Editor's Corner

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

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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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Good morning, folks!

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you, Donna, for standing in and delighting everyone with your Editor’s Corner selections so that I could enjoy a very chilly holiday in Oregon. Today I have a tiny Q&A from the Chicago Manual of Style, where apparently they did not have a great holiday because they are quite snarky. If you’d like to see the more helpful Q&A items for December, click here.

Q. What does The Chicago Manual of Style recommend for the usage of make vs. makes?

A. We recommend using one or the other.

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

619-542-6773 | Ext: 766773

www.symitar.com

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It’s answer time!

What do the following words have in common?

· Baobab

· Dachshund

· Hopscotch

· Youngberry

· Dumbfounded

Answer: All six words begin and end with the same letter.

This riddle brought to you by dictionary.com. Thanks for playing!

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

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

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Today is a fine day for a word game. Are you feeling clever?

I’m going to give you a list of five words and their brief definitions. All you have to do is figure out what the words have in common. It couldn’t be easier.

There’s only one rule: please do not send your answer to me.

To make it easy for everyone, I’ll send the answer to you at noon (PT), so you can see how you fared. Here are the words and their definitions:

· Baobab: a tree, also known as the upside-down tree; the fruit is sometimes known as monkey bread

· Dachshund: a short-legged dog known for hunting badgers; also called a wiener dog

· Hopscotch: a popular children’s playground game

· Youngberry: a hybrid of blackberries, raspberries, and dewberries

· Dumbfounded: confused, bewildered, amazed

Ready, set, go!

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

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

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exclusively for the individual or entity to which it is addressed. The message,
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Good morning.

I don’t know about you, but I have to stop and think whenever I write the term bear with me. I can never immediately remember which word I should use: bearor bare.

Then, the other day I received an email from Daily Writing Tips that helped to set things straight for me. Maeve Maddox says:

Commonly seen on the Web is the misspelled phrase “bare with me.” The correct expression is “bear with me.” It means, “be patient with me.”

One of the many meanings of the verb “to bear” is “to tolerate.” The verb bare, on the other hand, means “to reveal” or “to uncover.” For example, “Do not bare your navel in public.”

The information above lets us know that we should use the word bear; but how do we remember?

It might help to bear in mind that the word bare always means lacking. You could be bare naked. You could be a college student who lives in a bare dorm room. You could be surviving the recession with only the bare necessities. But in all those cases, you are lacking something.

On the other hand, the word bear has several unique meanings. It refers to the big growly animal (or a big furry man). It can also mean to carry, as in to bear a burden. And, as in the phrase that started this whole conversation, it can mean to be patient.

So here’s how I’m going to remember. I’m only going to use the word bare to talk about someone or something being naked. Otherwise, I know I should use the word bear.

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

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

It’s a quiet day. A lot of people have the day off, but we don’t want to feel sorry for ourselves. Instead, let’s have a little fun with words. I’m going to share seven wacky words that originated in the USA. Before seeing this post on dictionary.com, I had heard all but one of these words, but I didn’t know what some of them meant. See how many you know:

· Lollapalooza: an extraordinary thing, person, or event [dbb – This word perfectly describes the Thanksgiving celebration at my house yesterday.]

· Sockdolager: a decisive blow or remark

· Catawampus: confused or diagonal [dbb – This word could describe the way my son set the Thanksgiving table; but hey, he did it, so I didn’t have to.]

· Hornswoggle: To trick or hoax

· Foofaraw: A great fuss about something insignificant or an excessive amount of decoration

· Discombobulate: to confuse or upset [dbb – I just love this word.]

· Bumptious: offensively self-assertive [dbb – Did I mention that my sister attended?]

If you’d like to hear how these words are pronounced and read a little more about them, click here.

Enjoy your day today, and have a lovely weekend.

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

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

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.

A few weeks ago, during the elections, someone asked me about the term “monies.” Outside of looking up the definition, I couldn’t find anything very helpful as far as when to use the plural, the proper way to spell it, etc. Today, while looking for something else, I stumbled upon this article on Grammar Girl’s website. This is only a portion of it. For the entire article, see Quick and Dirty Tips, by Mignon Fogarty. Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Money, Monies, or Moneys?

Michael S. asked:

It’s accepted to say, "to hold moneys for payment in trust." I presume moneys is plural; I’ve also seen it spelled monies. Does this mean, then, that the singular would be "a money"?

Merriam-Webster and the Oxford English Dictionary list both spellings—moneys and monies—as acceptable plurals of the word money.

Why Do We Need a Plural for Money?

The bigger question is since money is already a mass noun, why do we need monies no matter how we spell it? Both Garner and The Cambridge Guide to English Usage explain that monies is usually used by legal or finance writers to talk about “individual sums” or “discrete sums” of money.

Monies: I Don’t Like It, but It’s Not Going Away

If you’ve listened to my podcast before, you know that most things don’t bug me, but I have to confess that monies annoys me a little bit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sentence in which someone uses monies when money wouldn’t work. For example, one of the examples in Merriam-Webster reads, “Most of the project is being paid for by federal monies.” To my ear, it would work just as well and mean the same thing to say, “The project is being paid for with federal money.” Maybe finance writers see a distinction I don’t see. (I also did some research on the difference between by monies and with money and didn’t find anything that seemed significant.)

But I can tell you that monies is not new and it’s definitely here to stay. The first example of moneys in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1384 from the Wycliffe Bible.

There’s No Such Thing as “A Money”

To answer Michael’s questions:

1) You can spell the plural either way, but I’d go with monies since that’s what most legal and finance writers seem to be using today.

2) Even though monies is the plural, I can’t imagine a sentence in which you’d ever need to talk about “a money.”

Los Reyes: Delicious Burritos, Not-So-Delicious Spelling

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory