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Chapter 5 - Subjunctive Mood

“If I was you, I’d learn the subjunctive mood.”In this chapter, you’ll find that even best-selling novelists have trouble with the subjunctive mood. It pays to know the meaning of mood and to use the various moods—especially the subjunctive...

Forming the Subjunctive Mood

The English language provides another mood, the subjunctive mood. It was used far more frequently in the olden days. In modern times, we use it mainly to show:1. situations contrary to fact 2. wishes 3. suppositions 4. commands 5. suggestions 6. nece...

Situations Requiring the Subjunctive Mood

Let’s explore the modern uses of the subjunctive mood.1. situations contrary to fact 2. wishes 3. suppositions 4. commands1. Situations Contrary to FactLet’s look at the contrary-to-fact situation, which usually entails using the subjunctive mood...

Back to Our Robin Cook Examples

So why are the examples at the beginning of this chapter incorrect?Here are the examples from the best-selling Toxin: 1. Kelly regarded Tracy in an attempt to interpret her comment. Kelly couldn’t quite decide if it were [was] meant to be disdainfu...

Let’s now fix the chapter title…

The chapter title read: “If I was you, I’d learn the subjunctive mood.”Quite clearly, I am not you. To state a situation contrary to fact, you need the subjunctive mood. You form the subjunctive mood of the verb by using the plural “were” w...

Chapter 6 - Dangling Participles

“When writing, your participle might dangle.”Here’s a biggie. Many highly educated people write sentences with dangling participles in them. Careful and knowledgeable readers—as in your boss or professor—know all about danglers and avoid th...

Introductory Adjectival Phrases

Here’s Rule 11 in Strunk & White A participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the grammatical subject. Strunk & White, p. 13. But many people seem to have trouble following this rule. The rule actually applies more broa...

The chapter title needs repair…

The chapter title read: “When writing, your participle might dangle.”You can see that the subject “your participle” doesn’t attach to “when writing.” The participle isn’t doing the writing. You are. So we fix it like this:When writing...

Examples of Nondangling Participles

Check out these examples. Notice that the introductory adjective points directly to the grammatical subject: Enacted in 1964, the Civil Rights Act transferred power to the federal government.Hoping to gain favorable relations with the media, the pres...

Chapter 7 - “There,” “Their,” “They’re”

“Their mixing up they’re theres.” I included this chapter at the request of my son. He says that everyone in his company confuses these three words. So I wrote the chapter and emailed it to him, and he forwarded it to colleagues. Problem solved...

Chart Showing Various Uses

Learn the various ways the word there can act in our language. Word Function Example there pronoun taking the place of ensuing noun There is a policy covering this matter. There’s a policy covering this matter. There are policies covering thi...

So the title to this chapter should read…

The chapter title read: “Their mixing up they’re theres.”Do you see the problems? They are mixing up their theres.So it should read: “They’re mixing up their theres.” Previous: Chart Showing Various UsesNext: Chapter 8 - “Affect”...

Chapter 8 - “Affect” vs. “Effect”

“Bad habits will effect your writing.”There are huge differences between the words affect and effect. Good writers know these differences and use the words correctly. Now you can, too.Affect vs. Effect: An OverviewWriters often confuse these two ...

“Impact” as a Verb

Some writers try to solve the problem by refraining from using affect as a verb. Instead, they use the verb impact. Dictionaries do recognize the verb impact as meaning “to influence.” Thus: The policy impacted the economy. Many people use impact...

Our chapter title should read…

So our chapter title read like this: “Bad habits will effect your writing.”But now you know: When “effect” acts as a verb, it means “produce” or “result in.” Here, the title should read:Bad habits will affect your writing. Previo...

Chapter 9 - “It’s” vs. “Its”

“Should you take out it’s apostrophe?”Hardly a day goes by without my seeing the use of its when the writer means it’s. Or it’s when the writer means its. The two expressions differ dramatically, and careful writers get it right.It’s vs. ...

So to fix the title of this chapter…

Our chaper read: “Should you take out it’s apostrophe?”But now you know that “it’s” is a contraction of “it is.” And you know that “its” is the possessive case of the pronoun “it.” Thus, our chapter title should read:You shoul...

Chapter 10 - “Lead” vs. “Led”

“Yesterday, they lead us astray.”Here’s a quickie. Read on to learn that led is the correct word.Lead vs. Led: An OverviewMany writers think that the word lead is pronounced to rhyme with red and is used as the past tense or past participle of ...

Let’s fix the title of the chapter …

So our chapter title incorrectly read: “Yesterday, they lead us astray.”But now you know that “led” is the past tense (and the past participle) of “lead.” So our chapter title should read:Yesterday, they led us astray. Previous: Chap...

Chapter 11 - “Principle” vs. “Principal”

“Here’s the principle reason he flunked the course.”Many writers use the “my principal is my pal” trick to help distinguish between principal and principle. But that trick fails to cover the many different meanings of principal. When you fi...

The Word “Principle”

A Part-of-Speech ApproachInstead, let’s take a simple parts-of-speech approach to understanding the differences. The word principle will always appear as a noun form, never as an adjective. It is thus incorrect to say: This was the principle (meani...

The Word “Principal”

A Part-of-Speech ApproachThe word principal, on the other hand, has a variety of meanings as an adjective and as a noun.Principal as an AdjectiveLet’s look first at its single adjectival meaning. As an adjective, principal means “chief” or “m...

“Principle” vs. “Principal” - A Summary

In sum, the word principle is always a noun. Essentially it means “rule.” It will never appear as an adjective. Its only possible adjectival form is principled.The word principal is an adjective or a noun. As an adjective, it essentially means ju...

Our chapter title should thus read…

The title of the chapter read: “Here’s the principle reason he flunked the course.”But now you know that “principle” primarily means “rule.” So we fix it like this:“Here’s the principal reason he flunked the course.”We mean, after...

Chapter 12 - “Bring” vs. “Take"

“Bring along this advice when you go to work.”I wish the writers of the Seinfeld series paid attention to the differences between bring and take. For hundreds of episodes, they routinely used bring when they meant take. Those kinds of mistakes, o...