The Grammar Cop

National Grammar Day March 4

Cheryl Norman — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:21:41 +0000

…was a success. Many thanks to this year’s host, Grammar Girl.

Remember: Every day is grammar day here at the Grammar Cop.

Cheers!

Cheryl Norman

An arresting development: Grammar Day!

Cheryl Norman — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:52:50 +0000

You have the right to remain silent, but please don’t.

It’s March 4th, and the Grammar Cop is observing National Grammar Day. This year’s host is one of my favorite grammarians, the grammar girl herself, Mignon Fogarty. There is a lot going on at the National Grammar Day Website, so check out http://www.nationalgrammarday.com/

If you’re on Twitter, be sure to follow me (http://twitter.com/cherylnorman) and tweet me with #grammarday for a chance to win a copy of her book:

March forth on March 4th for good grammar. Send me a tweet @cherylnorman with #grammarday in it and you’re eligible for a drawing.

Cheryl Norman, Grammar Cop

Get ready for Grammar Day

Cheryl Norman — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:20:44 +0000

March 4th is National Grammar Day. Writers need to participate. It’s the law.

The Grammar Cop

HYPHENS

Cheryl Norman — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:37:25 +0000

I see many words that should be hyphenated spelled as one word, the most common is e-mail. Here’s a rule to remember without exception: When the word is formed with a single as the first syllable, hyphenate or open. Q-tip, V neck, U-turn, e-publishing, X-ray, A-line, G-string, D day.

I also see hyphens that aren’t needed. Commonly mishyphenated words include: ongoing, under way, a priori (or any Latin phrase), bona fide, vice versa, and ad hoc.

Avoid using a hyphen with an -ly adverb: widely known, thinly coated, readily available.

Rules are fine, but most of the time you can use common sense. For instance, if the reader will stumble over a word because of a missing hyphen, it’s wise to add one: Do-able, co-worker, pre-wedding, city-wide. Another situation arises when the compound word repeats letters, creating an awkward spelling: anti-inflammatory, re-emphasize, multi-item, shell-like. You don’t want to jar your reader from your story with funny looking words like antiinflammatory, reemphasize, multiitem, shelllike, right?

It’s a good idea to hyphenate when the root word is capitalized or a numeral: pre-Columbian, Buddha-like, un-American, pre-1900s, post-1950s. Likewise, hyphenate numbers that are spelled out or are stated as fractions: twenty-one, sixty-seven, one-fourth, but not two-word numbers combined with a fraction: forty four one-hundredths of a percent.

Commonly accepted hyphenated words are those with the prefix ex, self, or all, or words with the suffixes free, odd, elect. Examples: salt-free, ex-husband, self-employed, all-encompassing, ninety-odd dollars, president-elect.

Don’t expect to remember all this. Keep a good grammar reference handy, such as Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, Style, Usage and Grammar by Anne Stilman.

Capital Punishment ;-)

Cheryl Norman — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:41:35 +0000

Spelling can be such a pain in the behind, especially for writers. We’re bright enough to realize we can’t trust our spell checking programs because of homophones or similarly spelled words. We have dictionaries for tricky words, and we can program our auto-correct features to catch habitually misspelled words. But what about trademarked names, proper names, and other names requiring capitalizing?

After going through edits for RUNNING SCARED, I learned the rules aren’t cut and dried. For instance, while Internet and Web or Web site are capitalized, google used as a verb is not. Don’t ask why; I don’t know. According to my editor, that’s Google’s decision. Perhaps they like their trademarked word being generic for online search engines.

Other everyday items we don’t think about as proper names but are trademarked include Windbreaker, Dumpster, Formica, Jaws of Life, Hula Hoop, Kleenex, Coke, and Jeep. It’s very important that you respect a company’s brand name; they’ve spent thousands and thousands of dollars to register and advertise it.

Back by popular demand, here is the Grammar Cop’s quick reference for capitalization:

CAPITALIZE:

A person’s name.

A person’s title when it precedes the name.

Days of the week, months of the year.

Special days, holidays.

Organizations and abbreviations of organizations.

Historical periods, documents, and events.

Nationality, race, or language.

Personification of objects or abstract concepts.

First word of a statement.

When used as part of a proper name: lake, county, high school, college, river, street, park, country, company, institution, etc. (Ohio River, the river)

A noun identifying a family member when used as a name. (Mom, your mom)

Geographical locations-specific. (The West, out west)

References to the Diety.

The pronoun “I.”

Acronyms (AT&T, URL)

In a title, all words except prepositions, articles, and conjunctions of four letters or less (Days of Thunder) unless it’s the first word. (The Runaway Bride)

Subjects studied that are specific titles (Composition 101, meteorology, American History 202, biology)

DON’T CAPITALIZE:

Points on a compass or direction.

Seasons of the year.

Pronouns other than “I” unless at the start of a sentence or part of a title.

EXAMPLES:

We watched West Wing before heading down south.

Independence Day falls on a Wednesday this year, according to my mother.

Mother is always right about summer holidays.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and best wishes for the new year.

As always, you should consult a dictionary or grammar or style reference when in doubt. Happy writing!

Is this an historical or a historical?

