307. Word Order Variations

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Most types of word have a typical position in English sentences but some allow an alternative for special effect

ROLE AND TYPES OF WORD ORDER

Words in most languages, if not all, are ordered according to rules. This usually means that in a particular language some word orders are unlikely or impossible, and choices between different possible orders express different meanings. Most word-order rules are best stated in terms not of individual words but of word types.

Word types are of two different kinds. One is the fixed grammatical class (“part of speech”) that the words belong to. An example of a word-order rule involving grammatical classes is the one behind the fact that the problem is grammatical in English but not *problem the. Since the belongs to the class of “articles” and problem is a “noun”, the rule can be stated as “articles go before their partner noun”. This is a better way of stating the rule than saying that the goes before problem because it covers more: every combination of the (or a[n]) + noun instead of just one.

The other kind of word type is based on the role that the word assumes in a sentence or part of it. The main sentence roles are “subject”, “verb”, “direct object”, “indirect object”, “subject complement”, “object complement” and “adverbial”. A potential for confusion here is that one of the terms – “verb” – is also the name of a word type. A better name would have been “verbial”, but “verb” is the established one and is used here. Within individual parts of a sentence, roles like “apposition”, “negative” and “subordinator” are typical.

This second set of terms facilitates some important word-order rules that would be difficult to state with only grammatical class names. They can distinguish between subtypes of grammatical classes, for example subject nouns and object nouns (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors), and they can cover multiple word types; complements, for example, may be either nouns or adjectives (see 220. Features of Complements).

An example of a word-order rule that is best stated in terms of sentence roles concerns subject complements (roughly definable as nouns or adjectives that are shown by a special kind of verb to be describing or identifying its subject). The rule is that subject complements usually follow both the subject and the verb.

Word-order rules apply at different levels. The example above of the-positioning is a low-level one, mostly involving just two words. At a higher level are rules for ordering multiple parts of a sentence component. For example, an adjective describing a central noun within a subject usually goes before that noun but after any article present. A rule at the highest level is that verbs (in the sentence-role sense) normally go after their subject but before any object or complement. Some grammarians consequently call English a “Subject-Verb-Object” (SVO) language – a sequence that might not be the norm in another language.

Some word orders are compulsory and some are not. The rule for the with nouns is compulsory: placing the after instead of before is ungrammatical (see 100. What is a Grammar Error?). The SVO rule, however, is optional. A familiar alternative is the use of the verb BE before its subject in questions. This post is about alternative word orders that are common in written English, along with their impact on meaning. For further possibilities, see 156.Mentioning what the Reader Knows Already (#10). For a discussion of non-grammatical ordering, see 222. Information Orders in Texts.

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COMMON VARIATIONS

1. Object before Subject (OSV)

EXAMPLE
(a) The problem was clear to everyone. A solution nobody could see.

Here, a solution, the object of could see, precedes the subject nobody. A common reason for making such a change is a wish to highlight a contrast between the object’s meaning and that of the subject of the preceding sentence (problem above): having the second noun in the same starting position despite its object role adds a structural link to the meaning one.

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2. Reversed Subject and Complement

EXAMPLE
(b) High on the agenda was employee safety.

The subject here is employee safety. This is clear from the fact that the words before the verb was (high on the agenda) are of a kind (adjective phrase) that cannot be the subject of a verb but can be a complement.

An adjective phrase is recognisable here because it comprises an adjective (high) followed by a preposition + noun (on the agenda) – a typical combination (see 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it, #1). Although there is a noun (agenda) in this phrase, it cannot be the subject of the sentence because it follows a preposition (on), something subjects cannot do (see 84. Seven Things to Know about Prepositions, #5).

Complements that can change places with a subject tend to be adjectives rather than nouns because a starting noun complement could much more easily be misunderstood as the subject of its verb (see 220. Features of Complements, #6).

One situation where a complement might precede its verb is when the verb’s subject needs to be at the end to ensure that it is recognised as the focus of the sentence. Another situation is where the subject is wordy, a characteristic that English speakers usually feel does not suit the start of a sentence.

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3. Reversed Subject and Verb

EXAMPLES
(c) Seldom are the planets close together in the sky.

(d) Across the Sahara flows the Nile.

(e) The Rockies are new mountains, as are the Himalayas.

In (c) here, the reason why the planets, the subject of are, is placed after it is that both follow a negative adverb (seldom). Starting negative adverbs as a whole require this word order change, other common examples being little, rarely, not often, neither and nor, plus hardly, barely and scarcely combined with a later when…, no sooner with a later than…, and only and not only except sometimes when the subject and verb follow directly (see 251. The Grammar of “Only”, #2).

Sentences like (c) can also begin with adverbial so + adjective / adverb (the kind needing a later that…: see 64. Double Conjunctions, #3), and with the conjunction neither (partnering a later nor), provided an object rather than subject noun follows directly.

The subject of the verb in sentences like (c) has the same position as in direct questions, namely after a part of most verbs, but all of BE in the present or past simple tense.

Sentence (d) also starts with an adverb expression (across the Sahara), but a location one without any negativity. Subject-verb reversal usually follows such adverbials if the subject is naming new information. However, it is probably not true reversal, but rather an abbreviated there sentence (…there flows the Nile), a common option after some adverbial types (see 295. Options in Saying Where, #4). Supporting this view is the fact that pronoun subjects, which rarely name new information, cannot change position – (d) could end it flows but not *flows it. Moreover, movable subjects must follow all of the verb, even when it is multi-word – (d) could not end *does the Nile flow.

In sentence (e), the subject-verb reversal directly follows the similarity-showing conjunction as (always a mid-sentence use). The subject position is the same as in sentences like (c). The reversal here is optional: its presence indicates an assumption that the reader does not already know the mentioned point; without it (…as the Himalayas are) there is a suggestion that the reader does know this (see 159. Exotic Grammar Structures 2, #1).

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4. Adverbial Moved to the Start

EXAMPLE
(d) Across the Sahara flows the Nile.

Some adverbials most naturally start a sentence and some do not. The starting kind tend to say something about the whole sentence rather than a part of it (see 121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs).

Adverbs that do not naturally start a sentence, however, are often able to do so if the wording before and/or after the sentence makes that desirable. The adverbial across the Sahara in (d) would normally follow flows, the word whose meaning it is mostly closely linked to, but it can easily start the sentence too.

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5. Separately-Highlighted Wording

EXAMPLES
(f) It was in 1492 that Columbus first reached America.

(g) What most motivates consumers is low prices.

In both of these, the underlined words are within a special structure that clearly marks them as the main information in their sentence. The first is near the start of an it sentence, between the verb BE (= was) and that; the second ends a what sentence, and again directly follows BE (= is). The choice between an it and a what structure depends on whether the highlighted wording needs to be near the start or the end of the sentence.

In both examples, the highlighted wording is outside the sentence position it would have in a standard sentence: in (f), in 1492 would typically end its sentence, while in (g) low prices would start as the subject of MOTIVATE. However, such movement is not inevitable with it... and what… sentences, as they do not always have to highlight the same part of a sentence. Sentence (f), for example, could highlight the subject Columbus instead, thereby putting it into the normal position of subjects and returning in 1492 to its normal sentence-end position:

(h) It was Columbus who first reached America in 1492.

For full descriptions of it and what sentences, see 190. Special Uses of “it”, #3, and 145. Highlighting with “What” Sentences.

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6. Separated Starting Adjective

EXAMPLE
(i) Common in speech, interjections are rare in writing.

The start of a sentence is a not unnatural position for an adjective describing a subject noun after it (e.g. Difficult problems are…). In the example above, however, the starting adjective common has its meaning modified by following words that separate it, along with a comma, from its noun interjections.

Without the comma, an adjective phrase like common in speech would need to follow its noun (see 109. Placing an Adjective after its Noun, #3). With the comma, there is a choice between following the noun (between two commas) and starting the sentence.

The uses with and without a comma give different meanings to the noun: all of what it represents in the first case and only some in the second. Thus, interjections, common in speech, …  would refer to all interjections, indicating where they are common, but without the commas would refer only to some interjections (the ones common in speech). This is the same difference that commas make to the use of who, which etc. (see 34. Relative Pronouns and Commas).

Most adjectives seem able to start a sentence as illustrated above. However, a few – particularly mind state ones like pleased, bewildered and interested – are also usable with just a comma between themselves and their noun:

(j) Bewildered, nobody knew what to say.

The unusual feature here, of course, is the punctuation rather than the word order.

