Another from Grammar Girl. This one I’ve been holding on to for a few days while deciding whether or not to share, but since I went crazy with the grammar posts I thought I’d just go for it.

When you want to describe an object using multiple adjectives, there is a proper way to order them.

Adjectives should go in the following order, with opinion first and purpose last:

Opinion (ridiculous, crazy, beautiful)
Size (big, small)
Age (old, young)
Shape (round, square)
Color (yellow, blue)
Origin (American, British)
Material (polyester, styrofoam)
Purpose (swimming, as in “swimming pool”; shooting, as in “shooting range”)

The good news is that you probably do this naturally, so you probably don’t need to bother memorizing the list. The other good news is that nobody knows that there is a rule about this, so no one will catch it if you’re wrong.

The other other good news is that this is the last grammar post of the day! Good news all around!

Source: Grammar Girl

Along the lines of the CMOS from the last post, another thing I’ve never heard of but now see all over the place is the em dash and en dash.

Em Dash
The em dash is the dash used to break up a sentence, and is so named because the dash is as long as an uppercase M in the font (or in the old days typeset) that you are using.

• You are the one—the only one—who can save the world!
• Never have I met someone so brave—before you.

Make an Em Dash by holding ALT then pressing 0151. Or just let Word do it for you.

En Dash
The En Dash, as you’d expect, is the width of an N. It is used to express inclusive time ranges or to join open compounds.

• Spring Break is from April 5–April 10.
• Be careful where you go, as there are a lot of beheadings along the U.S.–Mexico border.

An En Dash is ALT + 0150.

Hyphens
Now neither of these should be confused with the hyphen, which is used to join words together.

• It is well-known fact that grammar is tricky.
• The new X-Men movie looks like it will be OK. At least Halle Berry won’t be there to screw it up.

The hyphen is just the hyphen key (next to the zero key).

Spaces
It is not recommended to use spaces before or after dashes or hyphens. However— that is a matter of style.

I tend to use spaces because I think it looks cleaner. But I also use the serial comma before the last item in a list too. (This post is about em dashes, en dashes, and hyphens. vs. This post is about em dashes, en dashes and hyphens.)

I know, I know. I’m such a rebel.

Source: Grammar Girl, who also dives into dashes vs. colons, and GrammarBook.com

There is a name for the situation that occurs when you’ve never heard of something before, and then once you do you start to notice it everywhere. At least the people on the Bulletin Board in the St. Paul Pioneer Press had a name for it.

I can’t remember what it is, and such a vague idea doesn’t easily translate to a Google search. Oh, well.

Anyway, I had a question about a grammatical style point the other day and was told that The Chicago Manual of Style dictated that it should be the way that it was.

I had never heard about the Chicago Manual of Style before, but I didn’t give it much thought and went on with my day. When I was a junior journalist we used The AP Stylebook, so I figured this was just a competing book of writing rules.

That’s pretty much the case, though the AP book seems more focused on journalism, while the Chicago book seems more academic, which you’d expect, since one is produced by the Associated Press, and the other is produced by the University of Chicago.

Incidentally, since the first mention a few days ago, I’ve seen or heard references to the Chicago Manual of Style on no fewer than 4 occasions. Funny how that happens.

If you’re really into Grammar, you can get a subscription to either the CMOS or AP Stylebook on their websites. I think I’ll stick with Grammar Girl.

You’ve heard it- you ask for someone on the phone and they respond with “This is she” or “This is he.”

I think it sounds funny. Pretentious even, like people who go out of their way to prove their intellectual superiority by using whom in casual speech.

But, it is technically grammatically correct.

She (or he) is a pronoun, meaning a word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence. Pronouns can have one of 3 cases: Subject, Object, or Possessive.

Subject- She
Object- Her
Possessive – Hers

In the sentence “This is she,” she is the subject of the sentence, so you should use the subject case of the pronoun.

The easiest way to test which pronoun case to use is to reverse the sentence. “She is this” vs. “Her is this,” in this case. That works for a lot of things, including I and me, and even who and whom.

Correct or not, I still think it sounds funny. So I think I’ll stick with “speaking” or just a generic “this is.”

Source: GrammarBook.com

Someone called me out on misusing this. I turned to Grammar Girl, but she didn’t help. Finally, Hubpages solved it for me.

Than is used for comparison; then is a description of time.

Some common ‘than’ examples from Hubpages:

Even at the age of twelve she was taller than I.
She is a better singer than he.
Tillamook cheese is much better than Kraft.

Some common ‘then’ examples:

I want to go to a restaurant then to the party.
I loved the movie French Kiss, but then, I love sappy movies.
Then, out of nowhere, she started to dance.

Compliments of Grammar Girl, this is noteworthy for two reasons. One, because I’ve always wanted to know, and two, because her answer is classic.

The question: How do you make a noun that is already possessive (like McDonald’s) possessive?

The answer: Rewrite the sentence so you don’t have to.

