#Johnson: Grammar

Hard questions, not easy answers

Mar 4th 2015, 17:38 by R.L.G. | BERLIN

TODAY is National Grammar Day in America. (It really should be International Grammar Day, but Johnson’s urging on this point has been unheeded.) It was founded by a group called the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, and though the society itself seems to have last updated its website in 2012, Grammar Day has outlived it. Many will celebrate by venting about their most hated grammar mistakes: Poynter.org asks, typically, "What are your biggest grammar pet peeves? "

This column, instead, will celebrate some of grammar’s more curious corners. Grammar is not a list of do’s and don’ts, but a description of the rules of a language. Below are three legitimate grammar controversies, where good arguments can be made on different sides. Pondering hard questions, in your columnist’s view, is a better use of National Grammar Day than spouting frustration at internet denizens who can’t keep your and you’re straight.

This is one of those things that drives me crazy. Many readers will pause mid-sentence on reading this. Should it not be This is one of those things that drive me crazy. After all, things is plural; should not the verb agree with that? The answer is maddeningly unclear: there are two possible ways of parsing the sentence. It can be understood as both