Active vs. Passive

Could you please give me an example of a passive-voice and an active-voice sentence?

Active: (This means the subject of the sentence does the action.)

The cook burned the dinner.

Passive: (This means an action is performed on the subject. In other words, the subject is passive.)

The dinner was ruined by the cook.

Bad Soup Badly Done

Do I feel bad or badly? Most people say they feel badly. I even heard Oprah say she felt badly. But I thought that wasn't correct.

It's okay to say you feel badly if, let's say, your fingers are all numb from the cold and you try without success to feel a relief map or read Braille. Then you can say you, or your numb fingers, feel badly, and you'd be correct.

In fact, "bad" is an adjective that modifies nouns and pronouns. It should be used with linking verbs such as feel, taste, all forms of be, smell, look. When it's used with linking verbs, it functions as a predicate adjective.

The soup tastes bad.

It smells bad, too.

I feel bad for you.

"Badly" is an adverb and modifies verbs.

The soup was badly made.

The bad smell comes from badly cooked soup.

It was very badly done, indeed.

Well DON'T HYPHENATE Meaning Advice

I've been wondering about hyphens for compound adjectives that aren't really compound adjectives. I think there are so many rules that it's too much to figure it out. So, I'll just give some examples that bother me, and maybe you can tell me what's up.

Healthy looking hair: I say no hyphen. What do you say?

Well meaning friend: I say no hyphen. What do you say?

I'm with you. But, there are rules of grammar and writing, there are house styles, and there are clashes between the two. Advertising firms are in love with the hyphen, God only knows why. But, then, advertisers are in the habit of turning many a grammar rule or beautifully written phrase into a gnarly mess and passing it off as hyper-correct.

My rule of thumb is to hyphenate adjectival compounds if the lack of a hyphen would cause confusion OR sometimes (and this is a killer) if I believe the reader expects there to be a hyphen and would be distracted by its absence.

But, here are two guidelines you might consider:

• Don't hyphenate adjectival compounds that contain an adverb ending in –ly.
• Don't hyphenate adjectival compounds when the first adjective is obviously not modifying the noun.

For example: "Healthy looking hair" should not be hyphenated because "healthy" isn't modifying "hair"; it's modifying "looking," which isn't even a descriptive adjective.

For the same reason, when you write "a well meaning friend," you don't need a hyphen, because no one will think you mean a friend who isn't ill.

These are the guidelines I follow, and I believe The Chicago Manual of Style has my back. However, there are many who would disagree with me. So, unless you're bound by the style choices of a particular company, choose the style that suits your sensibilities, and then stick to it.

Talk w/ Me, Not t/ Me?

Is there a rule for putting a space after "w/" when it represents the word "with"?

There's a space after the slash just as there's a space after every word. (But, why would you abbreviate a tiny little word like "with"?)
Is there a rule? I'd be hard pressed to find a specific rule in any of my style books, so logic wins over style.
T/ 4 rit/

De Facto: That's the Way It Is

What do they mean when they say "de facto segregation"?

De facto is the Latin term for "in fact" or "actually." So, de facto segregation is segregation that exists. De facto is the opposite of de jure (sometimes written de iure), which means by right or by law.

In this country, we have de jure integration (integration by law), but the truth is we're more likely to encounter areas that practice de facto segregation (segregation in actuality).

Taking Charge of Proactive

My teacher circled "proactive" in my paper. He says it's too trendy and I should find another word. Can you give me a good argument to throw back at him? —Pro Proactive

Dear PP,

Yes. And it comes, once again, from Garner. Had I not read Garner's justification for the word, I would have agreed with your teacher. I think one reason people don't like the word is because it was born in the towers of psycho-babble and bounced into the mumbo-lingo of corporate America and then onto the encrusted literary palettes of news commentators who have a tendency to speak in platitudinous circles (they don't realize it, but everyone else does).

Garner, however, says the word is "useful as an antonym of reactive." I'm afraid he's right.
Ask your teacher to come up for a synonym for proactive; the only adjective that comes close is "take-charge," as in, "He's a take-charge kind of guy." But, "take-charge" is also a relative neologism, which just about pushes it to into the field of trendiness.

My condolences to your teacher.

In Behalf of Your "On Behalf Of"

I just heard someone say "in behalf of" and it didn't make any sense. Isn't is supposed to be "on behalf of"?

Well, this one sent me to my special lingua hero, Bryan A Garner and his Dictionary of Modern American Usage. There is a difference. You didn't include the sentence that threw you for a loop, so I can't help you there; but, according to Garner, the expression, "in behalf of," means "in the interest of or for the benefit of." Frankly, I've rarely heard the expression and believe we're more likely to say "in the interest of" or simply "for."

An example would be:

The teacher worked overtime in behalf of her students' academic advancement.

The teacher worked overtime in the interest of [or for] her students' academic advancement.

"On behalf of," writes Garner, means "as the agent or representative of."

Lawyers usually speak on behalf of their clients; district attorneys usually speak on behalf of the State.

