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Fowler’s Modern English Usage

October 29, 2009 by Roy Johnson

reprint of the classic first edition

Fowler’s Modern English Usage was first published in 1926. It was an immediate commercial success, selling 60,000 copies in its first year, and it went on to become the most influential set of guidelines on grammar and the use of the English language of the twentieth century. There were later versions revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965 and Robert Burchfield in 1996, but this is a facsimile of Henry Fowler’s original first edition, with an introduction by the linguist David Crystal that sets it in context.

It’s reproduced photographically from the original – so the entries are arranged in two columns on the page, which was the style for books of this kind at the time. This presentation strikes me as doubly appropriate, because it captures the old-fashioned nature of the original, and it accurately reflects the slightly pedantic tone of the contents. Fowler is not unlike his great lexicological predecessor Samuel Johnson in issuing his judgements wrapped around with ironic asides, which makes for interesting reading.

David Crystal’s introductory essay explains how the book came to be published, and how Fowler was an important transition figure between the old, traditional proscriptive grammarians and the new more tolerant descriptive schools which were to follow.

Strangely enough, Fowler, whose name has become a metonym for his Dictionary, is often used by prescriptivists as an authority to support their arguments – when the fact is that his work as a whole reflects a flexible, subtle, and relativist attitude to language and the way it is used.

Fowler deals with all the classic problems in English language, such as the which/that dilemma, the split infinitive, and ending sentences with a preposition. He covers issues that are difficult even for native speakers of English (such as the who/whom issue).

The central problem is the question of usage. If enough people say different from does that make it right? Fowler was working in the days before any giant collections of real data were being used as a source of evidence to support linguistic claims. And he was using printed sources, not spoken, which today are regarded as primary.

However, it’s difficult to predict if he is going to be prescriptive or relativist on any single topic. Crystal points out that there are plenty of inconsistencies within the Dictionary. On some issues Fowler accepts widespread common usage; at others he asserts that something is right or wrong based on nothing more than his own opinion.

It should be said that the Dictionary is not merely a listing of words and their definitions, as in the normal sense of the term. It’s a compendium of how terms are used grammatically, the problems they pose, and the cultural baggage that surrounds them. A typical entry which captures both his stern sense of what is right and his ironic attitude in trying to correct it is as follows:

aggravate, aggravation. 1. The use of these in the sense of annoy, vex, annoyance, vexation, should be left to the uneducated. It is for the most part a feminine or childish colloquialism, but obtrudes occasionally into the newspapers. To aggravate has properly only one meaning—to make (an evil) worse or more serious. The right & the wrong use are shown in: (right) A premature initiative would be calculated rather to a. than to simplify the situation; (wrong) The reopening of the contest by fresh measures that would a. their opponents is the last thing that is desired in Ministerial circles. It is in the participle (and a very stupid, tiresome, aggravating man he is) that the vulgarism is commonest.

You can probably find copies of the first edition Fowler in the few remaining second hand bookshops – but it’s nice to have this reprint to put it back into general circulation again.

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David Crystal (ed) Fowler’s Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp.784, ISBN: 0199535345

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Full stops – how to use them

September 6, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Full stops – definition

Full stops are punctuation marks indicating a strong pause.

Full stops are used most commonly at the end of complete sentences – like this one.

Examples

This is a short sentence. This is another.
It happened suddenly in 1996.
There are two reasons for this (in my opinion).

Use

The full stop is the strongest mark of punctuation. It is sometimes called the ‘period’.

The stop is also used following many abbreviations.

NB! A full stop is not necessary if the sentence ends with a question or an exclamation mark. Got that?

Full stops are commonly placed after abbreviations:

ibid. – No. 1 – ff. – e.g. – etc.

The stop is normally placed inside quotation marks but outside brackets:

“What joy we had that particular day.”

Profits declined (despite increased sales).

However, if the quotation is part of another statement, the full stop goes outside the quote marks:

Mrs Higginbottam whispered “They’re coming”.

