I am having so much fun today I can hardly stand it. It’s the 4th of July, and I am celebrating the precious freedom to spend my time as I choose.

What does freedom of choice have to do with neither-nor, a pair of correlative conjunctions? It relates to a rule of grammar I described a few days ago. Here’s an excerpt from this rule as it appears in The Chicago Manual of Style:

Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs, often to join successive clauses that depend on each other to form a complete thought. Correlative conjunctions must frame structurally identical or matching sentence parts . . . each member of the pair should immediately precede the same part of speech. Examples:

Neither Sarah nor Sam plans to attend the concert.

Either George or the twins are going to bring the sushi.

In The Copyeditor’s Handbook, author Amy Einsohn explains that while grammatical formalists “insist that a pair of singular nouns joined by neither . . . nor is singular . . . notionalists allow the pair to be treated as singular or plural, depending on the emphasis desired.” Einsohn offers the following example:

Neither the president nor the secretary was at the meeting . . .

But . . .

Neither the president nor the secretary were at the meeting.

Are you a formalist or a notionalist? The choice is yours. It may be a small matter: But small choices make up much of our lives and so determine the extent of our freedom.

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio

Today I rode into town with Marc, a friend, neighbor, and client. We didn’t use any gas or contribute to global warming, because the old Mercedes he bought for $500 runs on vegetable oil. It smells a little strange, and rattles quite a bit, but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I also enjoy the Prius that Marc and his wife Nina bought last year.

On the way to town, Marc thanked me for my edits to his new website. He designs photovoltaic energy systems, and said that he needed my help to project a professional image because he’s weak on grammar.

I was happy to help him, and happy to see that he has already incorporated some of my edits. But I’m not going to mention his url to anyone until he makes some of the other changes I recommended. Little things– like double-spacing between paragraphs–are important; even on pages filled with data and statistics, which many people probably won’t read.

For some reason, it hadn’t occurred to Marc (until I told him) that it’s not just correct grammar that reflects professionalism: It’s also the appearance of the words on the page. Web content that is grammatically accurate, well-organized, and neatly formatted assures visitors to the site that the business it represents delivers quality services or products.

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio

Neither sometimes serves as an indefinite pronoun, which the Chicago Manual of Style defines in part as follows:

An indefinite pronoun is one that generally or indefinitely represents an object . . . The most common are another, any, both, each, either, neither, none, one other, some, and such . . . Each, either, and neither are also called distribute pronouns because they separate the objects referred to from others referred to nearby.

Chicago goes on to say that as the subject of a verb, an indefinite pronoun is usually singular, and that the form of an indefinite pronoun isn’t affected by gender or person.

Here are two examples:

Neither of the men knows how to sew; for that matter, neither of the women knows how to sew, either!

Neither of the peaches is ripe.

See? Since men, women, and peaches are plural, you may think that the verbs in these examples should also be plural (men know, women know, peaches are ripe).

Think again, and look for the subject: It’s not men, women, or peaches; they have full-time jobs as objects of the preposition of.

Surprise, surprise! Neither is the subject of both sentences, acting as an indefinite pronoun.

Caution: Don’t confuse the indefinite pronoun neither with the pair of correlative conjunctions neither-nor, the topic of yesterday’s post: Neither-Nor and Subject-Verb Agreement.

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio

Over 30 years ago, I had a British boyfriend named Philip. He was sophisticated, well educated, and played classical music (beautifully) on his grand piano.

That alone would have been enough to blind me to his imperfections. But on top of all that greatness, his wife had died and he was raising their daughter Melanie on his own. In my eyes, he verged on sainthood, and I was in awe of him.

One day, Philip said something I have never forgotten:

Neither Melanie nor I watches much television.

Watches? Really? I would have put it this way:

Neither Melanie nor I watch much television.

Dead certain that Philip the Great couldn’t be wrong, I kept my preference for watch a secret, substituting alternatives such as these for neither-nor:

Melanie and I don’t watch much television.

I don’t watch much television; Melanie doesn’t, either.

I don’t watch much television and neither does Melanie.

And wouldn’t you know it? I was right all along! After all these years, I have finally learned that compound subjects joined with either-or or neither-nor take the form of the verb that goes with the subject closest to the verb. Here are a few examples:

Neither Sarah nor Sam plans to attend the concert.

Either George or the twins are going to bring the sushi.

Neither Henry nor his sons have a Prius

Neither the boys nor Henry has a Prius.

And (drumroll):

Neither I nor Melanie watches much television.

Neither Melanie nor I watch much television.