302. Verbs with a Partner Infinitive

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Verbs that can link with a following “to” verb are grammatically quite varied

THE PROBLEM OF PARTNER INFINITIVES

Every English verb allows a limited choice of grammatical possibilities after its active form. The possibilities of an individual verb will sometimes match those of another verb, but often will not. The total number of possibilities across the full range of verbs is at least 12 (see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive). No verb has all of them, and most have far fewer.

A grammatical possibility that is possessed by relatively many active verbs is a directly-following non-purpose to (infinitive) verb. This “partner” verb must be a non-purpose one because purpose infinitives, as in works to survive, are not a verb-dependent possibility – they can follow practically any verb as an adverbial component of the sentence as a whole.

Some verbs that allow a partner infinitive, such as NEED, PROMISE and SEEM, are easy to identify because they are so familiar. However, many others are not so obvious. The problem is that verbs with another verb after them often require it to have a different form than a simple infinitive – and discovering which verbs require which form is not easy. After the active form of ENJOY, for example, partner verbs need -ing (see 10. Words with Unexpected Grammar 1, #b), while ENABLE requires a noun in front of any following infinitive.

It is this problem of identifying verbs allowing a partner infinitive that I wish to consider here. Because there seems to be no single characteristic of these verbs that might ensure their recognition, listing as many of them as possible seems worthwhile. However, to make the reading of such a list less onerous, I also offer a classification of it into some rather interesting subgroups.

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FEATURES OF PARTNER INFINITIVES

Partner infinitives need to be distinguished from various other post-verb infinitives besides purpose-naming ones. These include (i) infinitives separated from the verb by its object (e.g. enables someone to act); (ii) infinitives that identify or specify the subject of a verb like BE or MEAN (e.g. To see means to believe); (iii) infinitives corresponding to an it subject of their verb (e. g. It helps to exercise); and (iv) infinitives after a passive verb (e.g. were seen to prosper).

Verbs that need a noun (or equivalent) between themselves and a following infinitive are considered in this blog in 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive.

Infinitives that identify after BE – #(ii) above – are of numerous kinds (see 119. BE before a “to” Verb). However, they do not comprise every infinitive after BE. Two types that perhaps qualify as partner infinitives of BE express arrangement and destiny in the past (#4 and #10 in the above post), respectively illustrated as follows:

(a) A meeting of finance ministers is to be held in Brussels.

(b) Alexander was to die soon after.

In both cases, going could be added before the infinitive.

In sentences like It helps to exercise – #(iii) above – the infinitive to exercise equates to it, the subject of helps (see 103. Representing a Later Statement with “it”), so is not linked to the main verb in a relevant way. This kind of infinitive use requires the verb just before it to be “intransitive” – usable without an object noun or similar after its active form. Other verbs like helps include hurts, pays and suffices.

The exclusion of infinitives after passive verbs – #(iv) above – is simply because this post is about active verbs that allow a partner infinitive. Moreover, it is noticeable that many passive verbs are derived from active ones that, like ENABLE in # (i) above, need a noun before any following infinitive (see 299. Infinitives after a Passive Verb).

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TYPES OF PARTNER INFINITIVE

Partner infinitives do not all relate in the same way to the verb before them. The relation depends on the preceding verb’s wider grammatical properties. The main relation types are as follows.

1. Object-like

In the combination promised to act, the infinitive to act names a promised behaviour, just as would an object noun like assistance or payment. The object-like nature of to act is further shown by the fact that its meaning is equally well expressed by its related “action noun” action (see 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”, #2).

Common verbs after which an infinitive is object-like are ACCEPT, ARRANGE, ATTEMPT, CEASE, CLAIM, DECLINE (= refuse), DEMAND, DESERVE, DESIRE, DETERMINE (= decide), ELECT (= choose), EXPECT, HAVE, HELP, KNOW, LEARN, MEAN (= intend), NEED, PLAN, PLEDGE, PREPARE, PROFESS, PROMISE, PROPOSE (= plan), SEEK, THREATEN, UNDERTAKE, WANT, WISH (= desire) and WOULD LIKE. See also the special verbs listed in #2 and #5 below.

With some of these verbs, the objects that an infinitive can replace are restricted. Almost the only possible noun object after MEAN (= intend) is business, a figurative way of indicating determined action (see 241. Some Common Figurative Phrases, #2).

Infinitives after ACCEPT are rare. The most common ways of adding a verb after it are with -ing (representing an existing situation) or that… (representing a past, present or future one). Infinitives only represent accepted futures, but English often prefers to express those with AGREE instead of ACCEPT.

KNOW to… is different from KNOW HOW to…, indicating knowledge of a necessary action, rather than the way to perform it (see 309. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 5, #6). LEARN allows the same contrast.

EXCLUDED VERBS

There are some verbs whose absence above may surprise:

STOP and FINISH (unlike CEASE) combine only with purpose infinitives (see 250. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar 1, #2).

REQUIRE is not a recommended substitute for NEED before a partner infinitive (see 292. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar 2, #5).

TRY (unlike ATTEMPT) cannot paraphrase a following infinitive with a noun: a following noun gives it the different meaning of “select as a strategy” instead of “attempt”. As a result, TRY meaning “attempt” is classified under #4 below.

FAIL perhaps fits better under #4 too because its “not do” meaning before an infinitive often becomes “do unsuccessfully” before an object noun (see 314. Words with Complicated Grammar 4, #2).

REFUSE is similar: its pre-infinitive meaning “choose not to comply” becomes “choose not to receive” before a noun.

ALLOW, ENABLE, PERMIT and other cause verbs, plus FORBID, always need a noun before any following infinitive (see 65. Verbs that Mean “Must” or “Can”, #1).

LOOK FORWARD has the preposition to after it, not the to of infinitive verbs. Like all prepositions, this to requires any following verb to have -ing (see 35. Words followed by “to -ing”).

ANTICIPATE and ENVISAGE differ from their synonym EXPECT in requiring -ing instead of to with any directly-following verb, just as they do when there is a noun before a following infinitive (see 242. Words with Unexpected Grammar 3, #d).

GUARANTEE, unlike PLEDGE, PROMISE, UNDERTAKE and VOW, has to be passive for any following verb to need the infinitive form. After its active form, a that construction is the only possibility (see 281. Words with Unexpected Grammar 4, #f).

Other verbs whose partner verb cannot have the infinitive form include AVOID, ENDURE, ENJOY, DENY, KEEP, PROHIBIT, RECOMMEND and REJECT.

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2. Object-like with an “-ing” Alternative

A few verbs that allow an object-like partner infinitive also allow a partner -ing verb (a “gerund”), usually with changed meaning. Typical is LIKE:

(e) Children like to learn (or learning) through play.

An infinitive after LIKE focuses on its action as a whole, whereas a gerund focuses on the experience of it happening. This is the same contrast that is possible after certain verbs used before an object + infinitive (see 232. Verbs with an Object + “-ing”, #3). Indeed, some of the verbs are the same.

Other verbs that allow the same kind of following to and -ing choice include DISLIKE, HATE and LOVE (but not APPRECIATE. ENJOY, WELCOME, DETEST and LOATH, which all require -ing), plus BEGIN, CEASE, CONTINUE and START.

After FORGET and REMEMBER, to shows a future action, -ing a past one.

After FEAR and PREFER, to indicates a specific-time action, -ing one at any time.

CHOOSE to means “decide” but CHOOSE -ing means “select”.

After NEGLECT and OMIT, to suggests failure, ing choice.

REGRET to expresses pain about saying something. The to verb is usually a speech one like to announce, to inform you or to say (see 238. Using a Verb to Perform its Action). REGRET -ing expresses unhappiness about previous personal behaviour.

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3. Complement-like

Complements are nouns or adjectives that are shown by a suitable verb to be identifying or describing the meaning of a noun before them (see 220. Features of Complements). The verb SEEM is a typical complement-taking verb

(c) Wealth seems desirable.

Here, desirable is an adjective complement describing the earlier noun wealth.

Partner infinitives can act like a complement of some but not all complement-taking verbs. In (c), for example, desirable could be replaced by to change people. The main verbs like SEEM are APPEAR, BE, GROW, LOOK, PROVE, SEEM and SOUND. As mentioned above, only some infinitives after BE can be its “partner”, namely those expressing an arrangement or destiny in the past, as in sentences (a) and (b).

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4. Adverb-like

This description applies to partner infinitives whose preceding verb allows neither an object nor a complement, as in this HOPE example:

(d)  Scott hoped to reach the South Pole first.

A partner infinitive of HOPE specifies the hope. Although this can also be done with a noun after for (e.g. hoped for success), the for implies the prepositional verb HOPE FOR, not the intransitive verb HOPE.

