Welcome to the third posting dealing with serving effectively as Grammarian at a club meeting. Thus far we have considered incomplete sentences and mispronunciations; let us turn our attention here in part III to grammatical mistakes (incorrect grammar).
Agreement in number – A peeve of mine is when a speaker uses the singular “someone” (or the synonymous “somebody”) then follows up by referring to “someone” as “they.” I understand, though disagree with, the supposed desire to be gender neutral, but in doing so the English grammar rules are violated. A simple examination of the word’s definition proves the point. Here is that definition, less the examples, from Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language:
SOMEBODY, n. [some and body.] A person unknown or uncertain; a person indeterminate. 2. A person of consideration.
Note the singular “a person” appears three times, not the plural “persons” or “people.” As pointed out in a previous posting, people whose primary language is not English are more likely to introduce a singular/plural mismatch (my designation). Example: I heard a Chinese speaker say “that people(s)” rather than “that person” due to lack of familiarity with English.
Agreement in tense – Here’s another tricky one, the difference between “was” and “were.” Consider this sample sentence: If I was to go with you to the park, I would bring my baseball. Both are tenses of the verb “to be,” but “was” is the past tense–I was at the park yesterday–and “were” is the “hypothetical tense” of the subjunctive mode, in which supposition or hypothesis is expressed, and thus “If I were to go with you to the park. . . .” is the proper grammatical form here.
The Webster dictionary referenced above includes a grammar of the English language, and is available for purchase from many sources. I heartily recommend it to the serious student of the language, and the more serious you are about your English language skills, the more knowledge you possess, the better you will be prepared to competently serve as Grammarian. Our language is being abused and butchered. Serve as Grammarian, and help people fight back!