21st Century Grammar Handbook (35 page)

TO
The
preposition
“to” suggests motion toward or attribution to something: “I went to Denver and gave a speech to an association.” “To” also appears in verb
infinitives:
“To err is human.”

TOO
. “Too” is an
adverb
that intensifies words or adds things: “That is too dark for this room. It is big, too.” See
intensifier.

TWO
. The
number
“two”
(2)
is always just that: “Look, two eagles. That is too exciting not to report to the rest of the group.”

Told.
See
tell.

Tone.
The spirit of what is said, its attitude, is called “tone.” Severe, playful, ironic, intense, wheedling, ingratiating—there is no real limit to tone nor any clear guidance about where it is appropriate. One can seek consistency of tone, use abrupt tone shifts to make a point, or intentionally vary tone throughout a statement for all sorts of purposes. The careful writer stays aware of tone and how it is used, how it might be received by different
audiences,
and how expectations of tone can be manipulated. See, for example,
style, emphasis, irony, rhetoric,
and
colloquial.

Too.
See
to.

Took.
See
take.

Tore.
See
tear.

Torn.
See
tear.

Toward.
Preposition
governing the
objective case:
“The infant crawled toward the door.” Do not spell with an “s.” WRONG: “Move towards the rear, please.”

Transitive.
Verbs
that transmit or convey their action to other words
(objects
or
indirect objects)
are said to be “transitive”: “The camper chopped wood.” Some verbs have no objects and are used intransitively: “The camper chopped.” Other verbs can only be used as
intransitives’.
“The guest arrived.” See
voice
and
reflexive pronoun.

Two.
See
to.

Typeface.
Writers were once limited to typewriters that produced only one shape of letter on paper. Now there are various machines that produce differently shaped letters, which are said to be in “typefaces.” Typefaces (fonts) do not affect words in any way; they do not cause any variation in their use or the grammatical
rules
that govern them. But careful writers will observe the same principles of
parallelism,
consistency, and restraint that they apply to other aspects of writing when they have the opportunity to use typefaces in documents. (The emphatic and defining force of typefaces and variations among them is lost if too many faces appear in one document, if incompatible faces are put together on the same page just because they are available to
use and not because they have a purpose, or if bad choices are made among possible faces.

If you can use many typefaces, be careful not to abuse that freedom and leave your reader’s eyes weary. See also
italics, bold type,
and
emphasis.

Under.
A
preposition
governing the
objective case:
‘The boat rocked under them.’

Unique.
Don’t use “very,” “more,” or any other
modifier
with “unique,” which means one of a kind and therefore cannot vary as a modifier might suggest.

Up.
A
preposition
governing the
objective case:
“The ladybug crawled up the scout’s leg.”

Upon.
See
on.

Upper case.
Capitalized letters (in large, special forms) are said to be “upper case.” Letters not capitalized are called
“lower case.”
Capitals start sentences and perform other functions (see
capitalization).

U.S.
This
abbreviation
for “United States” is properly used only as an
adjective:
“That is U.S. territory.” However, many less formal
styles
accept the abbreviation in place of the full name of the country: “Colorado is in the U.S.” Some styles prefer “USA” if the whole name is not given: “New York is part of the USA.”

Usage.
Unlike grammatical
rules,
principles of usage are more flexible, depending on the
audience,
purpose, and
occasion of a statement for guidance as much as on the strictures arrived at by academics or others. Many entries in this book suggest how best to use certain words, constructions, or devices. But in almost every instance, alternative patterns, circumstances, or considerations are noted to give some sense of the range of possibilities and choices available to the writer or speaker.

Special
dictionaries, style
books, and guidebooks on usage can be consulted for further insight into this complex stylistic issue. When in doubt, look for a reliable, authoritative source that is accepted by the audience being addressed.

‘
ve.
An
apostrophe
and “ve” can be added to
pronouns
to create
contractions
of
past tense
constructions using
“have”
: “I’ve been an editor for twenty years.” Ordinarily such contractions are not used in formal
standard English
writing.

Verb.
Words that convey action, condition, and similar aspects of statements are called “verbs”: “There
are
many verbs in English,
ranging
from vivid words like ‘
cannonball
’ to blander verbs like ‘appear.’ All verbs depict action or status,
rendered
into
varying
forms.” In the example, all the verbs are underlined. The rest of this entry characterizes the common properties of verbs and basic
rules
and suggestions for their use. Consult entries on specific verbs as well as those for
tense, voice, mood, intransitive, transitive, passive, active voice, imperative, subjunctive, linking verbs, agreement,
and so on for further explanations and examples.

Verbs change forms to reflect the
person
doing the acting (I,
you, we, he, she, it,
they), how many things or people are acting
(number),
and when something happens
(tense).
The changes in form can mean the addition of letters to the basic form of the verb or its
root
(the core letters that contain its
meaning, such as “-vis-” in “envision,” a root that conveys the sense of seeing or being seen); such changes are called
inflection,
and the patterns of changes are called
conjugations.
Verb changes of this kind can produce different person, number, or tense: “I talk, he or she talks, they talked, we talked.” Some verbs make the main tenses in different patterns (adding “es” rather than “S” in the present tense) or are altogether
irregular verbs.