If the parenthesis is a complete sentence, the full stop stays inside the brackets:

There was an earthquake in Osaka. (Another had occurred in Tokyo the year previously.)

No full stop is required if a sentence ends with a question mark or an exclamation, or a title or abbreviation which contains its own punctuation:

Is this question really necessary?
What a mess!
He is the editor of Which?
She gave her address as ‘The Manor, Wilts.’

Full stops are not required after titles, headings, or sub-headings:

The Turn of the Screw
Industrial Policy Report
Introduction

The stop is not necessary following common titles which are shortened forms of a word (technically, ‘contractions’):

Dr – [Doctor]
Mr – [Mister]
St – [Street]
Mme – [Madame]

Full stops are not necessary after the capital letters used as abbreviations for titles of organisations and countries:

NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
BBC – British Broadcasting Corporation
UNO – United Nations Organisation
USA – United States of America

They are not used where the initials of a standard work of reference are used as an abbreviated title:

OED – Oxford English Dictionary
DNB – Dictionary of National Biography
PMLA – Papers of the Modern Languages Association

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Function – how to understand it

September 6, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Function – definition

Function is the term used to express the purpose of a text or of a speech act.

This function can be determined by the writer or by the reader.

Examples

Texts or spoken pieces might fall into one of the following broad categories:

WRITING

persuasion an advertisement

information a train timetable

entertainment a short story

instruction how to build a wardrobe

SPEECH

persuasion a sermon

information a radio weather forcast

entertainment a joke

instruction how to get from A to B

Use

The term ‘function’ is used as a technical term in linguistics and in literary criticism.

An awareness of function helps to produce efficient writing and speaking.

An awareness of function also results in efficient reading and listening.

NB! Function is one of the three important features of communication. The other two are audience and form.

The four general functions possess certain stylistic features or attributes:

Instruction the imperative mode and direct address
[Stir the mixture]

Persuasion emotive vocabulary
[beautiful, duty, militant, heart]

Information factual data
[time, locations, measurements]

Entertainment often breaks rules of grammar, spelling, pronunciation

Awareness of these in the production of speech or writing leads to effective communication and an appropriate style.

For instance, if we buy a product such as a chicken casserole from a supermarket we may be more interested in what’s in it than how to cook it. We may be interested in both these elements, but we certainly wouldn’t want them mixed together.

Food manufacturers for this reason present the list of ingredients [information] separately from how to prepare the dish [instructions]. This simple example shows the concept of function working efficiently.

If we receive a phone call from a close relative who comes to visit more often than we would like, we immediately try to ascertain the purpose [function] of the call. Is it –

an attempt to fix up the next visit? [persuade]
to tell us the possible dates? [inform]
to explain how their vegetables should be cooked? [instruct]
to tell us that the cat has learned to swim? [entertain]

In this example, the person who phones to arrange the visit may have every interest in obscuring the function of the call. As a recipient however, we are very interested in finding out what it is. Such is the crucial nature of function.

The National Curriculum for the teaching of English in Schools now states the importance of making children aware of the function of all the varied pieces they read and write.

Examining boards for A level English will only accept written work which has an authentic function. That is, it should be as close as possible to an example which could be used in real life.

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Gallimaufry

July 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a hodgepodge of our vanishing vocabulary

Michael Quinion is a word nerd. He’s an expert on obscure terms, word etymologies, and the origins of strange expressions. His last book Port Out, Starboard Home discusses myths and false explanations for the meanings of well known sayings, and he runs an excellent compilation of lexical back-history at World Wide Words. Gallimaufry is his latest collection of notes on ‘disappearing language’ – terms that are vanishing from common usage for a variety of reasons.

Some go because the object they describe no longer exists (liberty-bodice and sixpence) and some are meanings that disappear because the word is now used to describe something quite different (chaperone was in medieval times a sort of cap.) Mercifully, he splits up his offerings into themed chapters – on food and drink, health and medicine, entertainment and leisure, transport and fashion, then family names and communication.

