Grammar Rules You Can Break
Some rules are made to be broken. At least, that’s what I tell myself on a regular basis when writing copy. While grammar rules are useful guides and an extremely efficient way to teach English, native English speakers often break grammatical rules in everyday speech. If we all spoke grammatically correct English all the time we’d all sound like we were living in an episode of “The Crown” and, as awesome as that may be, we’d all probably be exhausted! So, which rules do native English speakers break regularly and which rules are you okay to break in your work? Read on to find out.
“Who” vs “Whom”
Nowadays most people think “whom” should be discarded to the language scrapheap as a relic of an older form of English. But most people have no idea how to use “whom” accurately in a sentence, unless that sentence is; “To whom it may concern”.
For those of you who don’t know the difference, it’s actually pretty simple: “Who” refers to the subject of a sentence and “whom” refers to the object. So, if you can replace it with “he/she”, you can use “who”. If you have to replace it with “him/her”, then you should use “whom”. Sounds simple but as with a lot of grammar rules, they are bent more often than they are upheld.
So, why do we break it? Basically, “whom” often sounds unnecessarily formal and is rarely used except in formal, academic writings and some novels. For everyday use, using “who” in place of “whom” is generally accepted. You’re much more likely to write or say “who did you invite to the party” than you would to say “whom did you invite"?” even though the latter is correct.
“An” vs “A”
I don’t know about you, but when I was in school I was always taught than “an” is followed by a word starting with a vowel and “a” is always followed by a consonant. “An apple” and “a cat” being the prime classroom examples. So, imagine 10-year-old Emily’s confusion when reading a book to find “an hour” and “a unicorn”.
Most people are unaware that they break this rule daily and always in the same way: it’s all to do with how you say the word, not how you spell it. When you say the word “hour” out loud, it almost sounds like it starts with an “A” doesn’t it? Well, that’s why we use “an” before it. And unicorn? Well that sounds like it starts with a “Y”, like the word “you”, so we use “a”. When editing your own work this is a big thing to watch out for as it is easy to get in the flow and use the wrong article (An, A, The) because it’s a rule we are taught at school but often doesn’t apply in real life.
Splitting Infinitives
Perhaps no grammar rule has caused so much global drama as the split infinitive. In recent years it was the centre of a national outcry in America when Barack Obama was sworn in as president and the oath was changed from “I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States" to "I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully". Technically the latter is grammatically correct as “faithfully” no longer splits “will” from “execute”, but it seems that even the founding fathers were happy to break a few rules for the sake of making something sound better. I myself have certainly split my fair share of infinitives. I know that a verb should be kept together in its entirely. for example “to laugh”, “to eat” and “to drive”. But adding a good adverb can really improve the flow of a piece of writing. Which sounds better to you;
“I used to secretly admire you” or “I used to admire you secretly”
“I’m trying to gradually increase how far I can run” or “I’m trying to increase gradually how far I can run”
“I need to quickly think of an example” or “I need to think quickly of an example”
In each case above, the second option is grammatically correct, but the first sounds a little better to the ear doesn’t it?
Starting a Sentence with a Conjunction
And what’s wrong with starting a sentence with a conjunction? Well, nothing! So long as you have established some context so the reader isn’t caught totally unaware, it is now considered acceptable to use “and”, “but” and “because” to start sentences. Starting a sentence with a conjunction can often draw attention to a key sentence and provides a nice contrasting structure when you’re writing longer pieces. Be sure that when starting with a conjunction you make sure to include a subject, a verb and an object in order to have a complete sentence and not just a fragment.
Ending a Sentence on a Preposition
“Where are you from?” “Which book are you interested in?” “What are you looking for?” Now these might sound normal to you but all of these sentences are technically grammatically incorrect. Ending a sentence with a preposition is a big no for grammar purists but breaking this rule often means you end up with prose which flows much more smoothly and avoids clunky, awkward phrases. “From where do you come?” “In which book are you interested?”, and “For what are you looking?” may be considered more correct but this form can distract from your writing and pull attention from your point. In these, and many other circumstances, most people would agree that breaking this sacred rule will actually improve your writing.
Modifying Incomparable Adjectives
I’m “quite sure” that adding modifiers to adjective goes unnoticed a lot of the time. Nevertheless, many language purists get a bee in their bonnets when they read that something is “very unique” to somewhere, or that something is “somewhat perfect”. What about when things are “more or less equal”? Surely something is either unique, or it isn’t. If something is perfect that it can’t be any less than that and if something is truly equal then it isn’t either more or less. Many writers add modifiers such as “more”, “less”, “almost”, “quite” and “very” before adjectives which are considered absolute or incomparable and we never notice anything out of place. So, I think it is safe to say that you’ve been breaking this grammar rule for a while now, but I’m “almost certain” you’ve never thought about it.
Feeling confused? Not sure if you’ve got these right, or wrong, in your copy? Drop me a line and I can go over your text to double check that you’re breaking all the rules you should be breaking, and upholding the ones you shouldn’t!