319. Superficiality

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Superficiality can take many different forms, causing English to have numerous words for it

DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE

To say that something – beauty, for example – is superficial is to suggest that its real nature is worse than its observable one. Unsurprisingly, this is a common kind of suggestion in analytic writing, where there is usually a keen concern for truth. The result of such common use is that English has developed a wide variety of ways to express the idea of superficiality, just as it has for other common meanings like illustration, consequence, possibility and importance.

Most of the options for indicating superficiality are vocabulary rather than grammar. For this reason, the focus here is on listing and explaining the meanings of key words and phrases. However, grammatical properties and requirements will be indicated and explained where that seems necessary.

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WORD CATEGORIES

1. Verbs

SEEM, APPEAR, LOOK

The most obvious use of these verbs is to indicate uncertainty about the truth of a situation without actually establishing it as false (see 96 Making Statements More Uncertain 2, last section). However, in the right context they do often indicate falsehood:

(a) Horizons only seem to form straight lines.

If only here is understood to link with seem rather than with horizons, form or straight lines, it usually suggests falsehood. Other words that do the same include might and always.

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PRETEND

This verb, normally used with a human subject, can be followed by to, that or a noun object. It mostly implies a conscious effort by its subject to convey something different from reality:

(b) The Greeks pretended their wooden horse was a parting gift.

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FEIGN

Similar to PRETEND with a noun object, FEIGN means “suggest a non-existent characteristic of oneself (belief, weakness etc.) or a non-intended behaviour in order to deceive”:

(c) Feigned manoeuvres are often necessary in a team sport.

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SIMULATE

Again carrying the idea of “act in the manner of something that it is not”, SIMULATE does not necessarily imply an intent to deceive. Typically used, like FEIGN, with a noun object, it may indicate a legitimate purpose such as service or research:

(d) Artificial intelligence simulates real-world thinking.

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2. Adjectives

Superficiality adjectives tend to be usable with particular types of noun. For example, superficial can combine with quality-naming nouns like beauty, but not usually object-naming nouns like cup.

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SUPERFICIAL

Like SEEM and SIMULATE, this adjective often lacks the suggestion of deception. It may merely indicate that its noun is on the surface of something, as in superficial burns or patterns, or it may suggest incompetence, as in superficial thinking. Common nouns that are, like beauty, more likely to carry the deception idea include acquiescence, impression, manner, success and willingness.

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SKIN-DEEP

This mostly shares the ability of superficial to indicate position as easily as deception. In the latter case, it links with quality-naming nouns like beauty, affection and support.

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SPECIOUS

It is mainly nouns naming a type of justification that this adjective can combine with, such as argument, case, excuse, justification, rationale, reasoning, theory and thinking. The suggestion is that the justification is deliberately misleading.

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PLAUSIBLE

Justification types are common with this word, as they are with specious, but it also allows linkage with other speech and thought nouns, such as assumption, belief, explanation, idea, prediction and statement (see 287. Speech and Thought Nouns). Names and descriptions of people too are describable:

(e) A decision was based on the evidence of a plausible witness.

To describe someone’s name, it is necessary to place plausible after it with a link verb like BE in between:

(f) Schultz was plausible in explaining his absence.

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MISLEADING

To mislead is to cause people to think that something is different – often better – than it really is. This outcome does not have to be intended, but it often is. Typical partner nouns of the adjective might be advice, argument, evidence, publicity, representation, statement and testimony.

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SEEMING, APPARENT

These may express the same varying meanings of their related verbs (see #1 above). However, apparent is more restricted in its meaning if its noun is placed before it, separated by a link verb like BE. Compare how doing this below results in a different meaning from that of apparent success (= success that appears to have been achieved but has not really):

(g)  The success of the project was apparent.

Now, apparent means “obvious”. For a detailed explanation, see 132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4, #7.

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SUPPOSED

The meaning of this -ed adjective resembles the passive one of its related participle derived from the verb SUPPOSE (see 81. Tricky Word Contrasts 2, #3). Sometimes, it simply adds the idea of “believed” to its partner noun, but often it also implies its user’s personal scepticism about the truth of the belief. For example, a supposed success is likely to indicate a success that most people believe is real but the speaker does not.

If used without a following to verb (infinitive), supposed must normally go directly before its noun rather than after it with a link verb in between. It seems able to combine with a wide variety of positive and negative nouns. Besides outcomes like success, it may, for example, describe people (a supposed villain), human and non-human qualities (supposed enthusiasm, depth) and positions (supposed status).

For more about participle versus adjective uses of -ed, see 250. Adjectives with a Participle Ending.

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OFFICIAL

This word most commonly asserts the truth of an accompanying statement or idea by saying has been made or endorsed by an authoritative body such as a government or leading religious figure:

(h) The plans to raise taxes are official.

The suggestion of falsehood is most likely when official precedes a noun idea that most people know to be unreliable, like explanation, journey time or story:

(i) The official explanation of the move is poor weather.

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THEORETICAL

Like official, theoretical occasionally questions the truth of an authoritative idea or statement. It is especially likely to refer to something in the future. The authority may again be an expert, but it could just be experience or logic:

(j) There is a theoretical chance of bad weather tomorrow.

This would often suggest that bad weather tomorrow had been indicated but for the speaker was unlikely.

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3. Adverbs

Most of the above adjectives can be made into similar-meaning adverbs by adding -ly (apparently, misleadingly, officially, plausibly, seemingly, speciously, superficially, supposedly, theoretically). In addition, there are some colourful preposition phrases:

at first sight (= different from what later sights indicate)
on paper (= theoretically)
on the surface (= superficially)
to the untrained eye (= different from what experts see)

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4. Nouns

Again, there are some derivatives from the adjectives: plausibility, speciousness, superficiality. From the verbs there are also appearance, look, pretence and simulation.

Outside of these, there is impression, usable very like appearance, but with more suggestion of associated (dis)belief. If it is the subject of a verb, it is likely to be along with either of + noun or that + statement, each placed either directly after or with a link verb in between, e.g. The impression that/of… grew greater; The impression was that/of… (see the end of 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”). If impression is the object of a verb, the verb is likely to be GIVE (= create) or HAVE (= possess), and a following that… or of… is again common.

Appearance and look are similarly usable with of (but not that). As a verb object, appearance again allows the GIVE/HAVE choice, but look tends to allow only HAVE.

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5. “As if”

These words can sometimes question the truth of a statement by changing the tense of its verb. Consider this:

(k) Animals act as if they are machines.

The present tense of are suggests that the speaker believes in the stated idea that animals are machines. With past-tense were instead of are, by contrast, the suggestion would be of doubt.

As another example:

(l) The building looks as if an earthquake has/had hit it.

Here, has hit suggests acceptance that an earthquake may really have happened, while had hit does not.

In both of these examples, the verb before as if (act, looks) is in a present tense. If it were past instead, the acceptance distinction cannot be made. For a fuller explanation of as if, see 191. Exotic Grammar Structures 3, #3.

317. Tricky Word Contrasts 13

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Some word pairs are easily confused because of close similarities in spelling and/or meaning

THE PROBLEM OF TRICKY WORD CONTRASTS

Most users of English have encountered vocabulary items that are easily confused because they resemble each other in spelling and/or meaning. A well-known example – often explained in English language coursebooks – is later (= happening in subsequent time) versus latter (= second of two just-mentioned ideas). The problem is that such pairs are numerous in English, and many are rarely highlighted so that they are likely to remain unrecognised, or at least not fully differentiated.

It is these rarely-considered confusion sources, especially ones likely to occur in professional writing, that are the focus of the present post, just as they are of various others with a similar title (there is a complete list on the page in this blog entitled Posts on Specific Words). Further posts about vocabulary confusions include 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words,  44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs,  94. Essay Instruction Words,  211. General Words for People and 240. Nouns that End with “-ing”.

For some grammar contrasts, see 100. What is a Grammar Error?, 133 Confusions of Similar Structures 1 and 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 1. For some pronunciation ones, see 144. Words that are Often Heard Wrongly.

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LIST OF CONTRASTS

1. Eager(ness) – Willing(ness)

The adjective willing and related noun willingness are obviously both derived from the word will. However, their meaning differs in a subtle enough way to make them unsuitable for expressing the idea of will in adjective or noun form.

The most familiar use of will is as an auxiliary verb, as in …will happen. Its typical suggestion is, of course, the idea of “future”, but this is usually alongside a secondary meaning like “promise” or “prediction” (see 147. Types of Future Meaning). In rare cases, for example when will is spoken with emphasis or used after if, the secondary idea is of wanting something (see 316. Future Verbs without “Will” or “Shall”, #4).

This idea of wanting something becomes the main meaning of will when it is used as an ordinary rather than auxiliary verb:

(a) Everyone was willing the initiative to succeed.

The underlined words here are a past continuous form of the verb WILL, not BE before the adjective willing. This is clear from the subsequent wording: object + to verb (see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive, #5), replacing that…should…. The idea of wanting something is also present in the noun will, whether used countably (= inheritance document) or uncountably (= wish).

The frequency of the idea of wanting in will is logical grounds for seeing the same idea in willing and willingness. However, the logic is misleading: these words both indicate agreement to do something without indicating how much it is wanted. An action that someone is willing to perform might be a totally hated one, like eating disgusting food, the agreement to perform it being based on a very different stimulus from the attraction of the food, such a desire to avoid offending someone. One close synonym is prepared(ness).

Suitable alternatives for expressing the idea of wanting are the adjective-noun pairs eager(ness) and keen(ness). Like willing(ness), both can be followed directly by a to verb.

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2.  AGREE – ACCEPT

AGREE is usable with either a that statement or a to (infinitive) verb (as well as with various prepositions – see 44. Troublesome Prepositional Verbs, #1). Before that, it typically means “concur”:

(b) Caesar agreed that he / the journey was taking too long.

(c) Caesar agreed that he / troops would make the journey.

These suggest Caesar, the subject of agreed, had heard the opinion of someone else about the journey, and had decided that it either matched or should match his own opinion. The focus of (b) is an existing situation, that of (c) a future action. The subject of the verb after that may be either the same as that of AGREE (he above) or different (troops/the journey).