Some other verbs that allow an adverb-like partner infinitive similarly allow a preposition + noun instead. In the following list, their preposition is given alongside: AGREE (= cooperatively decide) (on), AIM (at), ASK (for), BEG (for), COME, DARE, DECIDE (on), FAIL (= not do), HAPPEN (= be influenced by chance), HOPE (for), INTEND, OPT (for), LONG (for), PLEAD (for), PRAY, PREPARE (for), REFUSE (= not co-operate), STRUGGLE (for), TRY (= attempt), WAIT (for), WISH (= desire), WISH (for = state a wish to make it happen), VOW and YEARN (for).

For details of COME + infinitive, see 290. Ways of Using COME, #16. For advice on REFUSE, see 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs, #6.

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5. In Idiomatic Combinations

Occasionally, an infinitive gives a special meaning to a familiar preceding verb. One such verb is going (see 176. Ways of Using “Go”, #7). Another is SAY:

(f) Doctors say to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.

Say here reports not just speaking, but speaking of a particular kind: advising (see 187. Advising and Recommending). The infinitive is paraphrasable with that…should…. Elsewhere, SAY might report commanding (= that…must…).

Similarly, THINK to… means not just “think of” (= “conceive”) but also “consider carrying out the conceived action”. The infinitive is paraphrasable with that…might….

LOOK to… can mean either “appear” (cf. #3 above) or “seek”. MAKE to means “initiate -ing without continuing” (see 141. Ways of Using MAKE, #8). REMAIN mostly appears in the fixed expression remains to be seen (= is not established).

297. Types of Response to a Question

 

Some types of question require an unusual or challenging type of response

DEFINITION OF A QUESTION RESPONSE

Defining a question response first requires clarification of what is meant by a question. I see questions as spoken or written utterances that have the linguistic form of a direct or indirect question, as in these descriptions:

DIRECT FORMS: question-indicating intonation and/or grammar (the position of a subject noun relative to its verb) and/or punctuation (a question mark).

INDIRECT FORMS: a starting question word or equivalent noun and, typically, location within a longer sentence alongside an expression of asking, explaining or knowing (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing).

A response to a question is not necessarily an answer. Answers supply information requested by a question, but questions only sometimes request information. For example, direct questions beginning What about…? commonly act as a reminder, to which a positive response is typically Thank you (see 274. Questions with a Hidden Meaning, #1). The word “response” is a much more inclusive name for a statement or deed elicited by a question.

Yet although responses to questions are more numerous than answers, they are still not inevitable with every question: some questions have no response at all. These are usually of the kind called “rhetorical”. An example is How about that? uttered in appreciation of the successful execution of a difficult manoeuvre (see 274. Questions with a Hidden Meaning, #21).

On the other hand, some rhetorical questions do have a response. These are questions responded to by the person posing them. Their responses are considered here along with those of ordinary questions.

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RESPONSES TO SPOKEN QUESTIONS

Different types of spoken question require different types of response. Here, the focus is on types whose response is quite often formulated incorrectly by less-experienced English users.

1. Simple Yes/No Questions

This elementary question type, typically indicated by question intonation added to either an ordinary statement or one whose subject + verb has been placed after an additional (“auxiliary”) verb, is so named because, of course, its response is usually either yes or no. What is less often appreciated, however, is that one of these words by itself can sound abrupt or even rude, so that it often needs to be mitigated by a following auxiliary verb with a pronoun subject:

(a)    – Do computers have feelings?

– No, they don’t

Errors are common here because the choice of both the pronoun (they) and the auxiliary verb (do) depends on the wording of the question. Usually, the pronoun must correspond to the subject of the question verb, and the auxiliary must be the same as the one there. It would be incorrect above to repeat the main verb (*No, they haven’t). This is an error that seems especially likely when the main verb is HAVE, probably because of the usability of HAVE elsewhere as an auxiliary. Indeed, No, they haven’t would be correct above if do…have… in the question were replaced by its less formal alternative have…got….

As implied earlier, the type of response illustrated in (a) is not the only possibility. Sometimes, for example, yes or no is followed by an adverb (e.g. No, never). Sometimes, yes/no is dropped, leaving just a pronoun + auxiliary, or something altogether different (Well, this is a complicated question).

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2. Negative Yes/No Questions

Questions of this kind can be confusing because they have two very different uses. Compare:

(b) Aren’t diamonds an expensive gift?

(c) Aren’t diamonds as valued as they used to be?

Sentence (b) expects the addressee to agree that “diamonds are an expensive gift”. The expected agreement would normally be indicated with the words Yes (they are). Disagreement, though unexpected, would be possible with No (they aren’t).

Sentence (c) could also be seeking agreement (with the belief that the value of diamonds has not changed), but it might instead be asking the addressee to confirm or deny a negative (that diamonds are less valuable than before), without indicating any expectation about the answer. Confirmation would be with No (they aren’t), denial with Yes (they are).

In both sentences, an alternative to the negative -n’t is the independent word not in the same place or after diamonds. Note how, regardless of the meaning, yes responses always accompany a positive auxiliary (are above), and no ones need a negative (aren’t): *Yes, they aren’t is usually incorrect.

I think the reason why sentence (b) is more likely than (c) to be soliciting agreement is that it involves a more universally-known fact. Most people know that diamonds are expensive, so that a question seeking information about their cost level would be surprising. Sentence (c), by contrast, involves information of a much less universally-known kind (the value of diamonds today compared to in the past), making its purpose less easy to interpret.

The same sort of logic applies to sentences that, unlike (b), involve an untrue statement:

(d) Doesn’t helium react easily with other elements?

Although someone saying this could genuinely believe helium to be very reactive, and hence be seeking confirmation, the actual non-reactive nature of helium would lead most people to conclude that the speaker just wanted to know how reactive helium is. A suitable answer would, of course, then be No (it doesn’t).

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3. Questions with “Would you Mind…?”

This type of yes/no question is tricky to ask as well as to answer. It is a polite way of naming a specific action that the speaker is either requesting the addressee to carry out or seeking permission for themself or someone else to carry out. A requested addressee action typically begins with an -ing verb:

(e) Would you mind lending me your pen?

On the other hand, an action for which permission is being sought is usually expressed with either if plus a statement containing a past tense verb, or a possessive noun/adjective plus an -ing verb:

(f) Would you mind if I borrowed (or my borrowing) your pen?

The past tense (borrowed) is needed here because the action may never happen – a usage often called “unreal” (see 118. Problems with Conditional “if”, #6).

Answering would you mind questions is problematic because it requires a decision about which of the two verbs within them a yes/no answer should relate to. With a wrong choice, an opposite message to the intended one will be conveyed. Consider sentence (e). If the response should focus on mind, then yes means “I mind” (= “I don’t want”), so that a refusal is indicated. However, if the response to (e) should focus on lending, yes means “I agree”, and hence cooperation. The correct linkage is in fact with mind – logical given that it is grammatically the “main” verb in the sentence.

Once again, a bare yes or no answer is rare. Possible alternatives include:

POSITIVE, SENTENCE (e): (No,) of course not;  Not at all
POSITIVE, SENTENCE (f): No problem;  Go ahead;  Feel free
NEGATIVE, SENTENCE (e): Sorry, I can’t
NEGATIVE, SENTENCE (f): I would actually;  Sorry, that’s not possible

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4. Questions about Alternatives

These questions typically contain or (preceded by whether when indirect: see 99. Meanings of “whether…or…”):

(g) Is it better to travel by road or train?

Two interpretations are normally possible: that the verb (travel) is the focus, implying equality of the alternatives; or that the alternatives are, implying their inequality (see 301. Structures with a Double Meaning 5, #3). The first interpretation allows a yes/no answer, but answering the second similarly would cause confusion.

To name one of the alternatives as an answer, repetition is necessary (e.g. By train). However, naming one of the alternatives is not always appropriate. Other common answers include Both, Neither, It depends, I’m not sure, Let me think and There’s no difference.

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5. Questions Answered by the Person Asking them

This type of rhetorical question is common in both speech and writing. Whereas in writing the form is likely to be indirect and the answer to follow without any special wording (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing), in speech, direct questions are much more common, and their answer is very often prefaced by well. Here is a sequence typical of oral presentations (see 186. Language in Oral Presentations, #2):

(h) Now, what is the commonest language learning aid? Well, of course it is a dictionary.

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QUESTION RESPONSES IN WRITING

There are various types of question that writers may respond to besides their own rhetorical ones.

6. Questions Only Written in Another Text

Responses under this heading include essays, examinations and other means of educational assessment, plus some business types like emails, all of which tend to be multi-sentence. For detailed advice on answering essay questions, see 94. Essay Instruction Words.

A common way of linking an extended response to an external question is by repeating part of the latter in the first sentence. Consider, for example, the following start of an essay answering the question Account for the growth of mobile telephone use and discuss its likely future:

(i) Mobile telephone use has grown phenomenally in the past ten years.

