Category: Writing & Grammar

by Jennie Ruby 

 

I got an interesting call from my friend Samantha S. the other day. She was in the car and passed a Ruth's Chris Steak House. Wait a minute, she thought. If Chris owned a steak house, and then Ruth bought it from him, shouldn't the name be Ruth's Chris's Steak House? As she discussed the question with her car-mates, they speculated whether there was a rule against having two possessive words in a row, each with an apostrophe. Since there were no grammarians in the car, I received the call.

First, I verified (via Wikipedia) that Ruth did indeed buy a steakhouse previously owned by Chris. The name of that steakhouse? Chris Steakhouse. Why not Chris's Steakhouse or Chris' Steakhouse? Was the owner grammatically challenged? Or was there possibly a method to his madness?

One clue is that there is a tradition in English of sometimes using a name as an identifier or label, instead of treating the name as the owner of an item. Thus, the Joneses' house may be called simply the Jones house. You may especially notice this in historic houses, such as the Calvert House Inn, located in College Park, Maryland, or the Warfield Building at the hospital where my mother worked, or the Stephen D. Lee Home Museum in Columbus, Mississippi. Thus Chris's Steakhouse becomes Chris Steakhouse (although without the word the. Hmmm. And Chris was his first name.)

Another related fact may be this one. I recently read an article on Merriam-Webster.com about why we may sometimes say "probly" instead of "probably." The article said that in the spoken language we tend to omit duplicate syllables. So "prob-bob-ly" becomes "probly." In the same way, "Chris-es Steakhouse" may become "Chris Steakhouse."

So the reason for the single apostrophe in Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is not from any particular grammar rule about two apostrophes. But now that I 've said that, what is the rule for compound possessive? Are we allowed to say something like this?

 The dog's collar's buckle is broken.

Maybe we would change dog's collar into dog collar[identifier instead of possessive] or revise the sentence:

The dog collar's buckle is broken.

The buckle on the dog's collar is broken.

But I don't see any need to change this one:

 Cathy's mother's name is Sue.

In 10 pages of rules about possessives, my grammar book does not seem to address this question either way. So I put it to you, dear readers. Which way shall we go on these examples?

1. The book's cover's paper was worn.
2. The widow's son's car was totaled.
3. My father's favorite cousin's visit was scheduled for May.
4. Sam's dog's collar is broken.
5. My best friend's car's tires are all flat.
6. The software's manual's page's numbers were too small.
7. The island's tallest tree's trunk was covered with moss.

As always, please post your answers below as comments.

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Answers to the Challenge on Which versus That

The winners of this week's challenge, with all answers correct, are (in no particular order) Jay Herman, Kay Honaker, Trudy Dave, Gail A. Kelleher, Geri Moran, Christine Larson, Jenny Zoffuto, Julie Sharma, and Lorna McLellan.

These answers to which versus that are brought to you by Lorna McLellan and Kay Honaker:

1. The east coast weather, which had been unseasonably cold, finally warmed up.
2. A pile of snow lingered until recently on one side of the parking lot. That snow, which had been piled there by the snowplow back in March, finally melted.
3. Joggers' shorts and tank tops that had been languishing in closets all winter finally made an appearance this weekend. (Alternative answer by Kay Honaker: Joggers' shorts and tank tops, which had been languishing in closets all winter, finally made an appearance this weekend.*)
4. The spring bird that arrived back before all of the others was the white-throated sparrow.
5. The tree that showed the earliest buds of spring was the maple.
6. Our one and only cherry tree, which had been pruned carefully last fall, bloomed magnificently last week.
7. The only bush that did not make it through the winter intact was the rhododendron in the exposed northwest corner of the yard.

*I had already decided number 3 could go either way, depending on whether joggers had used their shorts at the indoor track all winter, when I found Julie Sharma's perfect explanation in the next email message I opened:

"This could go either way: which, meaning the weather was so bad that no joggers' shorts or tank tops were worn all winter; that, meaning those shorts and tank tops that languished in closets–some might have been worn to the gym, for example, even in the winter."

Krista Allen made another interesting comment on number 2:

"My main reason for selecting "which" was to eliminate the double usage of "that." I'm not sure if that's the grammatically correct answer, but "That snow that had…" sounds clunky and desperately in need of a thesaurus."

You are right about the fact that the word that is redundant here–not because it is duplicated, but because the specific snow has already been precisely identified by the first use of that, so a second one is incorrect. But it is sometimes correct to use two thats in a row:

From Lincoln's Gettysburg address:

"We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live." 

by Jennie Ruby 

 

The words who, that, and which introduce interrupting clauses into a sentence. Those interruptions may be essential (no commas) or nonessential (commas before and after). Here are examples of each.