Sometimes, an additional suggestion with an agreed future action is of steps being taken to bring it about – the idea of consent as well as of concurrence. It is only possible if the subjects of AGREE and the verb after it are different, and if the subject of AGREE is understood to have the power to arrange the relevant event. In sentence (c), Caesar and he meet these conditions.

With a directly-following infinitive, by contrast, the idea of consent is the main meaning of AGREE. The subject of the infinitive can only be the same as that of AGREE.

ACCEPT is an object-dropping verb with the fundamental meaning of “choose to keep”. With an explicit or implicit noun or pronoun object representing a gift or offer, the choosing is implied to be gracious; but with one representing something undesirable, such as poverty or discomfort, there is an implication of resignation, stoicism or heroic suffering. Neither of these implications, though, is present with other objects. All noun objects refer to a past or existing situation, not a future one.

An alternative kind of ACCEPT object is a that statement. This allows only the implication of resignation etc. Unlike noun objects, that statements can refer to a future situation (…that mistakes would be made), as well as a past or present one. However, they still indication resignation, not consent.

The most common confusion of AGREE and ACCEPT is in the giving of consent to a future action. Only AGREE can express this meaning: agree to do for one’s own future action, agree that X will for someone else’s. ACCEPT with a following infinitive (*accept to do) is ungrammatical, while ACCEPT that … will indicates resignation rather than consent.

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3. Proposal – Proposition

These two countable nouns – both derived from the verb PROPOSE – may express either the action of that verb or its outcome (see 280. Alternative Meanings of Action Nouns).

Both words reflect the fundamental “suggest” meaning of PROPOSE, but differ in the type of suggestion that they indicate. Proposals are suggested plans or actions, propositions suggested ideas:

(d) Ali’s proposal is to store all the data in one place.

(e) The project will explore the proposition that productive workers are the happiest.

Note the infinitive verb after proposal and the that statement after proposition. That… is also possible after proposal, but infinitives are unlikely after proposition. Because proposal is future-referring, it allows the option of putting the verb after that into the “subjunctive” form (see 316. Future Verbs without “Will” or “Shall”, #5).

Propositions are especially likely in Law, Mathematics and Philosophy, where they are presented as possible truths, often in preparation for their systematic analysis. Elsewhere, they may mean “challenges”. In romantic situations, a proposition is an invitation to engage in sexual activity, whereas a proposal is a request for marriage.

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4. Suspect – Suspicious

Although suspect can be a verb, noun or adjective, it is the last of these that I wish to concentrate on because of the exclusively adjective nature of suspicious. The adjective suspect is, like the noun but unlike the verb, pronounced with stress on sus-, causing the “u” vowel to be pronounced fully as /ʌ/ rather than weakly as /Ə/ (see 125. Stress and Emphasis).

Suspect usually indicates the existence of a hidden problem within what it is describing, leading to a negative impact on people’s trust in it. It mostly describes objects, substances or abstract ideas. For example, a bridge might be described as suspect if it moved unexpectedly when in use, and an argument could be called suspect if unconvincing. If a living thing is called suspect, it is similarly believed likely to possess a hidden weakness, such as an inability to cope with pressure.

Suspicious too can say its noun idea is mistrusted by its observers. However, the noun idea is more likely to be behaviour by a living being than a physical quality in an object. An example of suspicious behaviour might be somebody on a low income regularly purchasing expensive luxuries.

Suspicious can also describe an observer of suspicious behaviour, its meaning then being “having suspicion” rather than “causing suspicion”. A car owner, for example, might be suspicious after their newly-serviced car still performed poorly. The person causing the suspicion can be named in an of phrase after suspicious (e.g. suspicious of the garage).

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5. In a Position – In Position

It is surprising how often in English just including or excluding a(n) or the within a fixed phrase can make a significant meaning difference. For numerous examples with the, see 235. Special Uses of “the”, #9.

The two expressions above usually precede a to (infinitive) verb. In a position is a formal way of saying “able”:

(f) Our organization is in a (good) position to offer its help.

Without a, by contrast, the meaning is “in a/the correct place”, and the context is likely to be sporting:

(g) The goalkeeper was in position to stop the shot.

Note, though, that an adjective added before this latter use of position needs to be accompanied by a or the, e.g. …was in a suitable (or the right) position to….

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6. At/On/In the Scene

The noun the scene changes its meaning according to the preposition used before it. After on, it refers to a particular area of activity, such as politics, sport or education. For example, a politician mentioning new people appearing on the scene would probably mean people newly entering politics.

After at, the scene refers to a place where something has recently happened or is still happening. Crime and disaster locations are especially likely to be involved. Newspaper reports, for example, will often say at the scene of the theft.

After in, the scene usually refers to a shortish segment of a book, play or film, usually involving a single event or location. As an example, one might hear that a film director made a brief appearance in the fight scene.

For more about nouns after a predictable preposition, see 252. Descriptive Wording after Nouns 1, #2.

311. Exotic Grammar Structures 9

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Some English grammar structures are unlikely to be described in language coursebooks

THE NATURE OF “EXOTIC” STRUCTURES

English has surprisingly many grammar structures that are not commonly found in language coursebooks, so that they could be called “exotic”. Some structures are of this kind because they have not been clearly identified by grammarians. Many others, though, are ignored by course designers because they are rare. There is usually insufficient space to cover the whole of English grammar, and the more common structures are preferred in the belief that this will give learners the greatest chance of success in future communication.

However, structures that are not commonly found in language-learning coursebooks can still be useful to know, especially for English users with a more advanced competence, who are the target audience of this blog. It is in this belief that posts like the present one are offered. Five exotic structures feature below. To access the other posts, see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1.

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STRUCTURE LIST

1. Just When

EXAMPLES

(a) Just when the economy was recovering, bad weather destroyed the harvest.

(b) The survivors were rescued just when the weather deteriorated.

Just when is understandable in two very different ways, depending on what the rest of its sentence says. The more basic meaning – not present above – is just that of an ordinary when combined with just meaning “precisely”, like this:

(c) The eggs were photographed just when the chicks were hatching.

The words after just when in such sentences typically mention a rare brief occurrence located somewhere within a long time period: most people who look at eggs fail to see them hatching.

On the other hand, just when in sentences like (a) and (b) helps to make a contrast between good and bad. In (a), a good event is named after just when, with a bad one named in the rest of the sentence, while in (b) the reverse happens. The position of the part with just when is not a factor here: it could be first or second in both (a) and (b).

Indicating a contrast, however, is only part of what just when does in sentences like (a) and (b). In addition, it associates the event in the other half of its sentence with either disappointment or relief. In (a), where the event in the other half (…destroyed the harvest) is disastrous, there is a suggestion of disappointment given the good situation in the just when part; in (b), a happy event in the other half (The survivors were rescued…) is suggested to be a relief in view of the threatening just when occurrence.

I would suggest that just when in (a) and (b) is not simply just + when, but is rather a single “multi-word” conjunction (see 230.  Multi-Word Conjunctions).

 

2. Complement Starting a Relative Clause

EXAMPLE

(d) Socrates, philosopher that he was, had a keen interest in words.

The underlined words here include the relative pronoun that within a statement comprising a subject pronoun (he), verb (was) and subject-describing complement (philosopher). This latter is located at the start rather than the end – a rare but not impossible complement position (see 220. Features of Complements, #6).

Two other noticeable points are firstly the position of the relative pronoun after the complement philosopher – unusual because relative pronouns do not normally go inside the statement that they belong to – and secondly the lack before philosopher (a countable noun) of the expected article a. The relative pronoun is always that.

A more typical wording of the underlined part of (d) would be who was a philosopher. However, this would change the meaning. One difference is the degree of familiarity that the reader is implied to have with the information involved: the wording in (d) implies that the reader already knows Socrates was a philosopher, while the alternative implies the opposite and would hence be providing that information along with the main point being made.

The other meaning difference is that the underlined information in (d) is clearly marked as a hardly surprising cause of the main information. There is not much surprise because the consequence is a predictable result of the cause – having an interest in words is typical of philosophers.

How might the following sentences be made like (d)?

(e) The diesel engine, which is a polluter, will soon be phased out.

(f) Most shoppers, who are bargain-seekers, look first at commodity prices.

The respective rewordings are polluter that it is and bargain-seekers that they are.

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3. “At” + Possessive + Superlative Adjective

EXAMPLE

(g) Markets are at their busiest in summer.

Superlative adjectives (with -est or most) express a difference between the noun idea that are they are describing (markets above) and either multiple noun ideas of a similar kind (e.g. shops, websites and even other markets) or the same noun idea in multiple different situations (e.g. in spring and autumn rather than in summer).

In many cases, readers can make the right choice between these two possibilities on the basis of logic or a linguistic clue or both. A major linguistic clue to a comparison with similar noun ideas is their mention in the previous sentence(s). A fairly reliable linguistic clue to the other kind of comparison is absence of the between a link verb like BE and the superlative adjective – saying, for example, Markets are busiest… in (g) (see 305. Wording next to Superlatives, #2).

However, the use of the is a clue that can be quite easily missed, and the inability of the to be dropped when it is not after BE (as in The busiest markets are…) neutralises the clue altogether. Placing the superlative after at + possessive – at their busiest above – is a clear way of indicating that something is being compared with itself at different times, regardless of the superlative’s position. Without a separating BE, the at phrase would directly  follow its noun (markets at their busiest); otherwise, it would follow BE (…are at their busiest).

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4. “Much as”

EXAMPLES

(h) Prepositions can introduce adverbial information, much as conjunctions do.

(i) Much as the world has changed, people behave the same.

As in these sentences introduces information that the reader is assumed to know already. In (h), conjunctions after it is aimed at clarifying a statement about something similar, prepositions (see 159. Exotic Grammar Structures 2, #1). As means “in the same way as”. In (i), the state of the world is associated with an unexpected outcome: as means “although”.

These differences affect the adverb much. In (h), it relates to all of the subsequent as statement, similarly to “sentence” adverbs (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs). It could without much meaning change be replaced by exactly. In (i), however, much relates more closely to the following verb (has changed). It is not logically replaceable by exactly, but means “greatly”.

