But they would reject "He appeared in his best coat and which was indeed shabby," because, while best is restrictive, the relative clause is not restrictive. EACH, EVERY, Either, Neither, No one, NOBODY, ANY ONE, ANYBODY. These words are singular, but it is often difficult to refer to them by singular pronouns. "Let each do his best" is correct when spoken of men or boys; "Let each do her best," when spoken of women or girls. But if both sexes are meant, what should be done? In that case, some use the masculine, since masculine names frequently indicate both men and women. Others say "Let each do his or her best"; which, however necessary in legal documents, is too formal for ordinary use. Others again say "Let each do their best," employing the plural in default of a singular word of common gender. The difficulty may often be evaded by a change of construction: "Let all do their best"; and this method gets rid of awkward and absurd sentences. MISCELLANEOUS PRONOUNS. Note the difference in referring to the numeral one and to the indefinite one: "One of the soldiers raised his rifle"; "One is never sure if one's efforts will be appreciated." The indefinite one should be referred to by one or one's, not by he, him, or his. It must be admitted, however, that a collocation of one, one's, one is harsh: "When one reads it one finds many words one cannot understand, and one has to look them out in a sort of unfamiliar dictionary and try to make sense as one best can." This might be altered to "When reading it one finds many words hard to understand, and has to look them out in a sort of unfamiliar dictionary and try to make the best possible sense." In ordinary talk you is regularly preferred as the indefinite. When you is thus employed in writing, its indefinite sense should be clear and free from absurdity. "Mine and Harry's boat carried off first and second prizes respectively." Instead of this put "My boat and Harry's"; or, more clearly, "My boat won the first prize, Harry's the second." Whatever is an indefinite relative, not an interrogative. "Whatever do you mean?" should be "What ever do you mean?" i.e. "What in the world do you mean?" However is similarly misused. They, them are pronouns, not adjectives. "I do not like them apples," is wrong. VERBS NUMBER. It may seem superfluous to say that the verb should agree with the subject; but the verb is often made to agree with the nearest noun, which is not always the subject. "The difficulty of obtaining fresh eggs for the patients are great"; correct to "is great." See if the subject expresses singularity or plurality. This is not merely finding if it is singular or plural. The singular verb is correct in "The Lives of the Sultans contains interesting information," though Lives is plural. For the title of the book indicates one object. So with amounts of time, space, etc.; as "The next twenty-five years was a period of rapid change." Two or more nouns joined by and have the verb singular when they mean one thing, or several things closely connected; as "Bread and butter is good to eat"; "The saint, the father and the husband prays"; "A block and tackle is employed." On the other hand, the plural verb is necessary in "Dryden's and Rowe's manner are quite out of fashion," because the sense is "Dryden's manner and Rowe's mannner." The same holds in the case of adjectives indicating different things: "Secular and sacred poetry were both flourishing." In sentences containing and not or as well as, the verb agrees with the first subject; as "His heart, and not his head, is soft"; "Iron as well as coal is found there." A singular subject followed by a with-phrase needs care. The singular verb is correct in sentences like "The box with its contents was buried," or, "The man with his dog is crossing the bridge"; for here the with-phrase is simply an adjunct of the singular subject. But in "The soldier with his two comrades were killed," the nouns express co-ordinate ideas. This con struction is found; but such sentences had better be changed to "The soldier and his comrades were killed." When either...or, neither...nor connect two singular subjects, the verb is singular, because each subject is taken by itself; as "Neither Harold nor Douglas is at home." But when the subjects differ in number or in person, is the verb to agree with the first subject or with the second? "Neither thou nor I am,” or "Neither thou nor I art"; "Either he or they are," or 66 Either he or they is." It is less harsh to make the verb agree with the nearer subject. The difficulty may be evaded by saying “Thou art not, nor am I"; "He is not, nor are they." A collective noun indicating a group regarded as one has the verb singular; as "The flock is large." But we frequently think of the individual members of a group acting separately, and then we use the plural; as "The majority of the audience were already leaving the hall." Both constructions may be found in one sentence, as "The people is one and they have all one language"; but this should never occur without good reason. A singular verb follows each, every, either, neither, many a; as "Neither of the men is to be