XFNN STYLE GUIDE Basic Grammar Guide It is easier to discuss gramm1atical rules by referring to different parts of speech, so here is a summary: Articles: "the" (the definite article), "a, an" (the indefinite articles). Nouns describe "things", both concrete (you can touch - a computer) and abstract (you can't touch - beauty). Pronouns are substitutes for nouns: I, me, him, who, they, it, mine, its, his. Verbs express action or being. In "The cat sat on the mat," the verb is "sat". Adverbs usually describe a verb, adjective or other adverb. In "Go quickly" the adverb is "quickly". Most adverbs end in -ly. When they are used to qualify adjectives, the joining hyphen is rarely needed, eg, heavily pregnant, classically carved, colorfully decorated. But in some cases, such as well-founded, ill-educated, the compound looks better with the hyphen. The best guidance is to use the hyphen in these phrases as little as possible or when the phrase would otherwise be ambiguous. Adjectives describe. In "the little house", the adjective is "little". Prepositions provide links between nouns and pronouns and other words. In "The cat sat on the mat," the preposition is "on". Common prepositions are with, in, by, from, to, for, against, over, under and into. Conjunctions link clauses, phrases and words: and, but, when. A few words about sentences: First, and most important: sentences should be short. Also: all sentences contain a subject and a verb. My teacher once told me - a sentence should never be longer than one paragraph. The subject of a sentence is the person or the thing being discussed. The object of a sentence is the thing which is directly implicated in the action while the indirect object is the thing for which the action is done. Thus, in the sentence "The manager treated the staff to a meal", the subject is the manager, the object is a meal, and the indirect object is the staff. Many sentences do not have an object or indirect object, for example "She is unhappy with the way things have turned out." In most circumstances, put the time element (yesterday, today, tomorrow) after the subject and the verb it qualifies. Correct: "Directors of the company were told to resign yesterday.". Incorrect: "Directors of the company yesterday were told to resign." And even worse (splitting the verb): "Directors of the company were yesterday told to resign." Grammar and syntax Clauses are part of sentences and consist of a subject and a predicate. They are therefore sentences within a sentence. The most important types of clause are: Main: The essence of the sentence on which the rest depends. It could stand apart from the rest of the sentence and still have meaning. Subordinate: A clause that qualifies the main clause and cannot stand by itself as the main clause can. Thus in the sentence "After beating them with a large dictionary, the editor bought the translators egg tarts from Portugal", the first clause is a subordinate clause, and the second is the main clause. Try to avoid starting a sentence in this way - Sentences starting with subordinate clauses tend to feel clumsy and are definitely harder to read. Compare "When asked about the reports last night, the Premier declined to comment" with "The Premier declined to comment when asked about the reports last night" - the latter is simpler and sharper. A sentence can contain more than one main clause. The key point is that two main clauses must either be joined by a conjunction or stand as separate sentences. They cannot be linked just by a comma. For example, this is wrong: "The team played hard, they deserved to win". It should be either: "The team played hard. They deserved to win" or "The team played hard and deserved to win". Phrases form part of a clause. A phrase is a group of words that makes a unit, but does not contain a verb. It therefore cannot stand alone as a sentence. "A serving of egg tarts" is a phrase. ACTIVE and PASSIVE VOICE: In active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action. In passive voice, the subject of the sentence has the action done to them: The car hit the man (active); The man was hit by the car (passive). Active sentences are better than passive sentences. But there are occasions when the information requires passive construction. Compare: "A protester waving a placard yesterday assaulted the President" with "The President was assaulted yesterday by a protester waving a placard." The second construction, although passive, is better because it puts the most eye-catching information first. Adjective phrases should be placed next to the related noun or pronoun: "She liked the look of the tall, dark and attractive young man across the room." SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT: The rule is that plural nouns and pronouns take plural verbs; singular nouns and pronouns take singular verbs. But there are traps. Collective nouns. Collective nouns usually take singular verbs and pronouns. Words such as the Government, Cabinet, the Opposition, council, committee, all take singular verbs and pronouns. Words such as family and congregation also are singular and take singular treatment except where the sense is directed to the collective's constituent parts as in: "The family put down their knives and forks and wiped their mouths politely" or "The congregation took their seats." In these cases the singular pronoun would sound ridiculous, but often the departure from the rule can be avoided by rephrasing the sentence: "Members of the congregation ..." and so on. Words like "none", "no one", "each", "everyone", "everybody" should generally take a singular verb ("Everyone is going; none of them is staying"). And, with - these constructions are correct: "The Prime Minister and the Treasurer are . . . The Prime Minister, with the Treasurer, is. " This outcome arises from the fact that "with" is not a conjunction. There are/is - the verb agrees with the subject, which follows the introductory words there and here. Thus: There is one reason to scrap the plan; There