Much cannot follow as. However, sentences like (i) allow though instead of as, and then much can go either before it or with the later verb (see 228. Exotic Grammar Structures 5, #5).

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5. Separated Subject of a Cited Statement

EXAMPLE

(j) Hydrogen is held (by X) to be the likeliest future means of powering motor vehicles.

Citing a statement in this way is an alternative to doing so with that (X holds that hydrogen is….), which English coursebooks tend to present as standard. In this alternative method, the citation verb (is held) is in the passive voice, and the source of the cited statement (X) is mentioned, if necessary, after a subsequent by. The subject of the cited statement (hydrogen) then takes over as the subject of the citation verb, with its original verb put into the to (infinitive) form (to be above instead of is).

The value of this sort of structure is that it enables the subject of a cited statement to begin the sentence in situations where that is desirable. A common such situation is where the idea represented by the subject noun has been mentioned just before, so that it has become familiar to the addressee – a feature that English speakers typically feel most naturally fits the start of a sentence (see 156. Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already, #10).

English has numerous verbs that can introduce a cited statement. However, not all of them can be used as in sentence (j). Those that can tend to be also usable with that. Further examples are ARGUE, BELIEVE, CONSIDER, DENY, INDICATE, REPORT, SAY and THINK. Various other verbs, however, can make sentences very like (j), differing only in requiring as instead of to be. Examples are CATEGORISE, CRITICISE, DEFINE, DESCRIBE, HIGHLIGHT, IMAGINE, REJECT, TREAT and VIEW. For more examples in both categories, see 299. Infinitives after a Passive Verb.

Citation verbs that would be difficult to fit into a sentence like (j) include BLAME, COMPLAIN, PROMISE (+ action), REFUSE (+ action) and REFUTE.

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6. Adverbial Noun Phrase with Causal Meaning

EXAMPLE

(k) The people in charge, the operation was bound to fail.

The underlined noun phrase here must have an adverbial role because it is not in a normal noun position (within or forming the subject, object or complement of a verb, and with no preposition before it). Such usage is not often grammatical – only special meanings allow it. A familiar one elsewhere is time-point expressions like last week and the day after tomorrow. The special meaning here is causal. There is, indeed, the possibility of adding because of at the start.

Only special nouns can be used in a sentence like (k). They seem to mostly correspond to question words. People, for example, corresponds to who. If the underlined words above were replaced by the way it was managed, the correspondence would be to how; The time it took would correspond to how long; The money it cost implies how much. For lists of nouns corresponding to question words, see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words.

The start of a sentence seems the most typical position of such causal noun phrases, but the end is often possible too (only the people in charge seems an unlikely mover among the examples above).

310. Aspects of Negation

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The idea of “not” can take numerous forms and affect nearby wording in various ways

THE CHALLENGE OF ENGLISH NEGATION

This post examines different ways of saying “not”, plus their grammatical impacts on surrounding words. Of course, both areas are common in English language coursebooks at both elementary and higher levels, and might thus seem strange in a blog seeking to avoid mainstream topics. My interest is particularly in aspects that often seem to be ignored, under-emphasised or insufficiently explored. I cannot promise to cover all of the gaps, but hopefully some at least of the ideas will prove illuminating.

Some aspects of negation that I consider worth mentioning are actually absent here because they are examined in other posts. The variety, uses and challenges of double negatives are the topic of 9. Reading Obstacles 5. Words that express negative meaning without indicating this in their spelling feature in 13. Hidden Negatives and 298. Grammar Meanings without Grammar, #4. Word parts that mean “not” are listed in 146. Some Important Prefix Types. Correct and incorrect ways of answering negative questions appear in 297. Types of Response to a Question, #2.

Also absent here is consideration of “negative connotation” in words like questionable and interruption. It is less relevant because it involves a different meaning of “negative”: more like “bad” than “non-existent” (see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #2).

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ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF SAYING “NOT”

1. “No”

This familiar alternative to not is used before nouns and comparative adjectives. With nouns, it is a “determiner” (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”), with adjectives an adverb (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much). The exact uses are:

WITH VERBS: no is not possible.

BEFORE UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS (e.g. no money): no mostly replaces not any at the start of a sentence, but elsewhere is an optional alternative to it, though slightly more formal or emphatic. For example, …found no money emphasizes the absence of money more than …did not find any money. Note how any always follows not – *no any is an impossible combination.

BEFORE COUNTABLE NOUNS (e.g. no idea): at the start of a sentence, no usually replaces not any and is usually preferred to not a(n). Elsewhere, it is an optional but slightly more formal or emphatic alternative to both not any and not a(n). Before complement nouns, it sometimes suggests inadequacy (…is no hero).

BEFORE BASE-FORM AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES: no cannot replace not except (optionally) before different and good.

BEFORE COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES (e.g. no easier, no more difficult): no can optionally replace not, but implies “not to any extent” or “not in any way”.

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2.  Pronouns

Negative pronouns include few (= not sufficiently many), little (= not sufficiently much), nobody / no-one (= not anyone), none (= not one) and nothing (= not anything). As the bracketed information shows, each combines not with a particular noun idea. Few represents a plural noun, little an uncountable one. Consider this:

(a)  Problems were expected but few occurred.

The indication here is of a nearly unproblematic outcome. The message would be the same with problems replaced by uncountable delay (+ was), necessitating little instead of few.

Many readers will know that few and little sometimes have a in front to express a different meaning. What changes is in fact the negativity: quantities are still indicated to be small, but they are no longer cast as inadequate.

Few and little are the only pronouns listed above that can also link with a following noun as “determiners”, e.g. few problems. None does have a corresponding determiner, but it is the different word no – a surprising change given that no change happens with not just few and little but also every other quantity expression (all, each, enough, most, many and some: see 28. Pronoun Errors and 133. Confusions of Similar Structures 1, #1).

For an example of little misused, see the task in 6. Hidden Negatives.

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3.  Adverbs

It is hardly surprising that adverbs are among the alternatives to not, given that not is itself an adverb. Again, the alternatives add an extra idea to that of not. The main ones are little, neither, never, nowhere, rarely, scarcely, barely, seldom, hardly and no longer.

Adverb uses of little can again be made positive by adding a in front. Rarely has the positive equivalent occasionally, while the meanings of scarcely and barely can be expressed positively with very occasionally (showing frequency) or just (showing quantity, as in just enough).

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4. Verbs

Verbs with a negative prefix are an obvious kind that can express the idea of “not”. The prefix is usually dis- (disbelieve, dislike, disobey, displease, distrust etc.). There are a few verbs, however, that lack any visible indication of negativity yet are still intuitively negative. Often, it will be the kind of words that they combine with that indicate negativity.

For example, AVOID, FAIL, LACK and NEGLECT may require an object with any (e.g. lack any hope) where their opposites (ENCOUNTER, SUCCEED, POSSESS, ATTEND TO) would have one with some. DENY, DOUBT, FORBID, PROHIBIT and REFUSE TO ACCEPT report negative statements with not or similar removed from them, thus implying that the idea of “not” is already present in their own meaning:

(b) Gomez (2020, p. 78) denies that the cost is excessive.

This means Gomez  says the cost is not excessive (see 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs, #6).

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5. Other

The ways of recognising negativity in verbs seem equally applicable to nouns (e.g. indecision, refusal), adjectives (e.g. averse, non-conformist, uninvited) and adverbs (e.g. illegally).

Negative conjunctions tend to combine a starting adverb with a later conjunction: no sooner…than…,  not only…but also…,  hardly/ scarcely…when…,  not…any more than… (see 64. Double Conjunctions). Similarly, the conjunction neither needs a later nor, though mid-sentence nor sometimes stands alone, like let alone (see 191. Exotic Grammar Structures 3, #2) and not that (269. Exotic Grammar Structures 7, #1).

A notable preposition is without. It can negate a following verb, forming an adverb-like addition to a longer sentence:

(c) Chemicals are needed that protect crops without disrupting ecosystems.

(d) Without (our) knowing all the facts, we cannot make a decision.

The without part in (c) means “but do not disrupt…”; that in (d) “if we do not know…”.

Verbs directly after without need the -ing (gerund) form, like any other verb after a preposition. Their subject can be indicated more explicitly with a preceding possessive adjective – our in (d). However, it can also be an ordinary (pro)noun, changing the verb into a participle with -ing or -ed (see 75. How to Avoid “Dangling” Participles, #4).

The without part in (c) is like a how-saying “manner” adverb, linking principally with the main verb protect. This prevents it starting the sentence. In (d), by contrast, the adverbial information relates to all of the rest of the sentence (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs), and could as a result occupy either the start or the end.

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INFLUENCES ON SURROUNDING WORDS

6. Verb before its Subject

Sentences starting with a negative adverb usually need their subject positioned after some or all of the verb, as in questions (see 307. Word Order Variations, #3). 

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7. Word Substitution

There are some words whose meaning often has to be expressed differently in negative statements (as in questions). The best-known is some (alone and within various longer words) – typically replaced by any. This pair is widely covered in mainstream grammars so needs little attention here. I wish just to emphasise that any is occasionally used without a negative and some occasionally accompanies one.

Any without a negative has a changed meaning – often implying an if statement. Some alongside a negative may be illustrated as follows:

(e) Even the most popular film will not please someone.

This indicates that many people will be pleased by popular films – someone represents a minority. Anyone, by contrast, would say nobody will be pleased. In the first case, not negates the verb please; in the second, it negates someone (making it replaceable by no-one). In a similar way, …did no go somewhere means one place was not visited, implying that others were; whereas anywhere would mean all possible places were unvisited.

Other words that are often (but not always) replaced in negative statements include also → not either, too (= also) → not either, still → no longer and already → not yet. Consider this:

(f) “Some” cannot often accompany a negative and “too” cannot either.

Either is necessary here instead of too or also.

Not either statements like the above can usually be rephrased as two sentences. There are two ways of wording the second sentence. The simplest is to replace and with a full stop. Very often, however, English speakers will change not either into a starting Neither…. This necessitates a further change: positioning the verb before its subject: Neither can “too” above (see 307. Word Order Variations, #3).

