One would be hard put to find just about anywhere an English grammar or composition textbook that did not take up the topic of what is called the passive voice of a verb. We are warned regularly and rightly to prefer the active to the passive, but as with all such exhortations, there are consequential …
Author Archives: rultimo
In an Ideal World
As I mentioned recently in two earlier posts (In a Contrary Mood and It’s Inevitable), understanding conditional sentences can make us more sharply aware of just how one thing may follow from another. Real conditions mean if this is true, then that is true, and contrary-to-fact conditions mean if this were true (but it’s not), …
It’s Inevitable
I was in line at the grocery store the other day and I happened to overhear the person behind me say to someone on the phone, if I can help you, I will. The resolve and companionship of the pledge moved me, and later I wondered how very different my reaction could have been with …
In a Contrary Mood
The question before us today is which of these statements is correct: if I was president or if I were president? The problem involves what is called the subjunctive mood of a verb, and as off putting as the terminology might be, we use it (or don’t use it) every day. Either of these statements, …
Clarifying the Antecedent
Here is a tricky sentence construction that might catch you by surprise. Look closely at the grammar of this sentence and see if you can detect what’s wrong: She is one of those persons who makes a decision quickly and then acts decisively. The problem here has to do with the antecedent of who and …