Thursday, September 11, 2008 The Grammar Cop: The journey continues By Jess Saplala
OUR journey to clarity continues.
Few, fewer, fewest (adjective) are used to describe or modify plural nouns referring to number: e.g. few teachers, fewer road accidents, fewest number of rooms.
Less, lesser, least (adj.) are used when referring to amount or quantity of volume or space: e.g., less money, lesser cabinet space, least storage capacity.
Loan and lend. Many English language authorities disapprove the use of loan (noun) as a verb in lieu of lend (verb).
In banking, however, it is acceptable to use loan as a verb. Examples:
1. His bank loaned him money at 15 percent annual interest.
2. “Will you lend me one hundred pesos?” is preferred to “Will you loan me...?”
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How many errors can you find in the following? (Find the answer at the end of this space.)
“The SWS had consistently reported how badly Pres. Arroyo is doing in their surveys.”
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Space. This word, according to the Oxford Dictionary of New Words published in paperback in 1998, has acquired a new dimension (di or dye MEN shun) of meaning which has been widely accepted since the 90s. It now also means one’s freedom to think, to act or to be oneself. It particularly points to “an area around an individual where encroachment by others causes anxiety or uneasiness.”
Examples:
1. His wife’s aggressive character reduces his space.
2. Many psycho war tactics employed by the incumbent palace occupant and her minions directly reduce the space not only of her critics but virtually that of the entire Filipino people.
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Answer: Three errors. “The SWS has consistently reported in its survey (or: In its survey, the SWS has consistently reported) how badly Pres. Arroyo is doing.”
The third error is the poor sentence construction. In the original sentence, the reader might second-guess that the President is badly messing around with SWS surveys—an act, I guess, SWS head Mahar Mangahas will only allow over his dead body.
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Parting shot: “In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma, but never let him be the period.”