As well as words that are not very likely in negative statements, there are some that are especially likely there. Ever used with a negative verb to mean “at any time” (see 272. Uses of “Ever”, #1), is likely with positive verbs to be replaced by a time-point adverb like before, once or sometimes. Long with not + verb frequently becomes for a long time without it. Much frequently becomes often or plenty (see 98. “Very”, “Much and “Very Much”, #1). Note, though, that long and much can remain unchanged with positive LIKE (…much likes them, …has long liked it) and similar-meaning verbs (ADMIRE, APPRECIATE, ENJOY, LOVE, WANT, DISLIKE).

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8. Modified Reported Speech

Negative verbs like DENY and REFUSE (#4 above) are not the only reporting verbs that transfer negation from a reported statement to themselves. Other verbs of this kind, however, locate the negative alongside themselves rather than within their very meaning, like this:

(g) Ling (2022, p. 46) does not think that inflation will persist.

Here, not negates will persist, not think. Other verbs like THINK include BELIEVE, EXPECT, FEEL, IMAGINE and SUPPOSE. They are all “thought” verbs. However, not all thought verbs are like them. Hoped not to…, for example, introduces a hope whereas did not hope to… does not. Other verbs like HOPE include ASSUME, DOUBT, JUDGE and KNOW.

There are, in addition, some non-reporting verbs that are usable like THINK, especially APPEAR and SEEM.

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9. Added Emphasizers

Negative expressions can be made stronger with special wording before or after them:

(h) Petrov is NOT in any way criticising the theory.

Different negative types require different emphasizers. Common combinations are as follows (* = needs intervening words; + = forbids intervening words):

AT ALL: after barely, few, hardly, little, *neither, never, *no, no-, +none, *nor, not, rarely, scarcely, seldom, without

AT ANY TIME: after barely, hardly, neither, never, *no, no-, +none, nor, not, rarely, scarcely, seldom, without

BY ANY MEANS: after neither, nor, not

DEFINITELY: before no, no-, none, not, without

EVER: after barely, hardly, scarcely, *nor, not

IN ANY WAY: after neither, never, nor, not, without

UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES: after neither, never, *no, no-, +none, nor, not

VERY: before +few, +little, +rarely, +scarcely, +seldom

WHATSOEVER: after few, little, *no, no-, +none, *nor, not, *without

309. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 5

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Sometimes two grammar structures are hard to distinguish because of similar forms and/or meanings

TRICKY CONTRASTS IN ENGLISH

As in most languages, it is quite common in English to find two items, of either vocabulary or grammar, whose meanings are not easy to differentiate. Although a few pairs of this kind are covered by most English coursebooks, and are as a result well-known, many are overlooked.

In this blog, posts with the above title consider rarely-explained meaning differences between grammatical structures that seem to say the same. For a list of all the posts, see 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 1. These structures are to be distinguished from similar-seeming ones that often cause grammar errors – separately considered under the heading Confusions of Similar Structures. For differences between confusingly similar vocabulary items, there are numerous posts entitled “Tricky Word Contrasts”. For a full list, plus an alphabetical list of all of the words in them, click here.

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EXPLANATIONS OF SIMILAR STRUCTURES

1. “The Xs…” versus “Xs such as…”

One of the many combinations that can be made by placing a noun (or noun-like expression) in front of one or more others is a plural class name, such as colours, followed without a comma by one or more names of members of the class, such as brown and grey. There are associated grammatical requirements which differ according to whether the member names represent some or all of the class members.

The simplest means of indicating the idea of “some” is a suitable expression added directly after the class name, such as like, such as or including:

(a) Colours like brown and grey can be depressing.

This links can be depressing with not just brown and grey but also colours of a similar kind (a category the reader is assumed to be able to recognise). For a full list of possible linking expressions, see 1. Simple Example-Giving.

By contrast, the simplest way to show that one or more nouns after a class name are naming all of the class members that the whole statement is about (i.e. that brown and grey above are all, or the only, colours that can be depressing), is to avoid special wording after the class name, and instead add the before it:

(b) The colours brown and grey can be depressing.

For a full description of this usage, see 117. Restating Generalizations more Specifically, #3.

A complication arises when the class name refers to a specific identified group rather than a general class, a meaning that also requires the. Sentences like (a) can accommodate this just by adding the at the start, but in sentences like (b), where the is already present, there is a need to do something like naming the class member(s) before the class name:

(c) The brown and grey colours can be depressing.

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2. Text-Describing Present Perfect Tense

Both the present perfect tense (with has/have) and the past simple (with -ed) enable mention to be made of an earlier part of a text where they are used. The difference between them is similar to that in their everyday use, where the present perfect typically refers to times of a more recent and still-relevant nature. Thus, to talk correctly about an earlier part of a text, there is a need to recognise what in texts is considered “recent”.

One useful distinction in this respect involves chapters or sections. If the indicated earlier part of the text is in a chapter before the indication, the past simple is the more likely choice; otherwise, the present perfect is preferred:

(d) The last chapter presented definitions; the current one has described relevant procedures.

Obviously, the fact that the relevant procedures are earlier in the current chapter means the verb in the present perfect tense is probably at the end (at the start, it would be describes or will describe). In fact, this use of the present perfect tense is so likely to be near the end of a chapter that it can be considered a kind of end-marking signpost language (see the end of #2 in 186. Language in Oral Presentations).

Yet the present perfect tense is not always the right choice for referring back to something in the same chapter or section. There are certain past-referring adverb expressions that necessitate, or at least allow, the past simple, similarly to expressions in everyday usage like last night or ago. Examples are at the start (colouring the start as long ago), a few paragraphs back and earlier.

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3. “The” between BE and a Comparative Adjective

A familiar use of comparative adjectives is after the noun they are describing, with a link verb like BE or SEEM in between:

(e) Driving is quicker than cycling, but cycling is cheaper.

Here, the comparative adjective quicker is describing the earlier noun driving, and cheaper is describing cycling.

What is notable about this usage is that the is sometimes possible before the comparative. Sentence (e) could end …is the cheaper. Adding the requires an absent than… after the comparative. For that to be possible, the idea that would normally follow than – indicating what the comparison is with – must already be obvious from either the situation where the sentence is uttered or previous words. In (e), of course, it is the previous word driving that indicates what cycling is being compared with.

Where the is possible, it is not compulsory, and creates only a slight meaning difference. It seems just to emphasise that the meaning of the unmentioned than part is already available.

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4. “South of” versus “to the South of”

These expressions (and their equivalents with the other compass words, such as east and north-west) may each express either static location or movement. To appreciate the difference made by to the to the static meaning, consider the following:

(f) Zambia is south of Tanzania.

This indicates that Zambia is geographically beyond the southern border of Tanzania, but not how far. Adding to the, on the other hand, would say that Zambia is next to this border (see 295. Options in Saying Where, #7).

By contrast, the movement meaning without to the is illustrated in sentences with a travel verb like went:

(g) Livingstone went south of Tanganyika.

This means Livingstone made a journey across the southern border of Tanganyika. Adding to the, on the other hand, would say that Livingstone made a journey into the southern part of Tanganyika, probably from somewhere in the same country.

For more about words like south, see 151. Ways of Using Compass Words.

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5. “Cannot decide” versus “Cannot make a decision”

Various reasons for preferring MAKE A DECISION to the simpler DECIDE are identified earlier in this blog in 39. “Decide” or “Make a Decision”?. An important one is that the frequent need of DECIDE to precede an object or to verb can be a problem if there is a good reason not to have one of these, such as a wish not to state the obvious.

What happens, though, if DECIDE does not need an object, as in the following?

(h) The committee is deciding tomorrow.

Used like this, DECIDE is likely to mean not just “find a solution” but “make a selection from multiple options”. The options are likely to be equally attractive or unattractive, and to be already known, perhaps because they have just been mentioned. The usage is probably “object-dropping” rather than “intransitive” (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors). MAKE A DECISION remains an alternative, but would be vague about the number and visibility of the options.

A stronger difference arises when cannot is included. Cannot decide implies that difficulty of selection is the reason why, whereas cannot make a decision, in less strongly suggesting selection, is more likely to indicate a different reason for the absence of a decision, such as illness.

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6. “Know to” versus “Know how to”

Somebody who knows how to do something knows the way it can or should be done. How introduces an indirect question within which the relevant action is expressed with a to (infinitive) verb (see 105. Questions with a “to” Verb).

On the other hand, knowing to do something is knowing that it is the right thing to do, as in this example:

(i) Lions know to keep clear of elephants.

The meaning here is that lions know keeping clear of elephants is the way to behave. The infinitive is a kind of object of know, and hence in a closer grammatical relationship (see 302. Verbs with a Partner Infinitive, #1). One other verb usable in the same two ways is LEARN.

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7. “that is to say” versus “that is”

These are both synonyms of in other words, commonly used for rephrasing a just-mentioned idea (see 286. Repeating in Different Words, #4 and #6). They are often presented as interchangeable, when in fact they sometimes have to be punctuated differently.

The rephrased wording next to each expression may be located in the same sentence as the original wording, or in a new sentence directly after it. In the first case, the usage is preposition-like; in the second, both expressions are connectors – a dual capability also possessed by for example (see 226. Words with Complicated Grammar 2, #4).

With new-sentence rephrasing, the punctuation of the two expressions is also the same, namely a full stop before and a comma directly after:

(j) Heart disease is linked to a sedentary lifestyle. That is (to say), it becomes more likely if exercise is rare.

When the rephrasing is not in a new sentence, a comma is needed before both expressions and another one, or a full stop, is needed at the end of the rephrasing, thus forming a parenthesis (see 294. Parentheses):

(k) Anticyclones, that is to say high pressure areas, bring quiet weather.

A difference in this situation, however, is that that is always seems to need a further comma directly after it, whereas that is to say is only likely to have one there if the explanation is long.

One reason for the more frequent comma usage after that is may be the possibility of other meanings being understandable when a comma is absent, such as the relative pronoun use of that. A problem with this comma need, though, is that it can bring unwelcome high comma densities – three within 6 words in (k) (Anticyclones, that is, high pressure areas, …). This may be a reason why the longer that is to say is often preferred.

