Tricky grammar
2025-Apr-12Pronouns in Quotations
A question arose: Does a pronoun in a quotation need to be integrated into the surrounding text? The MLA Style Center at https://style.mla.org/agreement-pronouns-quotations/ recommends not doing so. For example: “Laurence is boastful, repeating to his brother that the picture is ‘the best thing I’ve done yet’.”
“One fewer” or “One less”?
Consider the phrase “one fewer thing to worry about.” While “one less” is more common, it’s not clear there’s a consistent reason. Logically, one might say “two fewer things to worry about” (i.e., my things to worry about are fewer by two). But following that logic strictly leads to the awkward “one fewer things to worry about.” Perhaps it’s best to just avoid the phrase.
Past Perfect Tense: Had Spoke or Had Spoken?
I had written “someone and I had spoke” and then questioned whether it should be “spoke” or “spoken.” This construction is the past perfect tense, which uses “had” + past participle. Wiktionary indicates the past participle of speak is “spoken,” or sometimes “spoke,” but labels the latter “colloquial, nonstandard.” So, “spoken” it is.
Got vs. Gotten
Regarding past participles, Wiktionary notes: ‘Some dialects (e.g. American English dialects) use both gotten and got as past participles, while others (e.g. dialects of Southern England) use only got. In dialects that use both, got is used for the meanings “to have” and “to have to”, while gotten is used for all other meanings.’ This leads to a distinction like “I’ve gotten a ticket” (I have received or obtained one) vs. “I’ve got a ticket” (I currently have one). It’s probably best to just use “have” instead of “have got” for possession, and use “gotten” when using the past participle in its standard sense (acquisition, becoming).
Joint Possession with “I/Me”
To refer to a dog that Doug and I have, the correct phrasing is “Doug’s and my dog fetched the stick.”
Subjunctive Mood and Relative Clauses
What about a sentence structure like “if there were a person who was/were needed”? This WordReference post suggests “was” is correct after the relative pronoun: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/relative-clauses-and-extensions-of-conditional-sentences.3826657/post-19550367. This seems confirmed by usage data from Project Gutenberg searches:
"if * were something that was": https://www.google.com/search?q=%22if+*+were+something+that+was%22+site%3Agutenberg.org (more results)"if * were something that were": https://www.google.com/search?q=%22if+*+were+something+that+were%22+site%3Agutenberg.org
Fit vs. Fitted
Is it “will be fit” or “will be fitted”? This also applies to words like “output.” Wiktionary states the past participle of fit is “fitted” or “fit,” specifying that “fitted” is primarily used for the meaning “to tailor.”
Who and Whom
This remains a common point of confusion. Consider these examples:
- “He’s the first pope whom we can actually hear speaking.” (Object of “hear”)
- “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Subject of “gives”)
- “Beethoven, who you say was a great composer, wrote only one opera.” (Here, “who” is the subject of “was a great composer”; “you say” is parenthetical – you’d say “he was a great composer”).
- What about “War is expensive, to who[m]ever is paying”? Usage data strongly suggests “whoever” is preferred here, even after a preposition:
- A case involving a free relative clause appeared in Going Infinite: “And now that was who Sam was courting.” My initial thought is that it should use “whom,” based on the role within the clause (“Sam was courting [him/whom]”). Data from a search like “that (is OR was) (who OR whom) (he OR she OR we)” is small and conflicting. Wikipedia notes, “Modern guides to English usage say that the relative pronoun should take the case appropriate to the relative clause, not the function performed by that clause within an external clause.” If we mentally expand the example to “And now that was the type of person whom Sam was courting,” the choice becomes clearer.
- Another example: “Kane had words of praise for Musiala, who he says has been fantastic.” This seems correct because you would say “he says he has been fantastic.”
Collective Nouns: Teams
When speaking about a sports team, English usage seems inconsistent regarding singular/plural agreement.
- “Toronto will be unstoppable if they get a new practice facility” implies Toronto is plural.
- However, we say “This team is” rather than “these team are,” implying “team” is singular.
Pronoun Case After Prepositions like “Of”
I encountered this sentence: “Einstein was starting to lose confidence in whether the work of he and his pacifist friends would make a difference.” I think it should be “of him,” analogous to phrases like “for the life of him” or “the size of him.” Fowler notes that “of his” (as in “friend of mine”) typically means “among his.”
Reflexive Pronouns: “Of me” vs. “Of myself”
Is it “it reminded me of me” or “it reminded me of myself”? Usage data suggests “myself” is standard when the object of the preposition refers back to the subject:
"reminded me of me"(few results): https://www.google.com/search?q=%22reminded+me+of+me%22+site%3Agutenberg.org"reminded me of myself"(many results): https://www.google.com/search?q=%22reminded+me+of+myself%22+site%3Agutenberg.org
“Hold onto” vs. “Hold on to”
Comparing “hold onto” vs. “hold on to”:
- Gutenberg searches show numerous hits for both, but the few “onto” examples checked appeared newer and American.
- Other evidence points to “on to”:
- Ngrams show “hold on to it” is significantly more common than “hold onto it”: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=hold+on+to+it%2Chold+onto+it
- The grammatical theory presented here makes sense: https://ell.stackexchange.com/a/124926/9086 (distinguishing phrasal verb “hold on” + preposition “to”).
- Thus, “hold on to” seems correct. This logic also supports “log in to” (phrasal verb “log in” + preposition “to”), not “log into.”