By Spencer D Gear PhD

(image courtesy Pinterest)

Does this language grate on your sensitivities? Is there any sense that ‘something is wrong’ with this grammar in the following examples from everyday reading?

• ‘Radio shock jock Steve Price has revealed an intense rivalry between he and on-air rival John Laws almost ended in fisticuffs’.
• ‘Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House….’
• ‘… heckler Mr S. has levelled a complaint against my pastor Campbell Markham and I through the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner here in Hobart …’

(photo above courtesy Givelda State School)

Were you taught English grammar when you were at English-speaking primary and secondary schools? I was, when I attended Australian schools: Givelda State School, Qld, and Bundaberg State High School, Qld.

At the time I attended Givelda, it was a one-room school with about 6 classes in the room. I’m grateful for my primary teachers who taught me the basics of English grammar.

Their names were Mr Eric Shaw and Mr William Robert David Spall. Mr Shaw was my first teacher.

However, that was back in the 1950s in the Queensland state school system.

The following are some examples of how English grammar is violated in general writings. I did not go searching for these grammatical errors but they were uncovered during my regular reading of everything from books, magazines, newspapers, blogs, and even a government document.

For definitions and examples of correct English grammar, I will refer to grammar-monster.com[2], Grammar and Oxford Living Dictionaries: EnglishBook.com[3], Grammar A-Z,[4] unless otherwise indicated.

(image courtesy The Articulate CEO – Typepad)

Let’s get started with the types of grammatical errors that I have found in many types of writings in the last year or so.

A. Errors with use of prepositions

There are a couple uses of the preposition that are grammatical errors. The first is:

A.1 Objective case governs the preposition

The grammatical rule is: ‘The object of a preposition is the noun or pronoun governed by a preposition…. The noun or pronoun governed by a preposition is always in the objective case. In English, this only affects pronouns (grammar-monster.com n.d. s.v. prepositions).[5]

What does ‘governed’ mean in this explanation? Another explanation is: ‘A preposition isn’t a preposition unless it goes with a related noun or pronoun, called the object of the preposition’ (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. prepositions).[6]

So for nouns and pronouns to be governed by a preposition, the nouns and pronouns are related in some way to the preposition used. Here are some examples:

Prepositions are words or a set of words that indicate ‘location (in, near, beside, on top of) or some other relationship between a noun or pronoun and other parts of the sentence (about, after, besides, instead of, in accordance with)’.[7]

Grammar Monster explained:

A preposition is a word (usually a short word) that shows the relationship between two other nearby words. For example (prepositions highlighted):

· a boy from the ghetto

(Here, the preposition from tells us the relationship between ghetto and boy.)

· a bone for the dog

(Here, the preposition for tells us the relationship between dog and bone.)

The following are all examples of prepositions: in, on, at, around, above, near, underneath, alongside, of, and for.
Note: The word preposition means positioned before. A preposition will sit before a word (a noun or a pronoun) to show that word’s relationship to another nearby word.[8]

‘The objective case is used for nouns and pronouns which function as objects of a sentence. What is an object? ‘An object is a noun (or pronoun) that is governed by a verb or a preposition’ (Grammar Monster 2018. s.v. What is an object? With examples).[9]

There are three types of object: a direct object, an indirect object, and an object of a preposition’ (grammar-monster.com: What is the objective case (with examples)?’[10]

Direct object: ‘The direct object of a verb is the thing being acted upon (i.e., the receiver of the action). You can find the direct object by finding the verb and asking “what?” or “whom?” For example:

• Please pass the butter.

(Q: pass what? A: the butter)

Indirect object: ‘The indirect object is the recipient of the direct object. You can find the indirect object by finding the direct object (see above) and then asking who or what received it. In the examples below, the indirect objects are shaded, and the direct objects are in bold.

• Please pass Simon the butter.

(Q: pass what? A: the butter)
(Q: Who (or what) received the butter? A: Simon)

Object of a preposition: ‘The noun or pronoun after a preposition is known as the object of a preposition. In the examples below, the objects of prepositions are shaded, and prepositions are in bold.

• She lives near Brighton.
• She lives with him.
• You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans. (Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004).’[11]

In English, the objective case only affects changes in personal pronouns (e.g., I, he, she, we, they). For example, he becomes him, and they becomes them. ‘Some verbs have an object as well as a subject. The object is the person or thing affected by the verb’ (Oxford Living Dictionaries 2018. Subjects and objects).

Here is a list of subjective pronouns and objective pronouns:[12]

Subjective Pronoun	Objective Pronoun	Comment
I	me
you	you	No change
he	him
she	her
it	it	No change
we	us
they	them
who	whom	More on who & whom
whoever	whomever

The following bold sections are violations of this rule:

1. I was reading the article, ‘Contend earnestly for the faith’, by Greg Koukl at bible.org when he stated, ‘Here’s why those three elements of Jude’s admonition [Jude 1:3] are critical for you and I right now’ (Koukl 2013).

The object of the preposition ‘for’ is in the objective case, so it should read, ‘For you and me’.

What is the objective case? (see §2 below)

 Rewritten: ‘…are critical for you and me right now’

As an aside, the content of this article by Greg Koukl is excellent for those who want reasons to defend the Christian faith.

(Image courtesy Clker)

2. ‘Radio shock jock Steve Price has revealed an intense rivalry between he and on-air rival John Laws almost ended in fisticuffs’.[13]

Rewritten: The correct grammar should be ‘between him and on-air rival John Laws’. It would be more courteous to put the other person first, ‘between on-air rival, John Laws, and him’.

3. I made the same error myself when writing an email to my son on 2 August 2017. I wrote to a real estate agent: “Would it be possible for my son and I to see through the villa … at noon tomorrow?’

I’m ashamed of myself, a language policeman, for violating this fundamental.

 Rewritten: ‘for my son and me’.

4. ‘This last two weeks have been quite a challenge for both my church and I. My regular heckler Mr S. has levelled a complaint against my pastor Campbell Markham and I through the Anti-Discrimination Commissioner here in Hobart’ (Cornerstone Church 2017).

The objective case after the preposition ‘against’ should read, ‘against my pastor Campbell Markham and me’.

 Rewritten: ‘for both my church and me … against my pastor Campbell Markham and me’.

There is a second prepositional error committed by many, especially in general conversation.

5. Australia’s new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, spoke at the Menzies Research Centre, Albury NSW (6 September 2018). He began: ‘Thank you very much Sussan for the very warm welcome to Jenny and I, and to my senior colleagues here particularly my Deputy Leader here, Josh Frydenberg and I, the “ScoJo” team’ (Morrison 2018).

Rewritten: ‘to Jenny and me’ and ‘to … Josh Frydenberg and me’.

A.2 Should a preposition be located at the end of a sentence?

I’ve heard and seen some school teachers almost have grammatical hysterics when a person or student ends a sentence with a presupposition. Do they have good reasons to object as grammar teachers?

In Latin grammar, the rule is that a preposition should always precede the prepositional object that it is linked with: it is never placed after it. According to a number of other authorities, it was the dramatist John Dryden in 1672 who was the first person to criticize a piece of English writing (by Ben Jonson) for placing a preposition at the end of a clause instead of before the noun or pronoun to which it was linked.

This prohibition was taken up by grammarians and teachers in the next two centuries and became very tenacious. English is not Latin, however, and contemporary authorities do not try to shoehorn it into the Latin model.  Nevertheless, many people are still taught that ending a sentence or clause with a preposition should be avoided.[14]

A general rule in English grammar used to be that a sentence must not end with a preposition. One person went so far as to write: ‘Did You Know? The rule that a sentence cannot end with a preposition is regarded as one of the biggest grammar myths of all time’ (Penlighten 2018).

image courtesy GrammarCheck.net)

However, Oxford Living Dictionaries (2018. s.v. preposition) disagree:

There is a traditional view, first set forth by the 17th-century poet and dramatist John Dryden, that it is incorrect to put a preposition at the end of a sentence, as in where do you come from? or she’s not a writer I’ve ever come across. The rule was formulated on the basis that, since in Latin a preposition cannot come after the word it governs or is linked with, the same should be true of English. The problem is that English is not like Latin in this respect, and in many cases (particularly in questions and with phrasal verbs) the attempt to move the preposition produces awkward, unnatural-sounding results. Winston Churchill famously objected to the rule, saying, ‘This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.’ In standard English the placing of a preposition at the end of a sentence is widely accepted, provided the use sounds natural and the meaning is clear.

So the preposition to conclude the sentence is widely accepted, provided the use sounds natural and the meaning is clear’. That is a very subjective way to determine grammatical meaning, with which I do not agree. It is too influenced by personal opinion.

There are other grammatical sources that agree with the Oxford explanation:

At one time, schoolchildren were taught that a sentence should never end with a preposition. However, this is a rule from Latin grammar that was applied to English. While many aspects of Latin have made their way into the English language, this particular grammar rule is not suited for modern English usage.

There are times when trying to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition creates unnecessary and awkward phrasing. For example, Winston Churchill once allegedly exclaimed, “That is the sort of thing up with which I will not put!” to mock someone who criticized him for ending a sentence with a preposition. Since the purpose of writing is to clearly communicate your thoughts and ideas, it’s perfectly acceptable to end a sentence with a preposition if the alternative would create confusion or sound unnatural.

However, it may still be worth revising your sentences to avoid ending them with a preposition whenever possible if you wish to reduce the risk of controversy (Your Dictionary 1996-2018. Ending a Sentence with a Preposition).

That makes it a moot point to state that a sentence should not end with a preposition. The Collins Dictionary (2018. s.v. preposition) states:

The practice of ending a sentence with a preposition (Venice is a place I should like to go to) was formerly regarded as incorrect, but is now acceptable and is the preferred form in many contexts.

1. A Brisbane Times journalist wrote: ‘Misandry is hardly a word, never mind a thing men need defending from’ (Holden 2018).

2. A friend sent me an email: ‘I know you’ve moved but I don’t know where to’ (email 11 December 2017).

Of both of these examples, it can be stated that ‘the use sounds natural and the meaning is clear’ (Oxford Dictionaries), but that is determined by my subjective view.

