Technology TransactionsBreaking The Rules We Grew Up With
A Realtor recently asked me if it was acceptable to write, “Two-story house for sale.” I referred him to an excellent book on answers to grammatical questions like this. In his best-selling book, The Grammar Bible, Michael Strumpf refers to the same phrase: “Since there are two stories to this house, the description should read, ‘Two stories house for sale.’ There are two, so the noun story must be plural. Of course, ‘two-story house’ is colloquial. Through common usage, it has become an accepted and agreeable construction, but it is not correct (p. 114).” Strumpf goes on to say that a man who wants to sell houses needs to please his customers. If the ungrammatical phrase is more pleasing to the ear, then it makes sense to use that one.
And this is generally the rule I go by as well. When the colloquial meaning of a phrase takes precedent over the more grammatically correct one, I take the more popular version.
When the movie, “You’ve Got Mail,” came out, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Literally that means: “You have got mail. “ This is redundant. “You’ve got a friend” the song by James Taylor has the same problem. “You have got a friend.” But why fight it? Both phrases are now part of popular culture.
Do we say, “Woe is I,” the correct version, or “Woe is me!” the ungrammatically correct wording? Here I’d go with the grammatically correct version. In this sentence, “woe” functions as a noun, and it is being renamed by the pronoun. You have to use a subject or nominitive pronoun here. Same situation with the
phone greeting, “It is me” versus “it is I.” Which one is correct?
I was told by my fourth grade teacher never to end a sentence with a preposition.
And yet, sometimes you have to. Winston Churchill, one of the great speakers and writers of the English language (he was a pretty good statesman too), once made fun of the attempt to avoid putting prepositions at the end of a sentence: “These bigots are people with whom I will not put.” Sounds pretty ridiculous hiding the preposition “with” in the middle of the sentence instead of putting it at the end. Try this: ---- “These bigots are people whom I will not put up with.” Even though it is grammatically incorrect, it sounds better.
Sexist language that goes too far is also ludicrous. In Sue Grafton’s L is for Lawless, she refers to a girl steward as a stewardperson instead of a stewardess, a bellhuman in the place of bellboy and asks that desks be “personed” instead of “manned.” What? This makes me smile (and cringe). Avoid sexist language - but don’t stoop to these ridiculous references.
Perhaps the most notorious of all grammatical mistakes, taught by every English teacher in the world, is the split infinitive. Of course, Captain Kirk split the infinitive years ago: “to boldly go where no man’s gone before.” “To go” is the infinitive form of the verb. “Boldly” splits it right down the middle.
Should we avoid these? Most grammarians will insist you avoid making this error, and yet across the country split infinitives in business seem to becoming more acceptable. Raymond Chandler once said, “When I split an infinitive, I split it so it stays split.” Who am I to argue with the writer of The Big Sleep?
In real estate transactions, it’s a good idea to write clear, concise prose. Avoid contractions (can’t, wouldn’t, isn’t) if you can, but more and more business writing is becoming informal due to e-mail. Yes, you can get away with contractions. Can you start a sentence with “and” or “but” ? If it works, do it. (I did it in this article). How about starting a sentence with “because”? According to most business writing gurus, you can as long as it has purpose.
If you remain grammatically correct, you’ll impress your customers, but certain rules are breakable as long as the sentences sound good and make sense.