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have to vs. should

Notes on English Composition

Rules for Writing Numbers

Rules for Selection of Articles

Jordanian Undergraduate EFL Students' Errors in the Use of the Indefinite Article

Frequent Errors in English Grammar: Articles and Possessive Markers

Framing the English Article: The Influence of Time Frame on Article Use in Academic Discourse

so that vs. such that

which vs. that

not ... or

because vs. since

have to vs. should

• Customer 1: Do I have to buy two pens at a time to get the discount price?
• Cashier 1: No, you don't have to do that. You can buy just one at a discounted price.

• Customer 2: Do I have to buy two pens at a time to get the discount price?
• Cashier 2: You shouldn't have to do that. But let me double-check with my superviser. I am not very sure.

Notes on English Composition

Local copy

Rules for Writing Numbers

Rule 1. The numbers one through nine should be spelled out; use figures for numbers 10 and above.

Rule 2. With a group of related numbers where one number is above nine in a sentence, write the numbers all in figures. Use words if all related numbers are below 10.

Rule 3. If the numbers are unrelated, then you may use both figures and words. Again, one through nine should be spelled out.

Rule 4. Always spell out simple fractions and use hyphens with them.

Rule 5. A mixed fraction can be expressed in figures unless it is the first word of a sentence.

Rule 6. The simplest way to express large numbers is best. Be careful to be consistent within a sentence.

Rule 7. Write decimals in figures. Put a zero in front of a decimal unless the decimal itself begins with a zero.

Rule 9. The following examples apply when using dates:

Rule 10. When expressing decades, you may spell them out and lowercase them.

Rule 11. If you wish to express decades using incomplete numerals, put an apostrophe before the incomplete numeral but not between the year and the s.

Rule 12. You may also express decades in complete numerals. Again, don't use an apostrophe between the year and the s.

Rule 13. Normally, spell out the time of day in text even with half and quarter hours. With o'clock, the number is always spelled out.

Rule 14. Use numerals with the time of day when exact times are being emphasized.

Rule 15. Use noon and midnight rather than 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m.

Rule 16. Hyphenate all compound numbers from twenty-one through ninety-nine.

Rule 17. Write out a number if it begins a sentence.

Rules for Selection of Articles

Use the when you are talking about something specific and you are confident that the reader will know what you are talking about. The article the is used with both count (singular or plural) and non-count nouns.

• I read the e-mails you sent me yesterday. (e-mails = count, plural, specific, and known)
• My dad runs a company in Rochester. (company = count, singular, and specific => It's my father's company but the reader does not know physically which company it is in the world. Knowing that it's his father's company is not considered known because the reader has no idea about the company (IBM? Microsoft?))

Jordanian Undergraduate EFL Students' Errors in the Use of the Indefinite Article

The substitution of the indefinite article a(n) or null for the definite article the, of the definite article the for the indefinite article a(n) or null, and of the indefinite article a for the indefinite article an were observed among the students of the four levels, as shown in the following examples:

• Yarmouk University Street is a commercial center [the commercial center] of Irbid.
• English may be an only language [the only language] of business.
• The international language [an international language] is used by people all over the world.
• Knowing more than one language makes the person [a person] smart.
• The person [a person] needs English for communication.
• She broke her arm in a accident [an accident].
• He has not a enough time [?] to leave the car.

Frequent Errors in English Grammar: Articles and Possessive Markers

The distinction between of and 's usage is complex not only for L2 learners but also L1 learners. The reason is that they are sometimes both interchangeable, for example, "the man's name" can be changed to "the name of the man." Considering, however, naturally occurring data in a corpus, it is possible to find a habitually preferred pattern by native English speakers. Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman (1983) introduce a study conducted by Khampang in which they tested native English speaker preference for the 's possessive versus the of form as follows:

...the native speakers preferred the 's form whenever the head noun was animate. Moreover, the native speakers preferred the 's form even with inanimate head nouns when the noun could be viewed as performing as action, e.g.:

The train's arrival was delayed.

was preferred over

The arrival of the train was delayed.