Nevertheless, major dictionaries and books of grammar now accept sentences ending with a presupposition. ‘Despite what you may have been taught, it’s a myth that ending a sentence or clause with a preposition is an error’ (The Free Dictionary 2003-2018. Dangling prepositions).[15]

(image courtesy canvas.bham.ac.uk)

B. Object of sentence must be in objective case.

What is the objective case in a sentence? It applies to nouns, pronouns and relative pronouns that are objects of a sentence. However, what are objects of a sentence? See § A.1 above.

1. ‘Mr Nuttall was jailed for seven years in 2009 for receiving more than $500,000 in corrupt payments from two businessmen who he then helped to secure lucrative government contracts’ (AAP 2016).

Rule. Use this he/him method to decide whether who or whom is correct:

he = who
him = whom

Examples:
Who/Whom wrote the letter?
He wrote the letter. Therefore, who is correct.
Who/Whom should I vote for?
Should I vote for him? Therefore, whom is correct (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. who vs. whom).

Rewritten: ‘whom he then helped’.

2. ‘There are also his parents, Ian and Joan, who he visited recently at their home in southern WA’ (Baum 2016).

‘Who’ functions as the object of the verb, ‘visited’, and should be in the objective case.

 Rewritten: ‘whom he visited’.

3. Dr Michael Chamberlain: ‘”The case represents a gross injustice but also freedom of forensic science, which eventually saw Lindy and I exonerated in 1988,”

Rewritten: ‘saw Lindy and me exonerated’.

4. ‘MITCHELL Starc believes the spotless form of “Genius Josh’’ Hazlewood will allow he and Pat Cummins to unleash their inner-beasts at the Gabba next week’ (Craddock 2017). This grammatical error was contained in the article’s heading and an editor did not pick it up – at the time I accessed the article at 7.00am.

‘He’ is the object of the future tense verb, ‘will allow’, so it should be in the objective case.

 Rewritten: ‘will allow him and Pat Cummins to unleash….’

5. In a comment on a Christian forum, Drew wrote: ‘While you guys [in the USA] are in a wall building mood, perhaps you could build one in the northern border and do all we Canadians a favour’.[16]

‘We Canadians’ functions as the object of ‘do’ and the pronoun should be in the objective case, ‘us Canadians’.

Rewritten: ‘and do all us Canadians a favour’.

6. I received this email from a friend: ‘If for any reason you can not attend on Thursday 23rd advise Tony or I when you will be available’.

Rewritten: ‘Advise Tony or me’.

C. Plural subjects need plural verb; singular subject needs singular verb

The fundamental grammatical rules on this topic are:

Basic Rule. A singular subject (she, Bill, car) takes a singular verb (is, goes, shines), whereas a plural subject takes a plural verb.

Example: The list of items is/are on the desk.
If you know that list is the subject, then you will choose is for the verb (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

Other rules for this topic will be pursued below.

1. In the Centrelink form, MOD S, Separation details, it has this question no. 22, ‘Has there been any other changes to your income and assets?’[17]

This is a special example: ‘In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb’ (GrammarBook.com 2018a)

 Rewritten: Therefore, the sentence should read: ‘Have there been any other changes…?’

2. ‘”The water loss and settlement has slowed dramatically so that is why we are now ready to begin construction, because what is called your ‘primary settlement’ has occurred,” he said’ (Moore 2017).

Rule 4. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

 Rewritten: ‘The water loss and settlement have slowed….’

3. ‘Griffin is really bad [with mosquitoes], so is Murrumba Downs station bus stops’ (Jervis 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘so are Murrumba Downs’ bus stops’.

4. ‘Since before chalk and slate was invented, debates around barbecues have probed teacher claims of ‘working on holidays’, a phenomenon hardly isolated to just one occupation (Laming 2017).

The irony is in the fact that Andrew Laming’s article was about teachers, lesson plans from home, and the influence of unions on education. Laming is a federal MP for the seat of Bowman, based in Cleveland, Qld.

 Rewritten: ‘Since before chalk and slate were invented….’

5. An Aussie mother wrote about sending her children to school: ‘24 whiteboard markers PER student. So if there is 20 students in ONE class, that’s a total of 480 whiteboard markers. Are you serious!?’ (news.com.au 2017).

‘Rule 6. In sentences beginning with here or there, the true subject follows the verb’ (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

 Rewritten: ‘So if there are 20 students in ONE class….’

6. This is from a post on a Christian forum that was addressed to me: ‘Oz, what’s your thoughts about the ‘Reason for God” by Timothy Keller?’[18]

 Rewritten: ‘What are your thoughts….’

7. Cricket commentator, Ian Chappell, wrote of the panel that chose the cricketers for the 2017 cricket tour of India: ‘Even though the panel have only chosen three fast bowlers, they have given themselves the option of adding to that number after the first two Tests’ (Chappell 2017).

The grammatical rule is: ‘Anyone who uses a plural verb with a collective noun must take care to be accurate—and also consistent.

The staff is deciding how they want to vote.
Careful speakers and writers would avoid assigning the singular is and the plural they to staff in the same sentence.

Consistent: The staff are deciding how they want to vote (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

My understanding: ‘Even though the panel [members] have only chosen three fast bowlers, they have given themselves the option of adding to that number….’

8. Professor N T Wright, New Testament scholar, wrote: ‘Religious pluralism and syncretism was the order of the day right across the ancient world, with the notable exception of Judaism (and even that was contested in various ways)’ (Wright 2017).

 Rewritten: ’Religious pluralism and syncretism were the order of the day….’

(courtesy Dreamstime.com)

9. As of 2009: ‘Queensland Baptists has decided that women will not be accepted as candidates for ordination’.[19]

 Rewritten: ‘Queensland Baptists have decided….’

10. ‘New car paint protection, rust proofing and fabric protection is often offered after you have signed the contract’ (NRMA Policy Team 2009).

 Rewritten: ’New car paint protection, rust proofing and fabric protection are often offered after….’

11. ‘The member for Buderim admitted he had “yelled a few things across the floor” since entering state politics in 2009, but said fighting and squabbling was not called for’ (Caldwell 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘but said fighting and squabbling were not called for’.

12. On a Christian forum a person wrote, ‘The doctrines that Christianity has stood on since the resurrection of Christ, still stands.[20]

 Rewritten: ‘The doctrines that Christianity have stood on since the resurrection of Christ, still stand’.

13. In a Brisbane Times article on speed cameras, it stated, ‘The council’s $5 million portable speed warning signs programs was introduced and is designed to register a driver’s speed and issue them with a visual warning to slow down if they are exceeding the limit. November, 2013’ (McCosker 2017).

The errors in this statement include: (a) Failure to use an apostrophe with the possessive case, ‘signs’ and, (b) failure to follow subject and verb agreement.

The apostrophe rule is: The rule is: ‘Do not use an apostrophe + s to make a regular noun plural’ (Grammar Monster 2018).[21] So ‘warning signs programs’ should be “warning signs’ programs”.

 Rewritten: ‘The council’s $5 million portable speed warning signs’ programs[22] were introduced and are designed to register a driver’s speed and issue the person with a visual warning to slow down if … exceeding the limit’.

14. In a Brisbane Times article dealing with university students denying the Holocaust, Dr Melanie O’Brien, an expert in genocide studies at the University of Qld school of law stated, ‘It’s not very well written and the grammar and the punctuation is not great’ (Clun 2017a).

For someone to complain about grammar and then use incorrect grammar herself is a contradiction.

 Rewritten: ‘It’s not very well written and the grammar and the punctuation are not great’.

15. The article, ‘Woman’s leg degloved[23] in Whitsundays yacht accident’, Brisbane Times, stated, ‘The company were working with water police’ (Mitchell-Whittington 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘… in Whitsundays’ yacht accident…. The company was working with water police’.

16. In the Brisbane Times story, ‘Other states dump 1 million tonnes of rubbish in Queensland’, there was this statement: ‘Ms Meldrum-Hanna said because of the lack of monitoring hazardous liquids, asbestos and tonnes of building and construction waste was being dumped in Ipswich’ (Clun 2017b).

 Rewritten: ‘because of the lack of monitoring hazardous liquids, asbestos and tonnes of building and construction waste were being dumped in Ipswich

17. ‘The Australian media and political landscape is now awash with goons seeking to exploit the sort of far-right tone the Donald Trump presidency has helped legitimise across the West….’ (O’Malley 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘The Australian media and political landscape are now awash with goons…’[24]

18. The Courier-Mail reported on Malcolm Turnbull’s response to the energy crisis with this explanation by a journalist, ‘The reports and correspondence to Government has raised serious concerns about prices and stability’ (Viellaris 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘The reports and correspondence to government have raised serious concerns….’

19. Review of 2017 Kia Sportage Si, CarAdvice: ‘Warranty and capped-price servicing is compelling…. Outside of the luxury European brands, there’s more options in the medium SUV segment than you can poke a proverbial at’.[25]

Rule 2. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb…..
Rule 4. As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

The rule for ‘there’ and ‘here’ starting a sentence is at C 5.

 Rewritten: ‘Warranty and capped-price servicing are compelling…. There are more options….’

(image courtesy Unique Teaching Resource)

20. ‘In these challenging times, the next generation of leaders are absolutely vital to the health and posterity of our nation’ (Shelton 2017).

The grammatical rule is:

Rule 1. A subject will come before a phrase beginning with of. This is a key rule for understanding subjects. The word of is the culprit in many, perhaps most, subject-verb mistakes.
Hasty writers, speakers, readers, and listeners might miss the all-too-common mistake in the following sentence:

Incorrect: A bouquet of yellow roses lend color and fragrance to the room.

Correct: A bouquet of yellow roses lends . . . (bouquet lends, not roses lend) [GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

Rewritten: ‘the next generation of leaders is absolutely vital …’

21. ‘Key changes to the Manufactured Homes (Residential Parks) Act 2003 include … ensuring adequate emergency access and planning is in place’ (Caxton legal centre inc 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘Key changes … include … ensuring adequate emergency access and planning are in place’.

22. ‘Here’s all the teams for the semi-finals’ (World Cup [Rugby League] Semi-Finals, 2017).

The subject of the sentence is after the verb and is ‘all’, a plural pronoun, so requires a plural verb.

 Rewritten: ‘Here are all the teams …’

23. ‘and only one of those three are still there’ (Wright & Ellinghausen 2017).

‘Only one’ is singular so requires a singular verb.

 Rewritten: ‘and only one of those three is still there’.

