Collins Good Grammar. Graham King

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Incorrect	No wonder the Tory Party turned him down as a possible candidate, suggesting he went away and came back with a better public image.
Correct	No wonder the Tory Party turned him down as a possible candidate, suggesting he go away and come back with a better public image.

      Let’s face it – most of us would avoid such a construction where the correct use of the subjunctive mood requires grammatical know-how of a very high order. On the other hand we might have the wit to insert should before the verb go away, rendering the sentence both grammatically correct and more readable:

       No wonder the Tory Party turned him down as a possible candidate, suggesting that he should go away and come back with a better public image.

      The correct use of the subjunctive can undoubtedly look strange, as in this example quoted by Eric Partridge in his Usage and Abusage: Although he die now, his name will live. Not surprisingly most writers tend to avoid or ignore the subjunctive, so that sentences such as I insist that he is sacked (I insist that he be sacked) and It is to be hoped that she stops her bad behaviour (It is to be hoped that she stop her bad behaviour) are now considered acceptable. This may be so, but careful and elegant writers will always fall back on the subjunctive mood to express hypothetical situations in sentences usually containing if and that (If she were here, I would tell her about Tom; I suggest that she be told immediately.)

       Ellipsis: Trimming away ‘Sentence Fat’

      Nobody these days wants to write more words than necessary, or to be forced to read fifty words when the information could have been conveyed with half that number. We have already seen that by combining simple sentences into compound and complex sentences we can economise on words and even enhance clarity; but there is another grammatical convention that allows us to trim away words we don’t need. It’s called ellipsis and it works like this:

WITHOUT ELLIPSIS	When the children were called to the dinner table they came to the dinner table immediately.
	Harry Green had more coins in his collection than Thomas had coins in his collection.
WITH ELLIPSIS	When the children were called to the dinner table they came immediately.
	Harry Green had more coins in his collection than Thomas had in his.

      The reason we can get away with omitting part of the structure of sentences is that, if the listener or reader is paying attention, he or she will automatically supply the missing words from the context of what is being said or written. There is no loss of clarity, either; on the contrary, repetitive words can lead to boredom.

      We resort to ellipsis constantly in our everyday communicating:

Leaving already?	means	(Are you) leaving already?
See you!	means	(I will) see you (later, tomorrow, etc)
Coming?	means	(Are you) coming (with me)?

      Sometimes our economising extends to dropping what were once considered essential words:

       He was unceremoniously kicked out the door.

       The hat Rita bought is a total disaster.

      If we heard these sentences spoken in an informal context we would hardly regard them as ungrammatical as, nowadays, even the strictly grammatical versions look a little odd to our eyes:

       He was unceremoniously kicked out of the door.

       The hat that Rita bought is a total disaster.

      Such sentences are considered informal, although their meanings are perfectly clear. If a hostess greets a guest with, ‘I am delighted that you could come’, isn’t she being a trifle formal? More likely, the greeting would be, ‘I’m delighted you could come!’.

      Although omitting that in sentences may now be acceptable, remember that it can sometimes lead to ambiguity. At the other extreme is the multiple that: He pointed out that that that in the sentence was superfluous. What can you do about that?

       Harmony in the Sentence

      What if Shakespeare had written in Hamlet: To be, or not being – that is the question? Well, of course he didn’t, and wouldn’t. From time to time scholars have pointed out examples of the Bard’s bad grammar but sentences with faulty harmony in his plays would be hard to find.

      Perhaps the most important principle in the construction of sentences is what is called harmony – or concord, consistency or parallelism – meaning that all the units in a sentence must agree and harmonise with each other. We can spot most inharmonious constructions, because they usually jar:

       February is usually a succession of rain, hail and snowing.

      That sentence mixes two nouns and a participle, and it screams out at you, doesn’t it? An harmonious construction would prefer to group three nouns:

       February is usually a succession of rain, hail and snow.

      Alternatively, we could use a trio of participles to achieve harmony:

       In February, it is usually either raining, hailing or snowing.

      Phrases in a sentence should match, too. In this example the second phrase is out of harmony with the first:

       Bad grammar is like having bad breath – even your best friends won’t tell you.

      There are two easy ways to remove the discord here. One is to match the phrase bad grammar with a similar adjective/noun phrase; the other is to add a parallel participle to bad grammar to match having bad breath:

       Bad grammar is like bad breath – even your best friends won’t tell you.

       Using bad grammar is like having bad breath – even your best friends won’t tell you.

      Misplaced conjunctions (joiners) are another source of discord in sentences. Perhaps the two most common offenders are either/or and not only/but also:

CONFUSING	They had to agree either to visit the museum or the gallery.
	The house was not only affected with woodworm but also by years of neglect.
CORRECT	They had to agree to visit either the museum or the gallery.
	The house was affected not only by woodworm but also by years of neglect.

      Another form of discord is the shift from active to passive voice in a sentence, or vice versa:

       My father painted those pictures, which he left to me.

      That sentence switches from active (My father painted those pictures) to passive voice (which he left to me). To achieve harmony, keep to the same voice:

ACTIVE	My father painted those pictures, and left them to me.
PASSIVE	Those СКАЧАТЬ В начало < 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 > В конец