by Donna | Feb 20, 2013
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.
by Donna | Feb 18, 2013
Happy Presidents’ Day. Or is that Presidents Day? Or Presidents’ Day?
Well….it depends on which expert you ask! Here is the run down:
1. It is NOT President’s Day
a. President’s denotes one President…and this holiday honors Washington and Lincoln both…as well as all presidents
b. President’s Day says that it is the day that belongs to one President (singular)
c. It follows the rule of writing the noun first (President) then if the word does NOT end in s, put apostrophe s (President’s Day)
2. Some say it is Presidents’ Day
a. The Gregg Reference Manual (my favorite handbook) cites it as such
b. This denotes many presidents all owning one day (or at least Lincoln and Washington)
c. It follows the rule of writing the noun first (Presidents) then if the word ends in s, put an apostrophe on the outside of the s
d. This is the correct way to show possession of one thing to more than one “owner”—or any noun that ends in an s (glass’ smudges).
3. Some say it is Presidents Day
a. The Associated Press Stylebook cites is as such
b. This method does not denote possession, but rather uses the word President as an adjective (actually a “proper adjective” in that it is an adjective made from a proper noun–some of the time–we will not even get into whether it is (President) or isn’t (president) in this post!)
c. This is like saying that, that is a Grisham book (as opposed to a book that Grisham owns–Grisham’s book), and it is certainly not incorrect
P.S. Capitalize president when referring to a certain president or the holiday in question!
So there you have it! More subjectivity in our English language. Happy Presidents’ Day! And Happy Presidents Day!
by Donna | Feb 15, 2013
Do you remember the two steps for determining whether to use who or whom from the other day? Here they are again followed by more practice sentences!
I hope you are one who uses who and whom correctly and not one whom others talk about concerning your grammar!
(Who uses who and whom correctly? HE does. /Who do others talk about? Others talk about HIM!)
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)
by Donna | Feb 14, 2013
Happy Valentine’s Day! Some tips for punctuation and capitalization of this loving holiday:
1. In a greeting (such as a card), cap all three words: Happy Valentine’s Day.
2. Show possession to the singular proper noun Valentine--the day belongs to him: Valentine’s Day.
3. Cap Day in the holiday because it is part of the holiday’s name (as opposed to day in Christmas day in which Christmas is the name of the holiday, not day): Valentine’s Day.
4. You can just call it Valentine when appropriate, but remember that Valentine is a singular proper noun, so in other contexts, do not plural it before showing possession:
a. I’m making Valentine’s cupcakes.
b. I got a Valentine card.
5. If you are calling cards Valentines, keep the following in mind:
a. Still cap it–any time a proper noun element is used, it retains its capitalization: I got a Valentine this morning. (In this case, it is sometimes called a proper adjective–an adjective that is a proper noun in its non-descriptive states.)
b. Just plural it with an s (not an apostrophe s): I got some Valentines at school today.
Most of all, enjoy your Valentine’s Day! 🙂
by Donna | Feb 13, 2013
We teach three writing strategies in our books that I just heard used wonderfully together in Michael Connelly’s new novel (The Black Box). (I listen to fiction sometimes while I clean, drive, edit, etc., since time is short here!)
“The store owners shot looters. The National Guardsmen shot looters. And looters shot looters.”
Three elements to try to incorporate in your writing this week:
1. SSS5 x 3—Super Short Sentence of Five Words or Fewer Three Times in a Row
2. Redundancy on Purpose! Way cool when redundancy (repeating the same words) is done on purpose!)
3. Repeating sentence structure--Subject-Verb-Object Pattern
Try one–or all three–this week!
by Donna | Feb 6, 2013
WORDY WEDNESDAY
You know what one of my least favorite words is? FACADE.
First of all, I work week in and week out to try to teach that an A, O, U, or most consonants make the C say “kuh.” That would make this word fuh-kade, right? (Or even fay-kade.) Unfortunately, that is wrong.
It is pronounced fuh-sodd. (That A really doesn’t make the C say “kuh.”)
That clearly makes this word a FAKE, which is one of its only redeeming qualities–it means what it looks like! Smile…
That bring us to the second aspect of the word–its meaning. It is a noun that means “a face of a building or a superficial appearance.”
In that regard, it is as it is pronounced–even though it isn’t pronounced like it is spelled (which is true of many words that came from somewhere else).
So it is easy to learn the meaning of—it has to do with what it sounds like–FACE (albeit, a fake face). But it is not spelled as one would think.
So, don’t put on a facade today! Don’t try to put on a superficial front or fake face. Be yourself!
