Loose or lose?

Okay, half of you are probably thinking 'What? This is so obvious. How can people get this wrong?' Well, it is not obvious to the other half because people do get this wrong. Frequently.

Loose

Let's start with the adjective loose. This means (among other meanings) something that is not firmly or tightly fixed in place, something that is not tied up or shut in, something that is not fastened or packaged together (thanks Oxford English Dicitonary). Did you get all those 'somethings'? They are the things that loose is describing. This word has a soft 's' sound at the end of it.

I have a loose tooth!   (A tooth that is not firmly fixed in place.)

Lose

Lose, on the other hand, is a verb and it has a number of meanings but the useful ones here are to become unable to find or to no longer have or keep. This word has a 'z' sound at the end of it.

I don't want to lose my tooth or I won't get money from the tooth fairy.
(I don't want to become unable to find my tooth...)

And to finish with - a sentence with them both at the same time.

 I'm going to lose my temper because the neighbour's loose dogs are on my property again.

No need to lose it. We've got it all sorted. No loose ends!

What do I capitalise in a heading?

Increasingly there is a tendency towards less clutter in our writing - and that includes punctuation and formatting. Headings or titles are affected by this and it is becoming more common to see headings capitalised using sentence case (that is, only the first letter in the sentence and proper nouns have a capital). Life is much easier for us when we use sentence case because then we don't have to ask that tricky question: what words need a capital letter in my heading? Nevertheless some titles still require capitalisation and there is no getting out of it (book titles and report headings, for example). There is no definitive answer that I can give you to the capitalisation question, but I can give you some guidelines.

Do use a capital letter for:

• the first and last words of the title or heading
• all nouns and pronouns (e.g. he, she, you, it, Frankfurt, pony, forecast)
• all verbs (e.g. goes, falls, have, is)
• all adjectives (e.g. pretty, grand, fantastic, miniature)
• all adverbs (e.g. quickly, smoothly, finally)
• the word that in whatever role it has in the sentence
• longer conjunctions (e.g. since, because, although)
• longer prepositions (e.g. around, between, through)
• the first word following a colon and, if you wish, the first letter following a hyphen or dash.

Don't use a capital letter for:

• definite or indefinite articles (i.e. a, an, the)
• shorter conjunctions (e.g. nor, or, for, and, but)
• the words as and to wherever you might find them in the sentence
• shorter prepositions (e.g. in, out, over, on)

This is a nice set of guidelines and I acknowledge K. D. Sullivan and Merilee Eggleston for this succinct list. However there are a couple of riders that all reference books on the subject add.

1. Capitalisation of headings can be tricky if you don't know what part of the sentence the word is. Take a look in a dictionary if you don't know. If in doubt, follow your gut instinct - type the heading with and without the capital and see which way looks best to you.
2. Think of the significance of the word in the heading or title. Generally speaking the word should be capitalised if it is important to the understanding of the title.

As with so much of the English language capitalisation can be a matter of preference, but with the guidelines above you will be able to capitalise most titles and headings with confidence.

Prepositions

I can't believe you are actually reading a post about prepositions! But since you are here, read on.

Prepositions are all those common words that work with a noun or pronoun to show the noun's relation to the rest of the sentence.

Words such as

around about before after up down in out on to with without near by through for against

are prepositions.

Where does the preposition go?

If you ask anyone what they know about prepositions most will parrot that you must never end a sentence with a preposition. This is true if you are writing Latin, but it is not a hard and fast rule in English. Generally speaking the preposition goes before the noun/pronoun it is attached to

Francis is going to university. 

But this doesn't always have to be. Both versions of the question below are acceptable.

To which university is Francis going?

Which university is Francis going to?

 The first version sounds very formal to us but you will still see it in some writing. The second version reflects how we speak.  Some people would rather avoid writing the second version but feel that the first version is too formal. You can solve the problem (sometimes) by changing the verb. In this case we can change 'go' to 'attend'

Which university will Francis attend?

Repeating prepositions

Usually there is no need to repeat prepositions in a list within a sentence

I am allergic to dairy products and (to) nuts.

But sometimes you need to so you can avoid a confusing sentence

We are talking about the movie and about eating chocolates.

Just talking about eating chocolates, not actually consuming them.

Prepositions in a title or a headline

What if you have a capitalised heading? Do you use a capital letter at the start of a preposition? This is a fuzzy area and it can vary. A good rule of thumb is to capitalise a preposition if it is five letters or longer

Between the Covers

Gone with the Wind

How do I know if it's a preposition?

Look it up in the dictionary! Weird, huh? If you're stuck without a dictionary you could try a little trick. Take 'with' out of  'Gone with the Wind' and put your suspected preposition in. If it sounds like it could conceivably fit in you probably have a preposition on your hands ('Gone Through the Wind', 'Gone to the Wind', 'Gone down the Wind' etc.).