are two reasons to scrap the plan; Here is a bunch of roses; Here are two bunches of roses. TENSES Present simple: he goes; Present continuous: he is going; Present perfect: he has gone; Past simple: he went; Past continuous: he was going; Past perfect: he had gone; Future simple: he will go; Future continuous: he will be going; Future perfect: he will be gone. INDIRECT SPEECH Indirect speech: The grammatical rule is that when converting from direct speech to indirect speech, the tense of the whole sentence is governed by the tense of the verb to say (or claim, explain etc). If you are writing in the present tense ("he says") then the tense of the indirect speech remains as it was when uttered. So "I love my wife," he says becomes "He says he loves his wife." The same applies when using "according to", which has the same effect as present tense. But when you use the past tense ("he said") then all tenses are pushed into the past, so that present simple becomes past simple ("I love my wife," he said becomes "He said he loved his wife.") Under this same rule, direct speech in past simple tense becomes indirect speech in past perfect tense. ("I loved my wife," he said becomes "He said he had loved his wife.") The advantage of this is that it is clear from the tense of the indirect speech what tense the speaker actually used, and therefore what he meant. Similarly, "I have been out walking," he said becomes "He said he had been out walking." And so on. When writing a sequence of several sentences of past tense indirect speech attributable to the same source, do not put s/he said at the end of every paragraph. Allow the tense to indicate you are still in indirect speech mode, thus: "The minister said more cuts were likely." "A drop in revenue was making it impossible to maintain services" and the budget had cut government funding further than expected." This approach can sometimes lead to absurdities if grammatical rules are followed unerringly. For example, "I love my wife," he said. "She is beautiful, although frail." would become "He said he loved his wife. She was beautiful, although frail." It starts to sound as though she is also dead. So there are two rules regarding tenses in indirect speech: 1. Never let tenses kill the living or resurrect the dead: The injured are . . . (not were). The victims (of a fatal plane crash) are believed to have been . . . (not believed to be). 2. Rewrite to avoid unclear or nonsensical implications. 7. SPLIT INFINITIVES are when an adverb or phrase is inserted between the word to and the infinitive of the verb, as in "to boldly go". While split infinitives are frowned on by some, avoiding them can produce ungainly writing or even ambiguity. For example: 1. She failed to completely empty the glass; 2. She failed completely to empty the glass; 3. She failed to empty the glass completely, and 4. She failed to empty completely the glass. The first sentence contains a split infinitive. But by fixing it, the next two sentences are vague (the first suggests she nearly emptied the glass; the second and third could mean that she has removed nothing at all). The fourth sentence is intolerably awkward. The rule is therefore: try to avoid split infinitives, but never at the expense of clarity. 8. THAT or WHICH? Whether a clause is defining or descriptive dictates whether it takes the relative pronoun that or which. "A space probe that returned from Jupiter is believed responsible for an outbreak of itching across the southern United States." The clause following "A space probe . . ." is defining and takes that. But . . . "A space probe is believed responsible for an outbreak of itching across the southern United States. The probe, which returned from Jupiter, may have brought with it a plague of space fleas." In this case, the same clause becomes descriptive and takes which. The that/which dictum comes from grammatical tradition rather than from any argument of logic. 9. More about THAT: The word can often be left out; its inclusion only breaks the flow of a sentence. For example: The Premier said he would retire next week . . . reads more smoothly than The Premier said that he would retire next week . . . It can also be unnecessary sometimes when used as a relative pronoun. Example: The dog the man bit is being tested for rabies . . . has a better flow than The dog that the man bit is being tested for rabies. Sometimes, however, omitting the word can change the meaning. One such case is when it follows a verb capable of being either transitive or intransitive and the that prevents the subject of the following clause being read as the object of the preceding verb. Example: "The Premier said he assumed the identity of Joe Blow was genuine." You could be forgiven for believing that the Premier had been passing himself off as someone else - until they reach the final two words. But the Premier was not "assuming an identity". He was assuming something about an identity and that makes that clear. Many verbs require the that treatment, the verb to believe in the previous paragraph being one. That also must be retained when it is needed to attach an adverb to its correct verb: "The Premier said later he rang the Prime Minister. . ." is correct if the Premier is speaking after some earlier statement or event. If he is referring to something he did later, it should read: "The Premier said that later he rang the Prime Minister." 10. ONLY: The word should be positioned correctly in a sentence, but the strict rules of grammar need not be pursued to extremes. Imagine how the song would sound had it been punctiliously penned: "I have eyes only for you." For imperious emphasis, only can be placed after the word or phrase to which it refers or in the inflammatory: Men only need apply. Some misplacements are indefensible, as in Five people only asked for a drink when what is meant is Only five people asked for a drink. Generally, place only immediately before the verb only when it is the verb itself to which it refers. Back to the introduction