Mistakes we often see in newspapers

Writing like skating abounds with pitfalls.





The following sentences are taken from messages published in a popular national English daily on the same day:-

1) She is a piano teacher but the only sound one hears in her house are the cries and screams of her five-year-old son, who she has been abusing for the past three years.

2) Notice is further given that any person or firm or company which without permission of the owner produce, manufacture, distribute, sell or offer for sale the said products using original packing and bearing the above depicted trade marks and/or any other similar mark is infringing the rights of the owner and is committing an offence under the Trade Description Act 1972.

3) Movie lovers, make your way to the cinema for a fun carnival this school holidays.

In sentence 1, if we turn the last part which is an adjective clause into a sentence. It will become "She has been abusing him for the past three years". Hence, the relative pronoun 'who' (which is in the subjective case) should have been 'whom' (which is the objective case) to make the sentence grammatically correct.

In sentence 2, 'and' before 'bearing' is not necessary. Besides, plural verbs are used after the relative pronoun 'which' referring to 'company', but singular(instead of plural) ones are inconsistently used thereafter in "is infringing" and "is committing". Consistency requires verbs in a sentence having the same subject to be in the same form (that is either singular or plural depending on the situation).

In sentence 3, the adjective 'this' (singular in nature) is used to pinpoint a plural noun 'holidays' and consequently, 'these' should have been used instead of 'this'.

Practice is the best of all instructors.
-- Publilius Syrus

A linguistic style or a mismatch?

Quarrelling with nagging parents who lack trust, feeling unloved and being wrongly accused is almost every young person's dilemma.

This sentence is taken from an English daily's column offering guidances for readers' predicaments.

I am wondering whether it is a stylistic choice for euphony or a mere mismatch in the writer's use of a singular verb following three subjects.

Dilemma is a situation which can be formed by one or more things/actions/feelings/states of mind/events/circumstances. If we try to replace the verb 'is' with 'form', will the sentence become "Quarrelling with nagging parents who lack trust, feeling unloved and being wrongly accused forms or form almost every young person's dilemma?"

Obviously, the plural verb 'form' is to be used since there are three subjects in the form of noun phrases - 'quarrelling with nagging parents', 'feeling unloved' and 'being wrongly accused'.

Shouldn't the answer to the title question be out now?

Long sentences can easily go out of control

Scholastic attainments are in main good ideas presented in good and clear writings.





If we want to write long sentences, we have to be careful to be able to control their flows effectively so as to avoid grammatical errors. Readers will then get their intended meanings easily.

The complaints we have received from our teachers is that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis.

The above sentence highlighted in bold is taken from an item of news (about the call, among other things, for teachers' workload to be reduced) published by a popular national English daily.

If we fail to know what is wrong with the sentence in question, we need to break it down. The words - we have received from our teachers - are an enlargement of the noun 'complaints' in the form of an adjective clause. If we take away this adjective clause, the sentence will become "The complaints is that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis." Now, everybody can notice the mistake of noun-verb disagreement.

Therefore, the sentence should have been "The complaints we have received from our teachers are that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis."

Alternatively, the sentence can be broken up into two shorter sentences as "The complaints are that much of the paperwork is last minute or done on an ad-hoc basis. We have received these complaints from our teachers."

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.
-- Stendhal

Whoever versus whomever

A deadline should not be met with shoddy work.





He was walking up the stairs and shooting whoever he saw.

The above is a sentence within a news item published by a popular national English daily.

"Whoever" is a pronoun in the subjective case. If we substiture such pronoun with a noun, say 'people'. The sentence will then be 'He was walking up the stairs and shooting people he saw'. By changing 'people' into a pronoun, we should have 'He was walking up the stairs and shooting they or them he saw'.

It is not difficult to realize that after the verb 'was shooting', we need a pronoun in the objective case. Hence, the sentence in question should have been "He was walking up the stairs and shooting whomever he saw ".

We should, however, not be confused with the sentence "Ask whoever is there". Here, 'whoever' cannot be singled out as it is used together with 'is there' to become a noun clause to be the object of the verb 'ask'. The subject of this sentence is 'you' which has been omitted as being understood.

Delay is preferable to error.
-- Thomas Jefferson

Any verb following an auxiliary verb must be in its base form

While physical exercises will rid us of sicknesses, language usage exercises will free our writings from grammatical errors.





My attention has been drawn to a notice (appearing in a popular national English daily) which begins with the following words, "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERNED".

I have been attracted to the notice not because it concerns me but because a grammatical mistake has been committed in its beginning line or address.

"May" is an auxiliary verb, and any verb that is used after an auxiliary verb must be in its base form. Such begining line of address should have been "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN" instead.

Such other auxiliary verbs or helping verbs (specifically called modal auxiliaries or modals) include: will, shall, might, can, could, must, ought to, should and would.