IT'S GRAMMAR TIME - PREMIER VS. PREMIERE

It's been awhile since I've posted a grammar lesson. I ran across this premier vs. premiere word pair recently in my own writing so I thought I'd share.

According to Dictionary.com, a premier as a noun is the grand pubah or head honcho of an organization. Some countries refer to the heads of their cabinets as premiers or it can simply mean the chief officer in any organization. As an adjective, it means the "first in rank" or "first in time."

This last meaning is what confused me. I was thinking of the word in terms of the first edition or first show of a series, like on TV. At first, I thought, based on the adjective definition, premier was correct. But it didn't look right and I was justified in my suspicion.

The correct word I needed was premiere, which, according to Dictionary.com, means the first time something is performed or presented to the public. This something can be a person or the performance or presentation itself. It can take the form of a noun, verb, or adjective but all have the same meaning.

An easy way to remember the difference is to simply consider the subject of your writing. If it is a play, movie, book, television show, magazine, or any other item written, performed, or presented to the public for viewing, reading, listening, etc., the correct word is premiere. If you're talking about an officer or government person, it's premier.

Click here to view the premiere of grammar blogs by me, the premier of Wordsy Woman Word Sales and Service.

IT'S GRAMMAR TIME - LEAD VS. LED

The pair of words, lead and led, has tripped me up in the past because the word lead, usually pronounced leed can be pronounced led when talking about the metal of lead, defined by Dictionary.com as "a heavy, comparatively soft, malleable, bluish-gray metal, sometimes found in its natural state but usually combined as a sulfide, especially in galena." The proper word is also lead when using the metal in a cliche as in "He has a lead foot," describing a perpetual speeder. Because lead sounds like led and my fingers sometimes fly faster than my brain, they insist on writing lead when I mean led.

The word lead (pronounced leed, not describing the metal), can be used as a present tense verb, noun, or an adjective. According to Dictionary.com, the present tense verb means to go first, show the way, guide, or influence.For example, on my desk is a Isabel Bloom heart I received at a Women's Connection conference that says, "Lead with your heart."

According to Dictionary.com, as a noun, lead (leed) means the position in first place or ahead of others, something that leads (or goes first, shows the way, guides, or influence), or a particular type of leash. As an adjective, Dictionary.com says lead describes the most important thing, that which goes first, or that which leads. As a noun, an example would be, "I got the lead in the school musical." And, as an adjective, "I got the lead role in the school musical."

Led, on the other hand, is simply the past tense and past participle version of the verb, lead, not to be confused with the capitalized version, LED, that Dictionary.com includes which describes a type of light bulb.

Fortunately, just like this lead vs. led mistake can be easy for your fingers to make as you're flying along writing on your keyboard, it's just as easy for your brain to correct it during the editing and proofreading process. Just remember the only time you use the led-pronounced version of lead is when talking about the metal. If you are using the word as the past tense of the leed-pronounced verb of lead, then use led.

May you always be in the lead position after you have led your followers to lead.

-The Wordsy Woman

WHAT'S PASSED IS PAST

Lately I've been having a duel over the past versus passed duo. These two words sound the same and when my writing brain is chugging along, it sometimes forgets which of these different-meaning words is appropriate.

According to Dictionary.com, passed refers to what something has done, such as having passed a slow-moving car in the left lane driving down the interstate or having passed an academic test. In contrast, past, according to Dictionary.com, is an intangible thing or adjective. As in forget the past. However, it can get complicated. When used as a preposition when talking about physically going by or beyond something, past is appropriate, as in I was looking for the library but I drove right past.

To determine whether passed or past is appropriate, evaluate your sentence critically and determine what exactly you wanted to say. If it is something the subject of your sentence did already regarding the verb pass, use passed. If it is not referring to something your subject did, use past. In the final example in the preceding paragraph, drove is the verb and past describes the driving or could be thought of as a thing; it was past, this is here.

Do you have any other tips or tricks for easily deciding if passed or past is correct? If so, please share in the comments below.

Happy passing!
The Wordsy Woman

DO YOU KNOW WHETHER THERE WILL BE STORMY WEATHER?

Drawn in Doodle Buddy for Ipad

I have a problem. A finger problem. You see, my brain knows the correct words to use in certain situations but my fingers persist in insisting to type the wrong ones. One of these situations is whether to use weather or whether. Now, I know that weather is the word for all of that stuff that comes out of or happens to be in the sky. Cloudy. Sunny. Rainy. Stormy. But for some reason, every once in awhile when I am re-reading something I've written, I come across weather when I meant to write whether (and sometimes even wheather!!!). So, essentially, this blog post is an attempt to train my fingers.

Whether is appropriate when you are writing about two things; whether you want to chose one or the other. Will the weather be stormy? Or will it be not stormy? Whether there will be stormy weather. To be more precise, according to Dictionary.com, whether is "used to introduce a single alternative, the other being implied or understood, or some clause or element not involving alternatives" as in I don't know whether to take a raincoat (or not) to deal with today's weather.

Conversely, the specific definition of weather according to Dictionary.com is "the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc." or "a strong wind or storm or strong winds and storms collectively." 

Really, for me anyway, it is not that I get confused on whether to use weather or whether, it is the fact that my typing fingers refuse to cooperate! I hope yours - and from now on mine - will behave better.

