December 2, 2023

I’m so sorry that Covid kept me from participating in the fun at the very last Winchester Farmers Market of 2023! Thank you for sharing your language questions with me, and I hope I get to meet you at a future event! In the meantime, you can find me at my website, on Instagram, or on Facebook.

Q. When is it appropriate to use a semicolon? Autocorrect often tells me I’m wrong. 

A. Two people asked about semicolons, and one even included a sad-face emoji, so I am bumping this topic to the top of the list!

Older literary works may use semicolons in ways that would surprise many modern readers, but there are two main uses today: (1) between what could be two complete sentences and (2) in complex lists of elements that already include commas.

An example of the first type is “I broke up with my boyfriend; he was a jerk.” In this case, the ideas are closely related, and the semicolon brings the two pieces into a more intimate relationship than a period would.

In a New Yorker piece by writer Patricia Marx, you can find this example of a complex, semicolon-filled list: “Benefits include unsolicited advice from Patty about why you should go on the keto diet; Patty’s Netflix password; long, repetitious monologues from her about whether she should paint her living room Cottage-Cheese White or Cocaine White; and an invitation to Patty and Larry’s annual Yom Kippur break-the-fast supper, at which Larry’s third cousin, the actor Pauly Shore, might stop by.”

Note the semicolon before the final “and” (i.e., right before the words “an invitation”). People often neglect that final semicolon—don’t forget it!

Q. Is it correct or incorrect to say “an historian” or “an historic event”? The “an” always sounds so pretentious, and my instincts tell me that it is incorrect. 

A. Some English dialects have a history of what is known as h-dropping, which is why you hear things like “an istorian.” If you do not pronounce the h in “historian” or “historic,” the article “an” makes sense there. Since I clearly pronounce the h in both words, however, I use “a” instead. If you normally pronounce the h in “historian” but still say “an istorian” anyway, I wouldn’t call it wrong, but in my experience, quite a few Americans find this habit irritating and read it as an affectation.

Q. Your friend is throwing a party and has hired caterers. You say to her, “We don’t need to bring food, right?” Your friend replies, “Yes.” Does she want you to bring food?

A. You will never know for sure unless you ask more questions. I would normally guess that yes means no food, but the construction is ambiguous enough that you cannot be sure. If I wanted certainty, I would keep asking questions. In addition, if I were the host, I would try not to answer this type of question with a simple yes or I might end up with tater tots at my fancy catered party.

Q. Is it now OK to put a pronoun at the end of a sentence? I really want to.

A. I think you mean preposition, but don’t worry, you’re not the first to mix up those pr-words! And the answer is yes; that idea has been debunked as a grammatical principle in English. Here’s an example with a concluding preposition: “That’s the book I was telling you about.”

If you insist on saying and writing “That is the book about which I was telling you,” it wouldn’t be wrong, but you might end up with fewer party invitations. 

Sometimes in writing you may discover a stylistic reason to avoid ending with a preposition, but there is no universal ban on such a thing, so go for it! I have your back. If anyone gives you grief, you can email me at ellen@grammartable.com.

Q. For a friend, may I have a definition and examples of a dangling participle?

A. How generous of you to inquire about participles for your friend! 

Let’s start with the participle part. There are two types of participles, past and present. (Don’t get hung up on the past/present naming convention, which is confusing.)

A present particle is an -ing verb form, such as appears in the sentence “Vince was hanging upside down when the phone rang.”

A past participle is the form of a verb that would work in this blank: “I have _____.” The past participle of “eat” is “eaten,” of “walk” is “walked,” of “sing” is “sung,” and so on.

Below are two sentences that begin with dangling participles (one present and one past):

Hanging upside down, the phone rang.

Disappointed by the meager raise, it was clearly time to look for a new job.

Who’s hanging upside down? Not the phone, surely. Who’s disappointed by the meager raise? You  can’t tell. In each case, someone is lurking in the background, but they (intentional use of “they” there) are not mentioned in the sentence. That’s why it’s called a dangling participle, which is often also referred to as a dangling modifier. The idea is that it’s dangling there with nothing in the sentence to refer to (intentional use of a concluding preposition).