In explaining the meaning of terms such as lamprey-pie, hog’s pudding, and flummery, he takes you into the realms of medieval cooking practices, the relationship of Latin and French to English linguistic development, and the eating habits of kings and commoners as they struggled to add nutrition and flavour to their diet of boiled wheats and gruel.

In no time this leads in its turn to the worlds of medicine, naval history, and eighteenth century nutrition. It’s unlikely that anybody will need to bring many of these terms back into general circulation, but it’s interesting to realise that spalling-poppy, biting assmart, and alexipharmic contain lexical elements which are still alive and well today, even though we have stopped using the herbal remedies to which they refer.

These are not just terms that have disappeared, but also the remote origins of terms which we still use today. For instance, you would never guess that the term slush fund originated in the mass of semi-liquid fat that floated on the top of boiling up unappetising salt pork on board a ship.

This all passes later into a form of social history when Quinion describes the forms of long-forgotten dances such as the cotillion, the quadrille, and the galliard. He then goes on to explain the distinctions between various nineteenth-century vehicles such as the landau, the barouche, the cabriolet, and the handsome.

It’s a gold mine for people who enjoy both arcane knowledge and the strange linguistic depths of the everyday world. For instance, he discusses old forms of measurement (of the rod, perch, and pole variety) and points out that ell, the old way to measure woollen cloth, gets its length (22-23 inches) as well as its name from the fact that this is the approximate distance from the shoulder to the wrist. The Old English term for the arm is ell, which is why in its turn the place where it bends is called the elbow.

Quinion is certainly a scholar. He gives meticulously drawn sources for his definitions and admits doubt or complete ignorance when supporting evidence is not available. He finishes with a selection of terms which are probably on their way out because of technological change: blotting paper, usherette, gramophone, and bus conductor will probably never be required again, even though they are probably still in the active vocabulary of older people today.

OK – you are either interested in old and possibly obscure words or you’re not. This is a cornucopia for those of us who are not ashamed to be counted amongst the lexical anoraks.

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Michael Quinion, Gallimaufry, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp.288, ISBN: 0199551022

Grammar – how to understand it

September 6, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Grammar – definition

The term ‘grammar’ refers to the structure of language.

This can be applied to a whole language or to any smaller unit of that language.

Grammatical study is often a systematic account of the rules of sentence structure, syntax, and semantics.

Examples

The study of grammar in any language focuses on:

tense concerning time sequence

person reference to people or things

syntax how parts relate to each other

A grammatical study of the following brief statement focuses on the same issues:

The cats drank the milk

The cats Subject – third person plural

drank Verb – past tense

the milk Object – third person singular

Notice that the statement follows normal English syntax (word-order)

Subject — Verb — Object

Use

An awareness of grammar or the structure of language can result in more efficient writing and speaking.

An understanding of the mechanics or workings of language is far more useful and more easily acquired than memorising technical terms.

You can understand the mechanics of language by studying utterances and their:

audience — form — function

The study of grammar in any language focuses on:

tense John ran up the stairs
[past tense of the verb]

person Joanna approached him
[third person singular]

syntax The dog bit the man
[subject – verb – object]

NB! Most people are not conscious of grammatical rules — but they use them quite naturally when speaking.

It is useful to be able to distinguish between the more grammatical items in a statement and those which have a mainly lexical function.

The grammatical items are the working parts of the statement, whilst the lexical items carry content or meaning.

There is no absolute distinction between grammatical and lexical items. However, it is possible to think of a continuum, with lexis at one end and grammar at the other.

For instance, the items in in the following statement can be seen as lexical, grammatical, and a combination of both:

‘Dorothy likes to come to our house every Tuesday and have tea with us.’

lexical Dorothy, house, Tuesday, tea

grammatical to, and, with

The terms ‘our’, ‘every’, and ‘have’ are between these two categories because they perform both a lexical and a grammatical function.

