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| “April Showers Bring May Flowers” |
For flower lovers and grammar lovers, here is some vital info on capitalizing names of flowers:
1. Do NOT capitalize names of flowers that do not already contain proper noun elements:
a. roses
b. geraniums
c. daffodils
2. DO capitalize any part of :
a. black-eyed Susan
b. African daisy.
If you are a writing teacher, use your feedback on students’ papers to point out advanced techniques done correctly. Sometimes students write without realizing that they are doing some cool things in their writing.
For example, here are some comments I have just made on a couple of students’ papers in order to even use grading time as teaching time:
*Superb compound-complex sentence!
*Another great appositive
*Love this CS; CA, CS
*Thanks for remembering that periods always go inside closing quotation marks in the US
*Great details…I appreciate you putting at least two pieces of information in each sentence!
*Love this informative opening paragraph with its strong link to the body and its MYSTERY!
*Triff!
*Cool vocab in this sentence!
*Perfect personification! 🙂
*Love this allieration!
Happy teaching, learning, and grammar today, LL friends!
I try to use mnemonics, tricks, songs, and jingles to teach parts of speech, homophones, and any other grammar and usage tips that I can. Students (of all ages, including adults!) often remember usage better when a trick or tip is applied.
One of my students’ favorite tricks is for the confusing word pair (sometimes considered homophones, though they do have slightly different pronunciations) conscience/conscious:
The student’s conscience bothered him because he tried to con the science teacher.
He wasn’t conscious enough to enjoy the delicious treat.
In today’s assignment, my students had to write sentences using conscience and conscious (one sentence each). My amazingly clever students had fun with this! Three of them used both words in one sentence and included the “trick” in that sentence too!
1. I conned the science teacher while I was conscious, and my conscience bothered me.
2. He wasn’t conscious of the fact that he conned the science teacher; once he realized he had, his conscience bothered him.
3. He had a guilty conscience after he consciously conned the science teacher.
To tell whether you need to use who or whom, you have to do two steps, and the second step is rather laborious:
1. Remember the little trick from earlier:
he/who
him/whom
2. Then reword the sentence so that you can answer the question with he or him–and use the who or whom that goes with your answer (he/who and him/whom).
1. They didn’t say who/whom was going to lead the group.
a. Who did they not say was going to lead the group?
b. They did not say HE was going to lead the group.
c. They didn’t say WHO was going to lead the group. (He/Who)
2. I hope that whomever/whoever wins will be good for the job.
a. Who do you hope will be good for the job?
b. You hope that HE will be good for the job?
c. I hope that WHOever wins will be good for the job. (He/Who)
3. I think that we should ask whoever/whomever arrives first.
a. Who will arrive first?
b. HE will arrive first.
c. I think that we should ask WHOever arrives first. (He/Who)
4. Give honor to whom/who honor is due.
a. Who should we give honor to?
b. We should give honor to HIM.
c. Give honor to WHOM honor is due.(Him/Whom)
5. I didn’t think he was one whom/who could carry out the job.
a. Who could carry out the job?
c. HE could carry out the job.
c. I didn’t think he was one who could carry out the job. (He/Who)
6. I didn’t pass it to the one who/whom they said I should.
a. Who did you not pass it to?
b. I did not pass it to HIM.
c. I didn’t pass it to the one WHOM they said I should. (Him/Whom)
I recently had the misfortune of seeing a sign outside a chicken franchise that read hot, juicy, chicken. You can imagine my outrage!!! It, of course, took us here at Language Lady to Comma Clues #2: Use Commas to Separate Two or More Describers (But Not Between the Describer and the Word Being Described!).
I was thrilled to find the image above to instruct you in the commas-with-describers rule because those two benchmarks are the ones that I teach in my grammar books:
1. If you can reverse the order of the words that you are placing a comma between, and the phrase still makes sense, use a comma:
a. She had on that bright, beautiful dress. (She had on that beautiful, bright dress—YES…comma is needed.)
b. She had on that, bright dress. (She had on bright that dress–NO…comma is not needed.)
2. If you can put an AND in between the two words you are placing a comma between, and the phrase still makes sense, use a comma:
a. She had on that bright, beautiful dress. (She had on that bright and beautiful dress—YES…comma is needed.)
b. She on that, bright dress. (She had on that and bright dress—NO…comma is not needed.)
For those who like technical explanations, we teach that commas go between DESCRIPTIVE adjectivest (bright, beautiful) but not between CLARIFYING adjectives (that, five, this–which are usually called something else anyway, like pronouns, etc.).
More on comma before the and in a series of three or more (bright, beautiful, and colorful dress) in Comma Clues #3! Have a lovely, grammatically-correct day!
Do you like to read Language Lady everyday or every day? Let me help you with that!
Every day
1. Two words
2. An adjective (every) describing a noun (day)
3. Used when you want to say EACH day or ALL days.
Everyday
1,. One word
2. Usually an adjective together (the entire word is an adjective–everyday)
3. Used when you want to say something is NORMAL or TYPICAL.
Tips:
1. Every day is an adjective and noun together already–do not use these two words to describe another noun! (NO: Those are our every day dishes.)
2. Everyday is an adjective alone–use it to describe another noun. (YES: Those are our everyday dishes.)
Tricky Trick to Help It Stick: A wise grammarian recommends “testing” your words by seeing if you could put the word “single” in between every and day. (EACH single day):
1. If you can put “single” in between the two words, then you want the two separate words meaning EACH day…every single day:
a. I went to the mail box every SINGLE day. I went to the mail box every day.
b. She wrote him a letter every SINGLE day. She wrote him a letter every day.
2. If you cannot put “single” in between the two words, tehn you want the one word meaning typical or normal:
a. I wanted to use the every SINGLE day dishes. NO. I wanted to use the everyday dishes.
b. She is the every SINGLE day kind of gal. NO. She is the everyday kind of gal.
So…to answer the first question: You like to read Language Lady every day (each day) because she is not your everyday (typical) grammar teacher! Smile…
