The hit come sneakily .
perchance you ’re going over a report with a colleague . Maybe your English instructor hands you back your five - paragraph essay on the theme of man versus nature in " The Old Man and the Sea . " Maybe you ’re just sample to have a nice , pleasant conversation with a near stranger who asks you how you ’re doing .
And then it happens .
" Oops , " yourcolleaguesays , voice dripping with satisfaction . " It looks like you started a few sentences with conjunctions . You bang that ’s not right , correct ? "
" DELETE PASSIVE VOICE , " abuse your teacher in red at the top of your essay .
" Oh , you mean you ’re ' well , ' not ' unspoilt , ' " the stranger says .
How defy all of them . How does anyone call back all these objectionable grammar decree ?
Here ’s a john : Ignore them . The three examples we just gave in reality are not rules at all .
Join us as we take a turn of the 10 grammar rule everyone have intercourse – but are actuallycompletely bastard .
10: Good for You
" How are you ? "
" I ’m good , " you respond .
" You ’re good ? No , you ’re not ! You ’re well ! " says the smug supporter whom everyone hate .
Before you grumble a halfhearted excuse for being an ungrammatical nitwit , stop yourself . Because – get quick for a discovery – you are ripe .
The farseeing - heldmythwas that you should use an adverb ( such as " well " ) to describe how you ’re doing . But most of us get that " am " is a form of the linking verb " to be " ( I am , she is , you are ) , so we can use an adjective for description . You do n’t postulate to say , for example , " I ’m busily " when you ’re trying to end up yourcrosswordin criminal record time and your kid is asking for a bite .
In other words , using an adjective is perfectly satisfactory , and " well " is – in fact – used in adjective form when we say " I ’m well . " Also not worth try ? The argument that " full " can only put on to our moral lineament and that " well " have in mind we ’re physically okay . That ’s just a matter of use . We all commonly accept that " practiced " can mean " well . " You ’re honest . You ’re well . We ’re all o.k. .
9: Funky Conjunction Shun
We all know it ’s absolutely horrifying to pop a sentence with a conjunction . Who would do such a affair ?
Everyone . Shakespeare , for one , liked protrude with connective so much that sometimes he used two . ( " And yet , to say the truth , reason and sexual love keep little company together nowadays . " ) Or theBeatles : Who can debate that the lovelorn " And I love her " lyric andsong title are just not right ?
And yet , they are perfectly satisfactory ways to begin sentences . So why do we all think that " so why do we all think that " is an unacceptable starter motor for a sentence ?
Linguist Arnold Zwicky deposit an interesting theory . He says that because many new minted English utterer ( children ) be given to use a lot of conjunctions when they speak ( " And I go to the playground . And then I skin my knee . And my mummy would n’t feed me because she was working on her crossword puzzle . " ) , teachers might have go a little overboard and declared take up with a co-occurrence to be verboten in written assignment [ rootage : Zwicky ] .
8: How-never
speak of conjunctions , the word " however " flummox its own special piazza in the pantheon of broadly Accepted Yet Totally Baseless Grammar Rules . The thinking was this : You should n’t start up a prison term with the word " however " first because it ’s a conjunction ( see previous page ) and second because " however " has a few unlike meanings , which might muddy up the water of agreement .
To wit : If you say " However long I exist , I ’ll never forget you , " the meaning of however is either " to whatever extent " or " no matter how " [ source : Fogarty ] . If you say , " However , I willforgetyou if I converge someone else , " you patently are using " however " like a modifier . ( The intelligence " but , " for example , is pretty interchangeable with " however . " )
Somehow , these two estimation lead people to believe that " however " was a messy , inaccurate way to start a sentence . In fact , you ’ll be fine if you just follow these easy rule : Add a comma if you ’re using it to intend " but " and leave the comma out for an expression of extent .
7: Nopefully
If you have n’t get the idea so far , it ’s meter we just said it : Grammar changes . Words are smooth and do n’t entail the same matter always , nor are they used the same fashion throughout eternity . Fittingly , we come to " hopefully , " which became a flash point for some grammarwarsa few days ago .
" Hopefully " literally means " in a promising fashion . " That means that using it in the sentience of " it is hoped " is wrong , as in " Hopefully it will rain down soon . " In that instance , you ’re really saying , " In a hopeful manner , it will rain down . " However , the judgment of conviction " We watched the swarm hopefully forrain " is correct .
Or something like that . The tip is , there ’s a very commonly accepted usage where we have in mind " it is hoped " when we say " hopefully . " So when the Associated Press decided in 2012 that it would begin accepting " hopefully " in such a manner , lawlessness reigned . Or at least some people wrote someangry editorialsthat are totally worth reading .
6: Passive-aggressive
inactive voice seems to be the bane of everyhigh school teacher ’s existence . you could certainly see why . It ca n’t be a lot of fun to take report after paper explaining that " The snapshot was made by Atticus to down the domestic dog and save them " or " The book was written by an alcoholic Faulkner . " certainly they ’d require to read something more animating : " Atticus shot the dog and saved them , " or " Faulkner write the stream of cognisance story , but he often lose consciousness while toast . "
To retrospect : In combat-ready voice , the subject of the sentence is doing the action ( " I ate thehot dog " ) . In inactive voice , the aim of the action is the subject ( " The hot andiron was eaten by me " ) . As you’re able to see , peaceful voice can be a lot inapt , clunkier or even confuse in many circumstances , but it ’s not wrong . Writers may also employ peaceful voice when they have n’t done their homework , as in , " The man was shot and killed on Thursday . " By whom ? Hmmm , not sure . As with most things , the key to inactive voice is moderation . ( Someone should ’ve assure Faulkner . )
And sometimes we must use it . In some professional piece of writing , it ’s considered a good way to write objectively . For that reason , you might see studies or scholarly work that use peaceful voice to say something like , " The experiments were conducted according to strict standards " as opposed to " We conducted the experiments according to strict standard . "
So observe for inactive voice , but do n’t buy that you ’re a grammar pariah if you expend it .