301. Structures with a Double Meaning 5

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Some grammar structures can be understood in more than one way, just like some words

DOUBLE-MEANING STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH

Language structures are made by combining meaningful units together in accordance with a grammatical rule. Most are multi-word. Sometimes, the combined words can be understood in different ways, just as is often possible with single words. Alternative meanings of particular multi-word structures seem worth studying in order to avoid possible confusion in both reading and writing.

In reading, unfamiliarity with the different possible meanings of a particular structure could cause the same kind of problems as those that are possible with multi-meaning words, such as readers thinking the structure has a meaning they know when it actually has one they do not (see 11. Homonyms and Homographs). For writers, unawareness of a structure’s alternative meanings can hinder anticipation of reader misunderstandings, so that no measures are taken to prevent them (see 265. Grammar Tools for Better Writing, # 6).

As the above title indicates, this is not the only Guinlist post aiming to identify and describe fairly common word combinations with alternative meanings. For a full list, see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1. To read about single words with a variable meaning, see 7. Metaphorical Meanings,  11. Homonyms and Homographs,  121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs,  213. Special Uses of “Do” 2 and 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words.

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EXAMPLES OF DOUBLE-MEANING STRUCTURES

1. Verb + “well” + Preposition

EXAMPLE
(a) Stairs are positioned well behind the kitchen.

Here, the adverb well could mean either “effectively” or “substantially”. The former describes the verb positioned, the latter the preposition behind.

Most adverbs describe either a verb, an adjective, an adverb or a complete sentence (see 120. Six Things to Know about Adverbs, #2). Well is one of a small number that can link with a preposition placed just after them (see 262. Adverbs that Describe a Preposition). Its potential to create a double meaning is shared by some but not all members of the group; others that could be understood in two different ways above include exactly, practically, right and roughly.

The double meaning of adverbs like well depends on more than just their placement between a verb and a preposition. The verb must be usable without a following noun (object or complement) or adjective (complement). Its meaning must also be logically compatible with well: there are plenty of verbs that are unlikely to have this property, such as BE DISCOVERED, FAIL and OCCUR. The preposition after well must be right too. Well and most adverbs like it have a very specific set of possible partner prepositions (see the above-mentioned post). Combination with a preposition outside the set would clearly indicate that well was partnering just the verb before it.

The double meaning of sentence (a) can be overcome by either placing well before positioned (removing the link with behind) or replacing well with a good way.

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2. “(that) they have to do”

EXAMPLE
(b) Staff may bring home work (that) they have to do.

To appreciate the double meaning here, it is necessary to know the subtle difference between have to do work and have work to do. The first is a use of the familiar necessity verb HAVE TO (see 129. Differences between Necessity Verbs, #2); the second uses HAVE with an object noun (work) that has been expanded into a longer phrase by to do after it (see 239. Nouns Combined with a “to” Verb).

A to verb after an object of HAVE changes the necessity meaning of HAVE. The primary suggestion is of availability: in (b), for example, work to do means work that is waiting to be done. There may be a suggestion of need, but not of compulsion. Other common combinations are water to drink (= water available for drinking), a train to catch (= a planned train journey) and a mountain to climb (= a hugely difficult and therefore unlikely escape from failure) (see the end of 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE).

The obvious grammatical means of distinguishing between these two uses of HAVE is the position of the to verb relative to the object noun. This clue disappears, however, if the object is a relative pronoun (typically which or that), because objects in this form always go before their verb, in the manner of that in the example sentence above. It is this change that typically enables sentences like (b) to express either of the meanings of HAVE.

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3. Questions with “or”

EXAMPLE
(c) Do investors want diamonds or gold?

Many uses of or carry a double meaning (see, for example, 266. Indicating Alternatives). The use in questions, whether direct like (c) or indirect, can be especially confusing.

One interpretation of (c) is that it is about the alternatives diamonds or gold. The speaker is asking for a choice to be made between them. The possible answers are then Diamonds or Gold or Both or Neither, but not Yes or No (see 297. Types of Response to a Question, #4).

Alternatively, the focus of (c) can be the verb (want). Here, there is no interest in discovering a preference concerning diamonds and gold; instead, the question asks whether the preference is for having or not having one of these. The most likely answers are Yes or No.

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4. “Solve the problem with…”

EXAMPLE
(d) Technicians will solve the problem with software.

This is unclear whether software is the problem or the solution. The double meaning arises from the fact that the prepositional with phrase can grammatically and logically combine with either the noun before it (problem) or the earlier verb (solve), acting in the first case like an adjective and in  the second like an adverb (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #2). Software is a problem if understood to link with problem, and a solution if understood to link with solve.

One condition for this double meaning to exist is the involvement of suitable nouns, particularly the one at the end, which must represent something usable for solving a problem. The main grammatical condition is the placement of the with phrase at the end of the sentence after the object of the verb. This is a cause of double meanings also mentioned in a previous Guinlist post (see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1, #2). The difference here is that two alternative meanings of with are involved: “using” In the adverb phrase, and “concerning” in the adjective one. In the previously-described use, with means “using” in both cases.

These two different meanings of with depend not on whether the with phrase has an adjective or adverb role, but on the kind of preposition that with is each time. Prepositions as a whole fall into three basic groups, which could be labelled natural, grammatical and collocational.

Natural preposition use is the fundamental one where the preposition is independent of other words, and is replaceable in the same context by one or more other prepositions expressing a different meaning. Most of these meanings are the elementary ones of space and time. The natural meaning of with is “accompanying”.

Grammatical prepositions, by contrast, are associated with grammatical structures, for example by after passive verbs, and for before the subject of an infinitive verb. With is a grammatical preposition when it has the “using” sense in (d). The noun after it in such cases is technically called an “instrument” (see 73. Prepositions for Saying How).

Collocational prepositions carry the least meaning, their use depending merely on the use of another word with which they are typically associated (see 229. Metaphorical Prepositions). With is a collocational preposition when it has the “concerning” sense in (d). This meaning is generated by the presence of problems just before (see 134. Words with a Variable Preposition, #2). A different preceding noun might generate a different meaning: for example, with after struggle means “against”.

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5. Preposition after an Action Noun

EXAMPLE
(e) There is a report of an attack on a train.

This could mean either that something on a train suffered an attack, or that the train itself did. The choice of on is associated in the first case with a train, and in the second with an attack. These alternatives exist because on, like with in #4 above, is understandable as two different types of preposition.

When the choice of on is associated with a train, it is a natural preposition use expressing the fundamental location meaning of on and grammatically replaceable by such other location prepositions as by, under or behind. However, when the choice of on is associated with an attack, it is more collocational. It is the standard preposition after that word that enables the object of its action – the sufferer of an attack – to be named (see 31. Prepositions after Action Nouns 1).

The primary condition for this kind of double preposition meaning is a location noun after the preposition. Other examples of action noun prepositions that could alternatively link with a subsequent location noun are development by, disagreement over and emphasis on.

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6. “When” after Two Closely-Linked Verbs

EXAMPLES
(f) Tourists WANT to VISIT the park when the sun is shining.

(g) It was EXPECTED that problems would OCCUR when the event started.

In these sentences, when indicates that what is said after it happens at the same time as something said before it (see 225. Simultaneous Occurrence, #2). But which of the capitalised verbs is each when clause more closely linked to? Is it the wanting in (f) that happens at the same time that the sun is shining, or the visiting? Was it the expecting in (g) that occurred exactly when the event started, or the problems? We cannot actually be sure.

For this double meaning to arise, the when… part must be added onto the end of a sentence containing two verbs (capitalised above) that are in a close grammatical relationship to each other. In (f), the second verb is part of the object of the first, while in (g) it is part of a delayed that… subject (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “it”).

In these examples, the action of the first verb clearly happens earlier than that of the second. A double meaning would be less obvious if the two verb actions were simultaneous – if, for example, want to visit in (f) were replaced by enjoy visiting – though it would arguably still be present.

293. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 4

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Sometimes two grammar structures are hard to distinguish because of similar forms and / or meanings

TRICKY CONTRASTS IN ENGLISH

As in most languages, it is quite common in English to find two items, whether of vocabulary or of grammar, whose meanings are not easy to differentiate. Although a few pairs of this kind are covered by most English coursebooks, and are as a result well-known, many are overlooked.

In this blog, posts with the above title consider rarely-explained meaning differences between grammatical structures that seem to say the same. For a list of all the posts, see 217. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 1. These structures are to be distinguished from similar-seeming ones that often cause grammar errors – separately considered under the heading Confusions of Similar Structures. For differences between confusingly similar vocabulary items, there are numerous posts entitled “Tricky Word Contrasts” (for a full list, plus an alphabetical list of all of the words in them, click here).

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EXPLANATIONS OF SIMILAR STRUCTURES

1. “a week” versus “a week’s time”

To indicate the amount of time taken by something – its duration – a time-period word like minute, hour or day is enough by itself, without the word time after it (see 258. Saying How Long Something Lasts, #2 & #5):

(a) The task will be completed in a week.

(b) Lectures normally last (for) two hours.

The word time commonly follows in and a time noun ending in -’s (or -s’), e.g. in a week’s time. This combination expresses not duration but a future moment relative to the present. Thus, a week’s time in (a) would mean 7 days from now (see 58. Optional Apostrophe Endings and 288. Reading Obstacles 11, #7). In (b), two hours cannot be changed into two hours’ time.

If the start and end points of a later time period are both in the past, -s’ time must be replaced by later, without a preceding in, e.g. a week later in (a) (see 282. Features of History Writing, # 9).

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2. “a part of” versus “part of”

Part is a countable noun, so that its singular form ought not to be usable without a, the or similar in front (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”). The fact that it can be so used means that it must change its meaning, just as happens with some other countable nouns that can drop the or a (see 235. Special Uses of “the”, #4 and #9). I think it becomes a preposition (see the end of 221. Multi-Word Prepositions).

Unsurprisingly, it is only in a part of that part has its usual meaning of component, constituent, division etc. (see 196. Saying what is inside Things), as in this example:

(c) Market analysis is a part of our strategy.

Dropping a before part of makes the idea it is describing sound much less clearly like a recognisable part of something. The meaning is, in fact, very like that of some:

(d) Part of the problem is the resources required.