24. Barnaby Joyce stated, ‘”Obviously Twitter and social media has spent a lot of time just being completely defamatory’ (Wroe 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘Twitter and social media have spent a lot of time….’

25. ‘I’ve heard Christians says that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with what goes on in wider society’ (Balogh 2017).

Rewritten: ‘I’ve heard Christians say….’

26. ‘Burpengary Doctors provides a professional after hours service’ (Burpengary Doctors 2017).

Here, however, ‘Burpengary Doctors’ is the name of a business – a collective noun that is singular. There is a punctuation issue with the statement of ‘after hours service’ in relation to the three words, ‘after hours service’. One of Monash University’s statements about the use of apostrophes is:

Plural nouns that end with s have an apostrophe added after the s.

the students’ work
the lecturers’ seminars (Monash University 2018).

Therefore, “after hours service” should be “after hours’ service”.

However, USA grammar sometimes supports different punctuation for words ending in s (GrammarBook.com 2018).

 Rewritten: “Burpengary Doctors [as a business] provides a professional after hours’ service”.

(courtesy tekhnologic – WordPress.com)

27. ‘And it’s the 1,040 people (one percent) who were killed without their knowledge or consent and the 749 who never wanted to die early that should get us up in arms’ (Nertelt 2012).

‘Were killed’ is a past tense verb, so “it’s” needs to be the past tense, ‘it was’. Then it would read, ‘It was the 1,040 people….’ This is incorrect as ‘it’ is a neuter, singular pronoun that refers to things. Here it refers to ‘1,040 people’, so the construction has to be remove it and use a modifier that is suitable for people.

The complement of the sentence refers to the number of the subject, so the correct construction is, ‘There were’.

 Rewritten: ‘And there were the 1,040 people (one percent) who were killed without their knowledge or consent….’

28. cricket.com.au reported on the fifth Ashes cricket test, beginning 4 January 2018, ‘The coin toss and play has been delayed due to showers in Sydney ahead of the fifth Magellan Ashes Test at the SCG’ (LIVE: Fifth Ashes Test, day one 2017-2018).[26]

 Rewritten: ‘The coin toss and play have been delayed….’

29. In a lesson on grammar, the author wrote, ‘Then there’s omissions’ (Texas A&M University 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Then there were omissions’.

30. ‘The Coalition Government is listening and understand that electricity prices, unemployment and our national security are pressing on peoples’ minds’ (Luke Howarth MP for Petrie).[27]

 Rewritten: ‘The Coalition Government is listening and understand that electricity prices, unemployment and our national security is pressing on peoples’ minds’

31. ‘Not enough state school parents understand what religion instruction involves, secular advocates believes, with more parents pushing for transparency at their children’s schools’ (Remeikis 2016).

 Rewritten: ‘secular advocates believe…’

32 Reba wrote, ‘The birth, death and Resurrection of Christ was not by chance.’[28]

 Rewritten: ‘The birth, death and resurrection of Christ were not by chance.’

33. ‘Cricket Australia are still determining whether Junction Oval would be available to host the Sheffield Shield final…. Cricket Australia is in discussions with Cricket Victoria regarding the Sheffield Shield final’ (Cherny 2018).

The law of non-contradiction has been violated here. This states: ‘The law of non-contradiction can be expressed simply as such: A cannot be both B and non-B at the same time and in the same sense’ (Josh 2008).

In the statement from Cricket Australia (CA), in the law of non-contradiction,

A = discussions where to conduct the Sheffield Shield final in Victoria.

B = ‘Cricket Australia are’;

Non-B = ‘Cricket Australia is’.

There is a contradiction with CA using ‘are’ one time and ‘is’ another. To avoid this contradiction, this should be the way it is …

 Rewritten: ‘Cricket Australia [as an organisation] is still determining…. Cricket Australia is in discussions….’

34. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said, ‘If there is any particular details that people want investigated further we can have a look at those particular matters’ (Kohlbacher 2018).

This deals with the subject of a clause where ‘there’ is placed before the verb, but the subject, ‘details (plural)’ follows the verb. So, it is …

Rewritten: ‘If there are any particular details….’

 (image courtesy Elon University, Elon NC, USA)

35. espncricinfo reported on the second cricket test between South Africa and Australia, 10 March 2018: ‘Day 2: South Africa lead by 20 runs with 3 wickets remaining in the innings’.[29]

‘South Africa’ is regarded as a single team so takes a singular verb ‘leads’.

Rewritten: ‘South Africa leads by 20 runs …’[

36. ‘Rababa was again in the thick of the action on the fourth morning at St George’s Park, cutting short Australia’s resistance to collect match figures of 11-150 as Australia were bowled out for 239 in their second innings’ (Barrett 2018a).

For ‘matching verbs to collective nouns’, see D. 9 below for the rule. Also see Oxford Dictionaries online (2018. s.v. matching verbs to collective nouns) for a further explanation. [30]

Another grammatical issue in this sentence from Barrett (2018a) is his use of the possessive pronoun ‘their’. When Australia is regarded as a singular team, a singular possessive, neuter pronoun, ‘it’, should be used.

The grammatical rule is explained in D. 11 in relation to my interaction with the New International Version (NIV) Bible translation committee.

 Rewritten: Australia was bowled out for 239 in its second innings’.

37. A Christian pastor sent me this email on 5 March 2018: ‘There was only 13 there plus 3 children’.

 Rewritten: ‘There were only 13 there plus 3 children’.

38. There was an incident of vandalism at the Strathpine Qld office of Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton MP. The news report stated that ‘three people were inside the office at the time but none were injured’ (Schwarten 2018).

‘None’ means ‘not one’, so is singular subject.

 Rewritten: ‘but none was injured’.

‘But none of them were healed; the only one was Naaman‘ (Luke 4:27 ERV).

Rewritten: ‘But none of them was healed; the only one was Naaman’.

39. ‘But it’s not as if there’s many black players clamoring for selection’ (Fourie 2012).

 Rewritten: ‘as if there are many black players clamouring for selection’.

40. Atheistic writer, David Fitzgerald, stated: ‘The first gospel of Christianity appears to have been a literary allegory that were written decades after the time they portray’ (in Gray 2015).

The direct object of ‘have been’ is the singular, ‘a literary allegory’. Therefore the following relative clause, beginning with ‘that’, should use a singular verb referrent, ‘was written’

 Rewritten: ‘The first gospel … appears to have been a literary allegory that was written decades after the time it portrays’.

41. ‘The length of the suspensions mean that the next major event that Warner and Smith could play in for Australia is the World Cup, followed by the Ashes, in England next year’ (Barrett 2018b).

 Rewritten: ‘The length (singular) of the suspensions means that….’

42, In this online petition to the Queensland Parliament, it was stated:

‘Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House that despite the Mackay-Whitsunday region’s proud record of hosting NRL games, and international fixtures, our region has been snubbed when it comes to staging NRL games in Mackay in recent years’.

Plural subjects require a plural verb in agreement.

 Rewritten: ‘Queensland residents draw to the attention of the House….’

43. In the bible.org newsletter received by email from [email protected] on 31 March 2018, it stated:

It is God’s resurrection power that brings those dead in their sins to life in Christ (Ephesians 2:5; Romans 11:15). Knowing this give us confidence to proclaim Christ, certain that He is powerful to save (Reasons for Celebrating the Resurrection).

 Rewritten: ‘It is God’s resurrection power (singular) that brings those dead in sins to life in Christ…. Knowing this gives us confidence to proclaim Christ….’

44. I received this email from my private medical insurance provider, Bupa, on Tuesday, 3 April 2018: ‘Your health and wellbeing is our priority’.[31]

 Rewritten: ‘Your health and wellbeing are our priority’.

45. ‘Akos Balogh from TGCA [The Gospel Coalition of Australia] recently spoke with Michael Kellahan, the Executive Director of the Christian Legal Think-Tank Freedom for Faith, about religious freedom here in Australia’. Concerning religious freedom, Kellahan stated: ‘Some of them say there’s no challenges to religious freedom at all’ (Balogh 2018b).

This suffers from the ‘there’ grammar rule as it relates to the subject and the tense of the verb. The subject of this clause, ‘[that] there’s no challenges’, is the plural, ‘challenges’. So it needs to be …

 Rewritten: ‘there are no challenges’.

46. This was stated in On Line Opinion, Copyright and editorial matters, ‘We also may edit the Contribution as we sees fit….’[32]

“We’ is plural so needs to be in agreement with a plural verb.

 Rewritten: ‘We also may edit the Contribution as we see fit’.

47. In a comment about the article, ‘Folau, ball tampering, protection for religious belief ‘ On Line Opinion, Comments, 12 April 2018, A J Phillips wrote, ‘,,,when it’s your side of politics that are making all the offensive and ignorant remarks’.[33]

 Rewritten: ‘When it’s your side (singular) of politics that is (singular) making all the offensive and ignorant remarks’.

48. ‘”It’s just a fact of life,” Professor Halsey told Fairfax Media. “Housing and conditions in some locations – and in some more than others – is a major issue”’ (Koziol 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Housing and conditions in some locations … are major issues’.

(image courtesy abcteach)

49. The National Geographic published an article on a campaign to eliminate hell by evangelical scholars. The sub-heading was: ‘A new generation of evangelical scholars are challenging the idea that sinners are doomed to eternal torment—but traditionalists are pushing back (Strauss 2016).

 Rewritten: ‘‘A new generation (singular) of evangelical scholars is (singular verb) challenging the idea that sinners are doomed to eternal torment’.

50. ‘Anyone who knows of the family’s whereabouts were urged to contact police’ (Mitchell-Whittington 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Anyone (singular) who knows of the family’s whereabouts was urged (singular verb) to contact police’.

51. This is an example of a violation of grammar in an online tutorial on ‘examples of the objective case’. It stated: ‘The objective case are the nouns or pronouns that function as an object in a sentence’ (Socratic English Grammar 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘The objective case (singular) includes (singular verb) the nouns or pronouns that function as an object in a sentence’. I considered that ‘includes’ was a more appropriate singular verb than ‘is’ to make sense of the sentence.

52. On a Christian forum, one of the moderators stated: ‘There’s no reason for anyone to troll a Christian forum demanding Christians engage in proving their faith when there’s so many good books to explore’.[34]

 Rewritten: ‘… there are so many good books to explore’.

