Editor's Corner

On the second day of English

My true love gave to me

Two seasonal etymologies.

These brief explanations and etymologies are from Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips about seasons.

Equinox

An equinox, which literally means an “equal night,” occurs when the sun’s path crosses the plane of the earth’s equator, making day and night of about equal length throughout the earth. This happens twice a year — about March 21 (for the spring equinox) and about September 23 (for the autumnal equinox); those are the dates for the Northern Hemisphere; they’re switched for the Southern Hemisphere.

Solstice

The word “solstice” means “sun standing.” There are two solstices: the summer solstice (on about June 21) and the winter solstice (on about December 21). The solstices refer to the times in the year when the sun’s rays reach their southernmost point on the planet (the Tropic of Capricorn) and their northernmost point on the planet (the Tropic of Cancer).

Kara’s quick and dirty tip:

The names of seasons are not capitalized unless they are part of a proper noun. Examples:

· We’re camping at Spring River when the leaves start turning colors next autumn.

· I prefer the Winter Olympics because I love skiing!

· The Princeton Summer Course Catalog is actually published at the end of spring break.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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As I was trying to think of something to share with you today, I came across this top ten list from Merriam-Webster: “10 Words That Are Older Than You Might Think.”

Before you send me an email arguing that some of these are not legitimate words, be aware that they are all listed in the dictionary. We may not like it, but these words have made the cut. Below, I have listed each word and the year of its earliest known usage. The date is not the date that the word was added to the dictionary. It’s the earliest date that they can verify that the word was used. The words were likely in use for years before the date listed.

1. Hipster, 1938 [dbb – I went to a hipster wedding last month in San Diego. So many beards, tattoos, and big-framed glasses—and the guys looked cool too.]

2. Credit card, 1888

3. Rap, 1787

4. Ginormous, 1942

5. Irregardless, 1795 [dbb – I hear your shouts of outrage! I’m sad to report that
irregardless is listed in the dictionary; however, it is listed as a nonstandard word. I don’t know who added it. Maybe it’s not too late to fire that guy.]

6. Online, 1950

7. Energy drink, 1904

8. Friend, 13th century [dbb – We are talking about friend as a verb here, as when you friend someone on Facebook®.]

9. D-oh, 1945

10. Wiretap, 1902

If you’d like to read more about any of ten words above, click here.

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor, Adv. | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

To start off the Editor’s Corner seasonal Twelve Days of English, I’m giving you Friday mondegreens (misheard song lyrics) with a twist! Today’s mondegreens are from Deck the Halls with Buddy Holly, and Other Misheard Song Lyrics, by Gavin Edwards.

DAY ONE

(To the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas)

On the first day of English, my true love gave to me

A table of mondegree—eens.

Okay, so I’m not a poet. Enjoy!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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Better late than never!

Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives Answers

1. After she visited Grandma, my mom gave an heirloom to Kay and me.

The phrase "Kay and me" is the object of a preposition, so the object form me is required.

2. Neither I nor Amy remembered to feed the cat at dinnertime.

The usual order would be "Neither Amy nor I remembered." The pronoun is the subject of "remembered," so the subject form I is required.

3. Each of the Boy Scouts set fire to his tent at least once.

The singular possessive adjective his agrees with the singular pronoun each. Because the gender is clearly stated, the politically correct conundrum does not arise.

4. At least one of the women in the diamond store was living beyond her means.

The singular her agrees in number with one.

5. We men must refuse to be exploited for our good looks and horseback riding abilities!

The subject form is required because we, together with men, is the subject of the verb.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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As promised, today I have a quiz for you. Here are the directions:

· Today I will provide you with some questions based on our lessons from the past few days.

· Complete the questions on your own. Please, do not send me your answers.

· This afternoon, I will send you the answers and a brief explanation behind them.

You won’t be forced to wear a pointy hat and face the wall if you get any wrong.

Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives

Pick the correct sentence from the pairs below.

1. After she visited Grandma, my mom gave an heirloom to Kay and me.
After she visited Grandma, my mom gave an heirloom to Kay and I.

2. Neither I nor Amy remembered to feed the cat at dinnertime.
Neither me nor Amy remember to feed the cat at dinnertime.

