Ask the English Teacher

Off on Holiday

I'll be away from my computer for a few days, but I hope to post some new material before New Year's. If you send me questions, I'll answer them as soon as I'm back.

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday, and may 2005 be a very good year for you.

But Rather?

My former student Paolo has a question.
It's regarding this sentence:

"The Yin and Yang does not simply focus on mutuality, but rather compromise."

I'm not sure if "but rather" is a grammatical error. Should I use just one of the two? Which is better, "but" or "rather?"

I want to do a whole lot more to this sentence. Maybe something like this:

The Yin and Yang do not focus simply on mutuality, but also on compromise.

Yin and Yang make a compound subject requiring a plural verb. "Simply" needs to be closer to what it modifies—not "focus" but "mutuality." I'd use "rather" only if I had completely denied the first trait:

The Yin and Yang do not focus on mutuality [at all], rather on compromise.

Take the Nitpicker's Quiz!

A nit is the egg of a louse, laid on a hair (usually a hair on a child's head). Nitpicking is slow, careful work because nits are hard to see. When teachers and editors correct mistakes by students and reporters, they are often called nitpickers also...because the students and reporters don't think the mistakes are very big.

Well, they are big, and in North American newspapers, too many English errors slip in. The Toronto Star has recently run a Nitpicker's Quiz using examples of bad English from news stories. It's very entertaining, and I hope you catch more mistakes than the writers did! (And you can learn from the answers at the end.)

By the way, when the headline says "Find the gaffes," the word "gaffes" means "mistakes." It's one of those many words that English borrowed from French and forgot to return.

Why "Commander-in-Chief"?

Roberto asks:
Would you please tell me why the American president is called Commander-in-Chief and not Chief Commander?

Well, I can't give you the exact reason, but I can try to offer a reasonable guess. If you visit the Naval Traditions site, you'll learn about the history of the names of military ranks, especially in the US armed forces. The site states that George Washington was named "General and Commander-in-Chief" by the Continental Congress.

So I'll speculate that "in chief" was an 18th-century expression that doesn't survive now except in old titles. It may be like "attorney general" and "court martial" instead of "general attorney" and "martial court"—two expressions borrowed from French, which puts adjectives after nouns.

"Chief," by the way, comes originally from the Latin caput, meaning "head." So the president is the head commander, superior to other commanders like generals and admirals.

If anyone can give Roberto and me a better explanation for the term "Commander-in-Chief," we'll both be grateful.

Also

David asks:
Would you please tell me which of the following statements is considered proper:
1- We can also take the bus.
2- We also can take the bus.
3- We can take the bus, also.

"Also" is an adverb, and adverbs are usually clearest when they're close to the verbs they modify. In the examples you give, the verb is "can take"—"can" is an auxiliary verb, helping to make the verb more precise.

All three versions you offer are understandable, and you could even add a fourth: "Also, we can take the bus." But I'd go with number 1. "Also" is close to "take," the main verb. Number 2 is OK, but speak it aloud: We AL so can TAKE the BUS. The sentence stumbles a bit, compared to We can AL so TAKE the BUS, which is easier to speak and read.

"Are You Wanting To...?"

Kristen asks:
I many times will ask “Are you wanting to……?”. My boyfriend cannot stand this and says it should be “Do you want to…..”. Can you please tell me if I am wrong? I think this is correct, but if I am wrong, then I would like to know.

"Right" and "wrong" are dangerous words in English usage. It's a language with many dialects, and what is perfectly accepted in one dialect is considered outrageous in another. Many North Americans will ask:

"Have you gotten the tickets?" (That is, have you bought them or picked them up?)
"She still hasn't gotten over her last boyfriend." (That is, she's still upset about him, or in love with him, or both!)

But "gotten" is actually very old English, and it's disappeared from England itself, where people would say

"Have you got the tickets?"
"She still hasn't got over her last boyfriend."

This is a roundabout way of saying that "Are you wanting to..." is perfectly understandable, and may become a widely accepted usage, but it surprises many speakers of "Standard" English.

When you use the expression, you're using the "continuous" tense, describing an action or condition lasting for some unknown time:

"I am thinking about you night and day."
"He was wondering when the package would arrive."
"They were sleeping when the earthquake hit."

