21st Century Grammar Handbook (16 page)

That said, it must be kept in mind that writing or speaking without any rules can be chaotic and may not meet with comprehension at any level. In that case speech or writing has lost its main purpose. And even minor violations of the rules can lead to the same mess and misunderstanding. Therefore, unless there is a compelling reason to break a rule or reshape it, follow it with care. It exists to help keep statements clear, concise, and comprehensible. Breaking it intentionally might help achieve the goals of speaking or writing; but breaking a rule through sloppiness, inattention, or lack of concern will surely not aid expression or understanding. More likely, careless errors will disrupt the
delivery of your ideas and lead your audience to mistrust the source of such confusion. See
colloquial, dialect,
non-English
languages, clarity,
and
efficiency.

Grew.
See
grow.

Grow, grew, grown.
An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.

Grown.
See
grow.

Had.
See
have.

Hang, hung, hung.
An
irregular verb
meaning to suspend something, in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms. Note that
“hanged”
is the regular past tense and past participle of the verb “to hang” that means to execute by hanging.

Hanged, hung.
Commonly confused
past tense
forms of the
verb
“hang,” these words refer, respectively, to executions (“The traitor was hanged.”) and any other form of hanging things or people (“The curator hung by a thread of suspense while the priceless painting was hung by the klutzy assistant.”).

Have, had, had.
An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.

Have, of.
Do not use
“of”
to complete a compound
verb.
WRONG: “I could of come.” RIGHT: “I could have come.” Acceptable or undetectable in speech, the use of “of” with verbs is simply an obvious error in all writing but fiction or linguistic reporting.

He, him, his.
The
personal pronoun
“he” has an
objective
case
form of “him” and a
possessive
case form of “his.” See also
case.

Hear, heard, heard.
An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.

Heard.
See
hear.

He’d.
This
contraction
of “he had” and “he would” should not normally be used in
standard English
writing.

Helping verb.
See
auxiliary.

Her.
See
she.

Her/him.
See
she/he.

Hers.
See
she.

Herself.
See -
self.

He’s.
This
contraction
of “he is” and “he has” should rarely, if ever, be used in
standard English
writing.

He/she, him/her.
Rewrite this awkward concession to
gender
equality into more easily digested forms like “he and she” or “they.” See
sexist language.

Hid.
See
hide.

Hidden.
See
hide.

Hide, hid, hidden.
An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.

Him.
See
he.

Him/her.
See
he/she.

Himself.
See-
self.

His.
See
he.

Hit, hit, hit.
An
irregular verb
in its main,
past tense,
and past
participle
forms.

Homonym.
Homonyms are words that sound alike and therefore are easily confused with each other and hard to spell: “Write the rite right.” The example is silly but makes the point that spelling mimics the sound patterns of English in different, sometimes strange and unpredictable, ways. The writer can only try to remember all the words that exist in homonym pairs or sets and check whether the correct one appears in any sentence. If you don’t know that there are several words that sound like “rain,” you might well choose the wrong one when you are talking about royalty or carriages. The only thing to do is look up “rain” in a
dictionary
and see if it is used for a monarch’s “reign” or the “reins” that control horses. Obviously it isn’t, and most dictionaries will list the homonyms.

The most commonly confused homonyms and similar words appear in entries throughout this book and are
cross-referenced for all similar or homonymous forms. You can thus find
“their”
“there,” and “they’re.”

Hopefully.
It seems the struggle to help people use this word correctly has all but ended in defeat. The word is improperly used at the beginning of a sentence (or anywhere else) to mean “it is hoped.” WRONG: “Hopefully, I will win the lottery and get rich.” This sentence actually means, I, full of hope, will win the lottery and get rich. However, almost everyone makes the “wrong” sort of statement on the assumption that it means, I hope I will win…. “Hopefully” is used properly as follows: “The student looked hopefully to the professor as a font of wisdom.”

Don’t use “hopefully” in the wrong way in formal, school, or academic writing, even though it is now appearing even there without comment or censure.

However.
“However,” is used in many ways: as an
interjection
(“The experts don’t, however, agree with you.”); as an
indefinite
adverb (“However you do it is okay with me.”); and as a
conjunctive adverb
(“Jan wants to go; however, Chris doesn’t.”). See also
adverb.

Hr.
Use the
abbreviation
for “hour” (hr.) only in tables, scientific writing, or other special circumstances. In most cases, hr. should be spelled out as “hour.” See
scientific language.

Hung.
See
hang
and
hanged.

Hyphen.
The hyphen
punctuation
mark (-) is used to join
words to some
prefixes,
to indicate where simple words were joined but are now divided at the end of a printed or typed line, or to link together
compound words.

In modern
usage
most
prefixes
are spelled solid (closed up) with words: “Antiwar protestors were arrested at the rally.” But in some cases hyphens are mandatory: before capitalized words or before numerals: “Pre-Prohibition wines include the post-1918 vintages.” When a prefix spelled solid with a word is confusing, a hyphen can be inserted to clarify and is sometimes required: “Re-creating recreational settings is refreshing.” See
capitalization
and
numbers.

