Katherine Hepburn said “if you follow all the rules,you miss all the fun.” There are more rules in the English language than we can follow;thats why we constantly make mistakes when we speak and write in English. We make mistakes simply because we do not follow the rules,or we do not know about the rules. We seldom have fun when making mistakes;most of the time,we are embarrassed. But,when enough people have made the same mistakes,the rule is often overturned,and “the majority rules”. Today,lets chat about mistakes people make so frequently that they have become rules.

Less and Few

Some years ago in the town I live,a TV reporter noticed that there was an embarrassing grammatical mistake on the sign over a checkout lane in a big super?鄄market. The sign said: “5 Items or Less.” It means you can save time by going through this express checkout lane if you dont have a lot of things to pay for. “Do we know our grammar anymore?”He asked on TV. “How can you say 5 Items Less? Its 5 Items Fewer!” Sure enough,the manager of the super?鄄market replaced the sign with “5 Items or Fewer.” Not long after,people started to realize that there was something wrong with the sign. It didnt look right,nor did it sound right! “5 Items or Fewer”—who would ever say something like that?! They complained to the manager. You know what? The manager replaced the sign again with “5 Items or Less.” The sign has been there ever since.

Data and datum (数据)

When I first got in graduate school,my professor told us that the difference between an undergraduate (大学生) and a graduate student (研究生) is that the undergraduate student would say “data is” and a graduate student would say “data are”. Without having been trained in doing research,undergraduate students would not know that “data”is the plural form of “datum.” So,“data are” but “datum is.” We followed this rule closely and often made fun of those undergrads who couldnt tell the difference between data and datum. Some years later, at my dissertation defense(博士论文答辩),my professor congratulated me and announced to the whole audience(听众):YOUR DATA IS VERY GOOD! People started to call me Doctor then.

Agenda and Agendum (议事日程)

“Agenda” means things to do,and “agendum” means a thing to do. Apparently,“agenda” is the plural form of “agendum.” But,nobody seems to realize the existence of the word “agendum.” Sitting down at a table,someone would announce “todays agenda is...” Now,“agenda” even has its own plural form. The other day at a meeting,the chairperson told us “we have big agendas for this meeting.” I was saying to myself:“Gee,we have a lot of things to do!”

How Many People on a Staff (一组工作人员)

Yesterday, my lovely assistant argued vehemently with me on whether or not the word “staff” is plural or singular.“Staff” means a group of people employed to work under someone or in an organization. She insisted that a staff usually includes several people,so we should use “are” and “have” after it. So,we should say “staff are” instead of “staff is”. Then, how about the word “group”, I argued?Dont we always say “a group of boys is coming to dinner”?Yeah,but these two words are different,she retorted. And she had quite a few followers.

100% = 1 or More Than 1

My professor told me that “percent” should always be followed with a verb in the singular form. Why?Since 100 percent equals one,a percentage is only a fraction of one. Therefore,“percent” is singular. Indeed,50 percent is.50,less than one. So,it is grammatically correct to say:20 percent of the population is from Beijing. But,some people would argue, what about 20 percent of the people?Should that be plural or singular?Even though 20 percent is less than one,20 percent of a people are more than one person. To avoid making a bad grammatical mistake,many people would take a middle road and use singular for percent when they describe a whole body,such as “20 percent of the class is getting good grades,”and use plural when they describe individuals,such as “20 percent of the students are getting good grades.” Well,pick your own choice and make a rule of thumb for yourself!

I hope todays little chat is interesting and helpful to you. There was first the language and then the grammar. Rules are being created and overturned as we make sense of the ways we talk and write. But no matter what rules you follow,remember my friends:always follow your teachers rules first, because,if you dont do so,she will take points away from you.

Till next time,see you at xiaoge@aol.com.