Grammar Blog of the Year Deadline Extended

It has been such a frantic weekend that Grammar.net decided to extend the deadline by 3 days, after disqualifying the 'top' two blogs. The official deadline now is Thursday, 20th October, 23:59 PST (Pacific Standard Time), and the winner will be announced on Friday 21st October.

So, I don't have to say it - we're currently leading, so keep it there! Oh, please do be careful - it's one vote per person, although it's still unclear how they are going to control that. Thanks to EVERYONE who has voted and who has been keeping the campaign going on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere in the cyber world! 

Thank you!

Compound Adjectives: To Hyphenate or not?

What are compound adjectives?

These are adjectives which are made up of more than one word, and there are many possible combinations.

Examples:

• adjective + noun: last-minute, shoulder-length
• noun + adjective: lead-free, goal-hungry

Very often, a -d or -ed is added to a noun to make it a past-participle construction.

• adjective + past participle: loud-mouthed, red-haired
 
• adjective/noun/adverb + present participle: evil-looking, awe-inspiring, never-ending
• number + noun: twenty-dollar, ten-kilometre

Whether these adjectives should be hyphenated or not is a difficult decision. The best advice would be to consult a good dictionary.

Generally, if there isn't any risk of ambiguity, or the compound adjective is a common one, hyphens aren't necessary.

Consider these:

He's just gone out for an early-morning run.
He's just gone out for an early morning run.

Both mean the same.

Brad is a Chinese martial arts practitioner.
Brad is a Chinese-martial-arts practitioner.

Is Brad Chinese or isn't he? Does he practise Chinese, Japanese or Indonesian martial arts?

However, there are certain compound adjectives that are always hyphenated, unless they can be written as one word.

• Numbers: fifty-dollar bill, one-man show, thirty-five-year-old woman, 21st-century technology
• Present participle construction (see above): good-looking actor, deeply-boring lesson
• Past participle construction (see above): tongue-tied child, old-aged pensioners
• Colours: yellowish-blue skirt, light-purple top
• Comparatives and superlatives: highest-ever inflation, lower-paid sector

These are general guidelines. When in doubt, consult a dictionary, or ask in Twitter with the hashtag #grammar. Be sure to follow me!

   

Best Grammar Blog 2011

We're getting into the final countdown, and there seems to be a strong surge in voting. A CLIL To Climb is currently lying in second place, with fans of the third-spot blog frantically voting to move it up, while the top-spot contender is also strongly defending its position. And the pig in the middle?

I'm getting a fair number of visits from the Grammar.net nomination page, but are you voting for me? ;-)

Regardless of my final position, I'd like to thank each and every one of you who has voted! I'm honoured to be up there especially taking into account the fact that this is a one-man show, sustained by little more than pure love of sharing.

Tricky Words: Affect or Effect? What are the Differences?

 

If one of our peers can make the mistake, then they must indeed be rather difficult to distinguish, so let's analyse them.

In the first instance, both affect and effect have their verb and their noun forms, but it's safe to mention here that affect as a verb is more common than effect the verb, and, likewise, effect as a noun is heard more often than affect as a noun.

affect, verb /əˈfekt/

If something affects someone or something else, it changes or influences them.

How will the new cutbacks affect us?

Even the threat of rain does not affect his decision to go for a run.

It is often used to talk about causing physical damages.

Northern Japan was badly affected by the enormous seaquake and tsunami.

How badly has New Zealand been affected by the recent oil spill?

We also used it to refer to strong feelings or emotions.

The kids have been deeply affected by their father's death.

There is no telling how their parents' divorce will affect them.

effect, verb /ɪˈfekt/

This is a formal verb and isn't used much. It means to achieve, to produce, to make something occur.

Seeing how badly their divorce has affected their children, they are trying to effect a reconciliation.

affect, noun /ˈæfekt/ (Notice how the pronunciation differs from that of the verb)

This is even rarer than effect as a verb, and is most often used in psychology and psychiatry to refer to feelings or emotions. We are more likely to hear affection /əˈfekʃ(ə)n/, which refers to a feeling of caring about someone or something.

effect, noun /ɪˈfekt/

This is used to refer to a result or an influence.

They are studying what effects the oil spill has on the ecosystems around the area.

Do you think technology has adverse effects on us?

For more meanings on affect and effect, consult a good dictionary.

   

When to use Who or Whom?

 I was rather surprised to see this tweet, and was even more surprised to see it being retweeted. 

So, when do we use 'whom'? To be honest, it is rarely used in informal spoken conversations, and you're more likely to see it in written form, but let's take a more detailed look at 'who' and 'whom'.