It's Still Money

Is it "petty cash" or "petit cash"? Why? Please answer soon. —Having a Petty Argument

Dear HPA,

According to the OED and a few editions of Webster's American, it's petty cash. Why? I guess because it would seem absurdly pretentious to write a lofty French petit next to a crass late-16^th-century English word (although both "petty" petit and "cash" caisse come from French). However, if you Google it, you'll find "petit cash."

Why Should I Care About this Stuff?

I've had three or four emails from people who've asked about a grammar point and then tagged the question with, "And why should I care?" or "Why should I know this stuff?" I thought about flipping a because-you-asked response back into their court, but it's a good question, and I wanted to give it some thought before responding.

First, perhaps you're one of the people who shouldn't care. If you're convinced that you're going to get through life quite well without having to impress anyone with the clarity of your writing or speech, then, to hell with it. After all, there are myriads of things I don't know, and somehow life is bearable all the same. I can't fix my car if it breaks down, unless it's something obvious like a loose spark plug or a stolen battery; I don't know how to rewire my house or find out where my cesspool is located (wait, yes I do) or speak Swahili or at least 5000 other languages; and I'm not sure what a logarithm is or how Einstein came up with E=MC² or if Sting is a person or a group.

But, knowing about language, its structures, rules, and idiosyncrasies is different from knowing about cars, cesspools, Swahili, and energy, because not everyone needs that knowledge more than once or twice in a lifetime. However, you use language every day. And if you don't know how language is structured, if you don't understand its components, you can't manipulate it with assurance and authority. Yes, you might be able to play a little ditty once in a while, but the results will be hit-and-miss at best.

Would I succeed in building a wood-frame house without knowing what a stud is? I guess I could do it by trial, error, and lots of luck, but I certainly wouldn't be aware of the all-important 16-inch-on-center rule. Can you write a letter without knowing what is meant by subject-verb or tense agreement? Of course you can. But, you might not realize that your subject is supposed to agree with your verb or that you're expressing very different ideas when you use a past imperfect verb rather than a present perfect. You'll get it right much of the time through instinct or luck, but you'll never be sure.

It's okay; the reader will probably understand it anyway, just as my house built without studs placed 16-inches on center will probably stand for a while, at least until the wind picks up. But, you won't get it right some of the time, which could prove disastrous if you're communicating via a business letter, cover letter, or love letter. "Darling, I was thinking about breaking up with you" conveys a different message from, "Darling, I thought about breaking up with you." In the first case, I'm poised for the break-up speech and trying to remember where I keep my plastic bags so I can pack your stuff up and throw it out the window. In the second case, I'm ready to forgive you since it's clear that your lapse was only temporary and you've decided you can't live without me.

Learning about grammar and the structure of language isn't about being able to recite the definition of a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or prepositional phrase, just as building a house isn't about reciting the definition of a stud, header, foundation, or Phillips screwdriver. In learning the parts, your aim is to understand the whole. Learning about grammar will give you the tools necessary to wield power over your chief means of communication—speech and writing.

That's why you should care.

What an Idiom!

Does the word "idiom" have anything to do with the word "idiot"?

I guess it does if we take a giant step back in time. The prefix "idio" comes from Greek, meaning personal, private, distinct. In English, idiom refers to several things—1. the language spoken in a particular area, 2. an expression or phrase that has meaning only in that language ("you can't pull the wool over my eyes"), 3. a manner of expression that's peculiar to an individual. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories, English borrowed the word idiom from French, which took it from Latin, which took it from Greek. Before Greek? I don't know.

Idiot, on the other hand is from Middle English and referred to an ignorant person or a lowbrow, and it's had a long and successful run in Modern English as well. But, ME can't claim to have coined the word, for it came from Latin, which borrowed it from Greek.

So, although the two words have the same parents, they weren't conjoined at birth, and they seem to have taken very different roads in their etymological lives. After all, there's a major difference between "an idiomatic expression" and "an idiotic expression."

You're So Moody

What does mood mean? –Signed, In the Mood to Learn Grammar

Dear IMLG,

In life, you can—you must—experience many moods. You know them: bad mood, sad mood, mean mood, goofy mood, party mood, chocolate mood, great mood. Fortunately, in speaking and writing, there are only three moods, which makes speaking and writing easier than life. In fact, you might be able to get through many years of good clean living using only one mood—the indicative mood. But there are times, when the subjunctive and imperative moods come in handy, too.

The Indicative Mood

The indicative mood simply means that you are stating, or indicating, a fact.

The sky is falling.

Times Square sure has lots of bright lights.

I like to go rock climbing.

The Subjunctive Mood

If you happen to be a dreamer or a discontented person, you might spend hours talking and writing in nothing but the subjunctive mood. In this case, you'd be saying things that were contrary to fact or you'd be wishing life were better.

If only I were rich. [You're not rich. ] (Notice, it's "were," not "was.")

If he were nicer, I'd go out with him. [He's not nice.]

The teacher acts as though he were one of the kids. [The teacher is not one of the kids.]

May you be wiser. (Or, I wish you were wiser.)

The Imperative Mood

If you're very bossy, you could spend part of every day stomping around and barking orders. In such a case you'd have to rely on the imperative mood.

Sit down!

Get a life!

Fasten your seatbelt!

Let's go!

Thank you for the question.