To fix it, one easy option is to put the person being described right after the phrase:

Hanging upside down, Vince heard the phone ring.

Disappointed by the meager raise, Johanna knew it was time to find a new job.

The dangling participles have now been undangled.

Q. Please provide a clear and simple explanation of when to use “who” and when to use “whom.”

A. “Who” is the subject form, and “whom” is the object form. If the word is operating as a subject, use “who.” If it is operating as an object, use “whom.” The problem is, this is not a clear and simple explanation unless you are already totally clear on subjects and objects in a variety of contexts. Most people aren’t.

I spend nine pages on “who” versus “whom” in my book Rebel with a Clause. I spend a lot longer than that on how to tell whether things are subjects or objects. I will take this opportunity to recommend my book if you would like a fuller understanding of this topic. 

If not, I still have good news for you! Many people use “who” even in object situations, and it regularly sounds fine. For example, “Whom did you call?” is technically correct because “whom” is the direct object of the verb “call,” but most people won’t say that. It sounds over the top to them. I might say it, but I don’t hear it very often, and I certainly don’t mind, not even a little bit, when other people use “who” there.

In general, if you’re not sure which to use as you’re speaking along, I recommend going with “who.” I think it’s far better to use “who” when “whom” is called for than to use “whom” when “who” is called for. Eventually I think “whom” will be dead. For many people, it already is.

The following is a bad mistake, in my view: 

Whom will be our next mayor?

That “whom” should be a “who.” Don’t be a “whom” abuser.

Q. Please comment on the use of “hysterical” to mean “hilarious.” 

Word meanings change. They changed before us, they are changing now, and they will change after we are all gone from this earth. Sometimes they drift far from their origins. I recall being told at one point in my childhood not to use “hysterical” to mean “hilarious.”  I’m pretty sure I had already used “hysterical” to mean “hilarious” many times by the time I was told that.

I think I have stopped completely, but I can’t be sure, because reporting on one’s own language habits is notoriously unreliable. People often say “I never say X” when they have literally said X a few minutes earlier. It’s kind of hilarious.

Merriam-Webster has “very funny” as the third definition of “hysterical.” It is marked as informal. Even though I avoid using “hysterical” to mean “hilarious,” mostly because I don’t want to annoy people who dislike it, I don’t mind a hilarious “hysterical” in the slightest.

Q. What is present perfect?

A. I couldn’t be happier about this question, because I absolutely love discussing present perfect! 

The present perfect consists of a present-tense form of “to have” plus the past participle of the main verb. Here are three examples:

I have eaten your tuna sandwich.

Tyrone has issued a weather warning.

The Grammar Table has recovered from Covid.

Q. When is “less” better to use than “fewer”? Also, should that question mark go inside or outside the quotation marks?

My book contains a chapter about this topic called “You Can Read This Chapter in Five Minutes or Fewer.” The chapter title is footnoted, and the footnote notes that I would never ever say “fewer” in that sentence. 

As Merriam-Webster points out, “less” has been used for centuries with things that can be counted, so the distinction between “less” and “fewer” is not as rigid as people think it is. 

I mostly use “fewer” with things I can count. However, I would say “Write 100 words or less,” not “Write 100 words or fewer.” I would also say “I have less than five dollars,” “I ran less than five miles today,” “He weighs five pounds less than he did last week,” and even “Thirteen items or less.”

I can live with “Thirteen items or fewer,” but I don’t like it. It lacks mellifluousness.

In answer to your question mark placement question, you did it right—yay! 

Q. When do I use “in to” and when do I use “into”?

A. To the person who asked this question, I would just like to note, before answering, that you have beautiful handwriting. I could write quite a bit about this “in to”/“into” problem, and I have it on my list of topics for a future book, but for now I hope you won’t mind if I confine myself to providing an example of a single common and amusing error. Which of these two sentences is correct?

He turned the proposal in to the principal.

He turned the proposal into the principal.

The correct answer is the first sentence. In the second sentence, the proposal is magically transformed into the principal. If you have the power to turn paper into people, you probably don’t need to bother writing proposals anymore.

Thank you, everyone, for your questions, and I hope to see you all soon in Winchester!