trusted." "Each of these hundreds of boys are prepared to face the discomfort" is wrong. But when each is in apposition to a plural subject, the verb is plural; as "The sixty men were each provided with a rope ladder." None, originally singular, is regularly construed as plural. When two words, one singular, one plural, are connected by some part of to be, is the verb to be singular or plural? Make it agree with the subject; as "The gruesome details are matter for the sober historian"; "All that remains in the house is the chairs." Should the construction sound harsh, it may be changed: e.g., "Nothing remains in the house but the chairs." When the subject is a relative pronoun, find by reference to the antecedent what number and person the relative has. PARTICIPLES: A common blunder is to leave the participle without proper agreement, or with no agreement at all. Constructions like "Generally speaking, nobody ever takes that route," which is well authorized, are few in number. "It was his custom to take exercise in his grounds with uncovered head, his snow-white locks exposed to view, inhaling the fresh sea breezes." Here inhaling refers to his-a construction defended on the plea that his implies of him. Change to "as he inhaled." The next example shows the obscurity caused by this construction. "Having gone to Dundee, a preacher was put up by the leading ecclesiastics to condemn his whole doctrine." It was not the preacher that went to Dundee, but the man whom the preacher denounced. Change to "When he went to Dundee." In the following sentences, some word must be understood to agree with the participles. "Entering the Strand, the traffic becomes more and more dense." Supply we, or some other word, with entering. This is grammatically correct; but it is better to say "As we enter the Strand" etc., or Entering the Strand, we find the traffic becoming more and more dense." 'Bearing in mind the social condition, it becomes easier to understand the architectural barrenness." Read: "Bearing..., we find it easier to understand," or "If we bear in mind..., it becomes easier." 66 'Being the dinner hour, the crowd was swelled by numbers of artisans." Change to "As it was the dinner hour." "We strolled out into the park, and, seating ourselves on the trunk of the old ash tree, Coleridge read aloud the ballad of Betty Foy." Seating really agrees with we in the previous clause. Re-cast, e.g. thus: "Strolling out into the park, we seated ourselves on the trunk of the old ash tree, and Coleridge read" etc. A frequent mis-construction appears in "A bullet hit a coin in his pocket, thus saving his life." What does saving agree with? Is it pocket, or coin, or bullet? It is meant to refer vaguely to the fact that, hitting the coin, the bullet did not penetrate further. After pocket read "and thus he escaped injury," or "and thus his life was saved." Those participles are not made correct by the insertion of while or when. While going is correct only in cases like "While going slowly along the lane, I met a runaway horse," where the subject of the elliptical while-clause is the same as the subject of the principal predicate; ¿.e. “While I was going, I met.” It is incorrect to say "While going slowly along the lane, a runaway horse rushed past." Similar blunders occur when there is no participle, as 66 Shrewd farmers, their granges, mills and brewhouses studded all parts of the Lowlands." The Participle with the Nominative Absolute should be rarely used it carries with it an un-English suggestion. Sometimes its brevity is a recommendation, as in "This done, we left the building." But we usually employ an adverbial clause or other equivalent. Instead of "The sun being now risen, we started,” say "As the sun was now risen, we started"; or The sun was now risen, and we started." SEQUENCE OF TENSES. Direct forms like "he went," "he had gone" remain unchanged in indirect speech: "I know that he had gone," "I knew that he had gone." Direct forms like "goes," "is going," "will go" remain unchanged after a present or future: "I know that he is going." They change after a past : "I knew that he went," 66 was going," "would go." But if the subordinate clause expresses a universal truth, the present occurs after a past in the principal clause; as "Harvey discovered how the blood circulates." Circulated would be wrong. But we Tenses should fit the time of the action, and contemporaneous occurrences should not be described by different tenses. employ the present for the future in subordinate clauses of condition, as "He will come tomorrow if it is fine"; and sometimes in principal clauses, as "We start for Bristol tomorrow"; "We are going to Berlin next week." For vividness past scenes are regularly described by present tenses the Historic Present. But unless there is a necessity for vivid writing, past tenses should be used for past events. Historic presents and ordinary pasts must not be mingled; as is done in "How prompt the keeper was to obey! Very deftly he drives a nail through one hand and then turns to the other. He was raising it into position for nailing, when his own hand was gripped hard by the Dwarf's teeth." |