-The Wordsy Woman

MY STATIONERY IS STATIONARY

One little letter that does so much! Here, switch E for A or vice-versa, and you've got two totally different things. The one with an E, stationery, is the paper or other materials used to write letters including not only the paper but envelopes, pencil, and pens. (See Dictionary.com's definition by clicking here.)

On the other hand, stationary, means something quite different and unrelated to letter-writing. Stationary refers more to a speed or spatial position. According to Dictionary.com, to be stationary means to not be moving, to be standing still, unmovable, or remaining in the same condition. (Click here for Dictionary.com definition.)

There is really no easy way - that I can think of anyway - to keep the two straight other than to remember the writing tools are spelled with an E and the others with an A. If you can't remember, just flip-flop them and you'll get half of them right.

Just kidding ... don't do that. Get a dictionary or go to Dictionary.com and look it up to be sure.

Happy "grammaring" from the Wordsy Woman

LIES, LIES, ALL LIES -- OR IS IT LAYS?

Preliminary Draft Cover

I'm in the middle of doing my final proof of Missing Emily: Croatian Life Letters and had the hardest time with the words lie, lay, and all of their counterparts. To address this problem, I avoided using the word wherever possible such as in "curled on the floor" or "she was perpendicular on the bed." But sometimes, I just couldn't avoid it. So I got out my handy A Pocket Style Manual, 5th Ed., by Diana Hacker.

Every time I came across some derivative of lie or lay, I had to think critically about what I was trying to say. Was I trying to say to "recline or rest on a surface" as defined by Hacker in A Pocket Style Manual in which case a form of lie was appropriate (p.26)? Or was I trying to put something or someone in a place in which case lay would be correct?

And it gets even more confusing. After I figured out which of lie or lay was appropriate, I had to figure out which word was correct for the tense I was using. If the correct word was a form of lie, then the correct past tense word was lay (yes, the same as the root word for place/put something) and the present participle was lying as in "is lying down" which is the same as if someone is being untruthful. The past participle of lie is lain which I avoided totally. For lay, past tense and past participle is laid while the present participle is laying as in "she is laying the book in the trash."

Even after all of the studying I did comparing my lays or lies to the guidelines in A Pocket Style Manual, all of these lies, lays, laids, lains, lyings, and layings are swimming around in my head. So it doesn't look like I'll be able to turn my page away from this section any time soon. I just hope I made the right choices in my proof.

by The Wordsy Woman

Source: Hacker, Diane (2009). A Pocket Style Manual (5th ed.). Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

IT'S YOUR CALL...

Your and you're are cousins to the previously blogged-about its and it's. To decide which is appropriate in your sentence, follow the same advice. Read your sentence substituting you are for you're; if it sounds right, you're is the correct word. You're is the contraction for you are.

According to Dictionary.com, your shows a possession owned or possessed by you, one, or, informally, all members of a group as in your clothes, your best best, or take your average Joe, for example.

If you are doesn't make sense in your sentence, your is your best bet.

Now you're a former you're misuser from yore.

And just in case you're tempted, yur is just a text-message abbreviation and is never appropriate in prose.

THE WORD BATTLES - ITS vs. IT'S

A little bit easier to deal with than the triple threat of they're, there, and their are several two-word conundrums. Today, we'll talk about its vs. it's.

It's is the contraction for it is or it has. To test to see if it's is correct, read your sentence substituting it is or it has for it's. If it sounds right, it is. Keep it's.

Its, however, is a pronoun and signifies possession; it owns something. If it is or it has doesn't make sense, chances are you want to use its. To confirm this, think about whether your sentence is talking about something belonging to it or owned by it. If it does, its is correct.

For more information, see Dictionary.com's definition of its and its discussion of how it's confused with it's.

THEY'RE OVER THERE WITH THEIR WARES - The Triple Threat

One of the biggest writing errors one can make and one of the easiest to correct is the proper usage of the words they're, there, and their. Even though I know how to use these words properly, mistakes still show up in my writing. Apparently my typing fingers have minds of their own...

An easy way to correct these mistakes in Microsoft Word is through a "Find" search. In Word 2007, it is on the "Home" tab under "Editing" - to the far right on my computer. Search each of they're, their, and there separately to double check if the correct word was used. If you can't tell, try these tricks.

They're is the contraction for they are so read the sentence substituting they are for they're; if it sounds right, keep they're. If it doesn't, try there or their.

Their shows possession for the group they or them. If your sentence is describing something owned by they or them (like their wares), then their is correct.

There is a little bit trickier. According to Dictionary.com, there can mean “in or at that place; at that point in an action, speech, etc.; in that matter, particular, or respect; into or to that place; or used by way of calling attention to something or someone.” In my mind, there refers to a place or location but not necessarily a physical location. If the sentence isn't talking about possession and they are doesn't make sense, chances are you want there. To triple-check, decide if the Dictionary.com explanation applies. 

Happy their, they're, and there hunting!

I ACCEPT THE EXCEPTION or DO I TAKE EXCEPTION TO YOUR ACCEPTING?

A couple of months ago I saw a story on the ten o'clock news about private social clubs in our area. It was a continuing story so they showed the same video over several nights: a sign on one of the club's doors that said, "Donation Excepted."

According to Dictionary.com, "Excepted" means excluded or left out...

What I think the club probably meant to say was "Donations Accepted."

According to Dictionary.com, "Accepted" means "generally approved" or "usually regarded as normal, right, etc."

The moral of the story? Make sure you use the correct word or you just may actually discourage people from doing what you want them to do.