July 25, 2016

Hyphen ... Interrupted

My friend Tracy had a question about hyphens in the following passage:

... patients receiving a lenalidomide (Revlimid) or bortezomib (Velcade) based treatment ...

Where, she wanted to know, do the hyphens go? Under normal circumstances, you'd hyphenate a compound modifier with "based." A carbon-based life form. A faith-based initiative.

In a sentence where two compounds "share" a word, you'd hyphenate like this: a carbon- or silicon-based life form. This is called suspensive hyphenation, where the hyphen attached to "carbon" is just sort of hanging there to clue the reader that it attaches to a word that comes later.

But in these sentence, the parentheticals mess everything up.

lenalidomide- (Revlimid) or bortezomib- (Velcade) based?

lenalidomide (Revlimid)- or bortezomib (Velcade)-based?

If both look awful to you, I agree. The rule books never get this specific. They never say what to do in oddball situations. But they do say that most hyphens are optional, to be used only when they actually help. So, as I told Tracy, I'd leave that passage just as she found it.

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July 18, 2016

We're Not Worthy

As a suffix, "worthy" is on the rise. In his recent Wall Street Journal column, Ben Zimmer asks why.

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July 11, 2016

Prolly Worth Your Time

Baltimore Sun copy editor and all-around language guy John McIntyre did a post a while back about one of my favorite casualisms: prolly. Worth a read!

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July 4, 2016

Who Can Use 'Whom'?

It seems anytime "whom" or "whomever" is positioned as the subject of one clause and the object of another, people mess it up. And by people, I mean professional writers and editors.

The latest comes from the Los Angeles Times:

"Edric Dashell Gross, whom police said is a transient known to frequent Santa Monica, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder."

Here's my column explaining why that "whom" should have been "who."

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June 27, 2016

Rumors of the Death of the Period Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

In case you missed it, a recent New York Times piece has proclaimed that the period "may be dying." But if you read what the experts quoted in the story actually said, that's not quite it. Periods are out of vogue in one- or two-sentence text messages, as well as in 140-characters-or-fewer tweets. Fascinatingly, when a tweet or text does include a period, the punctuation takes on a new connotation: snark.

But that doesn't mean the period's dying. Decide for yourself. Here's the Times piece.

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June 20, 2016

Commas, Subject-Relative Pronoun Agreement and More

Some questions that made it into my recent column touch on serial commas, where to put commas and periods relative to quotation marks, and whether "Betty is one of those people who like(s) cupcakes" takes the plural or singular verb. All those answers and more here.

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June 13, 2016

Sometimes Danglers Are a Problem

Recently, the Los Angeles Times described the movie "Dheepan" as the "Palme d'Or winner about Sri Lankan refugees trying to escape their violent past in France." That made reader Rod do a double-take.

"The question is where the 'in France' should go," Rod wrote. "There's a serious difference between a violent past in France and being in France trying to escape a violent past, presumably in Sri Lanka."

Agreed. Here's my full take on the sentence and the problem therein: the dreaded dangling modifier.

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June 6, 2016

A Quick Hyphen Refresher (as opposed to a quick-hyphen refresher)

For compound adjectives and adverbs you make up yourself, use a hyphen anytime it aids readability or comprehension: a lobster-eating man.

Adverbs ending in ly are the exception. These don't take a hyphen: a happily married couple.

For compound adjectives that already exist, check the dictionary's hyphenation: good-looking.

For nouns, check a dictionary: self-esteem.

For verbs, check a dictionary: fact-check.

Note that it's often the case that the verb form is open while the noun is closed or hyphenated: Five traits make up his personality makeup. On Tuesday, I have to pick up Tom's pick-up from the dealership.

Note that the reigning aesthetic in publishing today leans toward less punctuation, so compounds adjectives that could logically take a hyphen usually don't unless the hyphen is needed.

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May 30, 2016

Some Words You May Not Know as Well as You Think You Do

Peruse. Forgo. Enormity. Rein.

If you think you know everything there is to know about these words, maybe you do. But maybe you don't. Here's a roundup of 10 sometimes misused, sometimes misunderstood words that deserve a closer look.

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May 23, 2016

A Day in the Life of a Grammar Columnist

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Wrong!

I realize the article is almost 2 years old, but I barely saw it.

You claimed a lot of people don't know that "Talk to Mary or me" is grammatical. It's not. It's "Talk to me or Mary."

FROM: June Casagrande
TO: USC David
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

Actually, grammar has no rules about the order of nouns or pronouns in a coordinate noun phrase, regardless of whether it's functioning as a subject or object.

So "Talk to Mary or me" is just as grammatical as "Talk to me or Mary.

Grammar's funny like that: It's about syntactical function, not propriety. That's why it's also perfectly grammatical to say "I and John went to the movies." No one would say that, of course. But it's as grammatically correct as "John and I went to the movies."

Perhaps you're confusing grammar with properness? They're very different.

Thanks for writing!

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

If it makes you feel better to make up the rules, fine. I'm amused on a daily basis about the dumbing down of America. Thanks for showing how we've gotten here. You point out an error and people try to argue the point, no matter how wrong they are, rather than taking advantage of the opportunity to learn & grow.

See ya!

FROM: June Casagrande
TO: USC David
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

You're right: I should seek out more information and learning opportunities.

So please tell me where I can learn more about the wrongness of "talk to Mary or me." I have a dozens of grammar books and not one of them backs you up. So if you have some good sources that contradict them, that would indeed be very educational for me.

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Re: Wrong!

I have no need to read more of your stupidity. I hit delete without even opening it.

Some people don't want to learn and that's ok. I just don't need to be a part of it.

See ya!!

FROM: June Casagrande
TO: USC David
SUBJECT: I want to learn. Teach me. Point me to good sources.

Had you wanted to learn how I'd replied to your last email, you'd have read this:

<<You're right: I should seek out more information and learning opportunities.

<<So please tell me where I can learn more about the wrongness of "talk to Mary or me." I have a dozens of grammar books and not one of them backs you up. So if you have some good sources that contradict them, that would indeed be very educational for me.>>

FROM: USC David
TO: June Casagrande
SUBJECT: Re: I want to learn. Teach me. Point me to good sources.

In addition to not being able to write, you can't read either. Your notes go right in the trash.

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