Collins Good Grammar. Graham King

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      Clearly, the sentence that uses the active voice is the easier to read. A similar sort of discord is created when a sentence mixes personal and impersonal points of view:

       The student should always exercise care and judgement because you will never succeed with slipshod thinking.

       One should always exercise care and judgement because you will never succeed with slipshod thinking.

      In the first example, consistency in person can be achieved by replacing you with he or she; in the second, the writer should either stick to the generic pronoun one throughout the sentence, or change the opening One to You.

      Although perhaps not causing discord, faulty word order or misplaced modifiers in sentences can create confusion and chaos in otherwise simple sentences:

       I saw you in my underwear!

      could mean either I saw you when I was wearing only my underwear or, more ominously, I saw you, wearing my underwear! Such a sentence could create not only confusion, but a most alarming scene. The misplaced modifier has been responsible for some hilariously ambiguous sentences:

       Last night Helen went to see Elton John in a new dress.

       We have a parrot in a cage that talks.

       We can fit you in a new swimsuit that flatters – right over the phone!

       You see very few signposts rambling around Wales.

       The bomb was discovered by a security man in a plastic bag.

       Send us your ideas on growing dwarf roses on a postcard.

      However, of all the factors that can result in inharmonious sentences, the most prevalent is probably disagreement between the verb with its subject. In other words, a singular subject requires the singular form of a verb, and a plural subject requires the plural form of a verb: this book, these books; that book, those books; she sings, they sing. The following sentences ignore this:

       We was furious at the umpire’s crazy decision.

       Fifteen paintings was sold at auction last week.

      They should, of course, read:

       We were furious at the umpire’s crazy decision.

       Fifteen paintings were sold at auction last week.

      But look what happens when we ‘collectivise’ the subjects:

       The team was furious at the umpire’s crazy decision.

       A collection of paintings was sold at auction last week.

      Because we’ve gathered the players together into a team, and combined the paintings into a collection – that is, into single groups – we’re back to using singular verbs. The important thing is to keep subjects and verbs in agreement in a sentence. While most of us would regard these examples as obviously faulty, many of us might stumble when confronted by nouns and noun phrases that can take either singular or plural forms. Nouns such as team, family and committee can be treated as singular or plural depending upon the context in which they are used. This is discussed at some length in Singular and Plural Nouns, page 69, but meanwhile here is an example of how carelessness with verb and subject agreement can cause bewilderment and ambiguity.

      The noun, in this case, is a name: the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. What follows is from an article in The Times (22/11/96 – ‘Widow Barred From Taking Husband’s Sperm Abroad’) which is an extraordinary cocktail of inconsistencies:

       She was told by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority that they would review her case . . . Diane Blood is outraged at the way the Authority has behaved . . The Authority have not even given any of their reasons . . the Authority said it would review the issue . . and it would not use its discretionary powers . . but said they wanted to ‘leave no stone unturned’ in their review and would give its reasons . . .

      That passage is a sobering lesson on the importance of, first, deciding whether your noun is singular or plural, and then sticking with the decision!

      SENTENCES – You see very few signposts wandering around Wales . . .

       Starting a Sentence with ‘And’ and ‘But’

      One of the more persistent grammatical superstitions is that you can’t begin a sentence with conjunctions such as And and But. This is curious, because many of the finest writers in the English language – Shakespeare, Blake, Tennyson, Kipling, to name just four – have kicked off sentences with And, and so has the Bible: read the opening chapter. Probably the most popular rebel was Blake, who chose to begin his poem (better known as Jerusalem) with ‘And did those feet in ancient time . . . ’

      Much the same applies to But. This time Thomas Macaulay, in his The History of England, is the hero of the rebel cause:

       There were gentlemen and there were seamen in the navy of Charles the Second. But the seamen were not gentlemen; and the gentlemen were not seamen.

      There is no rule to say that you can’t begin a sentence or a paragraph with the conjunction But. When you want to express a doubt or outright disagreement, beginning a sentence with But can emphasise and dramatise your point. But don’t let it become a sloppy habit!

      The Daily Express some years ago carried a memorable sentence in its sporting pages that not only began with But, but ended with but. And the sentence that followed it began with And:

       Northumberland and Humberside will each hold the trophy for six months after fighting out an exciting 1-1 draw. But if the result was indecisive, then the soccer was anything but. And when all the medals have been engraved . . .

      The sentence, as you will have seen, is all at once a simple, complex and beautiful construction. As Winston Churchill, one of the most expert users of the language, once wrote: ‘ . . . I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence – which is a noble thing’. Before we pass on to how a sentence is actually assembled with different kinds of words, it’s worth remembering the hierarchy in which it exists:

      A word consists of one or more morphemes (speech elements).

      A phrase consists of one or more words.

      A clause consists of one or more phrases.

      A sentence consists of one or more clauses.

      A paragraph consists of one or more sentences.

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