Every once
in a while (i.e. 4 years 5 months and 3 days) I come up with a new idea for a
blog. As it struck me this time, I wish to address some of the important
burning issues with writing a blog, which is “How do I select a topic?”. No,
many of them have done it before me and possible even better than mine. So in
this issue, I wish to answer some of the pressing questions in English Grammar
for those young writers.
Dear Mister
Perfect: When is it correct to say: "between you and I"?
Ans. It is
correct in the following instance: "Well, just between you and I, It is
advisable that you pay the bill for today’s dinner while I leave the
tips."
Dear Mister
Perfect: What is the purpose of the apostrophe?
ANS. I
basically do not see any value addition because of this punctuation mark. The
possible purpose for apostrophe is maybe to indicate that an “S” is going to be
the last alphabet in that sentence. It is used mostly in business signage such
as “WE DO NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARD’S” or “MANAGEMENT NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR LOSS OF
CUSTOMER ITEM’S”
Dear Mister
Perfect: When do you say "who, " and when do you say
"whom"?
ANS. You say
"who" when you want to find out something, like for example if a
friend of yours comes up and says, "What a beauty, just now witnessed a
fight between the actress who lives in block-VI and your mother" you would
reply: "WHO?" You say "whom" when you are in UK or you are
angry (as in: "And WHOM do you think is going to clean up this mess after
the party?").
Dear Mister
Perfect: Like many voters, I often get confused about which party member is
currently shouting in Doorknob Gowsami’s show. Can you help me out?
ANS. Here is
a simple pneumatic device for telling these two similar-sounding words (or
"gramophones") apart: Just remember that if they mention 1984 they
are Modi supporters and if they mention 2002 then they are Congress supporters,
if they mention both – they are AAP.
Dear Mister
Perfect: I have a question concerning the expression: "The fact of the
matter is." I would like to know whether it is preferable to say:
"The fact of the matter is, Kapil Sibal’s views are not worth listening
to” or: "The fact of the matter is, that Kapil Sibal is a total
nincompoop."
ANS. Mister
Perfect does not see any major difference.
Dear Mister
Perfect: I am curious about the expression, "A complete planned
food." The way it comes up is, my 5-year-old will be watching TV cartoon
shows in the morning, and they'll show a commercial for a children's compressed
breakfast compound such as "Horlicks Jr" or "Chocolate
Complan" and they always show the item placed on a table next to a some
actual food such as idli, and the announcer always says: "A complete
planned food." Don't they really mean, "Adjacent to this actual
breakfast item," or "On the same table as this complete
breakfast"? And they can actually make the same claim if, instead of
Horlicks, placing a can of shaving cream there or a broken coconut shell?
ANS. Yes,
good observation.
Dear Mister
Perfect: What do they mean on the TV weather forecast when they say we are
going to have "thundershowers possible"?
ANS. They
mean we are not going to have an actual thundershower, per se, but we are going
to have thundershower like climate, which looks very similar to the untrained
eye.
Dear Mister
Perfect: I think my wife is having an affair.
ANS. Mister
Perfect wouldn't doubt you for a minute; you are in the wrong forum addressing
the wrong point.
Dear Mister
Perfect: Some business associates and I are trying to compose a very important business
letter, and we disagree about the wording of a key sentence. My partner argues
that it should be: "You better be there alone with the ransom money, or we
don't want to have to break one of your limbs off." I say this is
incorrect.
Can you
settle this argument?
ANS. Tell
your associates they'd better brush up on their grammar! The sentence they're
suggesting ends with the preposition "off" and should be corrected as
follows:" . . . don't want to have to break on of your limbs off with a
big knife."
TODAY'S
SPECIAL LANGUAGE TIP: Everybody should try to use the word
"transpire" more often so that it improves the speaker’s morale.
GOT A
QUESTION FOR MISTER PERFECT? Send it to Mister Perfect via the comments section
of this blog.
