A Number? The Number? Has or Have?

Subject/verb agreement can be frustrating, but not getting it right can muddle your writing. In a recent USA Today article about agribusiness, a California poultry veterinarian was quoted as saying this:

It (giving hens more room to move around) has a number of consequences that has potential to be hazardous to bird health and human health.

The basic rule with "number" is that "a number of" is considered plural, as in "A number of my friends have noticed my new car."

However, "the number of" is considered singular, as in "The number of people with new cars is dwindling."

The sentence about the hens should read as follows:

It has a number of consequences that have the potential to be hazardous to bird health and to human health. (In other words, SEVERAL consequences (plural) may result.)

Blog Reader Asks About Apostrophe with a Name

A reader wants to know about using an apostrophe with a last name that ends in "s." He wonders whether the following example would be possessive or simply plural:



I'm going over to the Sanders this afternoon.

Here is my reply:

If your friend's last name ends in "s," you have two choices for using the PLURAL--Your friend and his family can be referred to as the Sanders or the Sanderses. Most people would probably choose "the Sanders" with this last name. Someone named "Harris" would probably choose "the Harrises."

As far as whether your sentence example is plural or possessive (or both), it is at least partially a matter of perception.

"I'm going over to the Sanders this afternoon."--This is certainly correct and would be my choice.

However, you could also say "I'm going over to the Sanders' this afternoon." This suggests that you are IMPLYING "the Sanders' house," which would be possessive. Note that the apostrophe goes AFTER THE "s."

To clarify, why not just say, "I'm going over to the Sanders' house this afternoon." Then you have no ambiguity.

Please Keep Your Its and It's Straight!

Michael Tomberlin did an excellent interview recently with John Knapp, Ethics and Leadership Professor at the Brock School of Business at Samford University. Knapp is also the director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership.

The quote from John Knapp that headlines the article is one worth remembering: "Unethical behavior can sometimes be profitable in the short run. It is seldom profitable over the long term."

In the article, Tomberlin offers Bernard Madoff and Marcus Schrenker as good examples of people who made huge profits in the short term but became objects of shame and derision in the long term.

Unfortunately, Tomberlin remembered his ethics but forgot his good grammar when he wrote this statement:

"Of course, you don't have to be an ethics professor to see people exhibiting unethical behavior--whether its Bernard Madoff's alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme or Marcus Schrenker bailing from an airplane over Harpersville...."

For the record, "it's" as used in this sentence is a contraction of "it" and "is," and needs the apostrophe to be correct.

It should read: "...whether it's Bernard Madoff's alleged...."

I might add that profit gained solely through greed can turn out to be its own worst enemy--or something like that.

Proofread Even When You Run a Spelling Checker

A friend just sent me the latest version of the Church Bulletin Bloopers that make their rounds each year. Several of the examples involve simple proofreading that could save embarrassment.

I've printed a few below. Before scrolling to the bottom, try to spot the typos yourself. Remember, a spell checker would NOT catch these because they are also correctly spelled words--just not used correctly

1. Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

2. Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

3. The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment, and gracious hostility.

4. Potluck supper Sunday at 5 PM--Prayer and medication to follow.

It is very easy to leave endings off words or to confuse them with similar looking words that have completely different meanings. It is also easy to grab the wrong preposition when you are in a hurry.

1. Wrong preposition choice in this first one. It is the sick IN the community, not those who are sick OF the community. And, as you can see, there is a huge difference between "Hell" and "Hello."

Remember in prayer the many who are sick in our community. Say "Hello" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

2. Be careful about the FORM of a word. These Scouts want to HELP CRIPPLED children. "Cripple" needs a "d" on the end of it to turn it into an adjective (participle if you want to be technical) that describes the children who need help. The active verb needs to be HELP, not CRIPPLE.

Proceeds will be used to help crippled children. NOTE: In current usage, "crippled" is considered old-fashioned. A better word choice would be "physically impaired."

3. In case you didn't notice, there is a huge difference between "hospitality" and "hostility." In fact, these two words are just about opposites. It is highly unlikely that the church would serve up great food and great entertainment and then add "hostility"-- especially gracious hostility. "Hostility" describes the way a person feels about an enemy, NOT a fellow church member.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hospitality.

4. The only reason you might need "medication" after a potluck supper might be poorly cooked turkey stuffing. My guess is that this writer meant "meditation," which is quiet thinking that goes nicely with prayer.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5 PM--prayer and meditation to follow.

A little common sense and a lot of proofreading would have caught all of these bloopers. You want to be remembered for what you said, not the silly way it came out!

If you come across any bloopers in your own work or work that you read, please send them along. I'd love to share them with our readers.

