Usage
Q. Hello, arbiters of messy prose. In a scholarly work on global labor conditions, plural-singular nonagreement involving the word “ability” occurs about fifty times, as in “Rules regarding paid leave affected families’ ability to earn a living.” My instinct is to change “ability” to “abilities” in this and similar cases, but is it really necessary? Thanks! Answer »
Q. In the latest Q&A on your website, I noted that an answer contained the word “lowercased.” Is this really a verb or another example of a noun erroneously transformed into a verb? I cannot imagine that you would make such an error, but I have never heard that verb before! Answer »
Q. Hello, CMOS Gurus—I cannot seem to locate the rule that proves (or disproves, I guess) the following to be correct: More than 28 million pounds of scrap is reclaimed every year. I thought that units of measurement or money took a singular verb, not plural (such as, three million dollars is a lot, or five miles is a long way). Are there other quantities that this applies to (such as years)? Or am I wrong entirely and should all three of my examples above take a plural verb? —A stumped copyeditor Answer »
Q. In the sentence “I thought more people would be interested in knowing what happened to XXX, but I see that his fate, his life, doesn’t seem to bring folks together the way the water did,” would you use “don’t” instead of “doesn’t”? Or does that comma after “his life” keep the verb singular? The author will not tolerate the insertion of “and” between “his life” and “his fate.” Answer »
Q. Don’t you think it is improper to use both Porsche and Jimmy Choo as proper nouns (instead of proper adjectives) in a Q&A about proper writing technique? Answer »
Q. Should the following sentence use the plural of century? Even in the late third and early fourth century[ies?], military resources were stretched. Answer »
Q. Dear CMOS Editor: In my technical publications work group, we have a difference in approach about using the verbs “to type” and “to enter” when instructing a reader to provide data to a computer screen interface. “Typed” data is “entered” to the computer by clicking a named control button such as “OK.” Should a reader be instructed “Type your password and click OK” or “Enter your password and click OK”? The Microsoft Manual of Style indicates that “enter” should not be used as a synonym for “type.” I would appreciate the editing perspective of CMOS. Answer »
Q. My colleague and I are editors and are debating the form of the verb in the sentence “As a schematic design (fig. 1), there are a main reactor for the co-precipitation reaction, a cation reactor for the Ca2+ diffusion, and an anion reactor for the diffusion of phosphate ions.” I say that the sentence should read, “there is a main reactor,” but my colleague says there are three items in the list and hence the verb should take the plural form. Could you please help resolve this debate? Answer »
Q. My daughter is filling out a college application that tells her to “write a brief answer (150 words or less) to both of the following questions.” The two questions are unrelated. We’re wondering whether to read that as “write 150 or less on each of the questions” or “write 150 words or less on both questions together.” Answer »
Q. Oath of Office. Who was grammatically correct, President Obama or Chief Justice Roberts? Should faithfully as an adverb come at the end of the sentence or after execute? Or is the oath correctly written with faithfully as an adjective before execute? Answer »
Q. “The first of which is better.” I said this is a sentence fragment, but a student pointed out that it has a subject and predicate. Who’s correct? Answer »
Q. Hello, I saw Barack Obama speak and he seemed to make a grammar error. I was wondering if I was missing something. He said, “President and Mrs. Bush invited Michelle and I to come to the White House.” Another time he said, “It was for Michelle and I.” Shouldn’t it be “Michelle and me”? My husband thinks I’m crazy to spend my time thinking about things like this, but it bothers me. Answer »
Q. I am an editor at a city magazine, and our copy department just had a spirited discussion over the phrase “last September.” The issue in which this phrase will appear hits newsstands in December 2008. Would the phrase “last September” then refer to September 2007 or September 2008? The phrases “last Tuesday,” “last week,” “last month,” and “last year” all refer to the unit of time immediately before the current one. Does “last September” merit a special consideration? Answer »
Q. I work as an assistant editor, and I’ve been having trouble with the phrase “as well as.” In some sentences, it means “in addition to,” as in the sentence “I ate the burger as well as the fries.” In other cases, it is used as a form of comparison, as in “I play the guitar as well as the piano,” meaning that I play both instruments with equal skill. Is one of these uses incorrect? Answer »
Q. What determines the verb of an adjectival clause—the subject of the main clause or the noun to which the adjectival clause most closely relates? Here’s an example: “One of the paradoxes that emerges from studying scientific discovery is . . .” Many years ago, when grammar was still being taught, I learned that the noun “paradoxes” (to which the pronoun “that” relates) would dictate a plural verb, “emerge,” in the dependent clause. I continue to make this kind of change in scholarly editing but oftentimes meet with authors’ resistance. What is your stance on this? Answer »
Q. I’m writing an article for an academic journal. I frequently use the word “effectively,” as in “Effectively, U.S. tax on those earnings could be deferred indefinitely.” I looked the word up in the dictionary, and it does mean something. But does it really add anything to a sentence like that above? Is there any style rule on this or a similar word? I’m thinking of just editing this word out everywhere it appears. Answer »
Q. Greetings. I’m working with the Knowledge Management team in an IT company, responsible for content management and development. My supervisor advised me to write only per, not as per in a sentence. Is it as per the Chicago Manual of Style? Please oblige me with your reply. Answer »
Q. My colleagues are divided in their opinions about “storing data in a computer” versus “storing data on a computer.” Which is correct? Thanks. Answer »
Q. What’s the difference, if any, between the words existing and preexisting ? Isn’t the prefix pre- redundant? Answer »
Q. The assistant editor of my local newspaper wrote the following sentence in a column: “My parents had my little brother and I later in life.” I said I believe it should be “my brother and me.” She remains adamant that she is correct and referred me to your book. How is this possible? Answer »
Q. I’m curious about your equating collective nouns with mass nouns in CMOS 5.8. The explanation at Wikipedia states that it is incorrect to equate the two. Answer »
Q. The author I’m editing has a fondness for making titles syntactic parts of his sentences, e.g., “the chapter on ‘Deconstructing Derrida’ takes up the challenge” and “a final essay too readily excoriating those figures she believes to be ‘Tolerating the Intolerable.’” Being confident that CMOS and other style manuals don’t approve of this practice, I’ve been recasting the offending sentences. Nonetheless, I’d like to be able to cite the relevant CMOS section (which I’m almost sure I’ve come across before) in a note to the author to bestow authority upon what may strike him as capricious and unnecessary changes. But for some reason, unfortunately (not, I hope, because I’ve simply dreamed up the idea that there’s a problem in these sorts of constructions), I can’t find that relevant section. Please tell me it exists and point me to it. Answer »
Q. I am wondering about the order of masculine and feminine nouns in a sentence. For example, is it correct to say, “Bring your daughters and sons to the event”? This seems awkward to me. It seems more appropriate to put the masculine first: “Bring your sons and daughters to the event.” Is this correct? Answer »
Q. “Any . . . is/are” again: If any of these records appears incomplete, report the patient’s name, date of birth. (My doctor asked me about that, from his medical dictation—my answer was “When you mean any one of then you can say is in dictating your notes.” I might have thought longer if I’d had my pants on. But that’s a common problem for copy editors, isn’t it?) Answer »
Q. I think this is correct: “We may recognize whether any of our friendships is truly spiritual.” My boss thinks it should be are: “whether any of our friendships are truly spiritual.” I can’t find a reference to this in the CMOS except that indefinite pronouns typically are treated as singular when followed by a verb. Answer »