Correct use of phrases

Entering Form Four, if one chose to study in the Science stream, it was as good as studying in an English school because General Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, General Science, Pure Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology were taught in English.

"Entering Form Four" in the above sentence (which is taken from an article of a popular national English daily) can be a noun phrase or an adjective phrase.

If it is a noun phrase, the phrase has rendered the following preparatory pronoun 'it' redundant; but if it is an adjective phrase, this participial phrase appears to qualify the said pronoun 'it' making its description out of place.

To be grammatically sound, the sentence needs to be reworded as "If one entering Form Four chose to study in the Science stream, it was as good as studying in an English school because General Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, General Science, Pure Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology were taught in English."

Of course, it can also be "If one chose to study in the Science stream when entering Form Four, it was as good as studying in an English school because General Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, General Science, Pure Science, Chemistry, Physics and Biology were taught in English."

For participial phrases, please see my earlier posting of December 21, 2009.

Adverb to modify adjective

Personal Internet Banking will be temporary unavailable on
10 April, 2011 from 5:00am - 7:00am.

I have come across the above notice from a bank's website.

We need to use an 'adverb' to modify an 'adjective' to make the latter's description clearer.

The aforesaid notice should have been worded as "Personal Internet Banking will be temporarily unavailable on 10 April, 2011 from 5:00am - 7:00am.

The noun 'bacteria' is plural

Friendly bacteria in the gut helps confer many health benefits.

The above sentence appears in an article of a popular English daily.

It looks like a heading created by a sub-editor/editor of the newspaper.

In the write-up, the word 'bacteria' is used many times - sometimes accompanied by a singular verb and sometimes a plural one.

A reference to an online dictionary reveals that the said word is a plural noun and its singular is 'bacterium'.

Hence, the sentence in the first paragraph above should have been "Friendly bacteria in the gut help confer many health benefits"; and of course, all singular finite verbs used in the article should be replaced by plural ones.

The confusing "Who/Whom"

We are working to determine who it belongs to.

The above sentence is taken from a news item in a popular English daily.

The 'who' in the sentence does not appear to be grammatically correct and this will become more noticeable if the sentence is rewritten as "We are working to determine it belongs to who."

Obviously, 'who' (which is in the subjective case) cannot be used there. We need a 'whom' (which is in the objective case) to be the object of the preposition 'to' and hence, the sentence should have been "We are working to determine whom it belongs to."

The use of 'who/whom' has confused many writers including experienced ones.

For a simple guide on how to use 'who/whom', please see my earlier postings of February 5, 2011 and September 28, 2009.

Use of Present Perfect Tense against its Rule

In my last posting of March 25, 2011, a common mistake was mentioned therein.

Another frequent error committed by writers appears in the following sentence found in a news item dated March 28, 2011 of the same popular English daily.

THE last European principal of the prestigious Penang Free School here, J.M.B, Hughes has passed away at his home in United Kingdom on March 16, five days after his beloved wife Jean passed away on March 11.

The present perfect can give a starting time or an amount of time only if we use the words 'since' and 'for'.

Hence, the sentence in question should have been written as "THE last European principal of the prestigious Penang Free School here, J.M.B, Hughes passed away at his home in United Kingdom on March 16, five days after his beloved wife Jean passed away on March 11."