Category Archives: Tools & Tactics

“I might go to the movies this weekend.” “I may go to the movies this weekend.” Is there a difference between these two sentences?

Both “may” and “might” have the same overall meaning – they are both ways of expressing possibility. They are also modals (along with could, should, would), which are helping verbs that tell you more about the mood or attitude of the action verb.

I was brought up to ask for things using the word “may.” “May I have another glass of milk, please?” “May I watch cartoons on Saturday morning, please?” I think this is what trips us up when looking at “may” and trying to decide if you should use “may” vs. “might.” The difference between these two words is subtle, but important.

General use of “might” – use might when the outcome is uncertain or unlikely. Things I might do? I might win the lottery. I might hike the entire Appalachian Trail. Unlikely, but it could happen.

General use of “may” – use may when the outcome is more likely to happen. Things I may do? I may go to outdoor yoga tomorrow, provided it finally quits raining. I may get some yard work done.

Now, as always, there are exceptions to this. The first one comes with “might” as the past tense of “may.” So, when referencing the past, mood doesn’t matter and you should use “might.”

Example: “She might have gone to see her friend yesterday.”

The second one falls in a nice murky area where one’s intent needs to be made clear. Using “may” can be interpreted as needing permission to do something. If I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to go to outdoor yoga in the morning, I should just say “might,” which would remove any insinuation that I needed someone’s permission to go to outdoor yoga in the morning.

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.

I’ve received a couple of questions on the proper use of ellipses. I thought I’d take a quick look at a few guidelines on using ellipses… correctly (yes, my dear grammarians, I know that’s wrong, but that’s the point).

First, let’s cover the basics.  An ellipsis is a trio of periods (…) that serves as a placeholder for text. An ellipsis is three dots, except when it’s four. When using ellipses at the end of a sentence, yes, you need the fourth dot. It’s important to punctuate correctly. With other types of punctuation, just treat the ellipsis like any other word in the sentence.

Now that we know what it is, when do you use an ellipsis?  The most common usage in formal writing is to show omission. This is especially true for journalists who are trying to save valuable real estate without losing the meaning of the quote. I like the example that Grammar Girl uses to illustrate this, using a quote by Charles Dickens: “I cannot help it; reason has nothing to do with it; I love her against reason.” If I’m on a tight deadline, I’m going to dot-dot-dot that to “I cannot help it … I love her against reason.” The middle phrase there, “reason has nothing to do with it,” is redundant to the sentence and I just saved seven words that I can use somewhere else.

In researching the rules surrounding the ellipsis, I found proper style references for comic book writers (which I loved, by the way, because I love comics that are well-written), so it seems there are rules for everyone when it comes to the ellipsis.  The other most common usage of the ellipsis is to show hesitation or a trailing off of a thought. This is used more in informal writing and is one of those things that can be overused if you’re not careful. Think of it this way, dear writers, you have the uncanny ability to string together lots of gorgeous prose, so consider carefully whether or not you need to muddy the water with an ellipsis. To quote The Write Practice, “If you have a mental space cadet for a main character, you might want to tone down your desire to use those dots.”

For another look at a style manual on the ellipsis, I refer to my handy-dandy AP Style Guide to offer you this final tip: “Be especially careful to avoid deletions that would distort the meaning.”

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.

Who? Whom? Whose? Who is? Who has? Huh?! Trying to figure out whether to use “who’s” or “whose” usually ends up with me rewriting my sentence so I don’t have to figure that out. Thanks to a reader suggestion, I am now ready to conquer my fear of who’s vs. whose. While these words sound identical, they serve very different purposes.

Who’s = a contraction of who + is or has. Here’s the easy part – there’s no other use here. This is it.

Examples:

• Who’s coming to dinner?
• Who’s got the remote?
• I’m meeting the appliance guy at 4 who’s going to try to fix my broken freezer.

Whose = possessive form of who, means “belonging to whom.” Whose usually sits before a noun.

Examples:

• “Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.” – H. L. Mencken

In this example, “whose” sits in front of the noun “visit” and is used as a relative pronoun (relative pronouns link one phrase or clause to another word in the sentence).

• Whose shoes are these?

In this example, “whose” sits in front of the noun “shoes” and is used as an interrogative pronoun (interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions.)

Think of it this way, whose is most often used with inanimate objects and non-person entities.

• Who’s been pilfering irises from my front yard? (Who’s – Who has?)
• Whose newspaper ended up on my porch this morning? (Whose – The newspaper belonging to whom ended up on my porch this morning.)

Still confused? Quick tip – try replacing the word with “who is” or “who has.” If you know, categorically, that it’s 100% wrong, you need to use whose.

(Click here for a review on who vs. whom.)

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content service at PR Newswire.

Spring has finally sprung, and with that, a flurry of flowers (and weeds) adorns my yard, and a pile of graduation announcements arrive in my mailbox (of both the virtual and actual variety).

When someone says, “My son just graduated college,” does your core grammatical nerve start to twitch? Dust off your cap and gown and let’s take a quick look and the correct way to discuss the graduates and what they actually did when they crossed the stage at commencement.

Grammatically speaking, the correct usage is to say, “My son just graduated from college.” Why? Because the verb “to graduate” is acting as an intransitive verb. Remember, intransitive verbs do not take objects. Transitive verbs take objects (either direct or indirect).

Transitive verb “to break” – He broke the glass.

Intransitive verb “to break” – When I see those commercials on TV with all the sad puppies and kitties who need homes, my heart breaks.

Consider this – by saying “He just graduated college,” it’s the same as saying “I slept my bed.” You need a prepositional phrase there to clarify exactly what you were doing. “I slept in my bed.”

Now, once again, we’re in the grammatical minefield of common usage starting to rub out the rules of grammar. “My son just graduated college,” is pretty firmly in today’s vernacular. No one is going to say, “The college my son attended has just graduated him.” That sounds archaic, but is grammatically correct. That’s also what’s actually happening when Junior parades across the stage, shakes the dean’s hand, picks up his degree, turns, smiles and waves at his proud parents, who are cheering and taking pictures, and then saunters off the stage to join his classmates and throw his cap in the air.

So remember, the school is the one doing the graduating. Students are graduated from a school.

Congratulations to the class of 2013!

Have a grammar rule you’d like me to explore? Drop me a line at catherine.spicer@prnewswire.com.

Author Catherine Spicer is a manager of customer content services at PR Newswire.