The proper English thread

"Worse" is a comparative; X is worse than Y.
"Worst" is a superlative; it's at the extreme on the scale.

 

Than/Then

Than is used almost exclusively in the comparative structure. "more than" or "less than" or "bigger than," etc.
Then is used almost exclusively for sequence; things in order - either temporal order (in time; this, then that) or logical (if you want to get punched in the face, then keep talking to Jahlil Okafor like that).

 

Two things drive me crazy.

When people use "than" when they should use "then". I even see that mistake in articles and news stories. For instance "We went to the mall, than we went home"auPuke:

And when people don't use "to be" when they should. For instance, people say "The dog needs brushed" when they should say "The dog needs TO BE brushed". I've heard people say either is correct, but it's not danmit . My grammdar (grammar radar) goes off every time I hear that. It's like nails on a chalk board to me.

 

I have never heard anyone, ever, say something like "the dog needs brushed" without the "to be" whose first language was English, or who wasn't pretending to be a caveman. Never encountered it, and I'd probably be very confused if I did.

That brings up another one, "whose", "whom", "who", to a lesser extent "who's", that s*** gets tricky, I don't even bother with whom.

 

It's so common in Texas. I heard it all the time, including from my in-laws and occasionally from my wife

 

I'm not touching this one. I have no clue what's right.

 

Who - nominative (could you replace the word with "he" or "she"?)
Whom - object (could you replace the word with "him" or "her"?)

The only time it's complicated is when the word appears in a dependent clause in the sentence.

E.g., "I told Bob, who was the correct person to tell."
Forget the "I told Bob," part. It's an independent clause; it can stand on its own.
Him was the correct person to tell?
He was the correct person to tell?

Second one is obviously correct, so you need who, not whom.

 

I saw a funny meme that said "I wanna meet the people who use "U" and "2" when texting and find out what they did with all the time they saved.

The way people spell in texts is atrocious. I know it's just text / e-slang, but when they use it in other formats (email and official papers) it drives me crazy.

 

Thanks for this. One thing I was never sure of. That explanation makes it easy.

 

Thanks

I'm a humanities professor!

I did an MA in Classics; I studied Latin and Greek, and I think I learned more about the English language than in most of my other schooling, but I had a good high school teacher as a frosh, too.

 

That's why he's a teacher lol

 

Help with this one:

anymore
any more

I never know the difference.

 

I think I know the basics with those, but they then get tricky for me too. "There isn't any more". "I'm not going there anymore". Correct in that instance, professor?

 

I don't know that there's a hard divide. You can stick to "any more" and always be right.

"Anymore" is used as an adverb (always, I think). "I don't see kids playing on the beach anymore."

"Any more" can have that function, but it also function as just the combination of "any" and "more" - "Is there any more candy?"

 

Yeah, but you can also do, "I'm not going there any more," because that's the more inclusive phrase.

 

Not sure if this was already asked, but what about "effect" and "affect". I was never sure on this one.

A pet peeve of mine is when people say "good" when they mean "well".

 

^^^ Oh man I hate those. No joke I will use a different word to avoid using "affect" and "effect" a lot of the time. I only feel confident I'm using those right maybe half the time.

 

Good vs. Well is pretty easy - with one wrinkle. Good is a adjective (modifies nouns). Well is an adverb (modifies verbs).

Here's the wrinkle: You can say, "I am well," to mean that you're in a good state of mind, healthy, etc. In that case, well is an adjective.

An effect is the result of a cause. Otherwise, use affect. Typically, we use affect in this way: if X causes something to happen to Y, then we say that X affects Y. But if X causes Y to exist, say, then Y is the effect of X.

Wrinkle on affect: affect is a type of emotion. Primary psychopaths have flat affect. They don't get excited.