Submitted by flapjack  •  June 22, 2006

Adverb or adjective? Or something else?

This question came up a couple days ago at work, and spurred a lively, if puzzled, debate:

In the following sentence, what is the function of the word “black”?

The barista served the coffee black.

“Black” doesn’t seem to be adjectival, modifying “coffee”, because of the position: there’s a semantic difference between “served the coffee black” and “served the black coffee.” But it hardly seems adverbial, describing the manner in which the serving was done.

The same question applies to “painting the wall blue” and other similar constructions.

It seems to me that the adjectives here act like a kind of double accusative, but I thought double accusatives were typically used with verbs like “make.” So I really don’t know what kind of construction it is; I just know that I use it a lot.

25 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by bismarck  •  June 21, 2006

All negations don’t sound right to me.

I’m accustomed to hearing people make grammatical mistakes, but occassionally I’ll start hearing new and painful trends that are so pervasive that I wonder if someone changed the rules while I was asleep. Case in point: how to negate constructions containing the words “all” or “some”. A few months ago, I was looking at some magazines at the grocery store and saw an ad asserting that “all insurance policies are not the same”. I’ve been hearing that kind of construction from high school kids for some time, but always attributed it to poor language skills. A few minutes later, I went to use the store’s bathroom and saw the following sign on the door: “All unpaid merchandise not allowed in restrooms”. Now those of you who grew up in the America that I grew up in know that prior to the George H.W. Bush administration, such locutions would have read “Not all insurance policies are the same” and “No unpaid merchandise allowed in restrooms”. What has happened here? I now hear this “all...not” construction constantly and I’m not sure what to make of it. When I hear a teacher lament, “All of my 8th-graders didn’t finish their chapter test on time.”, what does she mean to communicate by that? Does she mean to say that NOT ONE of them finished (supported by literal deconstruction)...or that some did and some didn’t (supported by a higher likelihood of being the case)?

12 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by isabella  •  June 15, 2006

“This is she” vs. “This is her”

A common example is the phrase “This is she.” used to answer a telephone. ‘She’ is the nominative form of the word, so it cannot be used to describe somebody who is the object of a sentence (in this example, ‘this’ would be the subject). The correct way to phrase the example would be “This is her.”, though most people prefer the familiar businesslike shorthand “Speaking.”

See suite101.com.

From another site, this was the response:

“This is she” is grammatically correct. The verb “to be” acts as a linking verb, equating subject and object. So this is she and she is this; “she” and “this” are one and the same, interchangeable, and to be truly interchangeable they must both play the same grammatical role—that of the subject.

See press.uchicago.edu

I am quite confused! I believe “This is her” is correct because it is understood that “speaking” is simply omitted; thus, we know the speaker is implying “This is her speaking” when she answers “This is her.” After all, we ask to speak to her. When she answers that she’s the one who had answered the call, she’s (obviously) speaking at the time. Therefore, it is her speaking.

What is your opinion on the matter?

242 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by brad  •  May 9, 2006

There is more than one user

OK, this may seem basic, but I’m writing a manual and I need to know “there is more than one user” or “there are more than one user”, and does that change if the sentence is preceded with the word ‘if’. As in:

“If there is more than one user, you may wish to have them log in with a separate session.”

15 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by kurt  •  April 23, 2006

Preposition Rule

I must inquire as to the dreaded “preposition rule.” I hear that it does not exist. I hear the story of Winston Churchill disproving the rule. I do not know what to think! Give me your intellectual input, por favor. Do we or do we not end sentences with prepositions?!

26 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by jon  •  April 6, 2006

“while” adverb or conjunction?

This question has caused a lot of argument on another message board. In the sentence below, is “while” an adverb? I’d like to see what the people here think.

“Begin grooming your kitten while it is still young.”

Incidentally, I vote that it’s a conjunction.

14 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by billedwards  •  March 28, 2006

The “he or she” problem

I find educated speakers saying the following:

“Everyone must do their duty.” or “The next player must move their piece if the move is possible.”

This is caused because people do not think ahead when speaking. To avoid this, they could start with the plural, such as:

“All of us must do our duty.” or “Players must move their piece if the move is possible”.

What will future grammar books say about the time honored rule that pronouns must agree in gender, number, and case? They must agree in gender, number, and case with the exception that in order to avoid using “he or she” or “his or hers”, the plural may be used as an exception.

21 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by joe3  •  March 10, 2006

I vs I’ve

“As I mentioned before” or “As I’ve mentioned before”

Which one is correct and why, or is there a different place and time to use either?

