It's v. Its

This is a common mistake. I see this confusion every time I edit posts or articles of my teammates.

The difference is really simple.

It's is a contraction form of "It is." In some rare cases it is also the contraction form of "It has."

Its is a possessive pronoun and also called a possessive adjective. It is the possessive form of the personal pronoun "it." It means belonging to or relating to something that has already been mentioned.

Examples:

It's a hot day today. (It is a hot day today.)
The company is anticipating its third quarter profits.

Which sentence is correct?

1. Its his fault why the team lost the game.
2. It's his fault why the team lost the game.

The Student Theme

by Ronald Wallace

The adjectives all ganged up on the nouns,
insistent, loud, demanding, inexact,
their Latinate constructions flashing. The pronouns
lost their referents: They were dangling, lacked
the stamina to follow the prepositions' lead
in, on, into, to, toward, for, or from.
They were beset by passive voices and dead
metaphors, conjunctions shouting But! or And!

The active verbs were all routinely modified
by adverbs, that endlessly and colorlessly ran
into trouble with the participles sitting
on the margins knitting their brows like gerunds
(dangling was their problem, too). The author
was nowhere to be seen; was off somewhere.

"The Student Theme" by Ronald Wallace, from The Uses of Adversity. © The University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.

Via: The Writer's Almanac

Teem: to rain heavily

I know the phrasal verb "teem with sth," which means "to contain large numbers of animals or people."

The mall was teeming with shoppers last weekend.

Today, as torrential rains batter Metro Manila, I just typed the word "rain heavily" on Google, and I found out this new word, "teem." It means "to rain heavily."

Examples:

• It's been teeming down all day.
• It's teeming with rain.

Interesting! ;)

You and Me v. You and I

Have you been following US. President Barack Obama and his speeches?

If yes, then you know what I'm talking about. If no, don't fret. I, too, didn't know about Obama's lapses on the use of the phrases, "you and I" or "you and me."

We learn that we use You and I as a subject of the sentence, and you and me as the object.

For example:

You and I deserve this scholarship.
This is just between you and me.

In any case, New York Times has an interesting article on the use of You and I or You and Me. There was a time in the history of letters that the I and me are interchangeable. Pretty interesting!

Read on...

Between... and

Between 2006 or 2007, she was working for a PR company.

I often read this "between... or" combination. The correct form of this connector is "between... and." Thus the sentence above should read:

Between 2006 and 2007, she was working for a PR company.

Client and Customer

In business, the terms client and customer have become interchangeable. The use of the terms also is tricky.

In the rules of usage, however, although the terms are closely related in meaning, they are not interchangeable.

"Client" refers to a person who pays for the advice or services of a professional person.

For example: They are both clients of Atty. Reyes.

"Customer," on the other hand, refers to a person who purchases goods from a shop, etc.

For example: Many customers are complaining about high prices and poor service.

Now, there is also an instance that the term "client" refers to "customer." In this case, "client" is used in the sense of "customer" by shops that regard it as a more superior word.

For example: The clients of an exclusive dress boutique were treated to a dinner dance.

Source:
Webster's Universal Spelling Grammar & Usage

Where is the Pronoun Antecedent?

Look at this sentence:

Sr. Leni is Gabo's Religion teacher, and the conference was part of the preparation for his first communion.

Notice the 'his' in bold font. We call that a pronoun, and a pronoun replaces a noun. So we look back in the sentence and look for that noun that the pronoun 'his' replaces. Can you find it?

We sure can find many nouns before the 'his.' There are six nouns before 'his' - Sr. Leni, Religion, teacher, conference, part, preparation. Can 'his' replace any of these nouns? I don't think so.

The only noun that 'his' can replace in that sentence would have been 'Gabo.' But the form of 'Gabo' is not a noun, it's in the possessive, Gabo's, so that doesn't count.

In other words, the pronoun 'his' has no antecedent in this sentence. The sentence should be:

Sr. Leni is Gabo's Religion teacher, and the conference was part of the preparation for Gabo's first communion.