Underlining here indicates the repetition. For more about linking with repetition, see 24. Good and Bad Repetition.

Responses to external questions asked with a question word (how, where etc.) often start with a noun synonym of that word. For example, a response to a how… question might begin The way in which…, and one to a why… question might start There are many reasons … (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words).

Repetition of question wording can also appear later in written responses:

(j) Turning to the future of mobile telephones, …

(k) Given these factors, mobile telephone use is likely to keep growing for some time yet.

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7. Reported Yes/No Questions

A common context for questions of this kind is academic literature reviews:

(l) Schmidt (2021) wonders whether handwriting skills will survive.

The simplest way of answering such questions uses the standard pronoun + auxiliary (the auxiliary usually being DO if the question lacks one). A “no” answer just adds not, e.g. they will not in response to (l). A “yes” answer needs no added word but often includes a formal synonym of yes, such as indeed or certainly (see 152. Agreeing and Disagreeing in Formal Contexts, #2).

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8. Reporting a Question + Response

When both a question and its response have to be reported, yes/no responses can just comprise a pronoun + auxiliary after a reporting speech/ thought word:

(m) Historians wonder whether recovery occurred. Jones (2021, p. 6) thinks IT DID (or DID not).

Sometimes, not alone directly follows the reporting word (…thinks not).

An alternative approach is to imply “yes” or “no” with an adjective or adverb:

(n) …. Jones (2021, p.6) takes a pessimistic view (or responds pessimistically).

Reported responses to questions beginning with a question word usually have a pronoun (often it) + BE + relevant information:

(o) Historians wonder why/when recovery occurred. Jones (2021, p. 6) thinks IT WAS because… (or when…).

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.

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).

280. Alternative Meanings of Action Nouns

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Nouns resembling a verb in spelling and meaning can often mean something else instead

FUNDAMENTAL FEATURES OF ACTION NOUNS

“Action noun” is my term for a noun that resembles a particular verb in both spelling and meaning. Examples are movement, spelt substantially like the verb MOVE and able to mean “moving”, and carriage, similar obviously to CARRY and able to mean “carrying” (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns).

“Alternative meanings” in the above title refers to the fact that many action nouns, but not all, can mean something that is not an action as well as something that is. This fact is indicated more than once elsewhere in this blog, particularly in 14. Action Outcomes, which shows how the same noun sometimes represents the outcome of an action rather than the action itself, and 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #4, where prepositions are shown to differ when the noun is not expressing an action.

However, there is no systematic exposition of which action nouns can have a meaning that is not an action, and how the non-action usage differs. It is this objective that the present post pursues. In doing so, it complements the post 249. Action Noun Endings, which presents an exhaustive list of action nouns, but is more concerned with their forms than their meanings.

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ACTION NOUNS WITH STATIVE MEANING

A slight problem associated with the concept of action nouns is the existence of nouns derived from “stative” verbs – the kind that express a state rather than an action. They are by no means rare in English: to say that verbs are mostly “doing words” is to grossly misrepresent their nature (see 21. Active Verbs with Non-Active Meanings).

Some verbs have an almost exclusively stative meaning. Examples are KNOW, EXIST and REMAIN, along with verbs naming a property, such as COST, LAST, MEASURE and WEIGH (see the end of 163. Ways of Naming Properties). Many other verbs can express either an action or a state. For example, SUPPORT can indicate not just the momentary provision or initiation of support but also its ongoing presence. Similar verbs include RECOGNISE, JOIN, EXPRESS and STAND (see 66. Types of Passive Verb Meaning). See also CONFUSE in 261. Words with Complicated Grammar 3, #3.

What is striking about nouns derived from stative verbs is that, just like nouns derived from action-indicating (“dynamic”) verbs, they include both nouns whose meaning is almost the same as that of the related verb and nouns that are more distantly connected. They therefore seem relevant enough to this discussion to be included. They will be classified as “action” nouns if they have the same characteristic that identifies nouns with an action meaning: ability to be paraphrased in a particular context by the -ing (gerund) form of the related verb. To illustrate this characteristic in action nouns derived from dynamic verbs, compare the following two uses of introduction:

(a) Introduction of the topic will take about 15 minutes.

(b) The introduction is full of spelling mistakes.

In (a), introduction is easily replaced by the gerund introducing (without of) but in (b) it is not. Only the use in (a) is an action noun.

In the same way, some uses of the noun knowledge, derived from stative KNOW, are replaceable by the gerund knowing and some are not:

(c) Knowledge of (= knowing) a language can improve job prospects.

(d) Much knowledge is stored in libraries.

I would classify knowledge as an “action” noun in (c) but not in (d).

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ALTERNATIVES TO THE ACTION MEANING

Before considering the alternative meanings that many action nouns can express, it is useful to have an appreciation of both action nouns that only express an action and verb-derived nouns that only express an alternative to an action. An example of a noun in the first group is emergence:

(e) The emergence of railways resulted from growing use of coal.

Here, as in practically every other context, emergence only means the action of emerging (beware of confusing it with the stative emergency – see 157. Tricky Word Contrasts 5, #3). Other action nouns that seem to be like this include abstinence, break-out, collapse, dependence, discrimination, neutralization, pursuit, return, storage and summarization (those underlined are typically countable). There are also many nouns ending in -al, such as betrayal, disposal, removal and survival.

Examples of verb-derived nouns that do not express an action are a store (whose associated action is expressed by storage), advice, ailment, deceit, difference, edition, hypothesis, photograph, position, proposition, recovery, remainder and summary. Advice always means “advisory message(s)” rather than “action of advising”, while a hypothesis is a result of hypothesizing rather than the action itself. For details of edition, see 197. The Language of Bibliographies, #3. For more on proposition, see 317. Tricky Word Contrasts 13, #3.

The main types of alternative meaning that action nouns can express could be called “action outcomes” and “activity locations”.

1. Action Outcomes

An action outcome is a concrete or abstract consequence of the action. Advice and hypothesis have this meaning despite not also being able to express the action creating it.

Nouns that can express either the action or its outcome are very numerous, examples being apology, blockage, composition, creation, cutback, discovery, enclosure, fall, growth, infection, injury, insurance, marriage, possession, prediction, receipt and utterance. It usually happens that the action meaning is expressed by uncountable usage of the noun while the outcome meaning is shown by the countable usage (see 14. Action Outcomes).

However, there are some important exceptions. For example, nouns indicating an increase or decrease, such as fall in the list above plus increase, rise, drop and downturn, are always countable. This can make the action/outcome distinction harder to see, though the -ing-equivalence test still works. The outcome meaning of a fall could perhaps be described as a reduced quantity or a downward slope on a graph. For more increase/ decrease verbs, see 115. Surveying Numerical Data, #2.

There is a further way of recognising nouns that need to be countable when expressing an action: they tend to be either spelt the same as their related verb (like fall) or made by combining the two halves of a two-word verb into a single word (like downturn). For lists of nouns of both types, see 249. Action Noun Endings.

One other kind of exception to the variable countability trend is nouns that can only be uncountable, even when expressing an action outcome. Examples are destruction, information, legislation, punctuation and research. To be used like countable nouns, they need to be linked with a countable partner noun: a piece of legislation/ research, an area of destruction, a research project, a punctuation mark (see 180. Nouns that Count the Uncountable).

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2. Activity Locations

An activity location is an object, place or situation that involves a particular action. For example, a carriage is an object involving the action of carriage (= carrying), and a competition is a situation where competition takes place. Once again, it usually happens that the action meaning is expressed by uncountable usage of the noun while the location meaning is shown by the countable usage (see 19. Activity Locations).

The difference between an action outcome and an activity location is more clear-cut in some cases than others. A carriage is obviously only ever an activity location, and not a result of carriage, but many nouns derived from speech verbs, such as explanation, introduction and suggestion (see 287. Speech and Thought Nouns), could perhaps be as easily considered a result of the corresponding action as a place involving it.

Other action nouns adapted to express an activity location include an approach (= area before an entry or way of doing something), an assembly (= people gathered together for special business), an election (= vote-casting event), a contact (= an acquaintance known well enough to be contactable), an entrance (= place of entry), a fight (= boxing match), motivation (= desire: see 276. Tricky Word Contrasts 11, #3), photography (= all aspects of photographs), a residence (= home), a speech (= formal spoken monologue) and a use (= way of being used).

For more examples, see 19. Activity Locations and 214. Test your Command of Grammar 2, #21.