Which preposition?

There are some standard preposition/verb combinations and we English speakers are terrible at using the correct ones. The use of some prepositions is changing to match our spoken English. My pet hate is 'bored of' instead of 'bored with' or 'bored by'. A quick look at Oxford Dictionaries online showed me that this usage is quite common now and while you are best to avoid it in writing feel free to use it in speech. Nobody tell my kids!

If you aren't quite sure which preposition belongs in your sentence you can just go online and search up 'verb preposition list' and there are any number of websites with references you can use.

Me and I and what's the difference anyway?

My grandfather was a teacher. He taught in country schools so he was used teaching everything to any age group. Car trips (to an English-geek like me) were always fun because he would give me words to spell and I loved spelling (you can see it starts young!). But Grandad also liked to correct our grammar. This was confusing to a child of ten who had not been taught grammar at school beyond what nouns, verbs and adjectives were. One lesson really stuck with me. On that day I had got me and I mixed up and Grandad shared a surefire way of getting it right. I'll let you into his secret, but first let's look at the theory.


So what exactly am I talking about? You know, when you are emailing your friends and you want to say

Come to the movies tonight. Jordan, Harper and I are going.

Which is somehow different from

Darcy has invited Jordan, Harper and me to the movies.

But why should it be different? Well, because I is a subject pronoun and me is an object pronoun. Their purpose in the sentence decides which one you should use. This roughly translates to mean that after verbs and prepositions use me; before verbs use I.

So, looking at our examples

Come to the movies tonight. Jordan, Harper and I are going.

In this example, the names are all listed before the verb ('are') so we use I.

  Darcy has invited Jordan, Harper and me to the movies.

The list of names is after the verb ('invited') so we use me.

And what was that surefire tip of Grandad's? The one that meant that you didn't have to know what a verb or a preposition was?

Take out the other names in the sentence and see if it still works.

Come to the movies tonight. I am going.

Darcy has invited me to the movies.

It works!

 

That or which?

Carrying on the theme of pairs of words, this week we are looking at that and which. These two regularly get mixed up. And then there's that bit about whether you should use a comma. It all gets a bit fraught.

You know that the aim of this blog is to make writing as simple as possible. So, let's see if we can make this easy.

Using that

Sometimes in a sentence you want to define which thing you are talking about. If you were writing about one of these two kittens you might say:

The kitten that is black and grey is my favourite.

Tough for the little ginger kitten, but you've left your readers in no doubt as to which kitten you prefer. And see how that that fits so snugly into the sentence. So, we use that for a defining clause - a clause that tells us 'which one'.

Using which

What if you were telling your friends about your new kitten and puppy? You want to tell them all about your new pets - and you already have a favourite!

The kitten, which is black and grey, is my favourite.

Now they know a little more about your favourite pet (nothing about the puppy, though). The pair of commas (after 'kitten' and 'grey') contain the extra information in a non-defining clause. You could take that clause out of the sentence and it would still make sense, we just wouldn't know as much about the kitten.

Summing it all up

Use that when you are defining which thing you are talking about. It doesn't need a comma.

Use which when you are giving extra information. Use a pair of commas to corral that extra information. If you take out the words between the commas the sentence will still make sense.

Next time someone says to you "should it be that or which?" you can casually say to them that it depends if they are using it in a defining or non-defining clause. They will be impressed.

Fewer or less?

Last week we looked at amount and number and talked about how frequently they get misused. This week's pair of words are just as misunderstood.

Fewer or  less: how are we supposed to know which one to use? As with the whole of the English language, these words are in a state of change - but that doesn't mean that you can use them any which way. The grammar police out there will soon let you know when you get it wrong.

Let's make it easy (you like easy, right?) and make a couple of simple rules.

1. Use fewer when you mean 'a smaller number of...'.
2. Use less when you mean 'a smaller quantity or amount of...'.

So how does that look in the real world?

There are fewer marbles in the toy box because Sam dropped half of them out of the window.

There is less mess in the playroom now that Sam has thrown all his toys out of the window.

 

Fewer Than and Less Than

You can follow the same rules for fewer than and less than.

Fewer than twenty marbles are left in the toy box.

Less than half the mess was left after Sam had thrown his marbles out of the window.

You can do a little double check if you want to by changing your sentences around a bit and using much or many.

How many marbles are there? There are fewer than before because Sam has been careless.

How much mess is there? There is less than before because Sam has been busy throwing his toys out of the window.

 

Plurals of Measurement

What about money and time? Surely we don't say The new shirt cost fewer than $30? You're right, we don't. When it comes to time and money it's best to think of it as a total amount and so use less.

The new shirts cost less than $30 each so I bought two.

It was less than 50 km from the station to our house so I walked.

