Ask the English Teacher

Motley

Lakshmi asks:
What about "Motley" as in Motley crowd? Is this derived from Mot?

No one really knows where the word first meant! It comes from a Middle English word, motteley, but its origin is unknown. It now means "made up of different things," like cloth of several colours. The expression "motley crew" means a group of people from different backgrounds.

Questions from Vietnam

Thien writes:
I’d like to know the difference between road and street; home and house; and raise and rise.

A street is usually in a city or town, with houses on both sides. A road is usually in the country, between towns. But we often mix the two words. I live on a street in North Vancouver, but it's called Cove Cliff Road. And in England, a long road across the country is called Watling Street. It was first built by the Romans, two thousand year ago.

A home is a house or property that you live in. It may be an apartment in a big building, or a house for just one family, or a farm surrounded by big fields. But you think you belong in that place. In North America, children often grow up and move away from their parents. But they often think of their parents' house as "home." The American poet Robert Frost once wrote: "Home is the place where, when you go there, they have to take you in."

A house is any building intended for one or two families. A "detached" house stands by itself, with land around it. A "semi-detached" house is one building shared by two families, with separate doors and living space.

"Raise" and "rise" are interesting. "Raise" is a transitive verb: We must do something to lift an object or person. We raise the flag when we pull it to the top of the flagpole. We raise our children by taking care of them until they are grown up. We raise an issue when we mention it in a meeting.

"Rise" is an intransitive verb: Something goes up all by itself. If we make bread dough, the dough will rise until it is very big. The sun rises above the eastern horizon. When we get up in the morning, we rise from our bed.

Speak and Talk and Meet

Arlene writes:
Please tell me the difference between and when to use “speak” and “talk”. is it speak ‘to’ or speak ‘with’; talk ‘to’ or talk ‘with’?

Also, would I like to “meet you” or “meet with you” for a meeting/talk?

Very interesting. "Speak" and "talk" are close in meaning. "Speak" is a little closer to the physical act of using the vocal cords to make a sound. "Talk" is using audible (or gestured) words to communicate. People can speak, and dogs can speak, but dogs can't talk!

We use "to" with both of these words when it's a one-way communication: He talked to the audience; she spoke to her students. We signal two-way communication by "with": He talked with his children. She spoke with her colleagues.

As for "meet," we use it alone when we encounter something or someone for the first time: I met a bear in the woods last fall. (And I did!) Or we use it for a rendezvous: Let's meet for lunch on Friday. We use "meet with" for when we deal with or confer with someone: I met with my boss this morning. (Informal American usage would be "meet up with": I met up with him on the street.)

"Meet with" can also mean to experience or undergo something: I met with an obstacle as I climbed the mountain.

By the way, "meet" comes from Old English metan, and it's related to Old English mot, meaning an assembly or court. In a mot, freemen would meet to debate matters of public business...so something debatable became a "moot point," not a matter of solid fact.

Go or Go to?

Asuka in Japan writes:
My younger sister asked me to tell her the difference between "go school" and "go to school."

But I can't explain the difference to her.

Please tell me the difference. Or is there no expression like this?

When we attend classes, we go to school. We might give someone a command: “Go school yourself,” meaning “Go and learn about something,” but that would be a very rare usage.

We do use “go” with some verbs: “go fishing,” “go swimming,” “go shopping,” “go hiking.” But we don’t seem to use it with nouns.

A Ferret in the Fridge?

Sara writes:
Would you please tell me the meaning of the underlined sentence?

"Are you going to join me in a cup of tea? When you have a ferret in the fridge you might just find a little treat."

This expression was completely new to me, but I think I understand it. It's probably a British expression. A ferret is a small furry animal that some people keep as a pet. Ferrets are very inquisitive and curious, and that has led to the expression "to ferret out," meaning to explore something until you understand it:

She ferreted out the missing email and forwarded it to me.

So I'd guess that a "ferret in the fridge" means looking in the refrigerator for something good to eat.

This reminds me of another unusual word: "to fossick" means to search for something in a casual or disorganized way. We might fossick in a desk drawer for a box of paper clips, or fossick in a library for a book on a particular subject. I think it would be a good word to describe how we look for information on the Web.