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3. Action Subtypes

Some nouns that typically express an action when uncountable and something else when countable can alternatively when countable express a slightly different kind of action from the uncountably-expressed one. This combines the idea of action with that of “type”. Take the noun injury. Uncountably, it always means “the action of injuring”. Countably, it typically means “injured body part”. The other possible countable meaning is “type of injuring action”, as in this sentence:

(f) Doctors had not seen such a gradual injury before.

Similarly, a marriage, which typically means “marital partnership” can be made to mean “type of marital ceremony”:

(g) The couple formalised their partnership with an extravagant church marriage.

With some nouns, the subtype meaning seems to be the predominant countable one. This is the case, for example, with birth and death. Used uncountably, these nouns tend to mean the general concept of being born or dying:

(h) Birth can be a drawn-out process.

By contrast, the countable forms births and deaths refer to specific occurrences of people being born or dying. This kind of contrast may actually be possible with all of the nouns that I listed earlier as only able to express an action – nouns like emergence, discrimination and pursuit. The implication was that they could not be countable, but in fact, they probably can with this subtype meaning.The subtype meaning is indeed possible with many more nouns than just action ones. For a general overview, see 23. Subtypes.

269. Exotic Grammar Structures 7

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

THE NATURE OF “EXOTIC” STRUCTURES

English has plenty of grammar structures that are so uncommon in language coursebooks that they could be called “exotic”. Some are of this kind because they have not been clearly identified by grammarians. Many others are just omitted 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 they maximise learners’ chances of success in communication.

However, structures that are not common 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. Six exotic structures are described below. To access the other posts, see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1.

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STRUCTURE LIST

1. “Not that”

EXAMPLES

(a) Working from home is becoming more widespread, not that people are working less.

(b) Higher alcohol taxes are coming, not that they will reduce drinking.

Not that combines the message “but this does not entail that” with either reassurance, as in (a), or scepticism, as in (b). The denied idea after it is a conclusion that the speaker expects many people would reach.

Because not that needs at least two separate verbs in its sentence (underlined above), it is a conjunction. Superficially, it resembles the large number of other “multi-word” conjunctions that end with that, such as seeing that, now that and on condition that (see 230. Multi-Word Conjunctions, #1). However, there is an important difference.

One aspect of the difference is the inability of not that to go before its associated verbs as well as between them. Most other …that conjunctions certainly do not have this restriction. For example, if not in (a) is replaced by provided, it and the words after it could easily occupy the start of the sentence.

One or other of these contrasting position rules actually applies to every conjunction, so that two clear subgroups can be identified (see 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions, #3). Conjunctions like provided that are technically called “subordinating”, those like not that “coordinating”.

These names reflect a further difference between the two types. Whereas subordinating conjunctions introduce information that is not the central message of their sentence, coordinating ones, including not that, introduce information that has equal centrality with the information before them. Reflecting this, a coordinating conjunction and the information after it can in less formal contexts be separated from the information before it by a full stop instead of a comma. This means not that can start a sentence in the same informal way as and, so or but (see 25. Conjunction Positioning).

The meaning of not that results in some fairly predictable wording after it. Common examples are …this should cause concern, …anyone cares, …much changed, …it makes any difference and …it did any good.

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2. “Never” + Infinitive

EXAMPLE

(c) Magellan sailed to the Pacific, never to return.

A to verb (infinitive) after words that could stand alone as a complete sentence names either a purpose or a subsequent event (usually a past one but sometimes future). Logical possibility will often indicate when an infinitive in this position has the latter meaning, and the presence of a preceding comma is usually a clue as well (see 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #5).

Never before an infinitive in this position is also associated with the non-purpose use, helping to name the non-occurrence rather than occurrence of a later event. It seems usually to be preferred to not.

However, this is not the only use of never to. It can also go straight after was or were, without an intervening comma: Magellan was never to return. Here, the meaning is more like “future in the past”, naming the destiny of the verb’s subject (Magellan). In this case, not and never seem more equally possible, the latter being more emphatic. Destiny-naming is also possible with positive infinitives: for details, see 119. BE before a “to” Verb, #8.

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3. Superlative Adjective + Adjective / Adverb

EXAMPLE

(d) Air travel is the fastest type available.

In this example, the superlative adjective the fastest is part of an adjective phrase with the subsequent defining adjective available  A previous post within this blog (194. Adverbs that Say How Much) lists particular preceding adverbs that can make superlative adjectives into a longer phrase, but does not say much about what can be added after.

The main phrase-making words possible before the + superlative adjective are, in roughly ascending order of strength, just about, fractionally, marginally, much, easily, very much, by far, far and away and quite. There is also maximum-strength the very (without a following the).

The main words usable after the + superlative adjective are available, by far, conceivable, ever, imaginable, possible, so far, up to a point and yet. A notable absentee is far and away (see 292. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar 2, #6). When the superlative’s partner noun follows it, like type in (d), by far, so far, up to a point and yet go last, but the others can precede the noun.

Only by far and up to a point are “degree” adverbs. Ever, so far and yet are time adverbs (for details of ever, see 272. Uses of “Ever”, #3); the others (underlined) are adjectives – all of the -able/-ible kind.

For some other kinds of partner word with superlatives, see 305. Wording next to Superlatives.

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4. Superlative Adjective + Infinitive

EXAMPLE

(e) Jones is the latest (writer) to accept the theory.

Grammar books that mention this use of to (infinitive) verbs point out that it corresponds to a relative clause– who accepts the theory above. What is not always made clear, however, is that some infinitives after a superlative lack this correspondence. The key factor is the kind of superlative adjective used.

Some adjectives in their non-superlative form also allow a following infinitive (see 83. Adjectives before a “to” Verb). Happy is one – happy to accept could easily fit into (e) – but late (meaning “recent”) is not. However, when a non-superlative has a following infinitive, there is rarely any correspondence to a relative clause (*Jones is happy who accepts…).

Infinitives after a superlative adjective correspond to a relative clause only when the adjective is the kind that, like latest, cannot usually precede an infinitive in their base form. Infinitives after other superlative adjectives, such as happiest, are as unable to be paraphrased as relative clauses as infinitives after these adjectives’ base forms. Other superlatives like latest include earliest, most famous, oldest and youngest. The superlative-like adjectives first and next are used similarly.

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5. Repeated Nouns Separated by “after”

EXAMPLE

(f) Caller after caller made the same request.

This combination is an alternative to saying one (noun) after another. It is similar in meaning to every placed before one of the two nouns. It thus highlights an absence of exceptions. The main difference is an implication concerning the number of instances being referred to. Every is neutral about the size of this number: it can refer to any quantity down to a minimum of three (see 169. “All”, “Each” and “Every”). The after combination, by contrast, always implies a large number, and is more emphatic as a result.

The involvement of two nouns with after suggests that the combination is typically found in noun positions in sentences (subject, object etc.). However, although use in these positions is indeed common, use in adverb positions is notable too. Like other noun expressions usable in adverb positions without a preceding preposition, such as this week, the day before yesterday, a month ago and three days a week, adverbial after expressions are time-referring. Like the last of the examples, they refer not to a point in time (= when) but to a frequency (= how often). For more on these meaning types, see 227. Time Adverbs.

Common examples of adverbial after phrases are hour after hour, day after day, time after time and term after term.

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6. “About” + Infinitive

EXAMPLE

(g) Electric cars are about to become common.

In this combination, typically located in the “complement” position after a link verb like BE, about indicates imminence of a future action, and the following infinitive (to verb) identifies the action. The use is similar to that of going to (see 176. Ways of Using GO, #7), but expresses greater imminence.

The combination is often mentioned in English coursebooks, but not all point out that the imminence of the event does not guarantee its actual occurrence: in many cases, especially in historical description, the point is non-occurrence:

(h) Alexander was about to make Babylon his capital, when he died.

This means the ambition of Alexander was frustrated at the last minute. The cause of the non-occurrence is indicated in a very typical way: with when (meaning “and then”), often after a comma. For more on this kind of when, see 271. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 3, #4.

An even more imminent occurrence can be expressed by adding just before about. Alternatively, about to can be replaced by on the + brink / point / verge + of -ing, or by close to -ing. For more ways of describing the future, see 147. Types of Future Meaning.

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7. Special Verb Form after Adjective + “that”

EXAMPLE

(i) Motorists are insistent that parking remain free.

In this sentence, the verb remain is in the present simple tense after the singular subject parking, but lacks the expected -s ending. The reason is that the verb form is a special type known as the “subjunctive”, which never has an ending (BE subjunctives being just be). “Subjunctive” is one of three verb form types that grammarians say can be the only verb in an English sentence, the others being the familiar ordinary type (“indicative”) and the “imperative” (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing).