As a question word

Who is used without a following noun to ask about people.

Who is that boy standing over there?
Who was your favourite teacher?
Who said that?

Note that here we are using who to ask for the subject.

We also use who as an object in questions.

Who is she going out with?
Who does she love?
Who are they following?

Whom is possible here, but sounds rather stiff and formal.

With whom is she going out? (We prefer to use prepositions before whom)
Whom does she love?
Whom are they helping?

As a subject of a defining relative clause

Last night I saw the teacher who teaches us technology.

Who is the subject of the relative clause:

I saw the teacher. The teacher teaches us technology.

We cannot use whom, nor can we remove who.

As an object of a defining relative clause

That's the teacher who I saw last night.

Who is the object of the relative clause:

That's the teacher. I saw the teacher last night.

In this case, we can use whom (more formal) instead of who, or leave it out altogether.

That's the teacher who/whom/- I saw last night.

As a subject of a non-defining relative clause

Non-defining relative clauses are more common in a formal style, especially in writing.

I saw Mrs. Potter, who teaches us technology, last night.

We cannot remove who nor can we use whom instead.

As an object of a non-defining relative clause

That's Mrs. Potter, who I saw last night.

Since non-defining clauses are more formal, and we prefer whom in formal styles, we often replace who with whom here.

That's Mrs. Potter, whom I saw last night.

In cases where a preposition is present, we prefer it before whom.

He is very angry with Paris, who he had an argument with last week.
He is very angry with Paris, with whom he had an argument last week.

Valerie, who I told you about just now, is getting married.
Valerie, about whom I told you just now, is getting married.

Here's a group from the Swinging Sixties, Juicy Lucy, performing a Bo Diddley tune, 'Who do you love?'


       

How to insert an image from Flickr to your blog/website

First and foremost, if an image is protected by copyright, you won't be able to download nor use it. In my Useful Resources page, you can find several links to sites where you can obtain copyright-free images. One of the most useful sites for teachers is the ELTPICS group in Flickr, where images are photographed and uploaded by teachers.

Each week, on Twitter, teachers are invited to send their own pictures for a theme (although they can upload photos for the other sets, too).

There are several ways you can search for an image. If you enter on the above link, you'll find the latest photos which have been uploaded, and on the right of the page, you'll find the latest sets. If you wish to look at all the sets, you can click on this link. You can also search by tags.

If you want to look for a particular teacher's photos and know his user name, you can use the search box. Don't forget to select "eltpic's Photostream":

When you've found your image, it will most likely be a thumbnail. Click on this to see a larger version. If you then want to use the image, remember to mention where you got it from! Now, you'd need the html code to insert it to your blog or website.

As you can see from the image above, you'd need to click on the Share button and select 'Grab the HTML/BBCode". The HTML Code will pop up.

Select the size you want, and copy the code. If you just want the url, copy only the part which is underlined in red. You may need to copy and paste it somewhere else first, such as Notepad, before you can do it.

Saxon Genitive: Steve Jobs's or Steve Jobs'?

I was surprised, to say the least, to see this on Twitter yesterday.

I immediately responded with this tweet.

The apostrophe 's to denote possession is also known as 'Saxon genitive', which originated from Anglo-Saxon, also known as Old English. The fact that English is the only language to use this form of spelling makes it difficult for learners. The purpose of this post is not, however, to explain the rules governing the use of the possessive 's. For that, I'd suggest looking at your favourite grammar book.

Here, I'd just like to touch on the spelling bit.

Singular noun not ending in '-s'

This is straightforward. We just add 's to a singular noun.

my wife's bicycle
my friend's computer
Max's mobile phone
Spain's economic crisis

Regular plural nouns

This is also straightforward. We add the apostrophe at the end.

their sons' school
her parents' business
the girls' boyfriends

Irregular plurals

These get an 's just like singular nouns.

the children's video games
women's rights
people's choice

Nouns ending with -s

Here, we can either add 's or just an apostrophe at the end. It is said that adding 's is a more common procedure. Some follow the rule of adding 's if it's a singular noun and only ' if it's a plural noun.

Charles' wife OR Charles's wife
Steve Jobs' death OR Steve Jobs's death
Doris' iPad or Doris's iPad

It is worth pointing out the pronunciation rules though. The ending '-s is pronounced just as in that of plurals.

Alice's /ˈælɪsɪz/
Jobs's /ˈdʒɑːbzɪz/
St. James's Park /seɪnt ˈdʒeɪmzɪz pɑːk /
Socrates' /ˈsɒkrətiːziz/