3. Each of the Boy Scouts set fire to their tent at least once.
Each of the Boy Scouts set fire to his tent at least once.

4. At least one of the women in the diamond store was living beyond their means.
At least one of the women in the diamond store was living beyond her means.

5. We men must refuse to be exploited for our good looks and horseback riding abilities!
Us men must refuse to be exploited for our good looks and horseback riding abilities!

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
together with any attachment, may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
Any unauthorized review, use, printing, saving, copying, disclosure or distribution
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please
immediately advise the sender by reply email and delete all copies.

We are cruising this week! You’ve had your taste of pronouns and now it’s time for a little bit of information on joint possessives. First, what the heck am I talking about? I’m talking about writing about jointly owned objects, such as “Dylan and Darla’s swimming pool,” or “Rosy and Robert’s jet ski.”

Here are a few rules:

1. The standard way of treating joint possessives it to treat the owners as a single unit and add the apostrophe after the last name only.

· Teddy and Terry and Persephone’s party bus

· Pat and Oscar’s restaurants

2. When you are talking about several individuals and each one has their own (insert object here), then each owner gets an apostrophe.

· Bella’s and Buster’s T-bones (Each one has their own bone—they would certainly not share one!)

· Annie’s and Chris’s xylophones (They each have their own instruments.)

3. When you start to use pronouns in place of one of the individuals, be careful! Often it is best to rephrase sentences to avoid awkwardness.

· Rainbow and Rascal’s doghouse (Clear.)

· Rainbow and his doghouse (Unclear. Are you talking about Rainbow and a doghouse? Or are you talking about a doghouse that belongs to Rainbow and Rascal?)

· Rainbow’s and his doghouse (Debatable. Chicago Manual of Style says okay. Several grammar resources say it is incorrect but acceptable. The same goes for “His and Rainbow’s doghouse.”)

4. When you have two or more possessive pronouns, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

· Her and his party was really exciting! (Their party was really exciting! Joe and Katrina’s party was really exciting!)

· Please come to my husband and my house for dinner. (Please come to our house for dinner.)

· We should take your and my chips to the roulette table. (We should take your chips and mine to the roulette table. We should take our chips to the roulette table.)

And now for some comic relief:

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Today’s Lesson: Pronouns, Part II

Today we’re continuing with more common pronoun types from Daily Writing Tips.

1. Reflexive pronouns. This special class of pronouns is used when the object is the same as the subject in the sentence. They are myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, themselves, and itself.

Example: I managed to cut myself in the kitchen.

KC: This is often misused. Here are some incorrect uses and quick tips.

· Please contact Bob, Dinah, or myself.
Tip: What would you say if you were the only contact? Please contact me.

The correct sentence is: Please contact Bob, Dinah, or me.

· Sonny, his kids, and myself are going to the circus.
Tip: What would you say if you were the only one going to the circus? I am going to the circus.

The correct sentence is: Sonny, his kids, and I are going to the circus.

2. Interrogative pronouns. As you probably guessed, these pronouns are used to ask questions. They are what, which, who, whom, and whose.

Example: What are the odds?

KC: For some tips on who and whom, see this previous Editor’s Corner.

3. Demonstrative pronouns. These pronouns are used to indicate a noun and distinguish it from other entities. Notice that demonstrative pronouns replace the noun (while demonstrative determiners modify them). They are: this, that, these, and those.

Example of a demonstrative determiner: This house is ugly.
Example of a demonstrative pronoun: This is the right one.

KC: To be clear in your writing, make sure you’ve already told us what this, that, these, or those are, before you use the pronoun.

4. Indefinite pronouns. As the name implies, indefinite pronouns do not refer to a specific thing, place, or person. There are many of them, including anyone, anywhere, everyone, none, someone, etc.

Example: Everyone is going to the party.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Happy Monday, folks! As I was trying to collect some items for the Twelve Days of Christmas Grammar, I decided we would all have to work on some serious grammar lessons before preparing for any holidays. Over the next couple of days we will have a look at a few topics and then I will send out a quiz. After that, let the potlucks and decorating commence!

Today’s Lesson: Pronouns, Part I

As you probably remember, a noun is a person, place, or thing. A pronoun’s duty in life is to step in and take the place of a noun. This lets us add variety to our sentences and avoid making statements such as, “Mark hates hospitals because Mark hates getting shots.” Let’s start off with a few common pronoun types from Daily Writing Tips. I’ll send you the remainder of the list tomorrow.

