Advanced Grammar: Do You Know When It's OK to Break the Rules?

Take a look at five sentences. Are there any mistakes? Anything you would change? I’ll give you a moment to read and think.

Do you know what? In my opinion, they’re all fine except one. I’ll tell you which one later in this lesson. Okay?

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Everyone needs to do their own work.

Maybe this sounds just fine to you, and you’re wondering why someone would even question it.

Well first, you need to know that indefinite pronouns like everyone, someone and anyone are singular and take a singular verb.

That’s why we say, “Everyone needs” and not “Everyone need.”

Now some people would say, especially in formal English, that our reference words have to agree in number, too.

So we should say: Everyone needs to complete his or her own work.

You can say it that way. It’s correct. But in everyday situations, most American English speakers won’t use that wording.

We like to be concise, and “his or her” is wordy, so often we just use “their.” It's quicker and easier.

Which one do you think I’m more likely to say, A or B?

A – Right? "Oh no! Someone left their iPad here." Good. I’m glad you’re developing a feeling for what sounds more natural.

So remember, in everyday English, it’s okay to use a third person plural form like "their" to refer back to a singular indefinite pronoun.

There is a quiz on Monday and an essay due on Friday.

I recently taught a lesson on There is/ There are.

We use this structure to state what we see or what exists. With There is/ There are sentences, we’re presenting information for someone to know or consider.

The basic rule is that the noun that follows the verb BE tells us whether the verb should be singular or plural.

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1 quiz. IS. There's a quiz on Monday.

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2 assignments. ARE. There are two assignments due on Wednesday.

In informal English, it’s common to use the contraction There’s before singular and plural nouns.

There's a quiz on Monday.

There's two things due on Wednesday.

I said it so quickly, you probably didn’t even notice that I used the singular verb, although I was talking about two things.

But you’ll also hear standard grammar used in a sentence like that.

There are two things. Again, I'll speak fast: There are. Link: There are. There are two things due on Wednesday.

So you'll hear it both ways.

Not all sources agree on what happens when we have more than one noun after the verb BE in a There is/There are sentence.

But the sources I trust confirm that many speakers and writers today prefer to focus on the noun that immediately follows the verb BE.

That first noun controls the verb. Is it singular or plural? Look at these examples.

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So with There is/There are sentences, my feeling is that it’s okay to use a singular verb before a singular noun even if another noun or a series of nouns follows.

That first noun can control the verb.

In more formal writing, you probably want to limit your use of There is/There are sentences, so just find alternative wording. Look how I rewrote the previous examples:

Which sentence do you think I’m more likely to write in an email to a colleague? I'm friendly with this colleague.

B – Right? "There is one inactive link and a few typos we have to fix."

Great. I'm glad you're starting to think like me.

Who were you talking to?

Did someone ever tell you that you can’t end a sentence with a preposition?

At one point, that’s a rule I learned for so-called good writing.

Well, I think that rule is something we follow consistently only in formal writing.

For example, in everyday American English, no one uses the object pronoun Whom? Does it sound natural for me to ask, “To whom were you speaking?” or “To whom were you talking?”

To my ears, that’s very formal or even old-fashioned.

I might follow that rule about not ending with a preposition in certain situations.

It would be in formal writing, perhaps with adjective clauses or embedded questions.

Here are examples of sentences that sound appropriate for formal English.

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Note the word order. Note the positions of the prepositions.

But let’s switch contexts. Which question am I more likely ask a friend?

A – Right? That definitely sounds more natural for everyday English.

Never tell nobody they can’t realize their dreams.

We finally came to the sentence that I find incorrect, or at least it’s not standard English. You’d likely be understood, but the grammar would sound awkward to many listeners.

Because you want your communication to be as clear as possible, I don’t recommend using double negatives, which is using two or more negative words in the same clause.

I would say, “Never tell anybody they can’t realize their dreams.”

So why can we say “never” and “can’t” in the same sentence?

Because the sentence has two clauses.

The main clause is “Never tell anybody.” That’s an imperative. The subject “you” is understood.” (You) never tell anybody.

Never tell anybody... The second clause is a "that" clause. We omit the word “that”: Never tell anybody (that) they can’t realize their dreams.

Each clause is allowed to have a negative word, so the sentence with two clauses ends up with two negative words, and that's okay.

So the complete sentence with standard grammar is: Never tell anybody they can't realize their dreams.

Which of these sentences is not standard English?

A – Right? It has a double negative, and that's note standard grammar.

I prefer the wording in B: I didn't hear anybody.

I can usually tell the difference between a Steinway, a Yamaha, and a Kawai piano.

Did you ever learn that you we use the preposition between with two things?

In one of my lessons on prepositions, I gave the example of standing between two people.

This use of between to explain position or location is easy to understand.

It's also quite easy to understand the use of "among" for position or location.

We use among when there are more than two things and these are things usually we can't easily separate or identify.

These things are all around us or all around an object. Take a look at these examples:

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But let’s talk about using between for something other than position or location.

In another grammar lesson, I explain that we can use "between" for two or more things when we're dividing something equally within a group, like the family fortune being divided so that each child gets an equal portion, an equal part.

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Here’s another use: We use "between" with two or more things when we consider these things separately.

Perhaps we're considering the differences, their relations, their connections, or perhaps our choices, meaning we'll choose one of these things.

Remember my model sentence? That was about the differences between things – separate things we can easily identify:

I can usually tell the difference between a Steinway, a Yamaha, and a Kawai piano.

Here are additional examples for us to study:

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So remember, it's not always a mistake to use "between" with three or more things.

If I asked you to name one amazing vacation destination, could you easily choose between Switzerland, Alaska, Hawaii, and New Zealand? You can let me know in the comment section.

Well, that’s all for now. If you enjoyed this grammar lesson and you’d like me to cover more grammar topics in the future, be sure like this video.

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As always, thanks for watching and happy studies.