The study of English grammar study has developed over hundreds of years. The objective has generally been to find a set of rules which accurately and comprehensively define, describe, and explain the workings of the language.

In the past, grammar study was very prescriptive. Rules were laid down as to how English must be used. Many of these prescriptive rules were based on the rules of the Latin language which historically had strong religious and cultural ties with English.

Latin was regarded as the perfect language and as such was used as a model for English. However, it was a blueprint which didn’t fit, and the struggle to make it fit has left us with such prescriptive rules as ‘Never end a sentence with a preposition’.

In the past, the study of grammar was thought to be a series of rules and regulations:

Rules for writing good English
Learning to analyse sentences grammatically

The most significant development this century has been the move towards a descriptive and functional approach to understanding of the workings of English. That is to say, the emphasis currently is on observing how the language is actually operating in practice. Changes are charted and variations noted, with a neutral attitude.

A language is best seen as a living organism which is constantly in the process of evolution. The nature of its changes reflect and affect its users. As Latin has been a dead language for hundreds of years, its imposition on English is at best interesting and at worst ludicrous.

Every language has a basic structure. This is composed of its essential grammatical features, which are its working parts. It also has more superficial features such as its vocabulary, which changes and develops in accordance with cultural and social phenomena.

A good example of this can be seen in the recently acquired technological terms associated with the advent of the computer. The terms ‘hard disk’, ‘floppy drive’, ‘Web site’, ‘Internet’, ‘mouse’, and ‘downloading’ simply didn’t exist thirty years ago. Indeed, the World Wide Web – for many people the centre of the Internet – was only invented as recently as 1993.

Noam Chomsky perhaps made the most significant impact on the study of grammar by his Innateness Theory, which is now universally accepted as basically valid.

The Innateness theory of grammar is based on the notion that humans are genetically programmed to acquire language. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) is a function which equips us for speech, just as other genetic features equip us for walking or breathing.

The prerequisite for language acquisition is what Chomsky calls comprehensible imput – which is hearing people around us use language.

Thousands of different languages exist, and the developing child acquires the language of its own culture. The vocabulary and content has to be learnt, but the fundamental grammatical workings are innate.

Evidence of this LAD at work can be observed in the so-called mistakes which young children make. These are utterances such as ‘I comed home’ or ‘I wented over there’ or ‘those two sheeps’ and ‘those three mouses’.

What is happening here should be celebrated as evidence of the child’s capacity for grammatical analysis. That is, the rule has been learned but over-applied.

The expression ‘I comed’ is evidence that the child has internalised the rule for forming the past tense, which is – add ‘—ed’.

‘Sheeps’ and ‘mouses’ show that the rule for forming a plural has been learnt — add ‘—s’.

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Grammar for Teachers

July 17, 2009 by Roy Johnson

essential guide to how English language works

The UK government’s latest policy on English teaching insists that it should be presented ‘across the curriculum’. What this means is that teachers of subjects other than English have to focus the language of their practice as part of normal classroom teaching and learning. This can leave teachers of chemistry, home economics, and physical education feeling rather exposed where formal grammar is concerned. John Seely’s latest book to the rescue! It is aimed at teachers in primary and secondary schools, and will also be useful for those preparing to teach modern foreign languages and English as an additional or foreign language.

And he’s well qualified for the job of explaining complex issues. His previous books include Words, The A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation, Effective Writing and Speaking, and Writing Reports.

These are all very popular books which introduce linguistic facets of everyday life in a straightforward manner. This one follows the same pattern. He explains how sentences are built up from subject, verb, and object (Elephants like grass) but puts his emphasis on recognising clause patterns. Then comes an explanation of different types of noun (proper, countable, uncountable) adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and all the other common parts of speech.

In keeping with all the normal rigour of language studies, nothing is examined beyond the length of a single sentence, and his explanations are all as simple and clear as possible. Despite this, there’s still quite a lot of grammatical jargon to take on board (clause elements, prepositional phrases, and modal auxiliaries).

