Last one for today. It's a bit unusual because most people scan over it and don't realise that it's riddled with mistakes, but here goes:
"The reason why I don't go into greater depths is because there's no need to."
This is a notorious overuse of words, but very common. It is both logically and grammatically incorrect.
The correct sentence would be:
"The reason I don't go into greater depth is that there's no need." An alternative correct sentence would be: "I don't go into greater depth because there's no need". The word "to" at the end of each would be redundant.
Explaining why this is the case is a little harder. A shortcut would be to say that you would never have reason, why and because in one sentence. One reason is that the word reason and the word because are essentially the same. Another is that reason should be paired with that: "The reason I love you is that you like curmudgeonly old men"
The grammatical rules for all this are extremely complex, and include the use of nounal clauses and adverbial conjunctions. I promised we wouldn't go there.
Just remember the shortcut.
Top Helpers in This Lesson
Not that mine is perfect, but I must have had VERY GOOD TEACHERS as I was painfully and deliberately acquiring English as my second language...I would never have had the guts to put anything up as training but I find it hilarious and can only commend you, Paul.I feel like I have found a soul mate griping about the same thing. I hope you have given a tutorial on my pet hate: the misuse of the words to lay and to lie. My patients always tell me they were laying down...their life, perhaps? And working in Ashton-under - Lyne near Manchester one of my patients proceeded to tell me: "I were just eating me tea, when..."
Coming from South Africa I never thought that i would need an interpreter for English, but there I did!
ReplyWhen ever I hear the word "sat" on telly I shout the word "sitting!" My wife just sighs.
I'll try to do "me" and "I" tomorrow, along with the correction to "me and him went out".
1) It's not 'Lay Lady Lay', it's 'Lie Lady Lie';
2) It's not 'Lay Down, Sally', it's 'Lie Down, Sally'; and
3) It's not 'I Feel Good!', but 'I Feel Well'.
I may not have used the proper punctuation above, but this discussion is about grammar, right? :-)