Unfortunately, the borderline between a clearly differentiated “part” and a vague sub-quantity seems sometimes to be quite subjective. Sentence (c), for example, would not sound strange without a before part of.

(A) part of can also describe people:

(e) Pele was part of Brazil’s 1958 World Cup team.

Here, part of could be replaced by a member of. No other meaning is implied. With a before part, by contrast, Pele is perhaps implied to have a more definite role in the World Cup team, elevating his significance.

One situation where a cannot be dropped from a part of, regardless of the intended meaning, is when part is described by an adjective before it. For example, adding major before part in (d) and (e) would necessitate a major part in both. This constraint is perhaps further evidence for part of being a preposition. Other typical adjectives are integral, key, minor, noticeable, small and vital.

A noticeably common context for both a part of and part of is after as:

(f) This work was carried out as (a) part of a larger renovation project.

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3. “based on” versus “on the basis of”

These two familiar means of introducing a source or justification are grammatically both similar and different. The similarity – suggested by the fact that each ends with a simple preposition (on, of) – is a need to be used like a preposition in sentences (see 221. Multi-Word Prepositions).

The grammatical difference between the two expressions is hinted at by the nature of the first word in each: based is the “past participle” form of the verb BASE, while on is a preposition introducing the noun (the) basis (of). The participle nature of based means it is adjective-like, so that phrases containing it always need a nearby noun to describe, whereas the prepositional beginning of on the basis allows phrases containing it to be used like either an adjective or a verb-describing adverb (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #2).

In fact, on the basis of seems to be more usually adverb-like than adjective-like. Compare:

(g) Consumers make purchases based on price.

(h) Consumers purchase on the basis of price.

Purchases in (g) is a noun, purchase in (h) a verb. Note, though, that on the basis of can directly follow a noun yet still be linked to an earlier verb. This would happen, for example, if goods followed purchase in (h): price would still be a justification of purchase, not of goods.

The grammatical difference between these two expressions resembles that between the two causal prepositions due to and owing to (see 72. Causal Prepositions).

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4. “as X sees” versus “as X sees it”

The verb SEE is usable not just to mean “observe”, but also metaphorically as a thought verb (see 315. Ways of Using SEE). In such cases, it varies in meaning according to whether it is associated with a fact or an opinion. Compare:

(i) Ryan (2021) sees THAT a new strategy IS necessary.

(j) Ryan (2021) sees a new strategy TO BE (or AS) necessary.

In (i), that after sees indicates mention of a fact, with the result that sees means “recognises”, and is easily usable to indicate agreement (see 152. Agreeing & Disagreeing in Formal Contexts, #1). In (j), however, a noun + to verb after sees instead of that indicates mention of an opinion, with the result that sees means “interprets” or “believes” (see 92. Verbs with an Object + “as”).

Because SEE in (i) and (j) is introducing an indirect statement, it can also be written after as in a parenthesis (see 183. Statements between Commas). Sentence (i) would then be:

(k) As Ryan (…) sees, a new strategy is necessary.

On the other hand, to rewrite sentence (j) with as, sees would need to be followed by it (see 190. Special Uses of “it”, #7).

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5. “who’s” versus “whose”

This fairly elementary distinction can nevertheless be quite troublesome. The two expressions are usable in either questions or relative clauses. For details of the question usage, see 285. Complexities of Question Words, #7. In relative clauses, who’s is similarly an abbreviation of who is – its apostrophe is not a possessive one. Its inclusion of the verb is means it can make a relative clause with just a noun or adjective after it:

(l) Please send the name of anyone who’s available.

Likewise, the auxiliary use of is (showing a continuous tense or passive verb) is a part of who’s, as for example in who’s visiting in (l) instead of who’s available.

By contrast, whose in relative clauses means “of whom”. It always needs a following noun + verb. For example, after anyone in (l) a possible continuation is …whose details you have.

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6. Two Meanings of “all that”

If you start a sentence with all that, all may refer back to something mentioned in the previous sentence or forward to something mentioned later. Compare:

(m) All that had been gained was lost.

(n) All that could be seen was a faint mark.

Sentence (m) does not identify the gained thing, but (n) identifies the seen one as a faint mark. Identified ideas are always at the end of the sentence after the verb BE (was above).

These possibilities are the same as those in sentences beginning with what – indeed, all that in both sentences above is grammatically replaceable by what (albeit with a slightly different meaning). The similarity is not surprising given that what means “the thing that”, a combination very like all that (see 145. Highlighting with “What…” Sentences). Indeed, the two combinations are very easy to confuse (see 231. Confusions of Similar Structures 3, #1).

In each use of all that, there is a different meaning of all. In sentences like (m), all means “everything”, whereas in sentences like (n) it means “the only thing”, and sometimes even “the sufficient thing” (see 189. Expressing Sufficiency, #1).

One other point to note is that that can, as a synonym of which, be dropped when it represents the object of the verb after it (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas). A famous example is in the title of the Beatles song All (that) you Need is Love (= the only thing that you need is love), where all (that) is the object of need.

288. Reading Obstacles 11: Grammatical Subtleties

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Small grammatical features can add important meaning to a statement

GRAMMATICAL SUBTLETIES IN READING

It is a long time since the appearance of the last Guinlist post in the “Reading Obstacles” series (22. Reading Obstacles 10: Multiple Speakers in a Text). The primary reason for the wait has been that most of the topics I consider suitable for the series have been exhausted. Any that remain, moreover, have needed a long time for appropriate examples to be gathered. The topic of grammatical subtleties is certainly one of these, but happily its wait is now over.

What I mean by “subtleties” is very small grammatical features that convey important meanings. A rather obvious example, mentioned in this blog in the reading post 13. Hidden Negatives, is the fundamental negative word not, whose meaning changes the message of an entire utterance into its opposite. This post focuses on eight examples of a less obvious kind. Each is presented in a sentence alongside three suggested interpretations, of which only one is correct. The challenge is to find the correct interpretations, all of which are subsequently explained.

The aim of such an exercise is not primarily to highlight the grammatical points involved, but rather to enhance appreciation of the importance of trying to understand every part of a text, no matter how small its meaning contribution.

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INTERPRETATION EXERCISE

Each sentence to be interpreted is written in bold type below, and is followed immediately by the suggested interpretations, numbered (a), (b) and (c). The most correct interpretation is the truest paraphrase or implication of the bold-type sentence. It is identified and explained after the three choices.

1. Sport helps society like it does the individual.

(a) The individual is helped by both sport and society.
(b) Society and the individual are both helped by sport.
(c) Sport and the individual similarly help society.

ANSWER

The key here is the meaning of it does. It is a repetition of sport helps, the pronoun it repeating the noun sport, the verb does repeating the verb helps (see 212. Special Uses of DO 1, #1). This means sport gives help to two different things: society and the individual, as indicated by option (b).

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2. An alloy is a mixture of elements that has metallic properties.

(a) Alloys always have metallic properties.
(b) Alloy elements always have metallic properties.
(c) Element mixtures always have metallic properties.

ANSWER

The great grammatical variability of that (see 153. Conjunction Uses of “that”) places it firmly in the category of “multi-use” words, a common cause of misunderstanding in reading (see 3. Reading Obstacles 2). Here, that needs to be recognised as a relative pronoun (replaceable by which). It is thus repeating the meaning of a preceding noun and acting as the subject of the following verb has.

There are two preceding nouns separated by of (a mixture and elements). That refers to whichever is more grammatical and logical (see 28. Pronoun Errors, #3). Elements cannot be the noun repeated by that because its plural form would require plural have after that instead of singular has. Thus, a mixture (of elements) is what metallic properties are linked with , not elements themselves, ruling out (b) above.

Option (c) is also incorrect. It says all element mixtures have metallic properties, instead of only some. The idea of “some but not all mixtures” is conveyed in sentence 2 by that without a comma before it (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas). Since an alloy (= “all alloys”) is equated by is to this subgroup of element mixtures, possessor of metallic properties, (a) must be the correct answer.

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3. Two new questions, the future and the budget, were on the agenda.

(a) The agenda comprised two items.
(b) The agenda comprised three items.
(c) The agenda comprised four items.

ANSWER

Punctuation is the clue here, in particular the comma after budget. There is a rule that a comma should not normally separate a verb from its subject, yet the comma here is separating the verb were from budget, a part of its subject. The reason why this is possible is that the rule does exceptionally allow a separating comma when the verb subject ends with a parenthesis, i.e. two commas separating some of its constituent words (see 50. Right and Wrong Comma Places). Therefore, budget must be part of a parenthesis beginning with the comma after questions.

Parentheses comprising a noun (or a word group acting like a noun) usually follow directly after another noun or noun-like word group, and give further information about it – a situation technically called “apposition” (see 77. Pairing of Same-Meaning Nouns). Thus, the future and the budget is not an addition to the preceding idea of two new questions, but rather a clarification of it. Therefore, the agenda essentially comprised only two items, as stated by option (a).

For more about the confusability of parenthetical and list commas, see 233. Structures with a Double Meaning 3, #1.

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4. The army marched non-stop so that it could reach the river first.

(a) The army succeeded in reaching the river first.
(b) The army failed to reach the river first.
(c) The army may have reached the river first.

ANSWER

This is about the ability of so that to introduce either a purpose or a result. Purposes are plans for the future, with no guarantee of occurrence; results are actual occurrences. A purpose verb after so that must follow an auxiliary – can, may or will for present-time purposes; could, might or would for past-time ones. A result verb in this position will normally lack an auxiliary (see 32. Expressing Consequences).

The presence of could above allows a (past-time) purpose to be understood. Since purposes are not guaranteed occurrences, option (a) is not a justifiable conclusion. Option (b) is also ruled out, as non-occurrences are equally uncertain. This leaves (c) as the correct choice.

A result meaning is actually able to be understood above as well. It would involve could having not its purpose-showing meaning but its past-capability one, saying that the march of the army resulted in it having the capability of reaching the river first. Since capability is not a guarantee of achievement (see 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #2), option (c) is again the right one.

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5. The ship was in trouble, when it reached the island.