When words don’t fit onto the lines of paper, they are sometimes “broken” into pieces placed at the end of one line and the beginning of the next (as in many lines in this book). A hyphen is placed at the end of the last fragment of the word at the end of a line to indicate that the rest of the word is at the beginning of the next line. Words are broken only at the ends of
syllables
or where hyphens naturally occur in them. If possible, it is best to avoid introducing a line-ending hyphen into a word or string of words that already has one or more hyphens in it. One-syllable words are not divided over lines, nor are words with single-letter syllables at their beginning or end broken at those points
(for example, don’t break “wordy” and leave a hanging “y” at the beginning of a line).

Although some
compound words
are formed without a hyphen, most include it: “That is a decision-making factor.” Compounds with hyphens include fractions, spelled-out
numbers
from twenty-one to ninety-nine, and specially concocted strings of words: “One-seventh of the one hundred and thirty-five gurus believed in life-after-death manifestations.”

I.
The fi
rst-person
singular
pronoun
is “I.” Its
objective case
is
“me”:
“It is I; give me the package.” The
plural
form of “I” are
“we”
and “us”: “It is we; give us the package.” Obviously, the grammatically correct forms of “I” following
linking verbs
like “be” now seem somewhat stilted. Most people would say (and many would write in the most formal circumstances): “It is me/us.” See also
case.

Ibid.
This
abbreviation
of the
Latin
word “ibidem” means “in the same place.” It is used only in footnotes and endnotes in scholarly writing and should be avoided elsewhere. Even in notes or references to scholarly writing, the modern preference is for repetition of a shortened title or author’s name instead of the somewhat opaque Latinism.

I’d.
The
contraction
of “I had” or “I would,” normally not used in formal
standard English
writing.

I.e.
This
abbreviation
of the
Latin
words “id est” means “that is.” This
interjection
is frequently useful as a device to draw attention to something, but it is best in most writing to use the English rather than the Latin form or abbreviation unless space is a very important consideration. WRONG: “The governor, i.e., R. J. Warren, signed the bill.”
BETTER: “The governor, that is, R. J. Warren, signed the bill.”

If.
“If” is a
subordinating conjunction
suggesting conditionally.

III.
The comparative forms of this
adjective/adverb
are irregular: ill, worse, worst. See
comparison.

Illicit.
See
elicit.

Illusion.
See
allusion.

I’m.
The
contraction
of “I am” is “I’m.” It should not normally be used in standard, formal (particularly academic) writing. See I,
and,
and
standard English.

Immigrate.
See
emigrate.

Impact.
“Impact” does not mean to affect or to influence and should not be used in that sense. WRONG: “Poverty impacts the ability to learn and earn.” RIGHT: “Poverty affects/diminishes the ability to learn and earn.” “Impact” is properly used mainly as a
noun
meaning a blow or a collision. As a
verb
the word denotes pushing or packing together and is usually applied to teeth: “The teenager has impacted wisdom teeth.”

Imperative.
Verbs
can be used to describe actions or states of being, but they also can be used to request or demand
action of someone: “Read this carefully.” When verbs command, they are said to be in the imperative
mood.

Most verbs in the imperative take their main or root form. Commonly, imperative statements add an
exclamation point
to emphasize that they are commands, demands, or important requests: “Form a line!” Even with the addition of “please” to a sentence like the example, an exclamation point can be used to mark an imperative statement. However, mild, nonimperious imperatives need not have any exclamation attached to them but can appear with a period: “Consider this.” This example would probably look a bit odd with an exclamation point.

The
subject
of an imperative statement is usually omitted and merely implied—you do this or that, with the
“you”
not stated. However, an explicit subject can appear. When it is “you,” it is treated as any subject: “You get to work!” The appearance of “you” is an emphatic device in itself, and imperatives with explicit subjects often end in exclamation points. When there is a subject that is not “you,” it is usually treated as being in apposition to the implied “you” and is therefore set off with a
comma:
“Soldiers, pick up your weapons!” Military commands of this sort usually have an exclamation point, by the way.

Two short imperatives in the same sentence constitute two independent
clauses
and therefore should be separated by a comma. However, since the subjects of the imperatives are the same by implication and do not appear in the sentence, such a comma is frequently omitted: “Rise and shine!” The longer the imperative statements or the more possible confusion of implied subjects, the more necessary
a dividing comma becomes: “Consider the implications of all the statements we made and you reviewed, and then rewrite what was initially drafted by the others.” This sentence benefits from adding the comma between clauses (although it could be omitted without much risk of confusing a reader) and certainly does not need an exclamation point.

More than two imperative clauses should be joined by commas: “Wake up, smell the flowers, and get on with life.” See
appositive
and
emphasis.

In.
Preposition
governing the
objective case:
“The anger was welling up in them.”

In order.
A
subordinating conjunction,
indicating a purpose.

Indefinite.
Pronouns
that do not refer to specific
persons
or numbers are said to be indefinite: “None of them is here.” The indefinite pronouns are “all,” “another,”
“anybody,”
“anyone,” “anything,” “both,”
“each,”
“either,” “everyone,”
“everything,”
“few,” “most,”
“neither,” “nobody,” “none,”
“no one,”
“nothing,” “one,”
“other,”
“some,”
“somebody,” “someone,” and “something.”