Essential: People who wear glasses should not throw punches.

Nonessential: Our waiter, who was the son of the restaurant owner, spilled a glass of punch right on my head.

Although the word who can be used either with or without commas, the word which requires commas and the word that does not. After making the comma decision, make sure the correct word is used.

Challenge: Commas with who, that, and which

The hapless writer of these sentences (based on a real text) has evidently been told always to use a comma before who. See if you can help him out.

1. Our fill-in-the-blank system will allow people, who do not have any knowledge in web development to create a website in just two hours.
2. Furthermore, there are many developers, who create tools, which rapidly improve the performance of our system.
3. When you look at other systems, you will find that they are much more difficult for people, who do not have any idea of web development. 
4. Even after the recent update to the latest version, there are still many users, who stick to the old one.
5. Working with our system is a lot easier, so there are many beginners, who choose it instead of other brands.

As always, feel free to post your answers below.

by Jennie Ruby 

 

Since so many respondents aced the last challenge, I am upping the ante. This time, a transition word, however, will be inserted into each sentence. Your task? Determine whether you should have two commas around however, or whether you should have a semicolon before and a comma after the word however. Or not.

What's the difference? You put a semicolon before however if a complete sentence precedes it and follows it. You put just a comma before however if it is an interruption within one sentence. The same is true if it is interrupting a clause within a larger sentence.

Here are some examples:

The log was hollow and had no bark [complete sentence]; however, the wood was still quite hard [another complete sentence].

The log was hollow and had no bark. The wood [not a complete sentence], however, was still quite hard [again, not a complete sentence].

The log was hollow. The bark was still attached [complete sentence], however, covering most of its surface [not a complete sentence].

Don't forget that the word however also has a second meaning, in the sense of "no matter how," and when used in that meaning, it is not a transition word, and thus requires no punctuation.

Challenge: Semicolon or comma or nothing before however

Replace the X with a semicolon, with a comma, or with nothing.

1. The tiny bird explored every crevice of the logX however, it did not seem to find any food.
2. Snow covered the ground within the woods; the roadX however, was clear.
3. Beside the road, pools of melt water had formedX however, the road was completely dry.
4. The bird flew down from a branch to forage in the clear space beside the road; the passing trafficX however, frightened it back.
5. The bird returned to the roadsideX however, hoping to find a seed.
6. What it found when it returnedX however, was something unexpected.
7. The roadside was sprinkled with breadcrumbs, andX however you look at it, that bird's luck had finally turned.

You can post your answers as comments below. 

 

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Answers to the Last Grammar Challenge

Thanks to all our respondents. Almost all of you placed the semicolons and commas between sentences correctly. Here are the correct answers, presented by Chuck Jones:

1. The house had a huge master suite, but the back yard was paved with asphalt.
2. The kids loved their new, separate bedrooms; their parents loved the separate den.
3. The renters can store their skis in the outdoor locker; the owners can store their belongings in the padlocked walk-in closet.
4. The new house had a view of the ocean and a park, and the driveway had room for up to five vehicles. (there should be nothing after the word 'ocean')

   Alternative answer: "Honestly, I would not have used either here; instead, I would place a semi-colon after 'park' and omit the 'and' after it." (Michael Salgy and Lisa J. Stumpf)

5. A music room was the dream of the husband, but the wife really wanted a screened-in porch.

However, as some noticed, the X on number 4 was in the wrong place (thank you, Lisa J. Stumpf). It was not between two sentences. Placing a comma after ocean or not creates two different meanings. Without the comma, the house has a view of the ocean and a view of a park. With the comma, it means the house had a park and also had a view of the ocean. Personally, I think it would be rare for the house to have a park, but you might loosely say it has a park while meaning that it is near a public park. That's why I give slightly more credit to those who took out that X and did not put a comma after ocean.

Here are the winners, in random order: Lisa J Stumpf, Karla Marsh, Michael Salgy, Sonia Verma, Mindy Clark, Rita Martino, Katy Atkinson, Vera Sytch.

And here are those who had all the other punctuation correct and kept a comma after ocean, which is a possible answer to what ended up being a trick question because of the misplaced X: Jai Y. Shaw, Kolja Fuchs, Linda Wyche, Heather Morrow, Michelle Duran, Carla Craddock, David Simmerle, Jill McCauslin, Cathy Koloff, Sisa Stumpf, Carl Bechtold, Chris Zimmel, Sandra McGuire, Darius Zahedi, and Krista Allen.

by Jennie Ruby