The two ironclad rules of English Grammar

English is a crazy language, as notorious for its numerous exceptions as it is for any systematic rules. However, as a result of teaching English and English Grammar over the years, I have distilled two ironclad rules of English Grammar that are ALWAYS true.

1) Every sentence MUST have at least a subject and a verb. A sentence need not have an object unless the verb is transitive (requiring an object), but it must have a subject and verb.

So, for example, "He walked." is a complete sentence, where the subject is "He" and the verb is "walked" (simple past).

Even a one-word sentence like "Stop!" for example, has a subject, even though it is not seen. In this case (called the "Imperative" in grammar), the subject of the sentence is "You" and is said to be understood (not requiring being said or written). In other words, that sentence is really "(You) stop!" where "You" is the subject and "stop" is the verb.

2) Subject and verb MUST always agree in number (singular or plural) and person (I, You, He\She\It).

This means that a singular subject ALWAYS takes a singular verb and a plural subject ALWAYS takes a plural verb. Equally, a first-person subject ("I" or "We") always takes the first-person form of the verb.

For example, "I am a student" and "They are students."

In the first sentence, "I" is a first-person singular subject and ALWAYS takes the first-person singular form of the verb "to be" In other words, you NEVER say "I is a student" or "I are a student" because those two sentences mis-match the singular subject "I" with the third-person singular "is" or with the plural form of "to be" ("Are" is also the second-person singular.)

In the second sentence, "They" is a third-person plural subject and ALWAYS takes the third-person plural form of the veb "to be" In other words, you NEVER say "They am a student" or "They is a student" because those two sentences mis-match the third-person plural subject "They" with the first-person ("I") singular verb "am" or the third-person ("He\She\It") singular verb "is".

One final note: this discussion is based on standard English and deliberately ignores dialectal variants (like English spoken among some whites in the American south or the English spoken by some African Americans).

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It's a Mystery! Unclear Pronoun Antecedents

I found the following instructions to obtain a refund on a website recently:

Be sure to verify the name and mailing address and then click on “Request payment”. We’ll process it and mail it to you. It usually takes 4-8 business days to arrive.

Reading these instructions reminded me of how important having clear antecedents for your pronouns is and of making sure your pronouns refer to clear antecedents

What is an 'antecedent'? Simply put, the antecedent is the word or phrase that precedes the pronoun and that the pronoun refers to. When you use "it" or "this," a reader can become easily confused by what your pronouns are referring to.

But remember too that there are other pronouns, like 'her' or 'he' that may also lack clear anteceents

Consider this sentence.

He told his brother that his car had broken down.

The reader does not know whose car broke down. Was it the 'He' that is the subject of the sentence. Or was it the 'brother'? (Technically speaking, the phrase "his car" 'refers back to 'his brother' and not to the 'He' that is the subject, but my point is that the reader is not clear.)

Let clarity always be your guide, even if it means you must rewrite or re-structure a sentence to make it clearer So, for example:

He told his brother, "Your car has broken down."

or

He told his brother, "My car has broken down."

Charles Dickens began A Tale of Two Cities with the following famous opening:

It was the best of times It was the worst of times.

OK, it's Charles Dickens and there must be a few exceptions to the rule. Besides, his first name was 'Charles' also!

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