1. Subjective personal pronouns. As the name implies, subjective pronouns act as subjects within sentences. They are: I, you, he, she, we, they, and it.

Example: I am going to the bank while he is going to the market.

KC: Johnny Jingle and I are going to the concert. (He and I are the subject of the sentence.)
KC: We are going shopping while you find something to eat. (We are the subject of the sentence.)

2. Objective personal pronouns. These pronouns act as the object of verbs within sentences. They are: me, you, him, her, us, them, and it.

Example: The ball was going to hit me in the face.

KC: Dawn went with John and me to the mall. (John and me are the object of the sentence.)
KC:Katy will come with us if we are going to get lunch. (Us is the object of the sentence.)

3. Possessive personal pronouns. These pronouns are used to indicate possession, and they are placed after the object in question (as opposed to possessive adjectives like my and your, which are placed before the object). They are: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, and its.

Example of possessive adjective: This is my car.
Example of possessive pronoun: This car is mine.

KC: Example of a bad morning: “Dude, where’s my car?”

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

NOTICE: This electronic mail message and any files transmitted with it are intended
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My subject heading is a blatant, underhanded ploy to get you to open this email. But now that you’re here, I thought I’d give you the lowdown on the difference between a clause and a phrase (in case you don’t remember, or in case you were never told).

· A clause is a group of words that contain both a subject and a verb or a verb phrase (also called a predicate).

For example, in the following sentence, I’ve used bold font for the subject and I’ve used italics for the verb phrase.

My best friend looks and sings like Celine Dion.

Note: Some clauses can stand alone as sentences (these clauses are called independent clauses) and some must be joined with other clauses or phrases to create a complete sentence.

· A phrase is a group of words that work together, but these word groups are not clauses because they lack a subject and/or a predicate (verb or verb phrase).

For example,

o Under the refrigerator,… (no subject or verb)

o While running on the treadmill,… (no subject)

If you want to read a little bit more about phrases and clauses, click here.

So maybe a clause and a phrase didn’t walk into a bar, but I can’t leave you hanging, so here’s your bar joke:

Two whales walk into a bar. The bartender asks what they want. The first whale says "Mmmmmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh."

The second whale turns to him and says, "Go home Frank, you’re drunk."

Donna Bradley Burcher | Technical Editor, Adv. | Symitar®

8985 Balboa Ave. | San Diego, CA 92123 | Ph. 619.278.0432 | Ext: 765432

I’m not sure if the holiday season pressure starts in October when the stores start displaying Christmas themes—or if it is after Thanksgiving when people start mauling each other in stores to get the last Elsa doll, and when party invitations and community activities pile on at breakneck speed. Whatever holiday you celebrate, whichever yule log you dance around, and whatever you do to ring in the new year, there is bound to be a little bit of the following: overwhelming, underwhelming, and whelming.

The following information is based on a lengthy Q&A from the Grammarphobia blog, but these definitions are from Merriam-Webster.

overwhelm

1: Overthrow, overturn, upset

2a: to cover over completely (as by a great wave): overflow and bury beneath: engulf

b: to overcome by great superiority of force or numbers: bring to ruin: destroy, overpower

c: to overpower in thought or feeling: subject to the grip of an overpowering emotion

3: to project over threateningly or dominatingly

First Known Use: 14th century (sense 1)

underwhelm

: to fail to impress or stimulate

First Known Use: 1948

whelm

1a dialectal, England: to turn (as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something

b: to throw or place (an object) upon something so as to engulf or crush it <whelms his hat down over his eyes>

2a: to cover or engulf completely usually so as to wreck or destroy: bury, submerge <the avalanche whelms the mountain village in tons of snow>

b: to engulf or overcome in the manner of a storm or flood with usually disastrous effect <winter darkness whelms the woods>

c: to overcome in thought or feeling : overwhelm <drawn into overmastering passion, whelmed with a rush of joy and triumph — G. A. Wagner>

Middle English whelmen, perhaps alteration (influenced by helmen to helm) of whelven to turn upside down — more at helm, whelve

First Known Use: 14th century (sense 1a)

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