people think. For example: "The fire is thought to have started in the kitchen and then spread throughout the building".
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Conversation Starters: The Correct Way to Use ''Since''
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:14:21 EDT (416 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Have you ever heard the expression "to make small talk"? Small talk is the kind of light social conversation people use to get to know each other. Like talking about the weather, it is meant to put people at ease. How good are you at starting up a conversation? At such moments, the last thing you need is to be unsure of your English. So there you are, faced with a complete stranger. You are racking your brains for something to say and your knowledge of English which is normally so fluent, goes right out the window. In a first conversation, you may want to ask how long someone has been in the country. This is a good way to "break the ice" or "get the ball rolling". So how would you phrase that in English?
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Also, As Well and Too: Three Ways to Say More
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:12:44 EDT (453 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| There is an expression in English, "Less is more", which means that brevity is sometimes the most meaningful style of expression. However, in the professional world, we often need to communicate a lot of information at once without losing the reader's attention. Finding the right way to link ideas and phrases is a crucial factor in organising what you want to say. This article will focus on the use of also, as well and too, some little words which go a long way. You are not going to find a chapter in your grammar book devoted to also, but this short word is worth studying for a moment. Also is deceptive because it seems so easy to translate it directly into other languages (aussi in French, ook in Dutch, etc.), but where would you place also in a sentence? Normally, it comes before the verb, as in "She also speaks French," or the verb may be implied, as in "She speaks French and also (speaks) Dutch." Placing also at the end of the sentence, though not absolutely incorrect, sounds unnatural.
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''Ise'' or ''Ize''?
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:10:24 EDT (385 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Freedom of choice can be a terrible responsibility. Faced with two acceptable alternative spellings in English, how do you make up your mind? Do you work for an organisation or an organization? Last year, did your company realise profits or realize them? Is it simply a matter of choosing between "British" English and "American" English? This article should help you the next time you find yourself agonising or agonizing over this question. People who are trying to master English as a foreign language may find inconsistencies in the spelling rules to be one of the most troublesome aspects. In the case of the suffix "ise" or "ize", you have probably learned that this is one of those quaint distinctions between British and American style. Tony Blair is surely scandalised by Clinton's notorious womanizing and Cherie can probably sympathise with Hilary for feeling traumatized by it.
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Place Names in English
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:08:53 EDT (376 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| The names of cities or places may have a different spelling in English than in other languages. This article will present some examples which can cause confusion. I remember going to the library one time in preparation for a ski trip, looking for travel guides about the Swiss canton of Valais. Much to my dismay, there was hardly anything about Valais, all the books seemed to be about some place called Wallis! Later, of course, it dawned on me that Valais and Wallis were the French and German names for one and the same place.
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Spelling Dilemmas
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:07:26 EDT (335 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| The English language is notorious for its inconsistent and irregular spelling. However, there are some minor rules which can guide you. In this article we will take a look at a few trouble spots in English spelling. Thanks to the modern technology of the spelling check function on your computer, you may not need to worry too much about the orthographic fine points of any language. However, the English language often confronts writers with choices, dilemmas even. Words that sound the same may be spelled differently. Is that word spelled with a single or a double letter? Is it this vowel or that one? There are certain areas of difficulty which cause even native speakers to stop and reach for the dictionary.
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Comma Controversies
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:04:45 EDT (376 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Commas are like the salt we sprinkle throughout our writing adding clarity and the rhythms of speech. We could hardly live without them, and yet, tastes differ. Are there rules? The purpose of the comma is to prevent confusion for readers. Take for example the sentence "When everybody was ready to eat, the cat jumped on the table." Without the comma , it conjures up the fleeting image of a very sorry end for kitty. Good thing for the comma! Not only can it function as the secret weapon of animal rights activists, but it also makes reading more comfortable. In this article we will take a brief look at some other places to add that refreshing pause, the comma.
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Unsolved mysteries: Web site or website?