What makes the subjunctive possible in (i) is the naming of a desired future after a speech-indicating word (here insistent) + that…. Such futures may never occur, and uncertain occurrence is the typical meaning of the subjunctive form. Other adjectives usable like insistent include adamant, concerned, desirous, desperate, determined, eager and keen (see 300. Adjective Indicators of Indirect Speech, #1).

Using that… after these adjectives expands them into a longer adjective phrase (see 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it). Usually, this is also possible without that, and hence without a subjunctive. For example, desirous is often expanded by of (e.g. desirous of reform). A common reason for preferring that is a following verb whose subject is different from that of the main verb – cp. motorists and parking in (i).

Subjunctive verbs are quite an “exotic” form in English because they are not just rare, but mostly optional. This is the case in (i), where remains would also be correct. For some other subjunctive uses, see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #6.

265. The Importance of Grammar in Writing

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A strong command of grammar gives writing much more than just grammatical accuracy.

GRAMMAR KNOWLEDGE AND GOOD WRITING

A look at some of the numerous publications that offer advice on expository writing will soon show that extensive grammatical knowledge, though recognised as important for successful writing, is given relatively little attention. The main value of it that tends to be highlighted is often just the avoidance of linguistic and stylistic errors.

This post is about the importance of grammatical knowledge for other aspects of expository writing besides linguistic and stylistic accuracy (these latter being the focus of most of the rest of this blog!). By “grammatical knowledge” I mean not understanding of technical names like “clause” or “subjunctive”, but ability to use, consciously or not, a wide variety of grammatical forms and structures of English without systematic error.

Aspects of good writing that extensive grammatical knowledge might facilitate are surprisingly numerous. However, they usually seem linked to grammatical knowledge in the same way: through the skill of paraphrasing. The dependence of paraphrasing on grammatical knowledge – rather than on ability to find word synonyms – is highlighted in detail elsewhere in this blog in 80. How to Paraphrase.

Paraphrase is often presented in Academic English courses solely as a means of legitimately transferring information from a source text to one’s own writing – i.e. as a means of avoiding “plagiarism”. There is something on this use within these pages in 76. Tenses of Citation Verbs. The way it assists other aspects of good writing is by being applied to the writer’s own wording rather than someone else’s, just as it is in speech (see 202. Some Strategies for Learning English, Practice Strategy #2).  The following sections are about exactly how this kind of paraphrase – with the grammatical knowledge it depends on – facilitates particular aspects of good writing.

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WRITING FEATURES FACILITATED BY PARAPHRASE

1. Appropriate Sentence Length

Sentences can vary from long and complicated to short and simple, just as paragraphs can (see 59. Paragraph Length). Moreover, they seem, like paragraphs, to be subject to fashions concerning the average length. A look at expository writing today will usually show a preference for variety but with shorter lengths predominating. A century or more ago, however, expository writing tended to have longer, more complex sentences.

A clear possibility, if fashion affects sentence length, is that both the number and the locations of full stops in a particular text can be altered – information can be moved between sentences. This idea contradicts the traditional view of a sentence as a “complete thought”, but is easily shown to be true. Consider this:

(a) Plants produce carbohydrates. They use sunlight.

The two ideas (“thoughts”) here can be expressed in a single longer sentence by changing the underlined part into using, or by adding and, or by starting with when.

It would not be possible just to change the full stop into a comma because that would be ungrammatical, the rule being that two finite verbs in the same sentence (produce, use) need a “joining device” (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop). The -ing (participle) form using is a joining device, as are the conjunctions when and and. They is not one.

Changing a verb into a noun, or a noun into a verb, is another common way of manipulating sentence length. The two sentences in (a), for example, could become one by using production instead of produce in some such beginning as Plants’ production of carbo-hydrates… (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns, #1).

As all this shows, grammatical rules determine what is and is not a sentence, so that changing the length of a sentence requires a good knowledge of them.

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2. Repetition Control

To repeat is to express a particular meaning more than once, with or without changed wording. Repeated meanings can vary in length from a single word to multiple sentences. Repetition in the same expository text has various legitimate uses, but there are also types that should be avoided, such as overuse of the same word(s), overuse of the same grammatical structure, and statement repetition with unmodified wording (see 24. Good and Bad Repetition).

To avoid excessive word repetition, the main grammatical knowledge required is how to make alternative wording fit grammatically into the same context. If this wording has the same grammatical properties as the wording it replaces, grammatical changes are not usually necessary, but wording with different properties, necessitating new surrounding grammar, is quite often necessary. Consider this:

(a) Smith complains that high taxes reduce the incentive to work, while Jones complains that low taxes divide society.

One synonym of complains that might effectively remove the repetition here is criticises. However, it cannot combine with that (see 279. Grammatical Differences between Citation Verbs). To use it after Jones, one would have to write something like criticises low taxes by saying they…. For more word pairs like this, see 250. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar 1.

Repetition of statements rather than words is often for reminding or clarifying. The first of these can imply poor text organization if not worded suitably. An especially useful expression is as mentioned earlier added as a parenthesis (see 183. Statements between Commas). Repetition for clarifying can also be signalled by special wording, most notably in other words (see 286. Repeating in Different Words, #6).

Repetition of a particular grammatical structure is the kind whose avoidance most obviously depends on grammatical knowledge. Avoidance is usually achieved by using a different structure with the same meaning. Most English structures have such alternatives – indeed the need to avoid repetition is probably a major reason why alternatives exist.

One example is -ing as an alternative to both repetitive and (see 210. Process Descriptions, #4) and monotonous successions of imperative verbs (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing, #1). Another is nouns corresponding to question words, e.g. reason (= why) and way (= how) (see 185. Noun Synonyms of Question Words). There are numerous other examples of structural paraphrase throughout this blog: see, for example, 1. Simple Example-Giving,  149. Saying How Things are Similar and 199. Importance and Unimportance.

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3. Conciseness

This means using the fewest possible words to say something. It minimises the time needed to read a text, and is more likely to keep the reader interested. It can be valuable when a text has a prescribed word limit.

Conciseness is not always achieved through language knowledge. Other knowledge types are needed, for example, to avoid irrelevant, redundant or gratuitous information. There is one conciseness requirement, however, that is firmly language-based: paraphrasing with fewer words. Although vocabulary knowledge is sometimes more important here – e.g. familiarity with prefixes (see 146. Some Important Prefix Types) and word-reducing synonyms like suffice for be enough – grammar knowledge has a major role too.

One relevant aspect of grammar – omissible words – is considered in some detail elsewhere in this blog in 158. Abbreviated Sentences (#1). The main subcategories are words that can be “ellipted” (dropped but still indicated by the context), and optional grammatical words, such as that in some uses or in order before to.

Another area of grammar that can be used to reduce a word count is synonymous structures. Prepositions are especially easy to remove by this means (see 205. Paraphrasing Prepositions with Words of Other Kinds). Those used between two nouns – as in the sun AT midday or the estuary OF the Nile – disappear just through reversal of the nouns (the midday sun, the Nile estuary: see 136. Types of Description by Nouns).

Prepositions within “prepositional” verbs (e.g. ASK FOR, LOOK LIKE) are removable through the use of synonymous one-word verbs (REQUEST, RESEMBLE), though this often makes the style more formal (see 108. Formal & Informal Words). Preposition-like adverbs within “phrasal” verbs (e.g. BRING IN) are similarly removable (INTRODUCE).

Yet more removable prepositions make adverb phrases equating to single adverbs. For example, with ease is sometimes replaceable by easily (see 85. Preposition Phrases & Corresponding Adverbs).

The relative pronoun what (= the thing which) is a different kind of removable word. In phrases like what computers suggest, what and the verb may be replaceable by a single noun (suggestions) placed directly after the verb’s subject: computer suggestions. The combination what + BE + adjective, e.g. what is difficult, can become a single noun, e.g. the difficulty (see the end of 102. Adjectives with no Noun 2). For more on what, see 200. Special Uses of Relative Clauses, #4.

As a final example, if the wording after a question word (direct or indirect) contains can or should, the question may be reducible to just the question word and a to (infinitive) verb (see 105. Questions with a “to” Verb).

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4. Appropriate Style

The style of expository writing is the language (grammar, vocabulary, sequencing) that typifies it (see 166. Appropriacy in Professional English). Much of it is vocabulary – e.g. obtain rather than get, or large for big – but grammar is involved too.

Noticeable grammatical features of expository writing include a greater than average use of passive verb forms and avoidance of “personal” I and you and their derivatives (me, we, your, yours etc.). The grammatical knowledge needed for the latter in particular is extensive (see 46. How to Avoid “I”, “We” and “You”). Other features are rarity of direct questions, necessitating a command of indirect questions (see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing), and extensive use of “connectors” – however, therefore etc. – instead of conjunctions (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors).