Getting on? Getting onto?

Lee asks:
When we board a bus do we say "get on", "get onto" or "get into" it. I was told that it should either be "get onto" or "get into" and not "get on". However I beg to differ. Am I right?

I love the questions that make me think about what I never think about! In this case, I'd say, "Let's get on the bus, Lee." Once we were aboard, I might tell Lee, "Get into your seat before we start."

If someone told me, "Get onto the bus, Crawford," I'd look for a ladder that would let me climb to the roof. But if the bus were that crowded, I'd prefer to wait for the next one.

Punctuating Quotation Marks

Nita writes:
I am curious about the use of quotation marks not as quotations but usage around words; When do you put periods and commas outside the quotation marks? Do you ever?

Sometimes we do set off a word or phrase with quotation marks because it's an unfamiliar term, or we're about to use it an unusual way:

Most Americans have never heard the expression "Medicine Line." That was what the Plains Indians called the US-Canadian border.

Note that when we set off the expression, we immediately define it. The next time we mention the Medicine Line, we can drop the quotation marks. And note that we punctuate the expression the same way we do with quoted speech: periods and commas go inside the closing quotation marks, and colons and semicolons go outside them. If we're setting off a word at the end of a question, the question mark goes outside:

Have you ever heard the word "quark"?

Exception:
In legal writing, the usual practice is to put in quotes only the exact words quoted, and to place any needed punctuation outside the quotes. This makes it clear that the punctuation was not in the original term being quoted:

This treaty was to be in force "for as long as the grass shall grow", but it was soon violated.

I might as well mention another usage issue. The Chicago Style Manual says that an expression set off in quotes should have only single quotation marks, not the double quotation marks used to report spoken or written words. In this case, we would write:

Most Americans have never heard the term 'Medicine Line.'

When I saw this usage being applied in the editing of one of my books, I objected loudly. It looked strange, and while I'd seen it in some books I'd never seen it in any of mine before. So the editor agreed to give me the double quotation marks I was comfortable with. Single quotes may be acceptable in this case, but not in my books...or my blogs!

How many periods?

Julie asks:
If a sentence ends with an abbreviation that uses a period, do you need to put a second period to end the question?

For example: The cat likes chicken, tuna, etc. OR The tree is measured at d.b.h. - Are these complete sentences or do they need another period?

When an abbreviation ends a sentence, one period is all you need.

Few and A Few?

Haytham writes:
I’d like to know the difference between few and a few.

Very good question! "Few" comes from an Old English word, feawe, meaning "little." The word has several different meanings. If I say

Few students attended the lecture

—I'm saying not very many students were there, although a lot of students had the chance. If I say

A few students attended the lecture

—I'm saying that at least some students were there. It's a more positive description.

We can also use "few" to mean "many." If I write

Quite a few students attended the lecture

—I'm very pleased with the number who came to the lecture.

Here is a usage problem with ""fewer": We need it to describe "countable" items. For example,

Fewer students attended the lecture today than last week.
We have fewer complaints than we had last year.
We are selling fewer newspapers than usual.

Students, complaints, and newspapers are all countable. For these we should always use "fewer."

But for "non-count" nouns, we should use "less":
The storm brought less rain than predicted. (You can't count "rain.")
This recipe requires less sugar. (You can't count "sugar.")
She had less interest in poetry than in fiction. (You can't count "interest.")

But for some reason, many English speakers are ignoring this distinction:
Less students attended the lecture.
We have less complaints than last year.
We're selling less newspapers.

This is unfortunate, because the language is more precise when we make a distinction between "count" and "non-count" nouns.

More from Steve

Steve writes:
Thank you for earlier reply on the placement of commas in my daughter's 4th grade English lesson. Her text book teaches to place a comma before "and" so so she shall.

My wife and I are still at odds over the additional use to two more commas.
I say the correct sentence should now be

"Collecting things, such as coins, cards, and butterflies, can be an enjoyable hobby".

The additional punctuation adds emphasis and aural spacing, which would seem to be in line with your previous answer.

I thought about raising this point in my answer, and then decided it would only complicate things. But you and your wife both have strong positions on this.