By the way, neither-nor is a pair of correlative conjunctions. Like other correlative conjunctions (as-as, if-then, either-or, both-and, where-there, so-as, and not only-but also), neither and nor used together “join successive clauses that depend on each other to form a complete thought.” (Chicago Manual of Style.)

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield

Tara’s Writing Studio

The possessive case can be confusing, especially when two nouns are doing the possessing. Fortunately, The Chicago Manual of Style sheds light on this conundrum.

Chicago says that when two nouns “possess” the same entity, only the second takes an apostrophe (’):

my aunt and uncle’s house

Gilbert and Sullivan’s lolanthe

Minneapolis and Saint Paul’s transportation system

On the other hand, when two nouns possess different entities, both possessives take an apostrophe:

my aunt’s and uncle’s specific talents

New York’s and Chicago’s transportation systems

our friends’ and neighbors’ children

Isn’t that neat?

If any writing questions have you stumped, send them in. I’ll check them out for you.

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio

The winner is Dina Roberts. You can get to know her at her blog, Let Them Eat Corn. Congratulations, Dina!

Here is the sentence that needed work:

In his office, there was a fax machine, two four-drawer file cabinets, and an old tangerine-colored iMac.

And this is how Dina fixed it:

In his office, there were a fax machine, two four-drawer file cabinets, and an old tangerine-colored Mac.

Dina changed the singular verb was to the plural verb were, because the subject is plural (fax machine, two four-drawer file cabinets, and an old tangerine-colored iMac.

When the subject follows the verb in a sentence, and it’s difficult to see what’s what, reversing the order often helps:

A fax machine, two four-drawer file cabinets, and an old tangerine-colored Mac was in his office.

Sounds funny, doesn’t it? That’s because with the subject first, it’s glaringly obvious that it’s plural and needs a plural verb.

Dina also made another change:

I changed iMac to Mac because in the Mac world, Macs are already older than iMacs.

That’s fine, but I’d leave it alone. Specificity gives writing substance and creates a visual image–in this case, the very specific visual image of an old tangerine-colored iMac.

And if the only tangerine-colored Macs are iMacs, that’s all the more reason to let iMac stand.

Cheers,
Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio

Here’s the second of the two contests I promised yesterday. This one centers on number.

Do you see the problem with the sentence below, and do you have a solution? If so, let me know. I’ll post the winner’s name and other information in this blog.

[In his office], there was a fax machine, two four-drawer file cabinets, and an old tangerine-colored iMac.

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio

To make up for not running a contest in quite awhile, I’m posting one today and another tomorrow.

If you are the first person to correct both sentences, I’ll mention your name and other information you’d like to see here in two different posts.

Here’s the first sentence. Explain what’s wrong and send in your corrected version.

How would you like to be my second eyes and ears around here, Joe?

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield

Tara’s Writing Studio

What the heck are copulative verbs?

Until last night, I didn’t have a clue. But thanks to The Copyeditor’s Handbook, by Amy Einsohn, I now know that copulative verbs are “verbs that express a state of being, rather than an action.” A few examples are be, become, feel, seem, smell, sound, taste.

Like good meditators, copulative verbs don’t just do something; they sit there and be. And because they express being rather than doing, they are unique among verbs in that they are modified by adjectives, not adverbs.

Here are some examples of modified copulative verbs, taken from The Copyeditor’s Handbook:

I am fine; he became sad; she feels bad; they felt ill; you seem happy.

This fish smells bad; the band’s new song sounds good; the souffle tastes delicious.

This next example, also from the Handbook, shows the dissonance that can result when an action verb winds up in the same sentence with copulative verbs:

Identical twins may look different, sound different, and walk differently.

See? Look and sound are copulative verbs, so they are modified by the adjective different. Then along comes walk, an action verb that requires the adverb differently. Jarring, isn’t it?

Amy’s advice:

For euphony [harmony] change the final item to “have different ways of walking.”

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield

Tara’s Writing Studio

Just thought I’d tell you about an exchange I had some years ago with a friend.

Judging by the constant commotion, especially when I was trying to sleep, rats were having a grand old time in the attic of the cottage I lived in at that time. It might have been alright, except that I was having trouble sleeping. And, there was a good chance that I may soon find rats in my bedroom or kitchen.

I finally admitted that it would be wise to call an exterminator. To do as little harm as possible, I chose one who uses traps, not poison.

After the exterminator had come and gone, a friend stopped by. I said, “The exterminator was here today.”

She replied, “Oh, really? What does he do now?”

Get it? A pun is a play on words. Think “Ex (as in former) terminator.”

Cheers,

Tara Treasurefield
Tara’s Writing Studio