Other words are also combined with verbs or forms of them to produce different tenses: “I talk, you will talk, he has talked, we will have talked, you had talked, they are talking.” See the entries on
tenses
for further information. The added verbs are called
“auxiliary
verbs.”

Some of the forms that combine to make new tenses are specially inflected forms of verbs: the present
participle
(“ing” form: “talking”) and the past participle (“ed” or “d” form, usually the same as the past tense form). The participles can function outside verbal constructions, becoming
gerunds, adjectives,
and even
nouns:
“
Swimming
is
enjoying
a revival,
predicated
on
raised
expectations.” All the underlined words in the example are participles.

Verbs also have a property called
“voice”
that indicates where action is directed.
Active voice
verbs convey action directly to
objects
or
indirect objects:
“I hand the book to the librarian.”
Passive
voice verbs depict action that does not pass to an object but is reflected back on the
subject
of a
sentence:
“The book was handed to the librarian by me.” The passive voice is usually disdained in
standard English
because it often omits agents and doesn’t make causation clear: “It will be done.” But this flaw of obscurity is sometimes prized by writers who want to deflect attention from the agent of an action for whatever reason. Voice is a property of
transitive
verbs, those able to transmit action to an object.
Intransitive
verbs do not convey action to an object but usually express condition: “It
happens
, one
becomes
used to something and simply
vegetates.
” All the verbs (underlined) in the example are intransitive.

Verbs convey the writer’s or speaker’s attitude or stance by changing
“mood”
as reflected in differing verb forms. The indicative mood is the common form that states facts or presumed facts: “That is so; the lions are eating the antelope.” The
imperative
mood issues commands or requests: “Pick up your room!” The
subjunctive
mood is used to make statements that are contrary to fact or are wishes, requests, and demands: “If your younger brother were taller, I’d ask that he help put up the decorations with us.”

A major category of verbs is called
“Unking verbs”: “be,” “become,”
“appear,” and the like do not convey action so much as condition or status. They take no objects but can be followed by
nouns
or
adjectives
that are called predicate
nominatives
or
subject complements:
“Jan is an executive and is creative as well as insightful.” See
predicate.

Words that modify verbs or add to their meaning are called
“adverbs”:
“The dancer quickly exited the stage.” Most adverbs end in “-ly,” as does “quickly” in the example. But some do not: “The cat almost ate the canary.” See
modifier.

It is critical that verbs agree with their
subjects
in
person
and
number.
WRONG: “Kim are right, and I is wrong.” RIGHT: “Kim is right, and I am wrong.” In a simple example like this one, the error seems obvious. But in longer, more complex sentences, it is easy to lose sight of the original subject or its number or person, particularly if
phrases
or
clauses
in a different number or person come between the subject and verb. WRONG: “The lion, having eaten many chimpanzees, which are common on the plains of the area and often live in enormous troops in the trees, are hungry.” There is only one lion, and it
is
hungry. Positioning of verbs near their subjects and
objects
helps keep
sentences
clear and makes it easier to be sure subjects and verbs agree.

Large, involved collections of words can contain several verbs,
subjects, objects,
and so on but still not be
sentences
at all. If the main subject has no verb (or vice versa), even the longest collection of words remains an incomprehensible
fragment:
“The tiger, having eaten many chimpanzees, which are common on the plains of the area and often live in enormous troops in the trees, deciduous and palmlike depending on the microclimate, which can vary enormously and cause severe fluctuations in the tiger population.” The example is not a sentence, despite all the verbs, subjects, and so on, and even in spite of the double appearance of the tiger. The first tiger does nothing, so there is no sentence here.

Although there is no formal grammatical
rule
that calls for consistency or
parallelism
in verb use, it is generally beneficial to writing to maintain the same or similar
tenses, moods, voices,
and so on from
sentence
to sentence,
paragraph
to paragraph, and beyond. Of course, monotony is not a goal of writing, and variety can come from all sorts of changes in tense or any other verb property. Just be certain that such shifts leave an understandable, easily followed statement for the reader.

Verbs are important parts of sentences, and there are many entries in this book that discuss various aspects of how they are formed, function, and are best used. Be sure to consult all the italicized topics if you have more questions about any aspect of verbs that is outlined in this entry.

Vocabulary.
The choice of words in statements is all-important. The storehouse of words you command is called your “vocabulary.” The bigger it is, the more choices you have when you are searching for the right word. See, for
example,
style, colloquial, dialect, audience, scientific language,
and
standard English
for more information about how to chose the right vocabulary for your needs.

Voice.
Transitive
verbs normally suggest action directed to or carried out on something or someone, which is their
object:
‘The batter hit the ball.’ In this form
verbs
are said to be in the
“active voice.”
But transitive verbs can be made to reflect action back on their
subject
and convey no action to their object; this is called the
“passive
voice” of transitive verbs: “The ball was hit by the batter.”