Cheryl Norman — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:01:22 +0000

My newest release is the anthology, Romance on Route 66, featuring four historical romances set during four different decades in four different towns along historic Route 66. It troubles me to hear the work referred to as an historical romance anthology when you should say a historical romance.

Although a typically precedes a consonant and an typically precedes a vowel, there is more to this rule. The a precedes a consonant sound, not simply a consonant. The an precedes a vowel sound, not simply a vowel. For instance, history begins with a consonant and the consonant is pronounced, so it’s a history or a historical document or a historian. But in some English speaking countries, the h is silent, which is why you may read an history. If you pronounce the h, use a not an.

Consider euphemism, eulogy, utility, or utopia. All are pronounced as if they begin with the consonant Y and must be preceded by a not an. Words beginning with a consonant but pronounced as a vowel sound include honor, honorable, and humble. Each should be preceded by the article an: an honor, an honorable man, an humble opinion.

MORE ABOUT NUMBERS

Cheryl Norman — Sun, 17 May 2009 18:51:20 +0000

Grammar Cop receives a lot of questions about formatting numbers in a manuscript. What are the rules?

The most widely accepted rule is to spell out numbers less than one hundred but use numerals for greater than 100. However, as with all rules of punctuation and grammar, there are exceptions.

The first word of a sentence, if it’s a number, must be spelled out. Nine hundred homes were destroyed by the tsunami. (Unless it’s the year: 2011 begins the new decade.)
Parts of a book are numerals. Chapter 12, Pages 44-48, Volume 2, page 3.
House Numbers in an address are numerals. They live at 16 Acorn Street.
Street names in an address are spelled out. They live at 401 Third Street.
Spell ages of persons. She lived to be ninety-nine years old.
Spell out numerals (except a year) in dialogue. “I’ve told you a hundred times.”
Spell out numbers for consistency in a case of mixed conditions: Ninety to two-hundred people typically attend the meeting.
Spell out round numbers and ordinal numbers. They had to sell a thousand tickets. She sold the thousandth ticket.
Spell out the number directly preceding a second number. He bought two 100-pound bags of onions.
Amounts of money that you spell out require the word dollars or cents. She paid $10,500 for the car. She paid two thousand dollars as a down payment.
Temperature is expressed by a numeral followed by the degree symbol. It was 32°F this morning.
Spell out numbers of fractions if they are not attached to the whole number. Three-fourths of the book is finished. It took 25½ weeks to write.
Dates are numerals except in formal legal writing. She graduated from college May 30, 1989. She graduated in the class of ‘89.
Exact time of day is in numerals if it would be awkward to write it out. She heard the gun shot at 7:43 A.M. He arrived at eight o’clock.
Sports scores, poll results, voting results are numerals.

As you see, there are a lot of exceptions to expressing numbers in writing. Either print out this Web page to use as a guide or bookmark the site.

Good writing!

Cheryl

Another way to reach the Grammar Cop

Cheryl Norman — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:14:52 +0000

Because of your complaints that blog comment posting is
difficult, I have opened a new Yahoo! group for the purpose of
receiving your grammar questions. If I deem the question suitable for
the blog, I will post it and my response here at The Grammar Cop as well as
to the list.

Click to join Grammar Cop

To hyphenate or not … that is the question

Cheryl Norman — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:06:37 +0000

I received a question today about compound words. When do you hyphenate? Or do you?

Language evolves, and hyphenated words are no exception. We used to use make-up, now it’s makeup. Oversensitive, outmaneuver, and underachiever began their lives as separate or hyphenated words. Hyphens are used to clarify, particularly modifiers. For instance in the sentence: His beet red face betrayed his embarrassment is acceptable, but His beet-red face betrayed his embarrassment is clearer because beet modifies red not face. Beet-red is a compound adjective. Beetred isn’t a word.

Fortunately, we have Spellcheck® to alert us to words that are not yet accepted without a hyphen. Unfortunately, its database isn’t perfect.

Take the case of e-mail. The e in e-mail is short for electronic. Same with e-book or e-commerce or e-anything. If you eliminate the hyphen, you have incorrectly formatted the technological compound word. Alas, it’s a losing battle. AOL, Yahoo!, and the computer world insists on ignoring the rule and creating new words: email, ebook, etc. I encourage you to take up the good fight, however, and continue to hyphenate e-mail in your writing.

When do you avoid the hyphen? Never use a hyphen in a combined modifier that includes an adverb: overly dressed, excessively jealous, very dark.

Hyphenated words are disappearing from usage, though. Look for more and more pairs of words to evolve into new single words, like multitasking. It wasn’t long ago, I multi-tasked. Oh, well, such is progress.

A great new reference!

Cheryl Norman — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:56:55 +0000

I just finished reading Martha Brockenbrough’s book Things That Make Us [sic] and have to recommend it for all writers. It’s more than a quick reference for grammar; it’s a fun read. Since I agree that good literature should both delight and instruct, I classify Things That Make Us [sic] good literature. Bravo, Martha Bee!

I don’t know Martha, but I’ve been a reader of her SPOGG¹ Blog for two years now. She exposes bad grammar from Hollywood celebrities to elected officials. She offers grammar help at her website (http://spogg.org) and works to promote the use of good grammar. The book is a concise culmination of years of collected infractions. For more on the book, visit the website at http://thingsthatmakeussic.com.

¹Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar