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Many grammar errors occur with words that do not follow the same rule as words like them in meaning
EXPECTED AND UNEXPECTED WORD GRAMMAR
When we use a new word, our expectations about its grammar can be influenced by our knowledge of the grammar of words it resembles. At one level, these words are all those in the same word class (the same “part of speech”) – verb, noun, adjective etc. The kind of grammar rules at this level are general ones for the whole class. Verb rules, for example, involve such things as the use of a “subject” or the choice of a tense. Rules of this kind are what I call “broad” grammar”.
At another level, the words that influence grammar expectations follow rules that are much more specific to them. Similar to what is sometimes called “usage”, these rules tend to be found more in dictionaries than grammar books. As an example, interested is typically followed by in, whereas bored has with; and while increased after prices can be changed into were increased, rose cannot be changed into were risen (see 113. Verbs that cannot be Passive). Rules of this kind are what I call “narrow” grammar. A fuller discussion of it is in the introduction to my grammar book.
When a narrow grammar choice has to be made, the similarity of the words that might influence it is often of meaning within the same word class. Consider what preposition the verb DIVIDE should have before a list of divisions (is divided … X, Y and Z). The right choice is into (see 123. Prepositional Verbs Containing a Noun). This is not very predictable: there is nothing in the meaning of either divided or into that helps. However, a clue can be obtained from the use of other verbs with a similar meaning to DIVIDE: CATEGORISE, CLASSIFY, GROUP, SEPARATE, SORT and SPLIT, all of which take into (see 162. Writing about Classifications). If you already know that one of them does, then you can guess that DIVIDE does too, and the chances are that you will be right.
This parallelism between words of similar meaning provides very useful help with the mammoth task of learning narrow grammar. The problem, however, is that numerous words – probably more than in broad grammar – do not act in the expected way, and like many exceptions tend to be used incorrectly – often, it seems, in the same way as the words like them. This is the problem I wish to consider here. My hope is that knowing about it and some of the commoner errors can bring significant improvements in grammatical accuracy.
The focus here is on words whose grammar differs from that of multiple words of similar meaning. Words whose grammar differs from that of a single word of similar meaning are separately considered in posts entitled Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar.
Further Guinlist posts like this one are 140. Words with Unexpected Grammar 2, 242. Words with Unexpected Grammar 3 and 281. Words with Unexpected Grammar 4. Related to these is 284. Words with a Surprising Meaning.
Also worth viewing are 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings, 173. “Do Research” or “Make Research”? and 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive. For spelling and pronunciation problems caused by similar words behaving differently, see 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words, 97. Verb Form Confusions and 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes.
Note, though, that problems with narrow grammar are not all caused by the influence of similar-meaning words. An alternative common cause is complexity of a word’s own narrow grammar. Problems in this area are considered within these pages in posts entitled Words with Complicated Grammar.
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IDENTIFICATION EXERCISE: WORDS THAT BREAK NARROW GRAMMAR EXPECTATIONS
To assist appreciation of important narrow grammar trends and their exceptions, I offer the following “odd-one-out” exercise. The challenge is to identify one word in each list that would be grammatically wrong if it replaced the underlined word in the neighbouring sentence (for an explanation of “grammatically wrong” – which is not necessarily shown by an unlikely meaning – see 100. What is a Grammar Error?). Answers are given and explained later.
(a) High prices cause demand to fall.
Which one of the following cannot grammatically replace cause?
ALLOW, ASSIST, COMPEL, ENABLE, ENCOURAGE, FORCE, HELP, IMPEL, INDUCE, INSTIGATE, LEAD, MAKE, PERMIT, REQUIRE, STIMULATE.
(b) Children like to learn through playing.
AGREE, CHOOSE, DESIRE, ENJOY, LONG, LOVE, NEED, PREFER, WANT, WISH.
(c) High prices have an effect on demand.
A BEARING, A CONSEQUENCE, AN IMPACT, AN INFLUENCE.
(d) Skills can develop through a suitable task.
ACTIVITY, ASSIGNMENT, BRIEF, EXERCISE, FOLLOW-UP, HOMEWORK.
(e) Seminars are for talking about issues raised in lectures.
ARGUING, ASKING, DISCUSSING, ENQUIRING, FINDING OUT, SPEAKING, THINKING, WONDERING, WRANGLING.
(f) Water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen.
COMPRISED, CONSISTED, CONSTITUTED, MADE.
(g) Opponents of nuclear power claim that the cost is too high.
ARGUE, ASSESS, BELIEVE, COMPLAIN, CONSIDER, CRITICISE, FEEL, MAINTAIN, REGRET, STATE.
(h) Poor hygiene can cause an outbreak of disease.
A CONTINUATION, GROWTH, AN INCREASE, A MANIFESTATION, AN OCCURRENCE, A SPREAD, SURVIVAL.