53. ‘The council’s waste and resource recovery services manager, Arron Lee, said escalating landfill levies and glass was impacting Australia’s recycling industry’ (McCosker 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘… escalating landfill levies and glass were impacting Australia’s recycling industry’.

54. ‘Debate and division is not conducive to our vision’.[35]

 Rewritten: ‘Debate and division are not conducive to our vision’.

55 This is from a Queensland Government document: ‘For many people, care at the end of life and palliative care is provided in their home’.[36]

 Rewritten: For many people, care at the end of life and palliative care is provided in their home’.

56. This is from the Liberal Democrat Party’s website on values: ‘The Liberal Democrats believe government have neither the expertise, nor the rights to tell people how to run their lives’ (Liberal Democrats n.d.).

 Rewritten: ‘The Liberal Democrats (as a singular political party) believe government has neither the expertise, nor the rights’.

57. ‘Australia are sweating on yet another injury scare that could affect their Test XI, with Shaun Marsh sent for scans after hurting his shoulder in the UK’ (AAP 2018a).

 Rewritten: ‘Australia (singular cricket team) are sweating on yet another injury scare that could affect its Test XI’,

58. ‘Again the National Party have tried stealing another One Nation policy’ (National Party Steals Another One Nation Policy – Coal Fired Power Stations, 6 July 2018).[37]

 Rewritten: ‘Again the National Party has tried stealing another One Nation policy’

59. ‘This is the cessation of the electrical impulse that drives (singular) the heartbeat’ (Perry 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘This is the cessation (singular) of the electrical impulse that drive the heartbeat’

60. ‘An embarrassing leak of internal records show Labor candidate Susan Lamb had been planning for an election ­campaign in April, before the High Court’s decision in May’ (Hadley/Dutton 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘An embarrassing leak (singular) of internal records shows (singular) Labor candidate Susan Lamb had been planning….’

61. ‘Ninety-eight per cent of NSW and around two-thirds of Queensland is in drought or drought-affected, with pastures turned to rubble and the cost of freight and feed skyrocketing’ (ABC regional reporters 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Ninety-eight per cent of NSW and around two-thirds of Queensland are in drought or drought-affected….’

62. In The Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, researchers wrote: ‘More education and debate is needed to disentangle in these situations which acts should be regarded as euthanasia and which should not’ (Rietjens et al 2009).

 Rewritten: ‘More education and debate are needed to disentangle in these situations which acts should be regarded as euthanasia and which should not’.

63. In an emailer from Family Voice Australia (16 August 2018) it stated: ‘Your support and action is vital to assisting political leaders understand the wisdom needed for such important matters’ (Newington 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Your support and action are vital….’

64. ‘Dutton’s office have denied the arrangement would put him in breach of section 44, citing legal advice’ (Koziol 2018a).

 Rewritten: ‘Dutton’s office(singular) has (singular) denied….’

65. In an e-Petition to the Queensland Government, it began with: ‘Queensland citizens draws to the attention of the House that section 234 of the Local Government Regulation 2012 provides that a local government may enter into a contract for goods and services without first inviting written quotes or tenders if the contract is entered into under an LGA arrangement’ (Queensland Parliament 2018a).

 Rewritten: ‘: ‘Queensland citizens (singular) draw (singular) to the attention of the House….’

66. ‘This is the few threads that I read entirely’.[38]

 Rewritten: ‘These are the few threads that I read entirely’.

67. I received this emailer on 5 September 2018 with the heading, ‘Gas prices must fall if Australian manufacturing, industry and business is to survive’ (News Weekly [email protected] ).

 Rewritten: ‘Gas prices must fall if Australian manufacturing, industry and business are to survive’.

68. In an e-petition to the Queensland Parliament, it was stated: ‘Queensland citizens draws to the attention of the House the absence of legislation allowing for hunting of feral game in Queensland’s State Forests’.[39]

 Rewritten: ‘Queensland citizens draw to the attention of the House….’

69. This is from an e-Petition sent by email from the Queensland Government: ‘Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the evidence that the compulsory wearing of bicycle helmets can and have saved lives’.[40]

 Rewritten: ‘Queensland residents draw to the attention of the House the evidence that the compulsory wearing (singular) of bicycle helmets can save (singular) and have saved (singular) lives’

70. Aaron Finch, Australia’s T20 cricket captain stated after India won the game: ‘I think there’s still a fair bit of work to do but there’s positive signs’.[41]

 Rewritten: ‘but there are positive signs’.

71. In speaking about a school ‘Jesus ban’, a Fairfax electorate MP was reported: ‘Mr O’Brien, a practising Christian, said the crackdown was the actions of a “totalitarian, communist government“….’ (Sawyer 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘the crackdown was the action of a “totalitarian, communist government“….’

72. This was a heading in the article, ‘Why would a loving God allow death and suffering‘, by Dr Jonathan Sarfati of Creation Ministries International: ‘Death and suffering is everywhere!’. The subject is plural, ‘death AND suffering’, because it refers to more than one. Plural subjects require a plural verb.

Rewritten. The heading should read, ‘Death and suffering are everywhere!’

73.  Latika Bourke, a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald / The Age wrote ‘The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has learned that up to a dozen members of the public, including teachers and a principal from local schools….’ (Bourke 2019).

Rewritten. ‘The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have learned that up to a dozen members of the public….’

This was written by a journalist who had her article published in two major Australian newspapers (online), yet she broke a fundamental rule of grammar that plural subjects must be used with a plural verb.

(image courtesy Phillip Martin Clip Art)

D. Plural pronouns associated with singular nouns

The grammatical rule is:

The use of they and their with singular pronouns is frowned upon by many traditionalists. To be consistent, it is a good practice to try to avoid they and its variants (e.g., them, their, themselves) with previously singular nouns or pronouns.

Not consistent: Someone has to do it, and they have to do it well.

The problem is that someone is singular, but they is plural. If we change they to he or she, we get a rather clumsy sentence, even if it is technically correct.

Technically correct: Someone has to do it, and he or she has to do it well.

Replacing an inconsistent sentence with a poorly written one is a bad bargain. The better option is to rewrite.

Rewritten: Someone has to do it, and has to do it well ( (GrammarBook.com 2018. Pronouns).[42]

1. Peter Wellington MP stated,

‘But I think in 2017, people if they’re going out in public, need to have their face identifiable.

We need to be able to continue to walk down the street without fear of intimidation, without having to look over our shoulders, and look at people who have their whole face covered….

The premier says Queensland adheres to a series of national procedures and policies requiring people to show their full face when entering government buildings’ (AAP 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘People … need to have their faces identifiable…. Requiring people to show their full faces ….’

2. Postmortem refers to ‘a medical examination of a dead person’s body in order to find out how they died’ (Collins English Dictionary 2017. s. v. postmortem).

 Rewritten: ‘a dead person’s body in order to find out how that person died’.

3. ‘The feminist organization promotes feminism and can require their leader to be a feminist…. The school’s own website states in its mission that “every single Hawkeye learns how to build their own path and bravely go wherever it leads”’ (Estell 2017).[43]

 Rewritten: ‘The feminist organisation[44] (singular)… can require its leader to be a feminist…. “every single Hawkeye … its own path’.

(photograph Jacob Estell, courtesy Des Moines Register, 14 December 2017).

4. Retired MP, former Howard government minister and regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald, Amanda Vanstone, wrote: ‘The plain English interpretation of this is that they [the Australian Democrats] would hold a government to their promises’ (Vanstone 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘would hold a government to its promises’.

5. The Queensland Courts wrote this about autopsies: ‘During the autopsy, the deceased is treated with respect and great care to preserve their dignity’ [The State of Queensland (Queensland Courts) 2011–2018].

 Rewritten: ‘The deceased is treated with respect … to preserve that person’s dignity’

6. ‘Section 22 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act currently means that any Queenslander who has undergone sex reassignment surgery has to divorce their partner to have their gender legally recognised’ (Caldwell 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Any Queenslander … to divorce that person’s partner to have the new gender legally recognised’.

7. ‘Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised to find out if a person received a government job after their resume was sent to Labor front-bencher Mark Bailey’s private email account’ (Kohlbacher 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘consider the humanity of the unborn child and that child’s inherent human rights’.

8. In the petition on the Queensland Government website, Reject the campaign to remove all restraint on abortion in Queensland (online), one of the statements was: ‘consider the humanity of the unborn child and their inherent human rights’.[45]

Rewritten: ‘consider the humanity of the unborn child and that child’s inherent human rights’.

9. ‘A fine all-round performance from Ellyse Perry has helped Australia wrap-up their one day series against India in Vadodara’ (AAP 2018).

What is the grammatical rule for collective names like ‘Australia’, meaning ‘the Australian team’?

Do you use a singular or plural verb to match a collective noun such as team or staff? The answer is, It depends. If these nouns are acting as a unit, use a singular verb.

Example: The team is heading for practice this afternoon.

If the sentence indicates more individuality, use a plural verb.

Example: The team are eating with their families tonight (GrammarBook.com 2018. Subject and verb agreement with collective nouns).[46]

 Rewritten: ‘Ellyse Perry has helped Australia wrap-up its one day series against India’.

10. Brydon Coverdale, in his report on the second day of the third cricket test between South Africa and Australia wrote: ‘What Australia wanted from one of their openers was the kind of innings provided by Elgar, who had finished unbeaten on 141 after he and Rabada frustrated the Australians with a 50-run ninth-wicket stand’ (Coverdale 2018).

Rewritten: ‘: ‘What Australia (as a singular team) wanted from one of its openers was the kind of innings provided by Elgar….’

(image courtesy Wikipedia)

11. The New International Version (NIV) of the Bible in 1 Corinthians 14:3 states, ‘Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves’. This grammatical error is perpetrated throughout both Old and New Testaments of this English translation of the Bible. The grammatical rule is ‘singular indefinite pronoun antecedents take singular pronoun referents’:

SINGULAR: each, either, neither, one, no-one, nobody, nothing, anyone, anybody, anything, someone, somebody, something, everyone, everybody, everything (Towson University 2017).

When I contacted the NIV translation committee about this anomaly, this was the explanation I received by email on 27 March 2018:

Dear Dr. Gear,

Thank you for your grammatical question about the NIV.