5: Not Really My Style
In the center of our list , we must accost a more universal issue than just how to employ " hopefully " or sentence - depart conjunctions . As we ’ve said , English grammar linguistic rule are uncontrollable . While we ( mostly ) concord to follow a ( mostly ) position list of how to compose or speak , we ca n’t discount the infinite exceptions .
Even more troubling : sometimes the exception are even accepted and standardized , becoming … rules . How many times have you struggle tooth and nail to prove that correct utilisation calls for the Oxford ( or serial)comma ? That ’s the one that arrange a Polygonia comma after every token in a lean , include the one before " and . "
We hope never . Surely there ’s something onTVyou could watch instead of break up grammar fights . But it ’s not just a waste of time ; it also is n’t incorrect . The Chicago Manual of Style ( which is commonly used in academics and publishing ) says serial all the way , but the Associated Press Stylebook ( used in news media or vane written matter ) says to take that last comma out .
The point is that sometimes we confuse " grammar rules " with the vogue we favour . If you want to make a scene with someone about their usage , just make indisputable you ’re not simply imposing your personal favorite on your adversary .
4: I Could Care Less About Grammar
Oh , to be at thegrocery storewith grammar jerks . Not only are they lower at every handwritten planetary house to suss out split infinitives in the weekly cut-rate sale , but they also refuse to apply the express lane .
" Ten items or less , " they sniffle . " Incorrect . Should be 10 items or few . Let ’s get in the other job to protest . "
You ’re pretty sure you heard that rule as well , so you hang your head in shame and follow your friend to the next blood , behind the guy wire with 70couponsand a checkbook .
Not anymore .
C ago it started to become accepted that less would be used for point that could n’t be counted ( " I exhaust less food , " " There should be less contempt for my avarice " ) and that few applied to numerable objects ( " I ate few cakes , " " There should be fewer mean looks from people about the cake I did eat " ) . Unfortunately , this has less to do with an literal " rule " and more to do with the preference of an writer , one Robert Baker , that became widely disseminated [ germ : Doyle ] .
So go onward and spring lines again to get out of the memory board as tight as possible . endeavor to lose the rude supporter while you ’re at it .
3: It’s the Sound, Not the Letter
If you ’re feel a footling cuticle - appalled about all the grammar rules you thought you cognize but do n’t really , thing are looking up : You probably cognise one-half of what you should about when to use " a " versus " an . "
Most of us learned ( or at least have thevague memory ) that we use the article " a " before a consonant and " an " before a vowel . If you ’re a native English speaker , this probably come naturally to you , so naturally that you are wondering why it ’s even on this list .
Again , we hearken back to exceptions . Sure , when you walk into arestaurantyou’re going to have to wait " an " hour for a board , but you ’re proceed to learn that from " a " hostess . What in the world ?
It ’s not the vowel itself that seduce the dispute ; it ’s the vowel sound . If the word start with a vowel sound , add an " n " to that " a. " If it ’s a consonant sound , it ’s an well-heeled " a. "
2: To Infinitives and Between
While " splitting infinitives " sounds like something Superman would do to save Metropolis , our English teacher might ’ve had us believe that it was only fit for villain .
The full infinitive is the " true " var. of the verb ; that is , the verb without conjugation . To go , to eat , to do , to split an infinitive – you get the melodic theme . When we talk about splitting infinitive , we mean we deposit an adverb in the middle of the full infinitive .
To bravely ask . To boldly go . To boringly name .
Scandalized , are n’t you ? How dare we … put those adverb there .
Exactly . It does n’t sound incorrect . But in the 19th C , an English grammar book debate that it was n’t plebeian usage . In addition , you ca n’t split infinitives in Latin since they ’re one discussion ( currere ) rather than two ( to run ) , and Latin was still a expectant business deal back then . Accordingly , citizenry go along with the order forbidding split infinitives [ source : Fogarty ] . But it did n’t entirely arrest on because pesky " common usage " really did win out . We split infinitives , with everlasting inclusion , all the time . Now we can choose to keep them together or to split them smugly , screw we ’re on the right side of grammar .
1: Don’t Preposition Me
This is a grammar myth that wo n’t pass away . More specifically , it ’s a grammar myth that a billion well - mean know - it - alls wo n’t rent conk .
Ending a condemnation with a preposition – something like " She ’s not someone I would go to the batting cage with " – is dead fine . The condemnation is clear , and no one would argue its structure . ( Although why you would n’t go to thebatting cagewith someone is more of a mystery . What will she do to you ? ! )
So why do we have this idea that ending a sentence with a preposition get for an inexpert turn of musical phrase ? It make sensory faculty if you ’re Julius Caesar but in all probability does n’t apply to you or me . In Latin , end a condemnation with a preposition really was wrong . In 1762 , an Anglican bishop print a Christian Bible of grammar and basically co - opted the Latin formula for English . A good attempt , but English - talk peoples had been ending sentence with prepositions for ages , and the drill run [ source : O’Connor and Kellarman ] .
Lots More Information
Confession : If you had tell me fully half of these dictums were hard and fast rules that should never be break , I would have believed you . On the same note of hand , if you had told me the same rule were all nonsense I would ’ve been evenly confident . While we might have a few days throughout our adolescence of actual grammar education , most of what we learn is through common usage . So let ’s all give ourselves a break for not have a go at it it all and accept that our " rule " will no doubt evolve anyway . ( But go crazy finding the myriad grammar mistakes in this clause . )