Framing the English Article: The Influence of Time Frame on Article Use in Academic Discourse

• The Grammar of The English Article System
  n example 1. above (The American is a good debater.), this pattern holds true for humans or animals, but it does not describe inanimate objects generically (Celce­Murcia and Larsen­Freeman,1983). Thus, ESL students often produce incorrect sentences such as the following: The book fills leisure time for many people (Celce­Murcia and Larsen Freeman, 1983, p.1983).
• Discourse Analysis
• Work with The Student
• References

so that vs. such that

Examples

1. Take to be a real number so that is non-negative. [Correct]
2. Take to be a real number so that is greater than 4. [Incorrect]
3. Take to be a real number such that is greater than 4. [Correct]
4. The subset H of the Lie group G is a discrete subgroup so that G/H is compact. [Incorrect --- not all discrete subgroups of Lie groups have compact quotient; this is from the Annals of Math., 107, p313.]

Briefly, if omitting the "that" from "so that" renders the sentence nonsense, then you should probably have used "such that". You won't find "so that" among lists of commonly misused phrases because only mathematicians commonly misuse it.

which vs. that

Q. Could you please explain to me the proper usage of “which” vs. “that”? CMS does not explain it in detail, and I could really use a “hard-and-fast” rule to keep in mind regarding proper usage of these terms. Here is an example of the actual sentence currently in debate:

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 which became law on June 7, 2001 is the largest change in tax regulations in over two decades.

I felt that in this instance “which” should be replaced with “that,” or that the phrase “which became law on June 7, 2001” should be set off in commas. A coworker disagreed, saying that “which” is correct because there is only one Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, but that doesn’t seem right to me. Should we just have rewritten it to say “The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 passed on June 7, 2001 is the largest change in tax regulations in over two decades”?

HELP! Thank you.

A. First, the correct form for the sentence you cite:

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which became law on June 7, 2001, is the largest change in tax regulations in over two decades.

The phrase “which became law on June 7, 2001” is not necessary to the meaning of the sentence; remove it and the sentence still makes sense (for one thing, without it, there’s no question as to what is the largest change in tax regulations in the past twenty years). Your colleague is right to point out that it is important that there was only one such act of 2001, but when you use “which” for a nonrestrictive (unnecessary) clause, you must set it off with commas.

The basic rule: Use “which” plus commas to set off nonrestrictive clauses; use “that” to introduce a restrictive clause. If there had been two or more “Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation” acts in 2001, “that” would have been correct:

The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 that became law on June 7, 2001, is the largest change in tax regulations in over two decades. The one that became law on June 1 was not.

Note that a comma is required after 2001 regardless. This is a strict rule, but once you start to set something off (in this case, with the comma before 2001), you must finish setting it off so that it doesn’t look as if it belongs only to what comes after.

Here are some less complex examples that might illustrate the point more succinctly:

Pizza that’s less than an inch deep just isn’t Chicago style.

Pizza, which is a favorite among Chicagoans, can be either bad for you or good, depending on how much of it you eat.

Note that if you remove “that’s less than an inch deep” from the first sentence, it becomes inaccurate; i.e., it’s not true that “pizza just isn’t Chicago style.” The clause, then, is restrictive (necessary) to the sentence; therefore “that” is correct. You could even leave “that” out:

Pizza less than an inch deep just isn’t Chicago style.

If, however, you take out the clause “which is a favorite among Chicagoans” from the second sentence, it still makes sense: i.e., pizza can be either bad for you or good, and whether or not it is a favorite among Chicagoans does not “restrict” this meaning; therefore the clause is nonrestrictive and should be introduced by “which” and set off by commas.

Some people use “which” restrictively, which is more or less okay (and popular among writers of British English) as long as no commas are involved:

Pianos which have a fourth pedal to mute the strings are popular among apartment owners.

See paragraphs 5.58–63 in the fifteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style for more information, and, for a succinct statement of Chicago style when it comes to which vs. that, see the entry for “that; which” in the “Glossary of Troublesome Expressions” at paragraph 5.202.

not ... or

Q. Is the word “not” subject to the “neither . . . nor” rule? As in: “I will not be angry nor upset if you don’t attend my party.”

A. No. “Not” takes “or”: I will not be angry or upset.

because vs. since

Use "because" to show cause and effect: "He went because he was told." "Since" can also show a cause-and-effect relationship, but the effect doesn't necessarily have to follow the cause: "He went to the game, since he had been given tickets."