r/EnglishGrammar

A seldom acknowledged degeneration of the English language is the increasing use of may (not may have) in the past tense. The past tense of may is might.

1. Someone stole from me.

2. I was stolen from.

Are these sentences correct?

Gratefully,

Navi

Three _____ walk into a bar.

Regarding people:

“Why did he go to the store?” Because he was hungry.

“How did he go to the store?” He used his car.

Regarding object:

“Why did the plane crash?” Because of an engine failure.

“How did the plane crash?” The plane crash was caused by an engine failure.

Edit: many of you have provided disproving examples, so I concede the original statement. Instead I will propose this: The words “how” and “why” both ask for information regarding events or actions. “How” can be answered with either a set of conditions or a description of an event, where “why” can only be answered with a set of conditions. For example:

- how did the balloon pop? It filled with too much air, which caused it to rupture.

- how did the balloon pop? It popped explosively, making a loud noise.

- why did the balloon pop? It filled with too much air, which caused it to rupture.

- why did the balloon pop? It popped explosively, making a loud noise. (Doesn’t work)

In cases where we are describing objects which are incapable of making decisions, the meaning of the word “how” entirely eclipses the word “why”, as it can mean everything “why” does and more. The exception is when we are describing an action or decision made by a thinking being, as “why” also asks for a reason, while “how” does not.

I’m much less knowledgeable than most in this community, but my mother did instill the importance of basic grammar in me. I’m trying to be less judgmental, and am looking to understand if it’s grammatically acceptable or correct in the UK or anywhere outside the US to use phrases like “me and my husband.” I see it so often across Reddit, and am not sure if I’m incorrectly assuming that the subject vs. object rule is universal, or if it varies based on where people live. It drives me crazy when I see it. Am I correct, or simply an ignorant American?

The _____ showed _____ the _____.

Can one say

1. When other people sleep with married people, you say it is ok. When it is my turn, then it becomes immoral.

instead of

2. When other people sleep with married people, you say it is ok. When it comes to me, then it becomes immoral.

It seems to me that 'my turn' is not natural in 1 and seems to imply that there is some kind of order implied.

Gratefully,

Navi

Okay so I'm doing some creative writing. It'll turn into a self-published work one day, with any luck.

Anyway, I'm about to do a massive edit of my manuscript and I want to get this right.

My main characters nickname is Vicious, and it's what she's called in 90% of the book. The book is written in third person, so she's referenced often. WHAT is the correct way to write it when it comes to her "ownership" (sorry if I'm explaining that horribly)?

For example, "An odd thought crosses Vicious’ mind." Is that " ' " in the right spot? Should I do something else completely?

Any help would be appreciated

never _____ or be _____.

My friend and I were having a conversation and she referred to it as the capital punishment and I realised I had never heard that before. She mentioned that she felt it sounded right since we also say the death penalty. The conclusion I came to is that it's not necessarily a grammar rule but about the specificity of the terms, but she reckons there's an underlying grammatical argument to it... so uh... does anyone know?

Hi, first of all, English is my second language, and while the grammar rules are often easier than in my native tongue, I am confused about the correct dashes to use with abbreviations and acronyms.

Yes, I did scour the dash Wikipedia page, but I am still unsure.

In my Biochemistry protocol, I abbreviated "high performance liquid chromatography with a diode array detector" to HPLC-DAD. My professor now highlighted this with the note "HPLC–DAD; Please correct all instances. Pay attention to hyphen length. It differs from German."

He seems to have used the en dash in his correction. I have no problem correcting all HPLC-DAD and UPLC-TOFMS instances with the correct dash.

However, I am confused about things like "MS-Finder" and MS-Dial", do I use the em dash, en dash or just normal "-" in instances where it is not completely an acronym?

TL;DR, which dash do I use for terms like MS-Dial compared to full acronyms like HPLC–DAD?

1. She was afraid of waking him.

2. She was afraid to wake him.

What is the difference?

Gratefully,

Navi

You either go _____ or go home.

Prompted by a question in an ESL sub, why *do* we say "It's late and it's time we left" rather than "it's time we leave"?

I'd never given it a thought in half a century but, like everyone else in the sub, I couldn't explain why we use the past tense for an action not yet started.

Writing a report and feeling a bit dumb lol.

I'm confused on whether to use "is" or "are" in this sentence. In this case both blanks represent uncountable nouns and I think that's what's tripping me up.

I couldn't find an explanation, any help would be wonderful :)

1. Is there something you want to tell me but are beating about the bush.

2. Is there something you want to tell me but are beating about the bush about it.

3. Is there something you want to tell me but are hesitant.

4. Is there something you want to tell me but are hesitant about it.

Which are correct?

Gratefully,
Navi