As you certainly know from your study of Greek, languages vary in what words exist for what parts of speech—not only to the level of pronouns, but even down to reflexive pronouns. Also, language changes over time as certain forms fall out of favor and others gain acceptance. From my study of the subject, the singular they has existed in English since the 14^th century. And a singular use of “themselves” has developed as a generic symbol for any singular reflexive referent.

A lot of this comes down to the descriptive vs. prescriptive debate. You are exhibiting something closer to the prescriptive (“Why doesn’t this text follow the rules?”), whereas the descriptive says, “Here is a convention that may not be recognized by all as conventional, but it (sic) useful for communication.” In some corners of the English-speaking world, people try to hew to the singular somewhat by saying, “Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themself”—using the generic singular they but adding the singular-looking form of the reflexive. That seemingly was a bridge too far for the Committee for Bible Translation. In their deep research on English usage through the Collins Word Bank, they found that “themselves” is commonly enough used as to be acceptable.

I will say that the CBT [Committee on Bible Translation] is passionate to translate the ancient languages into global English as she is generally spoken today (thus, their significant investment in the Collins Word Bank research). They have been accused of a lot of things, but I assure you that their only agenda is to provide a Bible text that is accurate to the originals and accurate to contemporary English. There will be disagreement on that “accurate to contemporary English,” as you have brought up, but their heart is for a text that is elegant in a church setting and colloquial enough to use in outreach. Whether they have achieved these goals can be judged by every reader, but I can vouch for their intention.

Grace and peace to you as you pursue our Savior through God’s Word!

Partner Relations Team, Biblica

1-800-497-1121

So, what I requested was sticking to the grammatical rules in Bible translation, but that was regarded as prescriptive (stipulating, imposing) the rules of grammar on the text versus descriptive. The CBT for the NIV chose the descriptive model where ‘“themselves” is commonly enough used as to be acceptable’. Therefore, ‘commonly enough used’ was the arbitration standard for determining ‘themselves’ instead of ‘oneself’ or ‘himself/herself’.

The CBT is so fixed in its ‘descriptive’ agenda that I don’t think it is worthy of further communication with the Partner Relations Team  Will any one of the broken grammatical rules (prescriptive) outlined in this ‘Grammar Police’ article be acceptable in future NIV editions? Because people regularly use singular subjects with plural verbs and plural subjects with singular verbs, will that be an accommodation accepted by contemporary NIV Bible translators?

Who gave the NIV translators authority to choose descriptive grammar over prescriptive grammar? Is that what a dynamic equivalence translation[47] (such as the NIV) of Scripture requires? Does that also mean that when common people continue to use plural subjects with a singular verb (and vice versa), that will become acceptable in descriptive writing?

The examples could go on ad infinitum of discarding prescriptive grammar for descriptive grammar.

(image courtesy Bonlac Foods)

12. ‘In Kingston in 2008-09, England were dismissed for 51 in their second innings’ (Lynch 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘England (singular team) was dismissed for 51 in its second innings’

13. This was a statement in a question posed to Christian apologist, William Lane Craig, ‘I leave home and go to work, I serve a customer and they leave’ (Craig 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘I serve a customer (singular) and that person leaves’.

14. I was shocked with this definition of narcissist in Oxford Dictionaries Online: ‘A person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves’ (Oxford Dictionaries Online 2018. s.v. narcissist). ‘A person’ is singular but the pronoun that refers back to ‘a person’ is a reflexive pronoun, ‘themselves’ (plural) when it should be ‘herself, himself or oneself’. That a prestigious dictionary should resort to using what is colloquially becoming a common practice is an accommodation to the downturn in correct grammar.

The grammatical rule is: ‘Reflexive pronouns are used when both the subject and the object of a verb are the same person or thing’ (GrammerBook.com 2018. s.v. pronouns).

In the example above, the subject is ‘singular, ‘a person’, but the reflexive pronoun used is ‘themselves’. It should be ‘oneself’.

 Rewritten: ‘A person who has an excessive interest in or admiration of oneself’.

15. ‘Everyone is right, in their own mind, and only the narcissist believes that he is without error’.[48]

 Rewritten: ‘Everyone is right, in one’s own mind, and only the narcissist believes that he or she is without error’ Or, ‘All are right in their own minds and only narcissists believe that they are without error’.

16. ‘… attacks on religious freedom that was not even considered at the time of passing this Bill’.[49]

 Rewritten: ‘attacks on religious freedom that were not even considered at the time of passing this Bill’.

17. This statement is in ‘Our Mission’ of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia: ‘The message which ignited the Wesleyan revival was the announcement that God through Christ can forgive a person their sins….’[50]

 Rewritten: ‘that God through Christ can forgive a person his or her sins….’

Even better would be to rephrase: ‘that God through Christ can forgive all people their sins’.

(image courtesy YouTube)

18. This dictionary’s definition of adult is: ‘An adult has reached the age when they are legally responsible for their actions’ (Collins Dictionary 2018. s.v. adult). A concern is that this is a description from a world-renowned dictionary.

 Rewritten: : ‘An adult has reached the age when that person is legally responsible for their actions’.

Another option could be: ‘An adult has reached the age when he or she is legally responsible for his or her actions’. That is clumsy and verbose. The first option is preferred by this grammar policeman.

19. ‘And the accumulated weight of a culture of sexism, racism and homophobia isn’t simply erased because someone declares on their website that we’re all individuals and should be judged as such’ (Edwards 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘because someone declares on that person’s website that we’re all individuals and should be judged as such’.

20. In writing about the Longman by-election on 28 July 2018, a Brisbane Times journalist stated: ‘It comes in the same week that we hear One Nation is giving their preferences to the LNP’s Trevor Ruthenberg’ (Brown 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘we hear One Nation (singular party) is giving its preferences to the LNP’s Trevor Ruthenberg.

21. ‘Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever’ (1 Tim 5:8 NIV).

 Rewritten: ‘Everyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever’.

A more clumsy way would be: ‘Anyone who does not provide for his or her relatives, and especially for his or her own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever’.

The New Living Translation of this verse is: ‘But those who won’t care for their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers’.

22. Another journalist has practised descriptive grammar instead of prescriptive grammar: ‘The individual came forward to claim their prize 175 days after purchasing their unregistered ticket…. The winner – who has decided to remain anonymous –  took their lucky ticket to the Tatts office in Melbourne on Wednesday, seven days before the whopping $55 million prize was due to be transferred to the Victorian State Revenue Office’ (Koob 2018).

 Rewritten: : ‘The individual came forward to claim that person’s prize 175 days after purchasing the unregistered ticket…. The winner – who has decided to remain anonymous –  took the lucky ticket to the Tatts office in Melbourne on Wednesday….’

(image courtesy studibahasainggris.com)

23. A comment from On Line Opinion, ‘Everyone is chosen to play their part’.[51]

Rewritten: ‘Everyone is chosen to play his or her part’.

I prefer this option: ‘All are chosen to play their parts’.

24. In attempting to connect to my homepage, Truth Challenge, I received this message from my Firefox/Mozilla web browser:

Your connection is not secure.

The owner of spencer.gear.dyndns.org has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.

 Rewritten: ‘The owner … configured that person’s website improperly’.

By the way, the new address of this website , Truth Challenge, is: truthchallenge.one/

25. In updating its Terms and Conditions for Internet Banking – effective 5 September 2018, Suncorp Bank wrote:

These Conditions apply to Internet Banking and your use of it. You must accept them:

· if you are reading this conditions within Internet Banking….[52]

Rewritten: ‘You must accept them … if you are reading these conditions within Internet Banking’. This would appear to be a typographical error by Suncorp Bank.

26. ‘It means a child, born in 2011 in some western parts of Queensland, is in year 2 – and they have never seen rain. They’ve never witnessed the skies darken, and the heavens open. They’ve never heard the sound of water hitting a tin roof. And they’re seven years old’ (King 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘It means a child, born in 2011 in some western parts of Queensland, is in year 2 – and that child has never seen rain. The child never witnessed the skies darken, and the heavens open. He or she has never heard the sound of water hitting a tin roof. And the child is seven years old’.

27. ‘Like the candidate for school captain who is a hero among their classmates but a teacher’s nightmare, Dutton has long had a bifurcated appeal’ (Knott 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Like the candidate for school captain who is a hero among his classmates but a teacher’s nightmare, Dutton has long had a bifurcated appeal’

28. In the Queensland abortion debate, Deputy Premier Jackie Trad stated, ‘”Ensuring that every single member of the Queensland Parliament has the right to exercise their conscience on this matter is critical to whether this legislation gets up,” she said’ (Caldwell 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Ensuring that every single member of the Queensland Parliament has the right to exercise that member’s conscience on this matter is critical….’

29. ‘”It’s a hellscape,” said one of the workers [of Amazon Australia], who spoke directly to Fairfax Media but declined to be identified for fear of losing their current jobs or damaging future work opportunities with labour hire firms’ (Hatch 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘”It’s a hellscape,” said one of the workers [of Amazon Australia], who spoke directly to Fairfax Media but declined to be identified for fear of losing the worker’s current jobs or damaging future work opportunities….’

30. finder.com, in explaining details about the RACQ Bank wrote: ‘While RACQ Bank does provide online banking, they have not introduced an app that lets you bank on the go’ (finder.com 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘While RACQ Bank does provide online banking, it has not introduced an app that lets you bank on the go’.

31. ‘Let’s respect that each has their own understanding and we are not going to change it’.[53]

 Rewritten: ‘Let’s respect that all have their own understandings and we are not going to change them’.

32. Jason sent this question to leading Christian apologist, William Lane Craig, ‘But why should one assume such a scenario if they affirm a beginning but reject a cause?’ (Craig 2018a)

Rewritten ‘But why should one assume such a scenario if one affirms a beginning but rejects a cause?

‘After the high priest dies, that person (singular) can go back to their (plural) own land‘ (Num 35:28b ERV).

Rewritten: ‘After the high priest dies, that person (singular) can go back to his (singular) own land’. All Jewish high priests were males, so it is appropriate to write, ‘… his own land’ and not ‘his or her own land’.

OR

  After the high priest dies, those people (plural) can go back to their (plural) own land’.

‘Each (singular) Israelite will keep the land that belonged to their (plural) own ancestors‘ (Num 36:9b ERV).

