{"id":1608,"date":"2014-08-07T08:13:44","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T14:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1608"},"modified":"2021-01-08T15:50:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T21:50:21","slug":"media-watch-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/media-watch-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Media Watch: Subjects and Verbs, Pronouns, Vocabulary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 From a review of an exhibition: \u201cThe society had in their possession a card imprinted with a 1872 photograph.\u201d Two booby prizes in one sentence: <em>society<\/em> is singular, so make it \u201chad in <em>its<\/em> possession,\u201d not \u201ctheir.\u201d As for \u201ca 1872 photograph,\u201d is that the way you would say it? The misguided decision not to use <em>an<\/em> stems from the belief that <em>an<\/em> should only precede a vowel, and the 1 in 1872 isn\u2019t even a letter. However, the actual rule is that <em>an<\/em> always precedes a vowel <em>sound<\/em>, which is why we say \u201can honor,\u201d even though the silent <em>h<\/em> is technically a consonant.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 From a newspaper editorial: \u201cCalifornia will join other states who have made alterations to their sentencing codes.\u201d Make it \u201cother states <em>that<\/em>.\u201d A state is not a person, and <em>who<\/em> applies only to humans.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201cIt was all so clich\u00e9.\u201d What\u2019s wrong with \u201cIt was all such a clich\u00e9\u201d? <em>Clich\u00e9<\/em> is a noun, not an adjective. To sticklers, this sentence sounds as silly as \u201cIt was all so paper clip.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 From a book review: \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to predict it in advance.\u201d Oh dear. Either change \u201cpredict\u201d to \u201cknow\u201d or delete \u201cin advance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201cTheir reticence to challenge the union is why this ruling is essential.\u201d The writer meant \u201c<em>reluctance<\/em> to challenge.\u201d The two words are not synonyms; <em>reticence<\/em> means \u201chabitual silence\u201d or \u201creserve.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 From a profile of an athlete: \u201cHis single-minded passion is one of the many qualities that has made him a star.\u201d Make it \u201cone of the many qualities that <em>have<\/em> made him a star.\u201d The subject of the verb is \u201cqualities,\u201d not \u201cone.\u201d Many qualities have made him a star; his single-minded passion is one of them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 \u201cThe inmates are trying to put distance between the men they are now with the crimes that landed them here years ago.\u201d Make it \u201c<em>and<\/em> the crimes.\u201d Would you say, \u201cThe distance between my house with your house is three blocks\u201d? The writer forgot the first half of his sentence before he finished the second half. And then he just couldn\u2019t be bothered to proofread the mess he\u2019d made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2022 From a review of an exhibition: \u201cThe society had in their possession a card imprinted with a 1872 photograph.\u201d Two booby prizes in one sentence: society is singular, so make it \u201chad in its possession,\u201d not \u201ctheir.\u201d As for \u201ca 1872 photograph,\u201d is that the way you would say it? The misguided decision not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,43,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pronouns","category-subject-and-verb-agreement","category-vocabulary"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}