A lot of what he offers is a common sense approach to explaining the categories of grammar – that is, what function a word is performing in any given statement. For instance, work can be a verb or a noun, depending on the context in which it is being used.

The book is in three parts. The first offers basic definitions and explanations; the second goes into more detail; and the third is a big glossary which explains all the technical terms used throughout the book. It also includes other terms that may be be particularly useful for teachers of modern foreign languages. There’s also an appendix explaining what’s required of teachers implementing the literacy strategy in primary schools.

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John Seely, Grammar for Teachers, Oxpecker Press, 2007, pp.172, ISBN: 095534512X

Graphology – how to understand it

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Graphology – definition

Graphology is the study of the system of symbols which communicates language in written form.

In its more popular sense, it is the study of handwriting.

Examples

This is an example of a pictographic symbol.

Use

In the English language, writing starts on the left and moves to the right. It begins at the top of the page and moves downwards.

This might seem rather obvious, but writing in some other languages is arranged differently. Hebrew moves from right to left in rows, and Japanese from top to bottom in columns.

NB! Graffiti is a type of graphology, but if you confuse the two you’ll end up in trouble.

Graphology in context. ‘Grapheme’ is the term for the smallest unit of written communication. A letter of the alphabet or a punctuation mark is a grapheme. A scientific, mathematical, or any other kind of symbol is also a grapheme.

English is an ideographic language. This means that the writing system is based on a set of symbols. These have no intrinsic connection with what they are expressing.

Chinese on the other hand is known as a logographic or pictographic language. This is because the characters of that language were historically pictorial representations of the object being expressed.

Over the centuries these pictures have been stylised to the extent that they no longer resemble houses, people or trees. They now seem, to the uninitiated, just as arbitrary in their function as the English alphabet.

In linguistic study, graphology is a level of analysis along with phonology, vocabulary, grammar and semantics. It includes the study of layout, the use of logos and any other feature of graphical communication.

Children learn to form individual letters and later to produce joined-up writing. Some students find it difficult to make the transition from upper case printing to continuous script. This can be a significant impediment to their studies.

However, with literacy and maturity, we develop our own style of hand-writing. There is commonly a variation in the way we form our letters which is subject to context.

For instance, we may form a flamboyant ‘s’ at the end of a word, but a conservative version of that same grapheme if it occurs in an initial or medial position.

It is important to be able to distinguish between upper and lower case letters in order to punctuate. This is not possible with printing. Continuous script can also be produced much more rapidly.

Continuous script is easier to read than printing, because the eye is led by the connecting strokes between the characters. This is the same principle as the use of sefifed fonts in the layout of continuous writing.

Approaches to teaching hand-writing have changed over the years. It is interesting to note that each generation seems to have its own style of handwriting. Our parents and their contemporaries seem to produce the same script style, while their parents’ generation also have their own similarly distinct style.

Perhaps parallel with the phenomenon of speech style, handwriting styles are easier to categorise from a distance. Our children may see our contemporaries’ handwriting as belonging to an identifiable style, whilst we ourselves consider each person’s handwriting to be idiosyncratic.

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Heinemann English Dictionary

June 26, 2009 by Roy Johnson

popular dictionary – especially useful for schools

My copy of the Heinemann English Dictionary markets itself as “The most comprehensive school dictionary”, but it has been an invaluable companion for many years. First and foremost, it is small enough to pop into a briefcase or even a large handbag – useful when you need to check a word in secret to save face!

Secondly, the layout is clear and easy to use, helpfully stating the relevant part of speech in full, instead of by abbreviations. I particularly like the way phrasal verbs are set out – if you look up the word pull, each of its variations – pull apart, pull down, pull up and so on – is listed on a separate line, making them much easier to locate. Compound words such as water-hole are shown as separate headings, rather than hidden amongst a myriad of other variations on a word.

