Re: grammar tricks

[Wes Chapman <wchapman@titan.iwu.edu>]

OK, I'm starting to get it.  Here's a trick for figuring out what the verb
is in a clause (as opposed to a verbal noun, for instance):  change the
sentence into past or future (whatever it isn't in).  Any words that
change are verbs.  This rule isn't foolproof either, but it usually
works, and can be built on to figure out where clauses are (who or what is
doing the word that changed? who or what is it done to? etc.), then
dependent vs. independent clauses (any conjunctions at the beginning? If
so, is it one of the FANBOYS?) and so forth.

One question I have about all this, however, is when and why is a "trick"
easier to remember than a more formal grammatical concept?  Is it harder 
to understand or remember that "who" does the action of the verb
(determined by the trick above), while "whom" is the one to whom the
action gets done, than to see if either has a noun after it?  If it is,
why is it? And at what point do we want to say that a "trick" is in fact
harmful, as is the too-oft-learned "never begin a sentence with
'because'"?

   ----------------
   | Wes Chapman  |\           -------------------------- 
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       | Writing Coordinator |/--------------------------    
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On Wed, 20 Nov 1996, Kate Nicole Ranft wrote:

> 
> 
> Michael:
> 
> Excellent trick.  Thanks for help.  Here are some of mine:
> 
> If I want to know when to use who or whom, I look to the word directly 
> after it.  If the word is a noun or a pronoun, I use whom.  An example:
> 
> This is the man _____ I saw at the restaurant. 
> 
> 	the word to the right of the blank is "I" therefore WHOM.  
> 
> This is the man ____ helped me yesterday.
> 
> 	The word to right of the blank is not a noun, therefore WHO.
> 
> Another way to check this is to substitute he/him for the main noun.  In 
> the first sentence I can say "I saw HIM at the restaurant" = WHOM. In the 
> second sentence I can say "HE helped me" = WHO.  
> 
> Please excuse my long explanation.  I use a similar trick to judge 
> whether or not to use a comma after a conjuction in a long sentence. 
> 
> I went to the store_ and I bought some milk.
> 
> 	When the word to the right of the conjunction is a noun or 
> pronoun, I put a comma before the conjunction.
> 
> Neither of these rules are fail safe, but they work most of the time.  
> Student's seem to appreciate a hint here and there.
> 
> -Kate Ranft
> 
> 
> 
> 	
> 
> 
>