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5. Euphony

This means wording that does not sound unpleasant. Various aspects of language can sound unpleasant, including sounds (e.g. repetitious combinations like various areas), rhythm (e.g. irregular patterns of stressed syllables), and structures (e.g. too many short sentences). All of these can sometimes be avoided through a grammatical change. Consider the following sound repetition:

(b) The injustice that that law had caused was ended.

This is not word repetition because the first that is a pronoun, the second an adjective-like “determiner” (see 234. Adjective and Pronoun Uses of “that”). One way to avoid the repetition is to say instead The injustice caused by that law…: using the passive of CAUSE instead of the active.

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6. Clarity

A major obstacle to clarity is ambiguity: wording that can be understood in more than one way. A simple example is the to (infinitive) form of verbs, which sometimes expresses a purpose and sometimes does not.

Grammar knowledge enables ambiguity to be recognised and corrected. If to is intended to express a purpose, this meaning can be more clearly expressed with in order to instead. Similarly, with after comparison, which could introduce either a compared idea or something used for facilitating the comparison, could become using to convey the latter unambiguously. For multiple further examples in this blog of potential ambiguity, see 124. Structures with a Double Meaning 1.

Emphatic structures too can show an intended meaning more clearly. For example, starting a sentence with it or what can clearly highlight its key information (see 190. Special Uses of “it”, #3).

257. Structures with a Double Meaning 4

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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,  116. Rarer Uses of HAVE,  121. Sentence-Spanning Adverbs and 256. Unusual Meanings of Familiar Words.

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EXAMPLES OF DOUBLE-MEANING STRUCTURES

1. “Noun + Infinitive

A to (infinitive) verb placed directly after a noun-like expression mostly names an action that can or must be done to what the noun represents. Common examples are work to do, a train to catch and problems to solve. The nouns are like an object of the to verb. The combination is especially common after HAVE or there + BE (see the end of 116. Rarer Uses of HAVE):

(a) There is work to do.

By contrast, in a few combinations of this kind the noun expression names something that performs the action of the verb rather than receives it – it is like a subject of the verb rather than an object. Examples are computers to calculate and soap to wash (see 239. Nouns Combined with a “to” Verb). For this kind of meaning to be understandable, the verb must express an action that the noun is logically able to perform, and must be usable without an object.

Double meanings arise when the conditions for the second meaning are met but the first meaning is also logical. This situation is unlikely with computers to calculate and soap to wash because computers logically perform rather than undergo calculation, and soap logically performs rather than undergoes washing. Phrases that definitely can express both meanings include nobody to check, animals to hunt, programs to plan and people to help. Nobody to check, for example, means either nobody is available to do checking or nobody is available to be checked.

Where the double meaning exists, a passive infinitive may be usable to clearly convey the action-receiving meaning (though see the discussion of nothing to be seen in 246. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 2, #1). For another kind of double meaning involving a noun + infinitive, see 182. Structures with a Double Meaning 2, #5).

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2. Verb + Object + “-ing”

Here is a sentence with this kind of double meaning:

(b) Some experiments involve animals suffering pain.

One interpretation is that some experiments cause pain in animals; the other is that some experiments are on animals who are already suffering pain. In the first case, suffering is grammatically noun-like (a “gerund”) with animals its subject, and is the central idea after involve. In the second case, suffering is an adjective-like participle, equivalent to “who are suffering”, that is describing animals, making them the central idea (see 71. Gerund and Participle Uses of “-ing”).

Once again, certain conditions need to be met for this double meaning to exist. Firstly, the main verb (involve) must be the kind that allows or requires a following noun + -ing to express the first meaning above. Some main verbs – e.g. ADVISE, HELP and ORDER – require a noun + infinitive (with to) instead (see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive), so that -ing after a following noun is only understandable as a participle. Similar to INVOLVE are NECESSITATE, PHOTOGRAPH and STOP (for more, see 232. Verbs with an Object + “-ing”). For an example of a similar double meaning with PHOTOGRAPH, see 253. Descriptive Wording after Nouns 2, #1.

Secondly, the double meaning seems to be less likely with -ing verbs expressing a single brief action. If sentence (b) is given a verb of this kind, e.g. eating a banana, the second of the two meanings – where a relatively permanent characteristic of the object is named – is unlikely to exist. Suitable -ing verbs apparently need to mean either a state, like suffering, living, possessing and standing, or a defining regular activity, like working. 

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3. “What” + Statement + “is” + Noun

What is usable outside of questions to mean “the thing(s) which” (see 200. Special Uses of Relative Clauses, #4). The “thing(s)” meaning here may refer to something mentioned at the end of the same sentence, or to something else. Compare:

(c) What rarely loses value is gold.

(d) What harmed the economy was a mystery.

Here, (c) is a more emphatic way of saying Gold rarely loses value. What stands for the noun after is (gold). This noun identifies the idea of “thing” inside what. For more about such sentences, see 145. Highlighting with “What…” Sentences.

In (d), by contrast, what is unlikely to stand for the noun after is (a mystery), but instead probably represents something outside the sentence. One reason is that this makes greater logical sense (mysteries rarely being a cause of harm to economies). Another is that a mystery is usable in English with the adjective meaning of “mysterious” (see 270. Paraphrasing Adjectives with Words of Other Kinds, #1), so that it can describe rather than identify the “thing” idea in what. For more on the identifying versus describing uses of is, see 117. Restating Generalizations more Specifically.

A further aspect of the particular word mystery is that, because it suggests absent knowledge, it changes the what part into an indirect question: see 57. Indirect Questions in Formal Writing.

A double meaning involving the above two uses arises when the noun after is logically allows either, e.g.:

(e) What affected the economy was a disaster.

This could mean either “a disaster affected the economy” or “the event suffered by the economy was disastrous”. Both meanings are possible because a disaster, like gold and unlike a mystery, is logically a very possible subject of the main statement affected the economy, yet is also, like a mystery, able to express a description, equating to disastrous.

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4. “Both” between a Verb and two Objects

A sentence like the following does not in itself suggest two meanings:

(f) Dictionaries give both the pronunciation and the grammar of words.

Here both is grammatically a conjunction through which the reader expects to encounter two following nouns linked by and (see 64. Double Conjunctions). The nouns are grammatical objects of the verb give, which has the meaning of “supply” (see 244. Special Uses of GIVE, #3).

Things can change, however, if the preceding sentence also refers to two things:

(g) The activity requires two learners. Dictionaries give both the pronunciation and the grammar of words.

Now it is not clear whether both looks forward to pronunciation and grammar or back to two learners. This is because it can be a pronoun as easily as a conjunction, facilitating repetition of a just-mentioned noun idea (see 271. Tricky Grammar Contrasts 3, #2). As a pronoun in (g), it has the sentence role of “indirect object”, indicating a beneficiary of the verb’s action (see 126. Verbs with an Indirect Object).

Various conditions have to be met for this kind of double meaning to exist. Not only must the preceding sentence refer to two of something, but these two must be of the right kind. In (g), replacing learners with pens removes the possibility of both referring to it because the context of both (learning languages) necessitates mention of people not things. A further condition is that the verb in the second sentence must be usable with and without an indirect object. Besides GIVE, possibilities include OFFER, PRESENT, PROMISE, PROVIDE and SHOW.

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5. BE + “-ed”

When this combination has a double meaning, the reason may just be that the -ed part can mean different things without undergoing grammatical change. Sometimes, however, the cause is grammatical variability: the -ed word able to be not just part of a verb but also an adjective in the “complement” role after BE. Consider this:

(h) The soldiers were relieved.

Relieved as an adjective expresses an emotion: the good feeling that people have when a bad experience ends. The above sentence might convey this meaning if describing the end of a frightening battle. On the other hand, when relieved is a verb, its meaning depends on the type of subject it has. If this is a cause of suffering, such as pain, the meaning is “lessened”; if it is a person, like the soldiers above, the meaning is “replaced in their duty by others”.

Ability to be a complement as well as a verb part is also possessed by -ing words. For an example of a noun-like -ing complement, see 69. How Computers Get Grammar Wrong 2.

There are various ways of “proving” that an -ed word is being used as an adjective rather than a verb. One is the way the meaning of the -ed word differs from the fundamental verb meaning – often expressing a state or situation rather than event (see 245. Adjectives with a Participle Ending). Other -ed adjectives include advanced, confused, contented, interested, marked, pointed and used (to). For details of advanced and confused, see 261. Words with Complicated Grammar 3. For details of contented, see 254. Tricky Word Contrasts 10, #1.

250. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar 1

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Sometimes, two synonyms differ in their grammar, making confusions more likely

SIMILAR WORDS AND SIMILAR USAGE

It is probable that the way language learners use a new word or structure is greatly influenced by the way they know words or structures like it are used. This is because very often words and structures that seem somehow similar do follow similar rules, thus encouraging the idea that knowing the rule for one saves separately learning the rules for the others. The rules in question are not just of grammar – word formation, spelling and pronunciation can also be involved.

This blog provides numerous examples of similar words following the same rule. Consequence verbs like CAUSE generally allow a following noun + to verb (see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive, #7). Emotion adjectives like happy can have a following verb with either to or -ing (see 203. Expanding an Adjective with Words after it). Verbs ending in -ATE become action nouns with -ation (see 249. Action Noun Endings). And -age at the end of a multi-syllable noun is often (but not always) pronounced to rhyme with bridge rather than wage or large (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary, #3).

However, a problem with relying on already-learned words for information about using a new one is that in surprisingly many cases the latter follows a different rule, so that applying the familiar rule creates an error. Errors of this kind are widely documented in this blog in posts entitled Words with Unexpected Grammar, as well as in 41. Unexpected Vowels in Derived Words and 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes (#2).

What these other posts rarely highlight, however, is words that might be incorrectly used through the influence of just a single other word. Intuitively, differing from a group seems more likely to cause error than differing from just one other word, since a group is likely to allow more opportunities for its grammar to be encountered, noticed and remembered, ready for application to the new word.

Nevertheless, I quite often come across incorrectly-used words that seem to have been bent to the differing grammatical requirements of just one or two synonyms. This suggests that awareness of synonym pairs with differing grammar might have some error-prevention value. Seven are presented below; for more, see 292. Synonym Pairs with Contrasting Grammar 2.

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POTENTIALLY TROUBLESOME SYNONYM PAIRS

In the following synonym pairs, at least one of the words has the potential to be incorrectly used through the influence of the other.

1. REACH – ARRIVE

Both of these verbs indicate completion of some or all of a journey, and must accompany information about where this takes place. With REACH this information must be a noun in the object position with no intervening preposition (…reached the city). In other words, REACH is an ordinary transitive verb requiring a place-referring “object” (see 8. Object-Dropping Errors).

ARRIVE, by contrast, need not always be followed by the relevant place information: if this is clear from a previous mention or the speech situation, ARRIVE can be used alone. Moreover, if a place does need to be mentioned, it must follow the preposition at, in or into. ARRIVE is classified grammatically as an intransitive verb that optionally allows a following adverb phrase of place.

Both verbs are sometimes used incorrectly like the other. It should be noted, though, that an unnecessary preposition after REACH (usually to or at) may have other causes than (or besides) the way ARRIVE is used. The way verbs with similar meaning are used in other languages could be a factor, and there are also other aspects of English that may play a part. For details, see 42. Unnecessary Prepositions.

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2. STOP – CEASE

STOP is usable both with an object (X stopped Y) and without (X stopped). In the former, the stopping applies to the object (Y); in the latter, to the subject (X). This is a property of numerous English Verbs (see 4. Verbs that Don’t Have to be Passive).

The object of STOP may represent the stopped activity or its performer. Activities are shown by either a noun (e.g. work) or -ing verb (e.g. working). A verb cannot be an infinitive (with to). An infinitive after STOP would indicate a purpose (of X), not a stopped activity (see 208. Verbs with an Object + Infinitive, #7).

CEASE is also usable with or without an object, but any object has to be an activity, not a performer. If this is expressed by a verb, both -ing and to are possible, the choice depending on how the action is perceived. This possibility of to after CEASE may partly explain why to is often incorrectly used after STOP.

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3. ADVISE – RECOMMEND

These verbs are not complete synonyms (see 187. Advising and Recommending), but they both need an indication of a desirable action and who should perform it. The simplest way to give this is with a following that:

(a) We advise/recommend that   customers   visit our website.

Another structure possible with both is a directly following -ing verb or action noun, without any noun in between: recommend visiting above (not *customers visiting), or a visit to. In such cases the subject noun will just be implicit, though pronoun ideas like you before -ing can be expressed with a possessive (your visiting).

A third possibility with ADVISE – but not RECOMMEND – is a following noun + to verb: advise customers to visit. Using this structure after RECOMMEND is probably the main error that the meaning and grammatical similarities between these two verbs cause among inexperienced English users.

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4. REFER TO – CALL

These verbs enable someone or something to be named or described. They need an object noun referring to the possessor of the name or description, followed immediately by either a second noun-like expression representing the name, or a noun/adjective representing the description (see 206. Ways of Conveying a Name), e.g.:

(b) Americans refer to Florida as “the sunshine state”.

Here, the object noun Florida represents the possessor of the subsequent description “the sunshine state”. Note as before the latter. If refer to is replaced by call, as must disappear.

Grammatically, “the sunshine state” above is an “object complement” – necessitated by the use of refer to and describing its object (see 220. Features of Complements). Object complements as a whole either need, allow or forbid as in front, according to the verb they depend on. REFER TO is as-requiring; CALL is as-forbidding. There is no obvious reason for this – it just needs to be memorised. The common error is adding as after CALL. For a list of verbs that need or allow an object complement, along with an indication of as usage, see 92. Verbs with an Object + “as”.

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5. HELP – FACILITATE

These verbs both involve an action or event that is being enabled to happen more easily, plus someone or something performing or experiencing it (i.e. its “subject”). In one use, the grammar with HELP and FACILITATE is the same:

(c) Salt helps/facilitates (vehicles’) free movement on icy roads.

Here, the assisted action is expressed by an object noun (movement), and its subject is shown or implied by an optional possessive noun (vehicles’). Movement is an “action” noun – the usual means of expressing the assisted action in noun form (see 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns, #5).

Another grammatical similarity between the two verbs is that they both allow the assisted action to be expressed by a verb. However, this is done in different ways. After HELP, the verb must be in the to (infinitive) form with the subject noun before it – helps vehicles to move freely above. The subject noun (vehicles) cannot be omitted (see 65. Verbs that Mean “must” or “can”).

After FACILITATE, by contrast, a verb expressing the assisted action or event must be in the -ing (gerund) form, and the subject noun can be added or omitted – facilitates (vehicles) moving freely above. Subject nouns are often in the possessive form – vehicles’ above (see the end of 232. Verbs with an Object + “-ing”).

One final difference is that HELP can omit mention of the assisted action, leaving just its subject (helps vehicles), but FACILITATE cannot (*facilitates vehicles).

Common errors with HELP and FACILITATE are (a) using HELP + infinitive without a noun in between; (b) using FACILITATE + action subject without mentioning the action; and (c) making the wrong to/-ing choice after both HELP and FACILITATE.

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6. but – however

These words indicate the same logical link between a statement after them and one before: that the one after is highlighting something different or logically surprising compared to what the one before says (see 20. Problem Connectors, #3):

(d) (DIFFERENT) The North IS arid but the South IS rainy.

(e) (SURPRISING) The South HAS less sunshine but its temperatures ARE higher.

The grammatical difference between but and however is that but accompanies its two statements in one sentence, while however needs two. To appreciate why, first observe that (d) and (e) both contain two verbs (capitalised).

It is a general English rule that a new verb necessitates a new sentence, unless accompanied by wording or punctuation that makes a single sentence possible (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop). But is this kind of wording: it belongs to the major verb-accommodating category called conjunctions. However, by contrast, is not this kind of wording, so that its two partner statements need a separating full stop. Many grammarians classify however as a “(logical) connector”. For a more detailed comparison of conjunctions and connectors, see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors.

The commonest error that seems to result from this grammatical contrast is using however as if it were a conjunction, with either a comma replacing its necessary full stop or nothing at all (see 138. Test your Command of Grammar 1, #8). A similar error is sometimes made with therefore (used like so), then (used like and) and alternatively (used like or).

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7. bags – luggage

The grammatical difference between these often synonymous nouns is, of course, that bags is “countable” and luggage is “uncountable”. What that means is not that bags can be counted and luggage cannot: since both words often refer to the same thing, they must both be able or not able to be counted. Instead, “countable” and “uncountable” are grammatical descriptions. “Countable” nouns can be singular or plural but when singular need a(n) or the or equivalent before them, while “uncountable” nouns cannot be plural and can be singular without any preceding word (see 14. Noun Countability Clues 1).

A common error is to use uncountable luggage in the plural form *luggages. If there is a need to say luggage rather than bags (for example when luggage contains items that are not bags), and if a plural nature needs to be communicated (e.g. in I have two…), then one can say pieces of luggage.

English has a number of other noun synonyms with differing countability, such as advice/tips, legislation/laws and software/apps (see 180. Nouns that Count the Uncountable).