4 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by sue  •  March 6, 2006

“It is I” vs. “It is me”

Which of the following is correct?

It is I. It is me.

A grammar teacher mentioned to me something about the nominative case being used after the verb “to be” and not the usual objective case (”me”) that I thought it should be. He said the verb “to be” was an exception, but I can’t find anywhere that this is written down as such. Anyone any thoughts?

75 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by isabella  •  March 2, 2006

‘is/are’ and ‘do/does’

From a grammar test this was a correct sentence:

Dr. Stephens is one of those professors who do whatever it takes to get his point across to his students.

It still sounds odd to me, however. Should it perhaps say:

1. Dr. Stephens is a professor who does whatever it takes to get his point across to his students.

or

2. Dr. Stephens is one of those professors who do whatever it takes to get their point across to their students.

Any thoughts?

16 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by carrieagnes  •  February 25, 2006

First double negatives and now double possesives?!

I was watching the news today, and the title of a story they presented was “Legacy of Don Knott’s”.

Now, at first glance, I was positive that it was a grammatical mistake. I mean, why say “Legacy of Don Knott’s” when saying “Legacy of Don Knott” would do the job?

But then I replaced “Don Knott’s” with “his” (the phrase thus becoming “legacy of his”) and the latter phrase seemed to make sense. We say things like “that book of his”, so why not “legacy of his”?

So here comes the question: Are both the phrases “Legacy of Don Knott’s” and “Legacy of Don Knott” correct? Is there such a thing as double possesive? And why, for goodness sakes, can’t we just simply say “Don Knott’s Legacy”?!

And whatever happened to the man, anyway? Why are they all of a sudden presenting a story on his legacy? (Or, shall I say, legacy of his.)

3 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by jill  •  February 18, 2006

Nashes or Nash’s??

I am recently married and don’t really understand how to pluralize (is that a real word?:)) my new last name, Nash. For example, if I want to have a party at my house, would I invite people to meet at “The Nashes” house or “The Nash’s” house? My husband and in-laws state that the first use is correct but my friends seem to want to use the latter version. Some enlightenment please!

8 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by penelope  •  February 1, 2006

Is ‘love’ continuous or not?

A TV ad about a food company uses the phrase: I’m loving it! how can I explain the use of the verb ‘I love’ in the Present Continuous? According to the British English Grammar, some verbs such as ‘I love’ have no continuous form.

19 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by brian  •  January 7, 2006

If or not

Both “if” and “whether” can introduce a subordinate clause: “I was wondering if you would come” and “I was wondering whether you would come”. However, the phrase “whether or not”, as in “I was wondering whether or not you would come” is okay, but “if or not” in the same context seems not okay - google searches bring up 100 million hits for the first phrase, but just 15,000 for the second. This came up in a class I was in, and I was surprised because I do use “if or not” in informal speech; why are these two phrases different? In both cases the “or not” is redundant, if you think about it.

9 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by andrew2  •  January 7, 2006

your call will be answered in the order it was received

I hear this all the time while in a hold queue on the phone, but it sounds like bad English to me. I would prefer “...in the order in which it was received”, although that does sound a little overwrought. I just can’t think of anything better. What do you experts say?

30 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by elfparade  •  January 2, 2006

I/Me function in brackets.

I recently came across a construction about which I’m unsure, as the construction makes the functions of the individual parts a bit unclear.

The sentence is, “Social players (and even me!) would be interested to know people’s birthdays.”

I contended that the text within the parentheses should be corrected to “(and even I)” considering one would not say “Me would be interested.” However, I was told that, in the above sentence, “and even me” functions like “you and me.”

I don’t see how that applies. Which is the correct construction, and why?

7 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by jon  •  December 29, 2005

a couple

I can’t figure out which of the following is correct. It makes sense that “couple” would be singular, but it looks wrong in this sentence. What would you do?

There is a couple who (is/are) leaning on the wall of a building.

16 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by mariskova  •  December 16, 2005

Live or Living

If I come from country A, but currently I am in country B (for 5-10 years/study or job assignment) what tenses do I use for this sentence (situation: when I have to introduce myself)? -I live in B -I am living in B

10 comments  •  Posted in Grammar

Submitted by m56  •  December 12, 2005

“to be doing”

Do you use both these in your variant?

“What does he want us to do when the boss arrives?” (action can begin at the moment the woman arrives)

“What does he want us to be doing when the boss arrives?” (action must begin before the woman arrives)

5 comments  •  Posted in Grammar