On a point which may be minor to some (but not to me) it is worth noting that a sans serif font is used for all the header words. This is proven to make words more accessible to beginner readers. As a teacher of Basic Skills to adults, I also appreciate the fact that common errors are pointed out. For example, the definition of the word principal includes a warning not to confuse it with principle. I have not seen this in other dictionaries.

An easily understood ‘pseudo-phonetic’ guide to pronunciation is provided. For example, euphonious is ‘yoo-foe-nee-us’. But, for me, one of its chief strengths is that it not only gives etymological information wherever possible, and an indication of colloquial usage where this may not be clear from the definition or may be useful to non-native speakers of English (eternity -‘It took an eternity for the doctor to arrive’), but that it also adds little titbits of information on selected words.

For example, just browsing through, I discovered that flannel is thought to be one of the few words which English has acquired from the Welsh. As I live in Chester, near the border with Wales, this little gem has opened a number of unexpectedly interesting conversations on linguistics. Nor would I have known, without the aid of these boxes, that the word assassin actually derives from an Arabic word for someone who eats cannabis!

Another surprising finding was the entry for the suffix -ette, for which Suffragette was the first known example. These little boxes are known as ‘Language Study Boxes’ and were designed specifically with the National Curriculum in mind. But who said children have to have all the fun? Incidentally, these extended entries are also provided for all the main parts of speech, giving useful examples for children (and adults) to learn from.

If I have any criticism at all to make, it is simply that my edition is too old, and so lacking in some of the more recent terms in the world of Information Technology – but, frankly, you can forgive an old friend almost anything …

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Heinemann English Dictionary, London: Heinemann Educational, 5th edition 2001, pp.1248, ISBN: 0435104241

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Homonyms – how to understand them

September 7, 2009 by Roy Johnson

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Homonyms – definition

Homonyms are words which are spelled the same, but which have different meanings.

Examples

bear – an animal
bear – to carry

bore – to drill a hole
bore – a tedious person

down – at a lower part
down – bird’s feathers

draft – preliminary sketch
draft – a money order

Use

The apparent similarities in these words sometimes causes confusion — particularly to non-native speakers.

Such words may or may not have the same etymological origins.

NB! Homonyms are a rich source of puns in English.

Strictly speaking, homonyms may be broken down into two different categories – homophones and homographs.

Homophones are words which are pronounced in the same way, but which have different spellings:

threw flung

through from end to end

bow incline from the waist

bough large tree-branch

Homographs are words which have the same spelling, but which are pronounced differently:

lead a heavy metal

lead to walk in front

wind air movement

wind to coil

One reason for these similarities is that spelling is only a rough approximation to pronunciation.

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How to improve your grammar

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

basic guidelines for better writing

The quickest way to improve your grammar is to simplify your writing as much as possible.

Grammar is a combination of a number of different aspects of language

sentence construction
punctuation
spelling and vocabulary
agreement and syntax

The best approach is to tackle these issues one at a time.

Don’t try to improve your grammar by memorising rules – because there are many exceptions to most of them.

Sentences

In most writing, all normal sentences should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop.

A normal sentence in English usually contains at least three elements: a subject, a verb, and an object.

Subject Verb Object

The cat eats the goldfish

My friend is tall

Some sheep are black

Subject	Verb	Object
The cat	eats	the goldfish
My friend	is	tall
Some sheep	are	black

If you are in any doubt at all, follow this pattern. Sentences which go out of grammatical control often lack one of these elements, or they have them placed in a different order.

Short, clear, and simple sentences are usually more effective than those which are long and complex. Avoid piling up clause upon clause.

In the majority of cases, you should aim for clarity and simplicity in your written style. If in doubt, remember this rule: Keep it short. Keep it simple.

You should avoid starting sentences with words such as ‘Again’, ‘Although’, ‘But’, ‘And’, ‘Also’, and ‘With’. These words normally belong in the ‘middle’ of a
sentence, not at its beginning. Sentences which start with a conjunction are often left incomplete.