Rewritten: ‘All Israelites (plural) will keep the land that belonged to their (plural) own ancestors

(courtesy Re:word Communications)

E. Subject of sentence is in the nominative case

Grammar Monster[(n.d. s.v. What is the nominative case? (with Examples)] provided the rule:

The nominative case is the case used for a noun or pronoun which is the subject of a verb. For example (nominative case shaded):

· Mark eats cakes.

(The noun Mark is the subject of the verb eats. Mark is in the nominative case.)

· He eats cakes.

(The pronoun He is the subject of the verb eats. He is in the nominative case.)

· They eat cakes.

(The pronoun They is the subject of the verb eats. They is in the nominative case.)

The nominative case is also used for a subject complement. For example:

· Mark is a businessman.

(Here, Mark is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of is, and businessman is in the nominative case because it’s a subject complement; i.e., it renames the subject.)

· It was I.

(Here, It is in the nominative case because it’s the subject of was, and I is in the nominative case because it’s a subject complement; i.e., it renames the subject.)

The nominative case is also known as the subjective case.

1. A Roman catholic priest speaking of boating tragedy and death of two of his parishoners: ‘Mavis was a lovely lady and her and jack were good family friends’ (Clark 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘Mavis was a lovely lady and she and Jack were good family friends’.

2. First Home Buyers Australia spokesman Daniel Cohen told The New Daily, ‘I think it shows how him and many of the other ministers in the government are out of touch with the struggles that first home buyers face’ (Gomes 2018).

Rewritten: ‘I think it shows how he and many of the other ministers in the government are out of touch with the struggles that first home buyers face’.

3. The new managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Martyn Iles, was interviewed by Eternity, the newspaper of the Bible Society. Iles is recorded as saying, ‘Us kids would do things like sing and entertain the old people there’ (Delbridge 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘We[54] kids would do things like sing and entertain the old people there’.

F. Words left out or added

1. I’m guilty of this one. I sent an email to Ben Davis of 4BC on the subject of why newspapers are losing money on 4 May 2017. Part of what I wrote was: ‘I’ve developing a story for my homepage of grammatical errors…’ I should have written either ‘I am developing’ or ‘I’ve been developing’. It was a matter of lack of grammar check for me. I was not careful with my grammar.[55]

 Rewritten: ‘: ‘I’m developing a story for my homepage of grammatical errors’.

2. ‘The National Party is right behind me,” the Mr McCormack told Sky News, adding he would not stand aside for Mr Joyce and urging colleagues to stop focusing[56]on themselves’ (Shields 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘Mr McCormack told Sky News’. There is no need for the definite article, ‘the’, as there is only one Mr McCormack leading the National Party in the federal parliament of Australia.

(courtesy Kids World Fun)

F. Incorrect words or tenses

1. In stating why no other NRL clubs wanted Jarryd Hayne, the journalist wrote: ‘But since returning to the NRL last year, where he gives every indication the game is too small for him, Hayne has brick by brick began to dismantle that reputation (Kent 2017).

‘Began’ is the simple past tense of the verb ‘to begin’. It would be correct to say ‘Hayne … began to dismantle’. However, ‘began’ is not used with auxiliary verbs such as ‘has’ or ‘would have’. ‘Begun’ is a past participle of ‘begin’.

The word ‘begun’ is the past participle of ‘begin’. ‘Begun’ is used in the perfect tense sentences. It is, therefore, incorrect to write ‘I begun’, as ‘begun’ can never be used without an auxiliary verb (‘has’, ‘have’ or ‘had’). Thus, we must say that something ‘has begun’ or ‘had begun’.

The auxiliary verb used with ‘begun’ affects the tense of the sentence. When combined with ‘has’ or ‘have’, it is part of the present perfect tense. Typically, this shows that something started in the past and continues in the present:

I have begun writing my novel (ProofreadMyEssay/Writing Tips n.d. s.v. Word choice: Began vs. Begun).[57]

 Rewritten: ‘Hayne has brick by brick begun to dismantle that reputation….’

2. A church explained its ministry: ‘We also have an accredited Bible Training Center[58] that assist different churches in Queensland with students doing their Cert IV in Christian Ministry and ministerial theological studies’ (Lifebuilders’ Wesleyan Church: About Us).[59]

‘Center’ is singular so in the accompanying relative clause, a singular verb is needed with ‘assists’.

 Rewritten: ‘We also have an accredited Bible Training Center[60] that assists different churches in Queensland…’

3. I was stunned to find this example in a university’s writing centre that presented the correct grammar for apostrophes:

“The dog at the firm’s paperwork.”

In each case, we add an apostrophe-s to show that something possesses something else. Jim possess the dog, or at least he use to until Jack lost it. And the paperwork belongs to the firm. Simple (Texas A&M 2018).

 Rewritten: Was this meant to state: ‘The dog ate the firm’s paperwork’ and ‘at’ was a typographical error. Or, does it refer to, ‘The dog at the firm’s paperwork’s business’?

‘Jim possesses (owns) the dog, or at least he used to until Jack lost it’.

4. In this article about the Broncos win over the Rabbitohs, it was stated: ‘McGuire’s exit preceded Haas’ introduction minutes later as he barrelled his way for 78 metres and made 18 tackles in an powerhouse 21-minute NRL bow’ (Pengilly 2018).

How does one decide to use the indefinite article ‘a’ and not ‘an’? The rule is:

We … use an instead of a when the word following begins with a vowel sound: an egg, an omelet, an institute, an honor. A will always be followed by a word that starts with a consonant sound: a box, a trampoline, a hero, a unique opportunity (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. A/An vs. The).

 Rewritten: ‘…as he barrelled his way for 78 metres and made 18 tackles in a powerhouse 21-minute NRL bow’

5. ‘Wade was brought back into the Australia team in the home 2016 series against South Africa to add some aggression to a team that had lost their five previous Tests…. But after underperforming with the bat, Wade was cut from the Australia team ahead of last summer, axed for his childhood friend and state teammate Tim Paine’ (Cricket Network 2018).

What is wrong with ‘Australia team’? We need to note three definitions:

(1) A noun ‘is a word for a person, place, or thing. (You might like to think of nouns as “naming” words.) Everything we can see or talk about is represented by a word that names it. That “naming” word is called a noun (grammar-monster.com/nouns). So the word ‘team’ in this quotation is a noun.

(2) A proper noun ‘is the given name of a person, place or thing, i.e., its own name (e.g., Michael, New York, Rover). (Note: A proper noun always starts with a capital letter) [grammar-monster.com/common nouns and proper nouns]. So, the word, ‘Australia’, is a proper noun.

What is the function of ‘Australia’ in those sentences? It is a word that describes the ‘team’. It functions as an adjective in the sentences and qualifies the noun, ‘team’.

(3) ‘Adjectives are describing words. Large, grey, and friendly are all examples of adjectives’ (grammar-monster.com/adjectives)..

Since ‘Australia’ functions as a describing word (an adjective) in these sentences, what is the adjective for ‘Australia’? It is Australian (Oxford living dictionaries online 2018. s.v. Australian).

Rewritten: ‘Wade was brought back into the Australian team in the home 2016 series against South Africa…. But after underperforming with the bat, Wade was cut from the Australian team ahead of last summer’.

(Image courtesy A Word With Traci)

6. ‘Neither police or the ATSB were expected to be involved in the investigation into what went wrong’ (Crockford 2018).

Grammatical rules for this error are:

Rule 2. Two singular subjects connected by or, either/or, or neither/nor require a singular verb (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. subject-verb agreement).

We use either… or… to connect items which are the same grammatical type, e.g. words, phrases, clauses….

The opposite of either… or… is neither… nor…. We use it to make negative statements connecting items (Cambridge English Dictionary/Grammar 2018. s.v. Either … or …).

Grammar rules forbid the joining of ‘neither’ with ‘or’. It is ‘neither … nor …’

Rewritten: ‘Neither police nor the ATSB was expected to be involved in the investigation into what went wrong’.

7. news.com.au used an incorrect tense of the verb in its sub-heading to this article, ‘THE first four of the schoolboys trapped in the Thai cave have beat the odds to make it through an unfathomably risky journey’ (Reynolds 2018).

What is correct or wrong with the tense of the verb, ‘Have beat’? This is USA vs British grammar.

The grammatical rule is:

The past tense of beat is beat. The past participle, which changes the verb to an adverb, is beaten. The adjective form is also beaten.

Sometimes it is heard in the construction got beat. This is incorrect grammatically, but is firmly established in slang, especially in North America (Grammarist 2009-2014. s.v. Beat or beaten).

 Rewritten: ‘first four of the schoolboys trapped in the Thai cave have beaten the odds….’

8. Barna Research conducted a survey in the USA of the state of the Bible. One of the main conclusions was, ‘Six in 10 Americans Believe the Bible Has Transformed Their Life’ (Barna Group Inc. 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘, ‘Six in 10 Americans Believe the Bible Have Transformed Their Lives’.

9. finder.com (2018), in its article on the RACQ Bank, had a heading, ‘Who is RACQ Bank?’ Is this correct phrasing of the question, using the relative pronoun, ‘who’?

The grammatical rules are:

The interrogative pronouns who, whom, and whose are used only for reference to people. The interrogative pronouns which and what are used for reference to things (Collins English Dictionary/Grammar 2018. s.v. Interrogative pronouns).

 Rewritten: ‘What is RACQ Bank?’

10. Veteran ABC presenter, Phillip Adams, said of ABC CEO, Michelle Guthrie, after her dismissal: ‘The only time we ever saw her is if there was a command performance’ (Duke et al 2018).

Consistency of tenses throughout this sentence requires the use of the past tense, ‘was’ to replace ‘is’.

 Rewritten: ‘The only time we ever saw her was if there was a command performance’

11. ‘New South Wales will now the only Australian jurisdiction where abortion remains a criminal offence’ (Caldwell 2018a).

 Rewritten: ‘New South Wales will now be the only Australian jurisdiction….’

12. I received this email on 28 November 2018 with the heading, ‘Who is Alinta Energy?’ The same question is asked on the Mozo website.

Alinta Energy is ‘a provider of multiple energy related products’ in Australia.[61] It is a power generation and distribution business.

 Rewritten: ‘What is Alinta Energy?’

13. A short article on ‘Forgive us our debts’ by R. Albert Mohler Jr. included this statement: ‘If this does not shock us, then we have grown fare too familiar with the gospel and the glory of God’s grace’.