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ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS
Here are the above sentences with the incorrect words inserted:
(a) *High prices make demand to fall.
All of the verbs listed for this sentence have a cause before them and its consequence after. The consequence is expressed by the object of the verb (demand) combined with an “infinitive” to verb (to fall – see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive, #7). MAKE differs in that the infinitive verb after its object must drop to: the correct wording above is …make demand fall (see 141. Ways of Using MAKE).
There are actually at least two other cause verbs whose following infinitive cannot have to: LET and HAVE (see 148. Infinitive Verbs without “to”, #2) – but they seem to be misused less often than MAKE. Perhaps the extra difficulty with MAKE results from the fact that its passive form does need an infinitive with to (Demand is made to fall …).
The need to drop to is not the only source of error with MAKE. For another, see 140. Words with Unexpected Grammar 2, #(h).
Many cause verbs, it should be noted, cannot be used at all with a following object + to verb. FACILITATE, for example, needs an object alone, or -ing alone, or a possessive + -ing, and ENTAIL allows only a that statement, or object alone, or object + -ing (see 232. Verbs with an Object + -ing). For more examples, see 32. Expressing Consequences.
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(b) *Children enjoy to learn through playing.
The infinitive to learn here should be learning. Infinitives are never correct directly after ENJOY, despite their possibility after most other verbs with the idea of “liking” or “wanting” (see 302. Verbs with a Partner Infinitive, #1). There is no logical reason why this is so – you just have to remember that ENJOY is different.
Another verb that like ENJOY necessitates -ing on any following verb is APPRECIATE. For some others, see 70. Gerunds. For other aspects of ENJOY, see 8. Object-Dropping Errors and 268. Types of “-self” Object, #2.
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(c) *High prices have a consequence on demand.
Although on is the right preposition between some synonyms of consequence and a noun saying who/what the consequence affects, consequence itself needs for. There are some others needing it too: an implication, repercussions and ramifications. For a general discussion of consequence-naming, see 32. Expressing Consequences.
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(d) *Skills can develop through a suitable homework.
The presence of a here requires a countable noun (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”), but homework is uncountable. To use this word, you must either combine it with a countable noun (a piece of homework, a homework task – see 180. Nouns that Count the Uncountable) or drop a. Otherwise, a countable synonym must be used.
The meaning similarity between all of the listed words here is the idea of a discrete activity with a clear purpose. The discreteness is perhaps the reason why most of the words are usable with a or plural -s (i.e. are “countable”). The probable reason why homework is an exception is its obvious relatedness to uncountable work.
For more on the unreliability of meaning as a guide to noun countability, see 14. Noun Countability Clues.
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(e) *Seminars are for discussing about issues raised in lectures.
After DISCUSS, about cannot be used. Although it has the same idea of “talk” or “think” that the other listed verbs have, it also contains the idea of “about” (like CONSIDER and DEBATE). Its meaning similarity to the other verbs is probably only one of various possible reasons why learners of English incorrectly use about after it; another is the need for about after the related noun discussion (see 42. Unnecessary Prepositions).
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(f) *Water is consisted of hydrogen and oxygen.
This passive form is incorrect because CONSIST is “intransitive” – unable to be used in the passive voice (see 113. Verbs that cannot be Passive). This grammatical feature of CONSIST cannot be deduced from its meaning – the other verbs listed for (f) all have roughly the same constituent-naming use (see 196. Saying what is inside Things) but are passive. The active form needed here is consists (without is).
A further possible reason for thinking *is consisted is right is that COMPRISE can be either active or passive with the same meaning (see 21. Active Verbs with Non-Active Meanings). Note that the active form of COMPRISE, like DISCUSS above, has no following preposition. The common error of adding of probably results from the need for of after both CONSIST and BE COMPRISED.
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(g) *Opponents of nuclear power criticise that THE COST IS TOO HIGH.
All of the verbs listed for this sentence are of the reporting kind – indicating saying or thinking and usable to link someone else’s words (capitalised) with their author (see 150. Verb Choices with Reported Speech). Criticise is the only one that cannot make the link with that: it needs a noun or pronoun after it, with any following verb in the -ing form after for or as (see 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs). Thus, a correct ending to the above sentence might be …criticise the cost as (being) too high.
For other reporting verbs that similarly need as, see 92. Verbs with an Object + “As”.
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(h) *Poor hygiene can cause an increase of disease.
All of the words listed for this sentence are “action” nouns – derived from verbs and similar in meaning. This means that they can all be followed by a noun that, if they had been verbs, would have been their subject. Disease is such a noun here.
The normal means of including a subject-like noun next to an action noun is either by or of. Of is the correct choice with all of the other nouns here – but not with increase, which needs a rather unexpected in instead. For a fuller explanation, see 49. Prepositions after Action Nouns 2.
Various synonyms of increase (and decrease) also need in instead of of or by. For a list see 115. Surveying Numerical Data.
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