In the last few years, I've noticed a sharp increase in my students' use of the continuous tense. They don't say, "I will graduate in May"; they say, "I will be graduating in May." Graduation ceremonies can sometimes take a long time—but not that long! I strongly suggest they stick with "I will graduate," but they seem to prefer the continuous. I am worrying constantly about the fact that they are preferring this new usage, which is taking over very quickly.

So, Kristen, you may be the pioneer of a new trend in English. But I suggest you go back to the more common usage. You will be making your boyfriend much happier, and you will be cheering up your kindly Canadian English teacher as well!

Wondering

Sheri asks:
In a sentence such as "Their wondering caused them to look further into the situation," is the word wondering used as the subject of the sentence? Would that make it a noun?

Yes, "wondering" is the subject. Technically, it's a "verbal": a verb acting as another part of speech. When an "ing" verb acts as a noun, we call it a gerund:
Winning isn't everything.
Jogging is good exercise.

When an "ing" verb is acting as an adjective, we call it a participle:
He was on the winning team.
She wore her jogging suit.

In the example you give, I would drop "wondering" and use a word like "curiosity" or "uncertainty." Or I would explain what they were wondering about:
They wondered about his complaint and decided to look further into the situation.

By the way, don't use a question mark after an expression like "I wonder..." It's a declarative statement, not a question.
I wonder why he is late.
She wondered why he didn't call.

If you want to use a question mark, you'll have to revise the whole statement:
I wonder about his absence. Why is he late?
She wondered about his silence. Why didn't he call?

Sell or Sale?

Tom asks:
Usage of sell and sale:

This is my first sell. Correct if referring to the act of selling?

In contrast to:
This is my first sale. Correct if referring to an event?

My dictionary gives "sell" only as a verb, with "sell" as a noun an obsolete word for "seat" or "saddle" or "place of honour." So your first example should be
This is my first sale.

"Sale" can be an event, like a back-to-school sale or a Boxing Day sale. (For Americans, Boxing Day is December 26 in Britain and Canada. No one knows why it's called Boxing Day.) A newcomer to Canada might go to her first sale at The Bay, a Canadian department store. A visitor to the US might go to his first sale at Target.

But "sale" can also be what a salesperson does. A new realtor makes her first sale when she conducts her first transfer of a house from one owner to another. A writer can produce an article, send it to an editor, and make a sale.

Wind or Winds?

Marwana asks:
The weather forecast warned of winds of up to 60-miles-an-hour today. (Why is 'winds' plural? What does it mean?) And which of the following statements is correct:
He ate a lot of candy -
He ate a lot of candies -

What interesting questions! I'll have to guess that "wind" implies a particular direction:
A cold north wind blew across the prairie.

"Winds" implies changing direction:
The winds swung around from north to east and back again.

So "winds of up to 60 miles an hour" would come from different directions, probably in gusts—sudden, sharp bursts of moving air.

As for "candy" and "candies," I've just learned that "candy" comes from the Arabic "qandi," made of sugar. (And "sugar" comes from Arabic "sukkar.") You can use singular or plural. I could eat a lot of candy by consuming chocolate bars, mints, lemon drops, and so on. But if I did, I would also be eating candies of various kinds.

If you want to suggest that I eat a lot of sweet things, say that
Crawford eats a lot of candy.

If you want to suggest that I'm nibbling on different kinds of sweets, say that I eat a lot of candies...but in that case, explain what they are:
Crawford eats all kinds of candies: chocolate bars, mints, Smarties, and lemon drops.

(Actually, I try not to eat too much candy—I'm already overweight!)

Capitals in Titles

Don writes:
I found some general rules but still unsure of these titles;

Steady As a Train, "As" or "as"
Steady As the Sun, "As"...
Our Castle Is Our Home, "Is" or "is"
There Can Be No Other or "There can be no Other"
You Are my Fountian or "You are my Fountain"
A Walk On the Beach or "A Walk on the Beach"

The general rule for "title case" is to capitalize the main words (first word, verbs, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives) and prepositions with four or more letters. So in the examples you mention, I'd write:
Steady As a Train (first word, adverb, article, noun)
Our Castle Is Our Home (pronoun, noun, verb, pronoun, noun)
There Can Be No Other (first word, verb, adverb, adjective)
You Are My Fountain (first word, verb, pronoun, noun)
A Walk on the Beach (first word, noun, two-letter preposition, article, noun)