 Rewritten: ‘If this does not shock us, then we have grown far too familiar with the gospel and the glory of God’s grace’.

(courtesy Communities Digital News)

G. Incorrect use of the apostrophe

The rule is:

‘Do not use an apostrophe + s to make a regular noun plural’ (Grammar Monster 2018).[62] Another explanation of this grammatical rule was:

Rule 1b. Many common nouns end in the letter s (lens, cactus, bus, etc.). So do a lot of proper nouns (Mr. Jones, Texas, Christmas). There are conflicting policies and theories about how to show possession when writing such nouns. There is no right answer; the best advice is to choose a formula and stay consistent (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. apostrophes).

(image courtesy Grammar Monster)

1. On the site of a building and pest control business, it stated: ‘You must verify that the quality of the structure is top notch and ensure your getting the best value for your money’.[63]

Here ‘your’ means ‘you are’ and the abbreviation is ‘you’re’.

 Rewritten: ‘and ensure you’re getting the best value for your money’.

2. In a friendly international football (soccer) match between England and The Netherlands in Amsterdam, the heading of the article was: ‘England fans behaviour ‘appalling’: police chief’ (Reuters 2018).

 Rewritten: ‘England fans’ behaviour “appalling”: police chief’

3. ‘Now if something is seen as harmful, then it won’t be long before there are calls for it’s regulation – whether it’s drugs, or speech’ (Balogh 2018a).

“It’s” means ‘it is’. Here the possessive pronoun should be used, ‘its regulation’ and ‘they are drugs or speech’. Drugs is a plural noun, so requires a plural verb ‘to be’, i.e. ‘are’.

 Rewritten: ‘… long before there are calls for its regulation – whether they are drugs, or speech’.

4. In a report on changes to the ABC radio presenters, it was stated: ‘A woman will earn a hosting guernsey on breakfast for the first time in years as weekends presenter Rebecca Levingston joins Craig Zonca at the start of the day’ (Branco 2017).

 Rewritten: ‘… breakfast for the first time in years as weekends’ presenter Rebecca Levingston joins Craig Zonca’.

5. ‘This is the third incident this month for Australia’s biggest telecommunications company….’ (Duke 2018).

 Rewritten: month for Australia’s biggest telecommunications’ company….’

6. ‘To read the article in it’s original context please go to the website of The Gospel Coalition Australia’ (Millar 2018:6).[64] Following this rule for the apostrophe for plural nouns, it should read, “telecommunications’ company’

 Rewritten: ‘To read the article in its original context please go to the website …’

7. ‘Whether you are planning for a loved ones funeral, or future proofing your funeral plans, let us take care of it for you’ (Academy Funerals n.d.).

‘Rule 1a. Use the apostrophe to show possession. To show possession with a singular noun, add an apostrophe plus the letter s’ (GrammarBook.com 2018. s.v. apostrophes).

 Rewritten: ‘Whether you are planning for a loved one’s funeral, or …’

8. ‘The collapse of one of this Queensland city’s biggest businesses has put hundreds of jobs in jeopardy, and its a situation that even has MPs from both sides of politics in agreement’.[65]

 Rewritten: ‘…and it’s a situation that even has MPs from both sides of politics in agreement’

9. The Australia Christian Lobby wrote: ‘The changes pushed by Labor and the Greens [in Tasmania’s lower house of parliament] mean that gender will become opt-in for all Tasmanian’s – a move which 95% of 44,000 respondents to a news poll did not agree with’ (Iles 2018).

In this context “Tasmanian’s” is supposed to be the plural noun for more than one Tasmanian, so the correct spelling is the plural, ‘Tasmanians’.

 Rewritten: ‘ … gender will become opt-in for all Tasmanians …’

(imagecourtesy YouTube)

H. Word order

Frankfurt International School explains the importance of word order in English:

Most English sentences (clauses) conform to the SVO word order. This means that the Subject comes before the Verb, which comes before the Object. Examples: Frankfurt International School

· I (S) bought (V) a new computer (O).

· She (S) doesn’t like (V) dogs (O).

· Why did you (S) do (V) that (O)? [Frankfurt International School n.d.]

This is an example of how the word order in these two Bible versions is contrary to that recommended for English.

1. The New King James Version of the Bible (NKJV) provides this translation of Acts 5:30-31:

³⁰ The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. ³¹ Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

The King James Version (KJV) follows the same word order for Acts 5:31, ‘Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour’. Even my MS Word auto spellchecker has underlined ‘Him’ to indicate something is incorrect with the spelling or grammar of ‘him’ at the beginning of the sentence. What is the problem?

The English Standard Version translates these two verses as:

³⁰ The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹ God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

A literal translation from the NT Greek of verse 31 is: ‘This (man) God a ruler and a saviour, exalted to the right (hand) of him….’

The Greek translated ‘him’ (NKJV) and ‘him’ in the ESV of verse 31 is touton. Grammatically, it is masculine gender, singular number, and accusative case. Accusative is parallel with the English objective case, so this word is not the subject of the sentence, but functions as the object of the sentence.

The NKJV uses correct grammar in translating touton as ‘him’ but places it at the beginning of the sentence because the Greek places it there to give emphasis to ‘him’, i.e. to Jesus as Ruler and Saviour. However, the English word order is more appropriate with the ESV, ‘God exalted him’ and the NLT, ‘Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior. He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven’.

 Rewritten NKJV: Acts 5:31 should read, ‘God has exalted Him to His right hand to be Prince and Savior’.

(courtesy Neuroscience News)

I. Conclusion

Are you persuaded the English language is demonstrating a downgrade in the importance of grammar?

It is a sad state of affairs when Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, did not use an apostrophe with the adjective in this phrase, ‘weekends presenter’. Professor of Divinity, Dr N T Wright, wrote, ‘‘Religious pluralism and syncretism was the order of the day right across the ancient world’.

He’s an outstanding NT scholar but I found this grammatical anomaly somewhat paradoxical. This statement on his homepage is based on a lecture he gave at Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church (Monroe, Louisiana).

Everyday Christian forum posters present writings that often contain grammatical errors. They don’t seem to take grammatical rules, including punctuation and forming paragraphs, seriously. This was one example from above: ‘What’s your thoughts about the ‘Reason for God’ by Timothy Keller?

This has been an ad hoc gathering of examples collected from my everyday reading, demonstrating the demise of English grammar, identified in writings from around the world at various levels of learning.

Personally, I cringe when I hear these grammatical errors committed verbally and in writing by people from a wide range of backgrounds.

However, I am a voluntary member of the language police force. Grammar was important for me in Grade 1 at primary school. It is critical for me now that I have a university earned PhD in New Testament (University of Pretoria, South Africa).

J. Works consulted

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Newington, C 2018. Good news! Euthanasia bill defeated in the Senate!. FamilyVoice Australia (online), 16 August. Emailer from [email protected] (Accessed 16 August 2018).

news.com.au 2017. Queensland mother’s online rant on public education cost (online), 20 January. Available at: http://www.news.com.au/national/queensland/queensland-mothers-online-rant-on-public-education-cost/news-story/8f39660232ade69ca8e476675c57dca3 (Accessed 20 January 2017).

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O’Malley, N 2017. Behind Pauline Hanson’s burqa stunt is an ugly reality. Brisbane Times (online), 17 August. Available at: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/behind-pauline-hansons-burqa-stunt-is-an-ugly-reality-20170817-gxyhkj.html (Accessed 17 August 2017).

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Pengilly, A 2018. Broncos unleash teenage monster in upset win over Rabbitohs. Brisbane Times (online, 26 April. Available at: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/nrl/broncos-unleash-teenage-monster-in-upset-win-over-rabbitohs-20180426-p4zbx0.html (Accessed 27 April 2018).

Perry, P 2017. After death, you’re aware that you’ve died, say (sic) scientist. Bigthink (online), 24 October. Available at: https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/after-death-youre-aware-that-youve-died-scientists-claim (Accessed 12 July 2018).

Queensland Parliament 2018, Petition: Bringing NRL games back to Mackay (online), 28 March. Available at: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=2907 (Accessed 30 March 2018).

Queensland Parliament 2018a. Petition: Amendment and annulment of s.234 of the Local Government Act 2012 (Qld) [online], 28 August. Available at: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=2991 (Accessed 1 September 2018).

Remeikis, A 2016. Instruction confused with education with religion in Qld state schools. Brisbane Times (online), 3 March. Available at: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/instruction-confused-with-education-with-religion-in-qld-state-schools-20160303-gna0qf.html (Accessed 3 February 2018).

Reuters 2018. England fans behaviour ‘appalling’: police chief. Brisbane Times (online), 25 March. Available at: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/england-fans-behaviour-appalling-police-chief-20180325-p4z63t.html (Accessed 25 March 2018).

Reynolds, E 2018. How first four of 12 trapped Thai schoolboys were rescued from the cave. News.com.au, 9 July. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/world/asia/how-first-four-of-12-trapped-thai-schoolboys-were-rescued-from-the-cave/news-story/4e28d1c5864029c9132ef1bb2eff9f8b (Accessed 9 July 2018).

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Sawyer, S 2017. No Christ in Christmas next? School ‘Jesus ban’ sparks fury. Sunshine Coast Daily (online), 27 July. Available at: https://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/no-christ-in-christmas-next-school-jesus-ban-spark/3205543/ (Accessed 27 July 2018).

Schwarten, E 2018. Vandals smash window at Dutton electorate office. Brisbane Times (online), 17 March. Available at: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/vandals-smash-window-at-dutton-electorate-office-20180317-p4z4uz.html (Accessed 17 March 2018).

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Shields, B 2018. ‘They have lost their minds’: Government fuming over growing push to topple Deputy Prime Minister. Brisbane Times (online), 17 October. Available at: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/they-have-lost-their-minds-government-fuming-over-growing-push-to-topple-deputy-prime-minister-20181017-p50aax.html (Accessed 18 October 2018).

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(courtesy Just Publishing Advice)

K.  Notes

[1] ‘Language police’ is a term designed to get rid of the pejorative connotations of ‘grammar Nazi’. This person is a stickler for grammatical correctness in books, articles, blogs, online posts, email, texts, etc. See the article at Sentence First (online), ‘Language police: check your privilege and priorities’. Available at: https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/language-police-check-your-privilege-and-priorities/ (Accessed 18 March 2018).

[2] Available at: www.grammar-monster.com (Accessed 28 April 2018).

