Parenthesis/parenthetical clause

Linking what we have learnt to what we see will help us to understand things better.















I remember vividly when I was in school during an English lesson, a question was posted to the class when the whole class gave the wrong answer.

The question was, "Is there anything wrong with the sentence: We feed children whom we think are hungry?"

The whole class considered the sentence correct; and that was a wrong answer.

The sentence should be "We feed children who we think are hungry." In giving such answer, the teacher has explained that 'we think' in the sentence is a parenthesis or a parenthetical clause which has no grammatical function and is there for clarity sake. Such parenthesis or parenthetical clause can be taken out of the sentence without affecting its actual meaning.

Recently, I have seen a sentence of similar construction in a column (designated to promote the correct use of English) of a popular national English daily - It means “Where is that boy whom I think is an idiot?”

I have written an e-mail to the editor of the column asking, "Shouldn't the sentence be:It means “Where is that boy who I think is an idiot?”

I have not received any reply from the editor and have to take it that silence means consent.

Be careful of reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
-- Mark Twain

Comma splice/run-on sentence

While clothing accessories are to be worn according
to trends, punctuation marks in writings need to be
placed according to rules.












Sentences with comma splices or the so-called run-on sentences can often be seen in newspapers. Such writers appear to be ignorant about the full stop being the most important punctuation mark which shows the end of the sentence requiring the use a capital letter at the beginning of the next sentence.

Note the following sentences taken from a popular national English daily on the same day:-

1) Quote of the day: All high performers have a secret, they use their mind's eyes.

2) Remark of a tourist in Bangkok: I'm disappointed. Where's all the fun?

Category 1 consists of two separate sentences joined by a comma which should be replaced instead by a full stop as the sentence before it is already complete in sense. Of course, the next sentence should begin with a capital 'T'.

Category 2 contains two separate sentences (the latter of which is in the form of a question) which are correctly punctuated.

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing. - Enrique Jardiel Poncela

Past Perfect Tense

Engaging in discussions will lead to improvements in writing especially the grammatical aspect.






Temporary Occupation Licence holders have no legal right over the land as their licences had expired.

The above is a sub-headline to a news item found in a popular national English daily.

The sentence has a combination of present tense and past perfect tense.

Invariably, grammar books are advising against the use of the past perfect tense except to indicate past actions where one was either completed or should have been completed before commencement of another.

The said sub-headline does not reflect a situation that warrants the use of the past perfect tense.

It can conveniently be recast as "Temporary Occupation Licence holders have no legal right over the land as their licences have expired" to be grammatically correct.

Subject-verb disagreements in newspaper

Writings conforming to grammatical rules can easily be understood globally.






Survival hopes for missing 100 fades.

The above is a newspaper headline having a subject-verb disagreement.

'Survival' in the sentence is an adjective qualifying the noun 'hopes' which is plural in form while 'for missing 100' is an enlargement of the same plural noun 'hopes'. Taking away these adjective and enlargement will leave the sentence as "Hopes fades". It will then be easily seen as an error in subject-verb agreement.

The headline should have been "Survival hopes for missing 100 fade."

A similar case has also been shown by the same newspaper on the same day - Noble values, including abhorrence to corruption, has been incorporated into the school curriculum to create awareness among students. Here the subject is 'values' and not 'corruption'. As such, 'has been incorporated' should have been 'have been incorporated'.

The sentence below is the third sentence picked from the same newspaper on the same day.

Starring in a movie about poverty-stricken slums has propelled one Indian to the highest and hottest levels of global celebrity.

This third one is seemingly the same case as the first two but is not. The subject of this sentence is 'starring' which is a singular noun and correctly matched by the singular verb 'has propelled' (in the present perfect tense) that follows.

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.
-- Charles W. Eliot