That’s my favorite answer to grammar questions, mostly because it’s my default writing tactic when I don’t know the answer. Not a bad rule of thumb for life, actually… if you don’t know the answer, avoid the problem!

For the more technical breakdown:

• McDonald’s's earnings were super-sized last quarter. (technically correct)
• McDonald’s’ earnings were super-sized last quarter. (technically correct)
• McDonald’s reported super-sized earnings last quarter. (better)

An important tip, via Grammar Girl. (I subscribe to her daily email newsletter now, so expect more of these.)

To make an acronym plural, simply add an s. Don’t add an apostrophe.

For example, multiple Automated Teller Machines would be ATMs. Not ATM’s. Multiple Certificates of Deposit would be CDs. Not CD’s.

Multiple Personal Identification Numbers would be PINs. Not PIN’s, and definitely not PIN Numbers.

This rule holds true even when the acronym itself is plural, like Runs Batted In. RBIs.

You may remember that back in October I gave you the go-ahead on splitting an infinitive. Today, we’re going to discuss ending a sentence with a preposition. Back to Grammar Girl as the source for this one.

First, we must define preposition. A Preposition is a word that creates a relationship between two other words. That relationship can be in time or space. Some simple examples, courtesy of the University of Ottawa:

The book is on the table.

The book is beneath the table.

The book is leaning against the table.

The book is beside the table.

She held the book over the table.

She read the book during class.

Prepositions can also be much more complex, but we won’t get into that.

So the good news: generally speaking, you can end a sentence with a preposition. For better or for worse, modern English speech almost makes it necessary. For instance, take “Where did he come from?” vs. “From where did he come?”

The latter, while perhaps being more technically correct, is just clumsy. And try saying it without getting punched.

The general rule, according to Grammar Girl, is to use the preposition when it is necessary, and leave it off when it is unnecessary.

Examples:

• “Where is it at?” No good. Leave off the at. It’s unnecessary. “Where is it?” is better.
• “Which channel is the TV on?” OK. The on is necessary for the sentence to make sense. “On which channel is the TV?” is stupid, and “Which channel is the TV?” doesn’t make sense.
• “Kitty! Get off of the counter!” No good. The of is unnecessary. “Get off the counter!” is better.
• “That is the house I live in.” OK, but this one illustrates one of my favorite rules of grammar: When in doubt, rewrite the sentence. “I live in that house.” is clearer and avoids the preposition altogether.

I’ll end with an almost certainly apocryphal story about Winston Churchill. Partially as an excuse to use the word apocryphal, and partially because it illustrates the point.

The story goes like this: Churchill, upon being scolded for ending a sentence with a proposition, responded with “That is the kind of thing up with which I will not put.” Take that Grammar Nazis! And regular Nazis!

Which you must now commit to memory…

OK, not really. But just because I can’t find the complete list.

Apparently that whole I before E except after C rhyme is not all inclusive. Consider, for example codeine, foreign and forfeit. Or, how about science, prescient, or conscience?

Some guy wrote a book called Adventures of a Verbifore, which documents 144 violations of the rule. And no, before you ask, unfortunately the book is not available from Amazon.

So, I guess we’ll just have to consider the old I before E shtick more of a guideline than a rule.

Source: Dr. Grammar, This Site, and wiki (yes there is a wiki page for this), which lists the alternate British text to the familiar rhyme.

Because I know you were worried.

I’m kind of a Grammar Nazi, but there is a limit to my interest and knowledge. For example, I believe that everyone should be able to figure out which version of [your/you're] or [their/there/they're] to use, and everyone should be able to construct a basic sentence. But most people will be OK if they occasionally end a sentence with a preposition or can’t explain the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs.

But yesterday, I bluffed, and accused The Wife^® of splitting an infinitive at the mall. She called me on it, and I had to admit that I really didn’t know what that means. But now I do, and soon you will too.

Let’s start with the definition of an infinitive. I’m going to borrow heavily from Grammar Girl, who does an excellent job of explaining.

Infinitives are verbs. There are two types of infinitives: full infinitives and bare infinitives. Bare infinitives are plain old words, for example:

• Go
• Make
• Run

Full infinitives are made up of two words, usually to plus the verb.

• To Go
• To Make
• To Run

According to the rule, you are not supposed to split the infinitive by inserting an adverb between the to and the verb. To run quickly is typically preferred to to quickly run.

But the good news is that in today’s world, it’s really OK to split infinitives. Sometimes you have to. It just doesn’t sound right if you don’t.

For the most famous example, we’ll go to Star Trek:

“To boldly go where no man has gone before” has a split infinitive. Boldly splits to go.

But the alternatives: “To go boldly where no man has gone before” or “Boldly to go where no man has gone before” just don’t sound right.

So in conclusion, don’t split your infinitives if you can help it, but if you have to, there is no need to feel guilty. You are absolved.

Source: The aforementioned Grammar Girl, and testmagic.com