[3] Available at: https://www.grammarbook.com/ (Accessed 26 November 2018).

[4] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/grammar-a-z (Accessed 28 April 2018).

[5] Throughout this article, I will use the abbreviation s.v. when referring to dictionary terms, encyclopaedia articles and explanations from grammar books. S.v. means:’(in textual references) under the given word or heading. ”the dictionary lists ‘rural policeman’ s.v. ‘rural’”. The origin of the abbreviation is: “From Latin sub voce or sub verbo, literally ‘under the word or voice’” (Oxford Dictionaries online 2018. Definitions, s.v.).

[6] Available at: https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/probPrep.asp (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[7] Ibid.

[8] Grammar Monster n.d. What are Prepositions? (online). Available at: http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/prepositions.htm (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[9] Available at: http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/object.htm (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[10] Ibid.

[11] All of the above definitions of various objects and examples given are from Grammar Monster.com. 2018. What is an object? (with examples), online. Available at: http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/object.htm (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[12] ‘’Subjective pronouns’ function as a subject of a sentence. Objective pronouns’ are pronouns functioning as objects of verbs or prepositions. This table is from Grammar Monster [2018. s.v. What is a preposition? (with examples)].

[13] Brisbane Times 2017. Steve Price, John Laws and the day their feud turned ugly (online), 3 February. Available at: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/steve-price-john-laws-and-the-day-their-feud-turned-ugly-20170203-gu4sk0.html (Accessed 3 February 2017).

[14] Oxford dictionaries 2018. Can you end a sentence with a preposition? (online). Available at: https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/28/grammar-myths-prepositions/ (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[15] Available at: https://www.thefreedictionary.com/Dangling-Prepositions.htm (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[16] Christian Forums.net 2018. Millennials desire socialism instead of capitalism (online), Drew#182, 25 March. Available at: https://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/millennials-desire-socialism-instead-of-capitalism.74662/page-10#post-1444682 (Accessed 25 March 2018).

[17] Australian Government, Department of Human Services, Centrelink. The form is available at: https://www.humanservices.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/mods-1403en.pdf (Accessed 16 January 2017).

[18] Christian Forums.net 2017. Questions for Christians (Q&A). Couple of Questions. Wrg1405#12, Available at: http://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/couple-of-questions.68199/#post-1292970 (Accessed 21 January 2017).

[19] Available at: Registration and Ordination Guidelines, Adopted by the Board of Queensland Baptists, 25 June 2009, section 5.4, Assembly 22.05.2009. (Accessed 18 June 2018).

[20] Christian Forums.com 2017. Bible translations (online), DeaconDean#162, 25 March. This person is a seminary student. Available at: https://www.christianforums.com/threads/bible-translations.7978355/page-9 (Accessed 25 April 2017).

[21] Available at: https://twitter.com/grammarmonster/status/1066783676128772096 (Accessed 27 November wo18).

[22] This is the USA spelling. The Australian/British spelling is programmes.

[23] ‘A degloving injury is a type of avulsion in which an extensive section of skin is completely torn off the underlying tissue, severing its blood supply. It is named by analogy to the process of removing a glove. Typically, degloving injuries affect the extremities and limbs’ (Wikipedia 2017. s v degloving). ‘Avulsion in general refers to a tearing away’ (Wikipedia 2016. s v avulsion).

[24] A ‘goon’ is ‘a silly, foolish, or eccentric person….’ (Oxford Dictionaries Online 2018. s.v. goon).

[25] Available at: http://www.caradvice.com.au/557362/2017-kia-sportage-si-premium-review/ (Accessed 16 October 2017).

[26] Available at: http://www.cricket.com.au/news/match-report/australia-england-fifth-test-scg-match-report-highlights-day-one-toss-teams/2018-01-04 (Accessed 4 January 2018).

[27] Emailer sent, titled, ‘What a week! School started back, the PM came to answer your questions and the nbn are here to help’. Sent from email: [email protected], 3.17pm, 26 January 2018.

[28] Christian Forums.net 2018. Mary’s Choice (online). Reba #5. Available at: http://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/marys-choice.74323/ (Accessed 17 February 2018).

[29] Available at: http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/10908/scorecard/1075983/south-africa-vs-australia-2nd-test-aus-tour-sa-2017-18 (Accessed 11 March 2018).

[30] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/matching-verbs-to-collective-nouns (Accessed 29 November 2018).

[31] Sent from [email protected] (Accessed 3 April 2018).

[32] Available at: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/display.asp?page=contributors (Accessed 12 April 2018). I advised the editor of this grammatical error, so by the time this article is published, a correction of the grammar may have taken place.

[33] Available at: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=19678&page=5 (Accessed 12 April 2018).

[34] Christian Forums.net 2017. The question thread (online), Papa Zoom#3, 5 November. Available at: https://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/the-question-thread.71648/#post-1458121 (Accessed 25 April 2018).

[35] Christian Forums.net 2018. How can the Trinity be one God? (online), StoveBolts #25, 23 May.. Available at:. https://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/how-can-the-trinity-be-one-god.76082/page-13#post-1463884 (Accessed 24 May 2018).

[36] Queensland Government 1995-2005. Care at Home (online). Available at: https://www.qld.gov.au/health/support/end-of-life/care/care-at-home (Accessed 30 June 2018).

[37] Pauline Hanson’s One Nation 2018. Available at: https://www.onenation.org.au/category/pauline-hanson/ (Accessed 10 July 2018).

[38] Christian Forums.com 2018. Do Modern Christians undervalue Christian History? (online), The Times#97, 4 September. Available at: https://www.christianforums.com/threads/do-modern-christians-undervalue-christian-history.8079709/page-5#post-73133170 (Accessed 4 September 2018).

[39] Queensland Parliament 2018. Proposed 3-year trial of conservation hunting in Queensland State Forests (e-petition online). Available at: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=3003 (Accessed 7 September 2018).

[40] Queensland Parliament 2018. Retain the current law in relation to compulsory wearing of bicycle helmets (e-petition online), posting date 5/11/2018. Available at: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=3039 (Accessed 11 November 2018).

[41] espncricinfo 2018. India tour of Australia at Sydney, 25 November. Available at: http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/18693/commentary/1144992/australia-vs-india-3rd-t20i-india-in-aus-2018-19 (Accessed 26 November 2018.

[42] Available at: https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/pronoun.asp (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[43] The article from which this quote is gleaned, in my understanding, has provided a brilliant expose of how the University of Iowa has demonstrated discrimination against a Christian group.

[44] This is the spelling for an Australian readership.

[45] Available at: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/work-of-assembly/petitions/petition-details?id=2856 (Accessed 14 March 2018).

[46] Available at: https://data.grammarbook.com/blog/singular-vs-plural/subject-and-verb-agreement-with-collective-nouns/ (Accessed 27 November 2018).

[47] ‘Dynamic and formal equivalence are two methods or styles used to convert source text (e.g. Hebrew or Greek) into another language (e.g. English). The Dynamic (also known as functional) method attempts to convey the THOUGHT expressed in the source text using equivalent expressions from a contemporary language like English (‘thought for thought’ translating). The formal equivalence method (also known as a literal translation) attempts to translate the source text WORD for WORD into another language’ (BibleStudy.org n.d. s.v. Dynamic and Formal Equivalence Definitions).

[48] Christian Forums.net 2018. Is limiting free speech becoming acceptable? (online), 19 April, JohnDB#16. Available at: https://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/is-limiting-free-speech-becoming-acceptable.75637/#post-1456611 (Accessed 19 April 2018).

[49] Parliament of Australia 2018. E-petition number EN0522 (online). Available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Petitions/House_of_Representatives_Petitions/Petitions_General/Petitions_List?id=EN0522 (Accessed 21 April 2018).

[50] The Wesleyan Methodist Church 2018. Who we are (online)l. Available at: https://wesleyan.org.au/about/ (Accessed 18 June 2018).

[51] Yuyutsu 2018. What is your view for one to worship humans? Online Opinion. 6 July., p. 22. Available at: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=8313&page=22 (Accessed 6 July 2018).

[52] Available at: https://www.suncorp.com.au/banking/help-support/ways-to-bank/online/terms/terms.html (Accessed 7 August 2018).

[53] Christian Forums.net 2018. Are all people infected by sin? (online), WIP#178. Available at: https://christianforums.net/Fellowship/index.php?threads/are-all-people-infected-by-sin.77892/page-9#post-1488726 (Accessed 24 October 2018).

[54] ‘We’, being the subject of the sentence and in the nominative case, replaces ‘us’, which is objective case.

[55] I received this message back as a feedback email on 4 May 2017: ‘We have received your feedback email – (3696918734016757457)’, http://www.4bc.com.au/show/brisbane-live-with-ben-davis/#. I used the feedback icon to respond to Ben Davis at: http://www.4bc.com.au/show/brisbane-live-with-ben-davis/# (Accessed 4 May 2017).

[56] In British [and Australian] English, focussing is the present participle of the verb, focus (Cambridge English Dictionary 2018. s.v. focussing).

[57] Available at: https://proofreadmyessay.co.uk/writing-tips/common-mistakes-began-vs-begun/ (Accessed 28 November 2018).

[58] The Australian spelling is ‘centre’ and not ‘center’.

[59] Available at: http://lifebuilders.com.au/about-us-1/ (Accessed 5 March 2018).

[60] The Australian spelling is ‘centre’ and not ‘center’.

[61] Mozo 2008-2018. Alinta Energy Electricity (online). Available at: https://mozo.com.au/energy/providers/alinta-energy/electricity (Accessed 28 November 2018).

[62] Available at: https://twitter.com/grammarmonster/status/1066783676128772096 (Accessed 27 November wo18).

[63] Caboolture Building & Pest Inspections 2017. Available at: http://caboolturebuildingandpestinspections.com.au/ (Accessed 6 September 2017).

[64] The incorrect grammar is not in the online edition but only in the acknowledgement of the source of the article at the beginning of the print version.

[65] This is a front page story with a sub-heading in The Courier-Mail 2018. Builder collapse gravely concerning’ for region (online), 18 October. Available at: https://www.couriermail.com.au/ (Accessed 18 October 2018). I was unable to access the exact URL because it is for account-only subscribers.

Copyright © 2018 Spencer D. Gear. This document last updated at Date: 1 December 2018.

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