8/11/2019 7 Grammatical Errors That Aren

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7 Grammatical Errors That Arent

There are two types of grammar: Descriptive, which describeswhat is customary, and prescriptive grammar,whichprescribeswhat should be. A tension between the two systems is inevitable and healthy; it keepsus thinking about what were saying and writing.

Allowing mob rule at the e!pense of some governing of composition is madness, but a diction dictatorship isdangerous, too. As with any prescription, an overdose is contraindicated. "ere are some hard pills toswallow for language mavens who re#uire a strict adherence to rigid syntactical patterns at the e!pense of,well, language:

1. Never split an infinitive.$t isnt wise to always ignore this fallacious rule against dividing the elements of the verb phrase %to &verb'(with an adverb, but to blindly follow it is to prohibit pleasing turns of phrase one of the best known ofwhich is from the introductory voice)over from all the Star Trektelevision series: %to boldly go where no onehas gone before.( &The original series, produced before the more recent sensitivity to gender bias, put it %noman.('

2. Never end a sentence with a preposition.This rule is ridiculous, to start with. $f you believe it, please tell me what planet you are from. *hat are you

striving for+ ive it up. Am $ getting my point across+

The stricture against closing sentences with words that describe position stems from an eighteen)centuryfetish for the supposed perfection of classical -atin, which allowed no split infinitives for the e!cellentreason that -atin infinitives consist of single words. nglish, however, being a distant relative of thatlanguage, should be allowed to form its own customs.

3. Never begin a sentence with a con!nction.And why not+ /or an honorable tradition of doing 0ust that e!ists. 1ut some people persist in prohibiting thistechni#ue. 2et we defy them. 3r we simply ignore them or laugh at them, neither of which they appreciate.4or do they understand our attitude, though we try to convince them, and will continue to do so. 5o there.

The words beginning each of these sentences are con0unctions, easily recalled with the mnemonic/A41325. very one is perfectly acceptable at the head of a sentence. As is obvious from the previous

paragraph, however, a little goes a long way.

". #isting!ish between whileand though.6etty prescriptivists would have you reserve whilefor temporal usage only: %*hile $ agree, $ resist,( they say,should be revised to %Though $ agree, $ resist.( $ freely admit that $ often change whileto though, and while $understand $m sorry, $ cant stop myself and though $ understand that it may seem pedantic, $ thinkthoughreads better.

$. #isting!ish between sinceand because.Ditto. And ditto. $ concur that indiscriminate replacement of sincewith becausemay seem persnickety, butsince ahem because $ find the latter word more pleasing, $ will reserve the right to prefer it.

%. &se dataonl' in the pl!ral sense.*here did they get this data+ The alternative is to use datumin the singular sense, which makes you sound

like a propellerhead. &-ook it up, kids.' 6eople who say %datum( get data, but they dont get dates.

7. &se noneonl' in the sing!lar sense.4one of these rules, followed strictly, allow for a vernacular ease with language.

Did that sentence hurt+ Did the waves stop crashing to shore+ Did arth stop spinning+ $f you wish toreplace nonewith %not one( or %no one( &%4ot one person admitted guilt(; %4o one saw that coming(', by allmeans, do so, but fear not nonein a plural sense.