(a) Reaching the island possibly caused the ship’s trouble
(b) Reaching the island probably ended the ship’s trouble.
(c) Reaching the island was irrelevant to the ship’s trouble.

ANSWER

The comma after trouble signals that when here means and then (see 271. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 3, #4). This means the ship reached the island after it suffered trouble, so that option (a) is incorrect (its meaning only becomes possible with no comma before when). Option (c) is also incorrect, the reason being that when after a comma strongly implies a link between the two events in its sentence. Option (b) is the answer.

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6. The red triangles and circles are the smallest visible shapes.

(a) The smallest visible shapes are all red.
(b) Triangles cannot be among the largest visible shapes.
(c) Circles cannot be among the largest visible shapes.

ANSWER

The starting the here means the statement is about particular shapes, not general ones, and visible shows which ones. The main question is what red describes.

Red describes both triangles and circles, even though it is not written before circles. This can be understood because the, needed before circles for the same reason that it is needed before triangles, is also absent. In order to prevent red describing circles, it would be necessary to say the red triangles and the circles, repeating the but not red (see the third part of 36. Words Left out to Avoid Repetition). Because red describes both triangles and circles, option (a) is the correct one.

Option (b) is incorrect because triangles within it is a larger group than the red triangles, able to include triangles of other colours (see 283. Lesser-Known Facts about Adjectives, #4). The main sentence does not exclude non-red triangles from the largest visible shapes. Option (c) is incorrect because of similar logic concerning circles and the red circles.

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7. The work starting next week will be completed in two weeks’ time.

(a) The work will last two weeks.
(b) The work will last less than two weeks.
(c) The work will last more than two weeks.

ANSWER

in two weeks’ time means “two weeks from now” (see 132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4, #7). Thus, if the work starts next week (= later than “now”), and finishes two weeks from now, it must last less than two weeks – option (b). To say, like (a), that the work will last two weeks, it is necessary to end …completed in two weeks. The meaning of (c) would need … completed in over two weeks.

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8. There is a noticeable development in the region.

(a) It is easy to see that the region is developing.
(b) The region contains a noticeable new feature.
(c) The region has changed in a noticeable way.

ANSWER

The crucial feature here is a before noticeable. Its usability only with countable nouns (see 110. Nouns without “the” or “a”) means that development, a noun with both countable and uncountable uses, is here countable. In some contexts, a development is a new occurrence, but linked with geographical regions it is usually something physically new, typically a building (see 201. Words with Complicated Grammar 1, #1). Only option (b), with the word feature, brings out this meaning.

Options (a) and (c) are incorrect because the idea in both of “change” reflects the uncountable use of development.

284. Words with a Surprising Meaning

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Some words do not mean what their appearance suggests

HOW MEANINGS CAN SURPRISE

A word sometimes has a very different meaning from what its user or reader expects. There are different possible causes. At the most basic level, a word or part of one might have more possible meanings than its user or reader thinks, so that when it has one of the unfamiliar ones, the familiar one is believed to be present instead.

One kind of word that can give this sort of problem is actually two completely different words with identical spelling (see 11. Homonyms and Homographs). Another kind is what I have elsewhere called “multi-use”: very familiar small words with a rare and very different alternative meaning (see 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words). Sometimes an alternative meaning is the opposite of the main one! Apparent, for example, can mean “seeming but not real” instead of “obvious” (see 132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4, #7, plus 319. Superficiality). Also notable are words with a simple basic meaning replaceable by a more sophisticated metaphorical one (see 7. Metaphorical Meanings).

The word inflammable illustrates how even a part of a word can mislead. Derived from the verb INFLAME, which literally means “put into flames”, this word is an adjective meaning “able to be inflamed”, or “easily burned”. The problem is that the in- part, a fairly standard way of contributing the idea of “into” to a word, is also used in many words to mean “not” (see 146. Some Important Prefix Types). This has resulted in so many people taking inflammable to mean “not able to burn”, and being harmed as a result, that governments and media have started using the new word flammable instead.

Another type of word with unexpected meaning may be spelled very like but not the same as one or more already-known words. Although such shared spelling is very typically a good clue to the meaning of a new word, in a few problem cases it is not.

For example, unbelievable means not “hard to believe” but “amazing” (see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, #7). The adjective economical, which is substantially spelled like the noun economy, looks as if it should mean “concerning the economy”, rather as political means “concerning politics” (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary, #2). In fact, though, it means “saving money”, the expected meaning being expressed instead by economic (see 48. Tricky Word Contrasts 1, #5).

It is, of course, not just English words spelled like other English words that can cause this type of confusion. Most speakers of another language than English will be very familiar with so-called “false friends”: English words spelled like a word in their own language but with something unexpected about their meaning. Examples elsewhere in this blog include realise (132. Tricky Word Contrasts 4, #2), edition (197. The Language of Bibliographies, #3), security (236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #1), occasion (236. Tricky Word Contrasts 9, #3) and mentality (276. Tricky Word Contrasts 11, #2).

This post presents a variety of further words that are easily misunderstood for one or other of the reasons above.

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PROBLEM WORDS

1. Invaluable

Here, in- does have the expected meaning of “not”. However, invaluable does not mean “not valuable” (= “worthless”). Instead, it means the exact opposite: “hugely valuable”.

The meaning of -valuable here has to be understood not as “possessing great value” but as “able to be given a value” – the kind of meaning that results from -able being added to most verbs (see the end of “Verb Form Paraphrase” in 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds). Once invaluable is equated with “unable to be given a value”, the idea of “hugely valuable” is perhaps easier to see.

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2. Incomparable

This -able word, which is easy to understand as “unable to be compared with anything”, actually does imply a comparison, as it expresses the positive idea of “unequalled” and hence “best”. The verb from which it is derived, COMPARE, is itself sometimes associated with the idea of “equalling” or “matching”. This happens when it is used not with a following object noun but with a following positive adverb like well (see 277. Advantages and Disadvantages, #6).

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3. Priceless

Although -less typically means just “without” (see 106. Word-Like Suffixes), here it helps create a meaning like that of invaluable, based on similar logic. The difference between priceless and invaluable lies in what they describe. Priceless tends to be associated with material objects like works of art or gold rings, while invaluable is associated with other things, often abstract, such as friendship or assistance. For more on this kind of difference, see 16. Ways of Distinguishing Similar Words, #6.

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4. Terrific

This word is derived from the ancient European language Latin, where terr- means “terror” and -ific means “causing”. The terr- spelling keeps its Latin meaning in various other English words (terror, terrifying, terrorist, deter etc.), and in many other European languages. However, terrific is very different. Its central meaning is “huge”. It has a negative suggestion with negative nouns like difficulty, problems and suffering, but it becomes positive with most other nouns, especially enjoyment-suggesting ones like film, holiday and kindness.

The related adverb terrifically acts similarly. It is, in fact, one of numerous adverbs that can replace very much to describe an adjective or verb in a more colourful way (see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much, #5). A problem, for example, might be terrifically difficult, while a student might work terrifically hard.

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5. Satisfactory

The suggestion in this word is more negative than positive. There is the idea of being enough, but also of not meeting a desired or expected level, rather as also happens with acceptable and passable. As a description of academic achievement, satisfactory often represents the lowest pass level, below average, above average and outstanding (see 114. Tricky Word Contrasts 3, #9).

One way of making satisfactory sound more positive is by placing it after entirely. Another is by replacing it with enough or sufficient (see 189. Expressing Sufficiency, #2).

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6. Useless

In this word, as in priceless above, -less often means more than “without”. Useless typically means “inept” or “failing”. Obviously, this is vital to appreciate in order to avoid unintended insult. To indicate just that something is ineffective, one can say not useful or not helpful; to mean “cannot be used”, say of no use.

It is a general tendency for not + positive adjective to sound more polite than a negative adjective alone (see “Tonal Appropriacy” in 166. Appropriacy in Professional English).

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7. Certainly

This word, a formal or emphatic equivalent of yes, sometimes suggests its user’s doubt rather than certainty. The correct interpretation depends on the surrounding words or the situational context. For example, certainty is usually suggested in promises and in disagreements with another person’s negative claim:

(a) Some writers say the moon landings never occurred, but they certainly did.

For more on this sort of statement, see 224. Asserting the Truth of What you Say.

The suggestion of doubt appears when a certainly statement is followed by but or equivalent:

(b) Road building certainly reduces traffic congestion initially, but ultimately it exacerbates it.

This implies doubt about the value of building roads (see 51. Making Concessions with “may”).

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8. Hateful

In many words, -ful means “having”, a kind of opposite of -less (see 106. Word-Like Suffixes). This is the case, for example, in hopeful, spiteful and tearful. In hateful, however, it means “causing”. Thus, a hateful person is not someone who hates something, but someone who other people hate. A common way to indicate having hate is with hate-filled.

Very often, hateful describes a thing rather than a person, common partner nouns including journeys, messages and times. There are a few other -ful words like hateful, such as frightful, hurtful, pitiful and restful.

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9. Exceptional

This word only sometimes characterises something as just an exception, equating to “different” or “unusual” (see 215. Naming Exceptions):

(c) Last year was very hot, but that is exceptional.

More often, exceptional additionally has the positive suggestion of “special” or “outstanding”, reflecting the fact that unusual phenomena very often do have these qualities. For example, an exceptional performance is usually understood as an outstanding one, and an exceptional appetite is usually a very large one. Normally, the context will clarify which meaning is intended.

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10. Speculative

To speculate is to state an unproven possibility. It can be legitimate in academic discussion provided its uncertainty is clearly indicated with language like perhaps or might (see 95. Making Statements More Uncertain 1). It is particularly associated with philosophy.

In disciplines with a more scientific approach, speculative statements are likely to be quite rare, and even inappropriate in some contexts. The word speculative once occurred in an academic research article that I asked some students to read. It was being used to dismiss a theory as not based on proper research. Some of the students missed this negative aspect of the word, seeing just a comparison instead of a criticism (see 13. Hidden Negatives).

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11. Appreciable

This looks as if it should mean “able to be appreciated”, but -able, just as in comparable, means more than just “able to be”, here implying the additional idea of “quite large”. An appreciable distance, for example, would be one that was notable through being of above average but not huge length.