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:01:56 EDT (351 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| The Internet is here to stay. There is no doubt about that. Many people see the Internet as a final frontier, where anything goes. This is certainly vividly expressed by the fact that consistent linguistic rules for the related vocabulary have yet to be established. If last century's slogan was "Go West, young man" then the modern equivalent must surely be "Go Web". Not only are the world's stock markets soaring with shares in the latest cyber-companies, but you can hardly find a print advertisement anymore that does not refer you to the advertiser's site for further information. However, scan the world's English-language press and you will discover every possible variation of the term Web site, often side by side on the same page.
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Transparent words or Faux-amis?
Posted by words on Saturday, October 13 @ 00:00:56 EDT (600 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| No language possesses 100% of its words that are free from any foreign influence. The English language is no exception to the rule and contains many words borrowed from many different languages worldwide. Today, English is pointed out as the main language on which new words are based (especially in scientific research and Information Technology). This can appear as a great advantage, especially for non-native English speakers who have to deal with the English language at work. Indeed, this makes it easier for them to understand new words because they can guess the English meaning by finding the equivalent which is similar to their own language.
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Hyphenation - some helpful hints
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:59:58 EDT (372 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Something I have noticed whilst proof-reading translations sent by freelance partners over the last months has been the 'grey area' that sometimes crops up surrounding hyphenation in English. Hyphens (not the same as the dash) join two or three words together into a 'compound'. Guidelines on hyphenation can often be found in the dictionary, but not always, and many words lose their hyphens with time. Overuse of hyphens becomes ridiculous, but where they are omitted this can leave meaning ambiguous or may cause your text to strike a native speaker as having "something missing". In this article we will try to provide some rough guidelines for use. Let us deal firstly with those cases in which rules exist or hyphens are required for reasons of meaning:
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'-ic' and '-al'
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:58:36 EDT (324 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Spelling mistakes, as we know, are all too common in written English, a language with few rules and abundant oddities. Even native speakers often fall into the trap of mixing their '-ics' with their '-als'. But you don't want to be misunderstood. This essential guide highlights the most common areas of confusion. There are four, or rather eight, very commonly used words which often get in a muddle. Retain these and you are on the road to crystal clarity...
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What's in a Name?
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:57:31 EDT (389 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Names of places Often, the names of places in other countries remain the same in our own language or are recognisable beyond doubt (Londen/Londres = London). Nevertheless, we can still be caught out by the translations of place names and other such phenomena in texts written in other languages, or be unsure as to how to render them correctly when writing ourselves in a foreign language. The aforementioned problem is accentuated in a country like Belgium where there are already three official languages at play! Although many outsiders are unaware of the full details of the political structures in Belgium, this is how we talk about you in English:
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You say eeither, and I say eiither
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:56:02 EDT (352 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| That age-old dispute about the pronunciation of the words 'either' and 'neither' as battled out in the famous song would perhaps be best left alone given that, at the end of the day, both are correct and it is merely a matter of regional accent. However, it is not always so easy to determine the usage of these two words together with their trusty friends or and nor... A first pointer to retain is that the phrase 'either of' always refers to one or other of two things and should therefore never be used with more than two. For example, you should say (or write):
"I haven't read either of the two reports"
but
"I haven't read any of the three reports".
Also, when using 'either of' followed by a verb, again as it refers to one of two things, the verb should always be in the singular, e.g.:
"Either of the two reports is suitable."
These same rules apply when writing (or saying!) 'neither of'.
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Double trouble
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:54:56 EDT (351 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Spelling, here it comes around again. English is just one of those languages (not unlike French), where the spelling often has very little to do with the actual pronunciation of the word and where the few concrete rules that exist can be difficult to spot. This short article tackles one of the trickiest issues: double letters.
When I say double letters, I don't mean the -tt- in butter, or the -pp- in appear, rather rules governing when the consonants at the end of words should be doubled before endings beginning with vowels, such as in begin - beginning as we have just seen. The most commonly found vowel endings are -able, -ed, -en, -er, -est, -ible, -ing, -ous.
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The apostrophe
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:53:42 EDT (370 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| character used in the English language.