Thanks!

WATCH OUT! I'M ABOUT TO LOOSE MY EGO!

If you are job hunting these days, be careful which ads you respond to. An ad that has poor usage probably reflects a company that is not well managed. Here is a good example from Saturday's local newspaper:

SALES If you are out of work? If you can loose your ego? Let us train you! We can have you making $400-$900 per wk within 2 weeks.

There are several usage problems in this ad, but the most glaring one is the use of the word "LOOSE." The company has confused "LOOSE" with "LOSE."

LOOSE is usually an adjective that means "set free" or "not fastened." When used as a verb, it means "to discharge or fire (like a missile)" or "to release the pressure on." I doubt that's what the company is looking for--someone who can release the pressure on his ego and let it fly in the face of the customer like a missile.

LOSE is a verb that usually means "to rid oneself of" or "to be unable to find." My guess is that this company wants an employee who can lose his ego enough to accept training from experienced people.

I think this company meant to advertise this way:

SALES If you are out of work? If you can lose your ego? Let us train you!

One more note of caution: Any company that promises to have you making good money in sales within two weeks is probably going to want you to pay up front for their training.

Commas, at times, should be in pairs.

Commas can be used alone or in pairs. Often, when a pair of commas is called for (at the beginning and end of a phrase that has been set into the middle of something else), the writer puts in the first comma, then gets busy with the rest of the sentence and forgets the second comma of the pair.



Here is a good example of this as it appeared in a Religious News Service story by Daniel Burke:



Even less controversial issues, like the overhaul of the White House faith-based office have been kept outside the public eye.



The basic statement here is: Even less controversial issues have been kept outside the public eye. The phrase "like the overhaul of the White House faith-based office" is set into the middle of the statement AS AN EXAMPLE OF A LESS CONTROVERSIAL ISSUE. It should be set off with a comma at the beginning AND another comma at the end of the phrase that is set into the middle of the statement.



The sentence should be punctuated this way:



Even less controversial issues, like the overhaul of the White House faith-based office, have been kept outside the public eye.

Subject/Verb Agreement Tops My Pet Peeve List

If you check the topic index over to the right, you will notice that I now have 24!! postings about subject/verb agreement. Writers just can't seem to keep this one straight. Here is another example from the local newspaper this week:



Land donations, such as the one from Shelby Farms, helps the university keep the swamp from becoming useless for research.



Here is the process for getting your subject/verb agreement straight.

1) Determine the subject of the sentence. In this case, it is "donations." That is plural and ends in "s."



2) Determine the verb of the sentence. HINT: That is the action the subject is doing. In this case, the donations are helping, so the verb is "helps." Notice that the phrase "such as the one from Shelby Farms" is inserted between the subject and the verb but doesn't affect their relationship.



3) Check to see if the subject and the verb AGREE with each other. In most cases, if the subject ends in "s" as it does here, the verb should NOT end in "s." DONATIONS HELP...ONE DONATION HELPS.



The sentence should read as follows:



Land donations, such as the one from Shelby Farms, help the university keep the swamp from becoming useless for research.

Kiss Performs, but Gene and Paul Perform

Here we go with subject/verb agreement again. The caption for a photo of Kiss performing at the Quilmes Rock 2009 Festival read as follows:



Gene Simmons, left, and Paul Stanley of Kiss performs at the Quilmes Rock 2009 Festival Sunday in Buenos Aires.



If this caption had read "Kiss Performs at the Quilmes Rock 2009 Festival," it would have been fine. Kiss is ONE group, so the verb would end in "s." BUT the subject of this sentence is not "Kiss." It is Gene Simmons AND Paul Stanley (two people), so the verb should not end in "s." The caption should read as follows:



Gene Simmons, left, and Paul Stanley of Kiss perform at the Quilmes Rock 2009 Festival Sunday in Buenos Aires.

Rock on!

Spell Checker Disaster in Utah

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Be careful using a spelling checker. If your spelling checker catches a misspelled word, it will give you several choices for a correction. Be SURE the correction you choose is not a word that means something entirely different.

The student newspaper staff at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah learned this lesson in dramatic fashion last week. A caption on the front page of The Daily Universe identified leaders of the Mormon church as apostates instead of apostles.

Whoops! The student copy editor caught a spelling error in the caption. The word "apostle" was misspelled, but the computer spell checker offered "apostate" as a correct replacement.

Unfortunately, the definition of apostate is "a person who has abandoned religious faith, principles, or a cause."

The Quorum of the Twelve Apostles is a governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, so it is highly unlikely that that quorum would be made up of apostates rather than apostles.