The Absence of a Pronoun Antecedent

An online local news provider reported about the same-sex marriage and went:

... This came amid news that New York City has also legalized gay marriage. It became the sixth state in the United States to do so.

There are two things that are wrong in this sentence.

1. The pronoun It in the second sentence does not have an antecedent. The pronoun does not clearly point to New York City.
2. If the It pronoun does point to New York City, then it negates the succeeding thought, which is "the sixth state in the United States..." New York City is not a state. There is a New York state of which New York City is a part of. 

Be careful with your pronoun antecedents and facts.

I've Achieved!

"I've achieved!"

I first saw this slogan on billboards. My first reaction was to ask myself, "isn't the verb "achieve" a transitive verb?"

A transitive verb needs an object to complete its thought. For example: 

The sales team achieved its quota for the quarter. 
The college graduate feels that he has achieved a lot.

But then again I don't think the company--and a call center at that--that put out that slogan didn't make sure that they were expressing a good and grammatically correct sentence. So I looked up again the word "achieve." 


Dictionary.com says:

Achieve
–verb (used with object)

to bring to a successful end; carry through; accomplish: The police crackdown on speeders achieved its purpose.

2. to get or attain by effort; gain; obtain: to achieve victory.

–verb (used without object)

3. to bring about an intended result; accomplish some purpose or effect.

So, there, the word can be with or without an object. 

Thanks to this "I've achieved!" slogan, I am able to review my English grammar/usage again. ;)

Check out the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus!

I stumbled upon this interesting site: Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus. 

You key in a word and you will be given the synonyms of that word presented like a thinkmap like this:

 

Then the meanings of each synonym is given at the right column. You position your mouse on a word and the definition appears. And the choices expand as you click on every word. This way, you don't need to key in the word every time. It definitely makes your word search easier and more efficient.

Check it out! :)

Fee v. Cost

Fee - an amount of money paid for a particular piece of work or for a particular right or service.

Examples:
How much is the registration fee?
We have added the doctor's fee to the bill.

Cost - the amount of money needed to buy, do or make something; the amount of money needed for a business or to do a particular job

Examples:
I wish I could install this software to my new laptop at no extra cost (that is, for no additional money).
Management told the marketing people to cut advertising costs.

Source