21st Century Grammar Handbook Read Online Free PDF Page B

of the paint poured out of its can.” “The orchestra was proud of its performance.” “The orchestra shifted in their chairs.”
    Antecedents linked by
“or,”
“nor,”
“neither,”
“either,” and the like also require care in determining person and number. Remember that it is the second element in pairs linked by these
conjunctions
that governs agreement: if a singular word is joined to a plural word by “or,” for instance, the plural word dictates that the following pronoun must be plural: “The boy or the men will call their elephant.” Avoid writing sentences that link a plural antecedent and a following singular one with “or” because such sentences often sound awkward: “The women or the girl will call her elephant.” Rewrite such sentences to make clear who is doing what: “The women will call their elephant, or the girl will call hers.”
    Appositives—nouns
or pronouns that add information to other nouns or pronouns—also must agree in person, number, and
case:
“The president awarded the medal to Smith, teacher of the year.” See the entry on appositives for more examples and details.
    Ain’t. “Ain’t” should appear only in informal speech, correspondence, or humorous writing. No
standard English
statement should include it.
    All ready, already. “All ready” is a compound adjective
phrase
that means someone or something is totally prepared. “Already” is an
adverb
that means before or previously. See also
adjective.
    All right. A compound adjective
phrase;
it is not spelled “alright,” a
colloquial
form used only to report or record less than standard speech. See also
adjective.
    All together, altogether. Don’t confuse “all together”—everyone or everything assembled or at the same time (“the giraffes were all together”)—with the
adverb
“altogether”—completely or totally (“the giraffes were altogether edgy”).
    Allude, elude. Although these words sound about the same
(near-homonyms) they
mean different things. “Allude” means to refer to or note in passing. “Elude” means to evade or escape.
    Allusion, illusion. These
near-homonyms
(sound a likes) differ in sense. “Allusion” is a reference to something, while “illusion” is a deception or misperception.
    All ways, always. Like many
compound words
using “all,” “all ways” differs from a similar merged form of the two words—“always.” “All ways” means in all possible manners, while “always” means for all time or every time: “The freelancer is always trying all ways to make a living.”
    Along.
Preposition
governing the
objective case:
“The boat sailed along the coast.”
    A lot. Never “alot.”
    Alphabet. See individual
languages
for their alphabets and how to alphabetize words in them. See also
alphabetization.
    Alphabetization. Two systems exist for putting words into alphabetical order, and both of them are correct. Choose the one that is commonly used by your
audience
or that you find better suits your purposes.
    Word-by-word alphabetizing arranges lists of words by letter order until a space is reached in a
compound word,
at which point it arranges all words that begin with the first word of the compound by the order of the word that follows, and then moves on to the next word, compound or not. For example, in word-by-word alphabetizing “fire dog,” “fire screen,” and “fire station” would come before “fireboat,” “firehouse,” and “fireside,” since each of thecompounds of “fire” plus another word after a space is seen as a category of “fire.”
    In letter-by-letter alphabetizing spaces are ignored, with the result that the words in the example in the previous paragraph would be alphabetized as follows: “fireboat, fire dog, firehouse, fire screen, fireside, fire station.” Both methods of alphabetization ignore
hyphens
and other internal
punctuation
of words or names. This book is arranged by the letter-by-letter method.
    There are