Inconsistency/Concord Failure/Noun-Pronoun Disagreement

The writer will feel it to be a great job accomplished when a good piece of writing is completed.






One of the attributes of good writing is correctness of usage and grammar including consistency.

More often than not, the first few sentences will give an indication of good writing or otherwise.

Below is the subheading of a news item in a popular national English daily:-

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and so the comedy troupe again uses the same formula for their latest romatic comedy.

In such a short passage, you can see the irregularity highlighted in the subject: the word 'troupe' is treated as a singular noun with the use of a singular verb 'uses' but later as a plural noun with the use of the plural pronoun 'their'.

Such inconsistency (already touched upon in my earlier post Asymetrical sentence) is often seen in newspapers. If it is not due to poor command of English, editorial vigilance is the only solution.

Newspapers need to leave no stones unturned to achieve the required improvements lest the public especially students be misled into following such uses.

Natural but Ungrammatical or Grammatical but Unnatural

When coming to a crossroad, you have to make a choice. But, in writing, you can have the third possibility.

In writing, sometimes you will come to a situation of being natural but ungrammatical or grammatical but unnatural. What choice will you make? Read on and you will know the answer which is the best choice.






Below are extracts from Mrs Malaprop at work? under which title is a question and answer session in The Star's MIND OUR ENGLISH Section to illustrate the subject matter.

Question
WHICH of these sentences should be accepted?
A) The fish’s tail is hurt.
B) The fish tail is hurt.
C) The tail of the fish is hurt.

Answer
Although it is acceptable to say (A) since you are presumably talking about a living fish, and (C) is technically not incorrect, it is best and most natural to say “The fish has hurt its tail.”

Another Question
Over the last five days, my appreciation for nature grew stronger. Waking to beautiful birdsong and listening to the river water rushing by ___ awesome.
A) is
B) are
C) was
D) were

Answer
Strictly speaking, “were” is the correct answer there, since the narration is in the past and there are two activities that form the coordinated subjects of the sentence, i.e. “waking to beautiful birdsong” and “listening to the river water rushing by”. But to my ears, “was” sounds so much better.
We can argue that the two activities are part of one listening experience on waking up, but this could be better justified if we change the sentence to:
“Waking to beautiful birdsong and the sound of the river water rushing by was awesome."
Then there’ll be only one subject, i.e. “waking to .. .”

Mistakes in Newspapers

No matter how busy you are, you must write properly.




The staggering waves of investors and business owners investing in the project confirms its massive potential for success.

The above sentence is taken from a print advertisement (in a national English daily) featuring a property development project.

The word 'waves' is in plural and 'owners', another plural noun. Both these nouns are joined by the conjunction 'and', and then they (plus enlargements which are those words in bold enlarging the meanings of the two nouns there) have become the subjects of the verb in the sentence.

Everybody knows that a plural verb should be used, but a singular one has instead been used in the advertisement.

Given hereunder is another example taken from a different national English daily.

If one is to choose books that were written with friendship as its main topic, there are probably a million of them. But below are the five easy reads that were written on friends and how their friendships, very often, happen accidentally and lasts a long time, if not a lifetime.

Is there anything wrong with the second example? Yes, there is. In fact, there are two mistakes.

Plural noun 'books' is accompanied by a singular pronoun 'its'; and another plural noun 'friendships' has two verbs following it with the first one 'happen' being a plural verb and a correct one but not the second 'lasts' which is a singular verb.

The above mistakes have been touched upon in my earlier posts, Subject-Verb Agreement Error and Double Superlative? , Concord failures/noun-pronoun disagreements?‏, Extra Verb and Asymetrical sentence.

Words that are necessary must be used

If two essential ingredients in the recipe are left out, do you think the cooking result will be good?





In the HEART & SOUL column of a popular national English daily, the columnist answers readers' questions of personal problems.

Try again so that you can love again, a happier man.

How do you understand the above sentence which is taken from one of the answers?

You will take that the reader is advised to try again so that the reader can love again and be a happier man.

The meaning will be changed if you drop the comma in the sentence: Try again so that you can love again a happier man.

That particular reader is noted to be a man, so the second assumption is not the correct interpretation.

Accordingly the actual sentence should have been, "Try again so that you can love again and be a happier man", which (if originally used) would have saved readers' time in the conjecturing work.

This clearly reaffirms the saying that if writers take more efforts in making their writings easily comprehensible, their readers will need less time to enjoy and appreciate their works.

Since the above also touches on an unwanted comma, it has relevance to my earlier post, "Unwanted comma and word causing problem".