The apostrophe is often a misunderstood little fellow. Contrary to popular opinion, he is not there just to make our lives difficult; rather to serve two crucial functions. The first of these is discussed below. The second will be the subject of our next article. Possession
The first function served by the apostrophe is the subject of widespread confusion even amongst native speakers. And yet, there are quite clearly defined rules governing its use. Learn these and you can't go wrong.
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Slipping into a comma! Again????
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:50:50 EDT (364 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| There have been previous articles on the subject, but it seems to me certain items cannot be stressed enough... Comma (,) Some people seem to think sprinkling commas every few words is a good rule, but it makes for difficult reading. Here are a few places where commas should be avoided:
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On Capitalisation
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:49:21 EDT (339 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| The modern trend is to reduce the use of capitalisation. Proper nouns must begin with a capital letter, but many associated words may be written in lowercase without any loss of meaning. The important thing is to maintain consistency throughout a document.
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Currency Units
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:48:10 EDT (394 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| This article provides the appropriate English usage for the euro and the other currency units of the world, particularly appropriate now that Europe is about to switch over to the single currency. There seems to be a tendency in Belgium for non-native English speakers to use a variety of ways to spell out currency amounts. Well, here are the rules as far as English is concerned.
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Words that are often confused (a lesson)
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:46:29 EDT (397 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| There are many pairs of words in English that are frequently confused with each other because they are similar in appearance or in meaning. Your incorrect use of these words makes a glaring statement about you to well-educated people - that if you are sloppy or inaccurate in using language, how dependable will you be in other areas? Here is your chance to fix some of those errors.
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Numbers
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:42:25 EDT (343 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| After the summer holidays, I thought it appropriate to take a dive into figures right away and below you will find the answer to a number of issues people have brought to my attention over the months. When to Spell Out
In text material, cardinal numbers from zero through ten (some say twelve, this being a question of house style), should be expressed in words and those above ten in figures, unless the number begins a sentence (all numbers should be spelled out when they begin a sentence) or unless they are listed below under Always in figures.
Examples:
Approximately ten people were in the auditorium.
Enrolment in the graduate programme increased by 52 students.
Fifty-two people were in the auditorium.
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How to use ''might''
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:41:09 EDT (348 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| After reading the recent article on the modal verb may, you may (!) be wondering how and when to use the associated word might. 1. Expressing a possibility May and might both express the idea of possibility: We may call a meeting next week; We might call a meeting next week. The two forms are basically interchangeable, although the less likely the possibility, the more appropriate it is to use might: We might call a meeting next week, although the chairman won't be available.
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How to use the verb ''may''
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:39:13 EDT (396 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Many people find the verbs “can”, “may”, “shall”, “will”, and “must” confusing, and are often unsure which to choose (may or can? shall or will?). In an earlier article we looked at the differences between shall and will. In this article we will be focusing on the verb may. May has two common functions – to ask (and grant) permission, and to express possibility.
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Double Negatives
Posted by words on Friday, October 12 @ 23:36:01 EDT (361 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| It is an established rule of English grammar that two negatives cancel each other out. In other words, the proper meaning of "he did not do nothing" is "he did something". As with all rules, there are exceptions. It is accepted that in some cases negatives can be multiplied to give added emphasis. However examples of this are few and far between, and are mainly found in literary texts, which perhaps explains why the two main authorities on English grammar, Sir Ernest Gowers ( The Complete Plain Words) and H.W. Fowler ( A Dictionary of Modern English Usage) both use the same quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet to illustrate this.
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Confusion between To Lay and To Lie
Posted by words on Thursday, October 11 @ 05:50:25 EDT (406 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| Following on from our previous article, today we will be considering two more verbs that are frequently confused: to lay and to lie. The Concise Oxford Dictionary gives no less than 16 different usages of the first verb:
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Common mistakes in using one word for another
Posted by words on Thursday, October 11 @ 05:11:01 EDT (386 reads)
Topic English Grammar
| when they are similar in spelling but different in meaning
When editing, or simply reading, business documents drafted in English I have noted that certain pairs of words that are pronounced or spelt similarly are frequently confused –even at times by native English writers! Some of the most common mistakes are discussed below.
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