So, remember the rules above? Let's add one more...

1. Use fewer when you mean 'a smaller number of...'.
2. Use less when you mean 'a smaller quantity or amount of...'.
3. Use less than when you are dealing with an 'amount' of time or money.

Easier than you thought.

Amount or number?

Most of us get these words mixed up at some time - especially when we are speaking. But when we are writing our readers are less forgiving of misused words.

So how do you know when to use amount and when to use number?

Number is used for things you can count.

Amount is used for things you measure.

'I drank a vast amount of wine last night. I can tell by the number of bottles and corks left on the table.'

'Look at the number of sheep in the snow. The amount of snow is impressive.'

It's really easy when you look at it that way.

Remember:

Number is used for things you can count; amount is used for things you measure.

When do I stop?

In many parts of the world it is called a full stop. In the US it is called a period. We used to see them a lot more than we do these days. Where have they gone? And when do we use them? There's a summary at the bottom if you want to go to the cheat sheet. Otherwise...

You need one at the end of a sentence. It tells us to stop, take a breath and then move on to the next sentence. Everyone knows that, right? Well, yes, but sometimes when we are writing we get confused about where one sentence ends and another begins. That's when we end up with a run-on sentence. For example:

It was raining hard my umbrella was at the bottom of my school bag.

The two ideas just don't go together in that one sentence. Don't you miss that pause a full stop gives you? You need something to go between those two ideas. A full stop would be perfect:

 It was raining hard. My umbrella was at the bottom of my school bag.

Easy! So what else needs a full stop? In Commonwealth countries the answer to that used to be quite complicated. But now we seem to be aiming for a less cluttered look in our writing, with full stops among the first to go. 

The only abbreviation we still use a full stop for is 'no.' for 'number' (strictly speaking it isn't an abbreviation but a contraction of the word numero). The full stop is there to ensure 'no.' doesn't get confused with 'no'. Just remember to leave the full stop out if you are referring to more than one number ('nos'). 

Finally, we still use the full stop in some Latin abbreviations. It pays to check your dictionary for these. Sometimes a dictionary will have two choices. Just go with the first option as that is the more common usage. The most common Latin abbreviations we use are punctuated like this:

• a.m. (or am)
• p.m. (or pm)
• e.g.
• i.e.
• etc.
• c. 
• NB
• PS 

What do you need to remember when using a full stop?

1. Use it at the end of a sentence to tell your reader to take a pause.
2. Use it to avoid run-on sentences.
3. Use it for 'no.' (number).
4. Use it for some Latin abbreviations (check your dictionary).

Anyway, does anyone know - one word or two?

Anyone of us can read any thing and wonder if any body, any where, spots the mistakes that we do. 

That sentence doesn't look right, does it? Some of those words should be split up and some joined together. But which?

Well, here are some simple rules:

1. Anywhere and anything are always one word.

2. Any time is always two words.

3. Anybody, anyone and anyway are usually one word but not if the emphasis is on the second part of the word. For example "Any one of you could have got that question correct."

Any one of us can read anything and wonder if anybody, anywhere, spots the mistakes that we do. And now you know.

How do I know if it's 'its' or 'it's'?

Okay, this one stumps people because it seems so counter-intuitive. Let's look at a couple of sentences.

The cat licked its tummy.

 It's a black cat.

Many people want to put an apostrophe in that first sentence because, after all, don't we use an apostrophe to show possession? Well, yes, but unfortunately that is where English grammar starts to get ugly because the 'its' in that first sentence is actually a possessive determiner and they don't take apostrophes.

Before you run for the hills, it's okay, I've stopped the heavy grammar talk right there. All you need is one nice easy rule:

If it's short for 'it is' or 'it has' then use an apostrophe. For everything else just leave out the apostrophe.

So let's check the sentences near the start of this post.

'The cat licked it is/it has tummy' is obviously wrong. The sentence must be 'The cat licked its [own] tummy' so 'its' without an apostrophe is the way to go.

 'It is a black cat' makes perfect sense so we can use 'it's' with an apostrophe.

It's that easy!

The Oxford English Dictionary has come a long way.

When I was growing up we had a copy of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (two volumes, bound in blue fabric) on our bookshelf. It contained words I had never heard of and would never use. Archaic words and scientific terms were crammed in beside bizarre borrowings from foreign languages. It spelt disaster if referred to for Scrabble.

Forty years have passed and the OED has just released some of the latest words to make it into the dictionary. Is a future generation going to be just as bamboozled by "bants", "hangry" and "brain fart" as I was by "canthus", "dessiatine" and "lacustrian"? At the very least, the addition of new words with the letter "x", "Grexit" and "Brexit", will be welcomed by Scrabble players. Hmm, perhaps best to just stick with The Concise Oxford Dictionary.