Punctuate your work firmly, making a clear distinction in your writing between marks such as the comma, the semicolon, and the full stop.

Punctuation

The comma [,] is used to show a slight pause in a sentence.

It is also used to separate words, clauses, or phrases.

He will never do it, whatever he says.
She bought some butter, a pint of milk, and some jam.
Cars should turn left here, whilst vans should turn right.

It separates two items when the first is not closely associated with the second:

She is a famous singer, whilst her husband remains unknown.

A very common use for the comma is to separate the items in a list:

The box contained a book, some pencils, and a knife.

The semicolon [ ; ] marks a long pause in a sentence.

It is half way between a comma and a colon.

Semicolons are used between clauses which could stand alone, but which are closely related.

He ran with his shirt over his head; he had forgotten his umbrella once again.
She couldn’t dance in her favourite ballroom; it was being renovated.

Semicolons are also used to punctuate mixed lists in continuous prose writing:

Four objects lay on the desk: a large book; a spiral-bound notepad; a glass vase containing flowers; and a silver propelling pencil.

If you are in any doubt at all concerning the correct use of the semicolon – then avoid using it entirely.

It is perfectly possible to write clearly and effectively using only the
comma and the full stop.

The full stop [.] (sometimes called the period) is a punctuation mark indicating a strong pause.

It is used most commonly at the end of a complete sentence – like this one.

This is a short sentence. This is another.
It happened suddenly in 1996.
There are two reasons for this (in my opinion).

The only common exception to this rule occurs when the sentence is a question or an exclamation.

Is this question really necessary?
What a mess!

Notice that both of these punctuation marks include a full stop.

Spelling

If you are not sure about the correct spelling of a word, look it up in a good dictionary.

The best ways to improve your spelling are:

learn commonly mis-spelled words
learn the common rules of spelling
learn good spelling strategies

The most commonly mis-spelled words are probably there/their, its/it’s, to/too/two, and are/our.

This problem is caused because these words sound the same as each other. Here’s how to tell them apart.

There refers to a place, whereas their means belonging to them.

The table is over there, in the corner [place]
We are going to their house [belonging]

Its means belonging to, whereas It’s is a shortened form of It is.

The dog is in its basket [belonging]
It’s too late now [It is]

To means ‘towards something’, too means ‘very or in addition’, and two is the number 2.

We are going to the concert [towards]
It was too cold for swimming [very cold]
He ate two chocolate bars [number 2]

Agreement and Syntax

There must be grammatical logic or coherence in the links between parts of a sentence.

This is called case agreement.

If the subject of a sentence is singular, then the verb form must be singular as well.

The shop [singular] opens at nine o’clock.
On Thursdays the shops [plural] open late.

Sometimes confusion occurs because a statement begins in the singular but then drifts into the plural

Wrong
It can be argued that a person has the right to know when they are dying.

The easiest solution to this problem is to make the subject plural and its verb plural as well.

Correct
It can be argued that people have the right to know when they are dying.

Syntax is the grammatical arrangement of words in a sentence.

It concerns both word order and agreement in the relationship between words.

The following statements follow normal English word order:

The cat sat on the mat.
My old brown leather suitcase.

The following statements do not follow normal English word order:

The cat on the mat sat.
My brown leather old suitcase.

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reprint of the classic first edition

free pages from our English Language software program

Full stops – definition

Examples

Use

free pages from our English Language software program

Function – definition

Examples

Use

a hodgepodge of our vanishing vocabulary

free pages from our English Language software program

Grammar – definition

Examples

Use

essential guide to how English language works

free pages from our English Language software program

Graphology – definition

Examples

Use

popular dictionary – especially useful for schools

free pages from our English Language software program

Homonyms – definition

Examples

Use

basic guidelines for better writing

Sentences

Punctuation

Spelling

Agreement and Syntax

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