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12. Hopeless

It is easy to think that hopeless is the typical way of describing someone without hope, just as fearless typically describes someone without fear. In fact, though, hopeless much more often describes things than people, common examples being a hopeless situation and a hopeless idea. Yet it is still the human observer who is understood to lack hope. Reflecting this, the meaning of hopeless might be characterised as “not inspiring hope”.

The opposite of hopeless used in this typical way is generally promising but can on occasion be hopeful (see 296. Tricky Word Contrasts 12, #2). To describe someone as lacking hope without using hopeless, it is possible to say despairing before a noun and in despair or without hope after one.

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13. Unique

This word of French origin (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary, #7) combines the French meaning of “sole” with the extra meaning of “special”. Thus, a unique opportunity is not necessarily the only opportunity encountered, but is rather a more special one than most if not all others (see 251. The Grammar of “Only”).

Unique is thus similar to exceptional (#9 above). It differs in its strength, suggesting greater rarity of what it describes.

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14. OVERLOOK

This verb has two rather different meanings. One, associated with high places, is “provide a view of a neighbouring lower place”. For example, a block of flats might overlook a row of houses, so that residents of the former might be able to observe events in the latter. The other meaning is “not see”, either intentionally, as when a police officer overlooks a minor offence, or unintentionally, as when a researcher overlooks a significant fact.

Not to be confused with OVERLOOK is LOOK OVER, which means “scan” or “peruse”.

283. Lesser-Known Features of Adjectives

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Adjectives are much more than just words for describing a noun

THE POTENTIAL OF ADJECTIVES

The concept of an adjective is, like that of most fundamental grammatical features, familiar to language students from an early stage, but full of hidden aspects that reveal themselves only gradually as studies progress. Information about many of these aspects can be accessed within this blog by clicking on ADJECTIVES in the Categories menu to the right of this page.

Now, however, there are so many posts on adjectives that scrolling through them all to find new insights can take a long time. Hence, I feel there may be some value in a post like this that picks out some of the more esoteric adjective aspects that have been covered to date, and adds something more. In other words, I wish to offer the same kind of survey that I have elsewhere made of prepositions, adverbs and conjunctions.

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BASIC ADJECTIVE FEATURES

To facilitate the main discussion, it is useful to briefly mention the basic features of adjectives. Most people would say that adjectives “describe” a noun. Perhaps more accurately, they “describe” what the noun stands for. There is a problem here, however, of vagueness (see #4 below). Grammarians prefer to say that adjectives “modify nouns”, which means they adjust or clarify the meaning of the noun they are with.

The other basic aspect of adjectives is their “formal” properties – how they fit into sentences. Here is how I approach this in my book Grammar Practice for Professional Writing (Chapter 1):

(An adjective) may go directly between the and the noun it describes (the happy child), or follow the verb is (is happy). You can confirm that a word in these positions is an adjective (and not a noun – cp. the house market and is advice) by checking that it cannot usually stand alone after the (compare the house with *the happy).

Implicit in such descriptions, and often stated explicitly alongside them, is the fact that English adjectives do not directly follow the noun they describe (without a separating verb) as they do in many other languages (*the child happy). It tends to be only later that mention is made of exceptions to this rule. However, even then the full range of possibilities is rarely covered, the focus often being on particular adjectives that must go directly after rather than before their noun, such as below (e.g. the diagram below). For an attempt in this blog to cover all the possibilities, see 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun.

Another well-known feature of adjectives is their typical endings – -al, -ive, -ful, -y etc. (see 255. Nouns Made from Adjectives and 304. Adjectives Made from a Verb). The problem here, of course, is that plenty of adjectives lack one of these (e.g. quick, silent, slow), and many of the endings are also found on other types of word (see 172. Multi-Use Suffixes).

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BEYOND THE BASICS

1. Positioning with Respect to “the”

The statement above that adjectives added to the + noun must go in between seeks to distinguish them from prepositions, which can accompany the same combination but must precede the. Thus, an adjective is indicated in phrases like the Blue Nile, a preposition in ones like across the Nile (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #1). It is not just the that this rule applies to: most words that can replace the, such as a(n), this and their, act similarly.

A problem with thinking of adjectives in this way is that nouns too can have a “describing” role after the. The above-suggested means of distinguishing them from adjectives – checking usability alone after the – may give some help, but takes no account of the fact that sometimes the does actually precede a lone adjective (see 6. Adjectives with no Noun 1).

An alternative way of recognising adjectives before a noun is by seeing what wording is necessary if a described noun is mentioned first. An adjective after it generally needs which (e.g. the price which is high for the high price), while a noun needs a preposition (e.g. the price of fuel for the fuel price: see 38. Nouns Used like Adjectives).

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2. Sentence Positions

The earlier-quoted rule suggests the two main adjective positions – before a noun or after it with a verb like BE in between – are possible with all adjectives. In reality, plenty of adjectives can occupy only one of these positions. For example, future can only precede its noun (a future priority) and asleep can only follow it (…was asleep). For more, see 184. Adjectives with Limited Mobility.

There are also various other possible adjective positions. Usage without a partner noun and usage immediately after one have already been mentioned. Another post-noun possibility without a link verb in between follows a comma:

(a) The virus spreads easily, deadly to all who contract it.

For details of this usage, see 159. Exotic Grammar Structures 2, #3.

Separated adjectives can also start a sentence:

(b) Common in speech, INTERJECTIONS are rare in writing.

(c) High on the agenda was employee SAFETY.

Both these adjectives relate to the subject of the main verb (capitalised). Common in (b) is part of a description separated from its following noun by a comma (see 307. Word Order Variations, #6) – a usage also possible with descriptive nouns (see 228. Exotic Grammar Structures 5, #3). High in (c) is a complement that has exchanged places with the subject of was, safety – a reversal usually necessitated by the subject being long and / or the main information in the sentence (see 220. Features of Complements, #6).

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3. Resemblance to Verbs

Adjectives have verb characteristics that can cause confusion. One is their very noun-describing nature, also a characteristic of verbs in the participle form. Some adjectives actually have a participle spelling, familiar examples being interesting and advanced. Their adjective features probably evolved from their participle ones. For differences between the two, see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending.

Secondly, adjectives can combine with BE to act like a verb in a sentence. For example, is different and is full correspond to the verbs differs and is filled. For numerous other examples, see 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds.

Things are especially confusing with adjectives spelt exactly the same as the base form of a verb, such as clean, clear, equal, free, level, open and slow (see 140. Words with Unexpected Grammar 2, #f). The main clue to the adjective use of any of these is absence of an ending after BE, since verbs after BE always need -ed (or irregular equivalent) or -ing.

However, not every verb-like adjective follows BE. Consider this:

(d) Two spoonfuls made the quantities equal.

The only clue that equal here is an adjective is the fact that it has no directly-following noun. The verb EQUAL usually needs one because it is “transitive”, i.e. a verb that always needs a noun as its “object” (see 231. Confusions of Similar Structures 3, #4).

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4. Variable Descriptive Role

The kind of information that an adjective gives about its noun is not always the same. Quite often, an adjective and following noun together represent a subdivision of what the noun would represent by itself – in other words adjectives often have a classifying effect. For example, difficult problems are a smaller group than problems, clean water is a smaller amount than water, and the known universe allows for the universe being greater. Adjectives are not the only means of indicating a subdivision, but they are a common one.

An important distinction regarding subdivisions is between those that themselves have subdivisions, such as birds, a subdivision of vertebrates, and those that are an individual, such as Indonesia, a subdivision of countries (see 162. Writing about Classifications). Sometimes, an adjective-containing subdivision name is unclear about which of these possibilities is meant. For example, a yellow taxi could mean either “a taxi that is yellow”, without implying other yellow taxis, or “a taxi belonging to the yellow group”, implying that yellow taxis were a definite subgroup.

One situation where such uncertainty is removed is when a noun has two adjectives. In writing, a large, yellow taxi (comma between the adjectives) does not give any special group meaning to yellow, whereas a large yellow taxi does. In speech, the use with a comma needs a pause after each adjective, but the use without allows one only after the first (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #2).

Adjectives have one other use too: highlighting a key feature of a group rather than a subdivision. For example, life-giving water does not refer to something less than water: it just indicates the relevance to a particular situation of something always present in water. Other examples are the over-arching sky and Almighty God.

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5. Expandability

Like other word classes, adjectives can be made into into a longer equivalent through words placed before or after them. Preceding words tend to be adverbs, often of “degree” (e.g. very, too, more, rather, quite) but sometimes not (e.g. prematurely, obviously), while following words are typically preposition phrases (as in happy with everything), to verbs (happy to wait), or that clauses (happy that…).

Some expansion possibilities result from either the type of meaning carried by the adjective or the adjective’s form. One relevant meaning type is “gradability” – ability to indicate different amounts. It exists, for example, in the meanings of easy and interesting, but not those of absent, alive and essential. Only gradable adjectives can accompany a degree adverb. 

Another relevant meaning type is likelihood of describing humans. Pleased and willing very typically describe humans, while pleasing and useful do not. After the first kind, infinitive verbs tend to have active meaning (e.g. pleased to help), after the second, passive meaning (e.g. pleasing to observe: see 83. Adjectives before a “to” Verb).

Among adjective forms, comparatives and superlatives do not allow exactly the same degree adverbs that base forms do. For example, comparatives replace very with far or much, and superlatives have either much (e.g. much the quickest), or (before or after them) by far. Superlatives actually allow a choice of following adverb-like expressions (see 269. Exotic Grammar Structures 7, #3). They can also follow quite, but give it a different meaning from that before base forms.

For more detailed information about adjective expansion, see 194. Adverbs that Say How Much and 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it.

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6. Use with “Compared to”

Adjectives show comparison in not just the familiar comparative form + than (e.g. larger than…), but also the base form + compared to (large compared to…). However, there is a difference: the latter implies the adjective is not a typical description of the noun (see 231. Confusions of Similar Structures 2, #5).

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7. Lone Comparative after “the”

Besides making familiar combinations like the higher the X, the longer the Y (see 192. When BE can be Omitted), the with a lone comparative adjective sometimes follows BE, e.g.  was the higher (see 309. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 5, #3).