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In the heat of summer, I hesitate to do anything controversial, so this month I'll tackle a deadly dull, pedestrian topic that nevertheless needs airing: the proper punctuation of phrases using and and or. The rules are the same for both, but I'll use only examples with and, since these are more common.

First rule: If two words or phrases are connected by and, commas between them are generally not needed.

Example: The ousted officials and their replacements have met to work out the details of the transition.

Sometimes, however, sentences with complex phrases (especially when the first one ends with a prepositional phrase) require commas before the and (and sometimes after the second phrase).

Example: The connection between the two generals and the relative propriety of their decisions are being questioned.

The first phrase is "the connection between the two generals," but readers could initially think that and connects generals and propriety. To solve this problem, commas can be added: The connection between the two generals, and the relative propriety of their decisions, are being questioned.

Second rule: If two main clauses are connected by and, commas should generally be used to separate them.

Example: You are asked to complete the enclosed forms, and the next step is to have them notarized.

This is straightforward, but if a sentence becomes more complex (i.e., there are other commas in a sentence), then a semicolon should replace the comma.

Example: You are asked to complete the enclosed forms; and the next step, along with having them notarized, is to duplicate them before returning the originals in the enclosed postage-paid envelope.

Just back from a trip to do a summer program for Chinese English teachers (in China, of course), I have learned more about English than I expected to. The teachers asked a number of interesting and challenging questions and brought up some points that I'd never thought of. I hope you find them interesting. Those of you who are not native English speakers may find them even more useful than natives do.

One: The word alive may be used only after be verbs and constructions such as "They caught the criminal alive." That means you can't say "alive animals"; only live would work in this instance. Native speakers would never have noticed or had trouble with this distinction.

Two: The word ago can be used only with the past tense. For example, "She left just a few minutes ago." If you want to use since to refer to time, you must use the present perfect or past perfect tense. Examples: "The mall has been closed since 6:00" and "He had not been there since he was six years old."

Three: What is the difference between include and contain? To answer that question, let's begin by looking at a sentence using contain: "The book contains 15 chapters." In this context, the word contains suggests totality, and a book is a tangible item, like a can or a box.

Now here's a sentence using include: "The course includes lectures, small-group work, labs, and outside readings." In this case, the word course is not tangible in the same way as a book (i.e., it is not a container in the same sense), so I have concluded that this distinction is the main explanation of why include and contain are used in different contexts.

In addition, include does not necessarily suggest totality. If, for example, you say, "The book includes some interesting theories about global warming," you are suggesting that the book also covers other topics.

Four: What is the difference between bother and interrupt? This one is a little easier. First, bother is always negative. Second, interrupting may be a way of bothering someone, but the reverse is not true. Third, interrupting is not necessarily negative; it can be relatively neutral, such as in the sentence "The phone interrupted my train of thought."

Lesson of the month: You can't always trust your grammar checker-and for more than one reason.

It's possible that you have an outdated version, but the key reason to be skeptical is that grammar checkers sometimes have been input with incorrect information, and, most important, they cannot correctly analyze grammatical constructions and/or determine what is best in a particular context.

Case in point: use of the passive voice. When I do a grammar check of any document, my Microsoft Word almost invariably tells me not to use passive voice. It's a robot; it takes no note of the context or of the appropriate sentence structure.

The next time your grammar checker slaps your hand, take its advice only if you are absolutely sure you're wrong and it's right. The following example shows how important your choice can be.

Take a look at this passage:

Some astonishing questions about the nature of the universe have been raised by scientists exploring the nature of black holes. A black hole is created by the collapse of a dead star into a point perhaps no larger than a marble. So much matter collapsed into so little volume changes the fabric of the space around it in profoundly astonishing ways.

The first two sentences in this paragraph have passive verbs. This means that (1) the subject is not doing the action, (2) the verb consists of the verb to be (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been) plus a main verb, and (3) the doer of the action, if expressed, appears in a phrase beginning with by.

The first sentence should be passive because the doer, scientists, is NOT the most important part of the sentence. Some astonishing questions IS the key phrase, and that's why it has been placed at the beginning of the sentence. In addition, "a black hole" is the shorter part of the sentence, and when other factors permit, the shorter part of a sentence should be the lead element because it's easier for readers to follow than a longer phrase.

The second sentence has been constructed with a passive verb for a different reason: the beginning of the sentence flows naturally from the end of the first sentence. Note that the first sentence ends with the words black hole, and the second sentence proceeds naturally from the first by beginning with the words a black hole. As in the first sentence, these words are more important than the doer, which is the word collapse, so it's important to place them at the beginning.

The third sentence has an active verb, changes, by design. As in the second sentence, the third flows logically from the second. The second sentence ends with the phrase a point perhaps no larger than a marble. This idea is restated at the beginning of the third sentence: so much matter collapsed into so little volume.

In summary, the point is that sentences should be crafted to flow logically from one to the next and/or to emphasize key ideas by putting the most important information and/or shorter part of the sentence at the beginning of the sentence.

Grammar checkers can't do this kind of thinking for you!"

TIPS FOR NOVEMBER 2004

For me, November always begins with fresh memories of the World Series. This year I enjoyed the playoffs even more because I simultaneously read Daniel Okrent and Steve Wulf's Baseball Anecdotes, published in 1988. As I read, however, my proofreader's heart was broken by some very poor proofing. May you find the following examples from the book instructive, and forgive me for tampering with a subject I love.

Example One: "DiMaggio doesn't get paid to talk to me, and I don't either."

Correction: There should be a comma before either to separate it from the rest of the sentence. In a sentence with too, which is used in the same situation in positive statements, too should likewise be set off by a comma.

Example Two: "The Yankees were hanging onto first place when DiMaggio returned…."

Correction: Onto is incorrect in this context, as it is means "on top of." It should be written as two words here. Another way to determine what's right is to look at the underlying idiom: "hanging on." You can see that to is not part of the idiom.

Example Three: "But when Stengel retired from the Yankees and was asked to name his all-time, all-star team, Mantle was not on it…."

Correction: There should be no comma between all-time and all-star. You can determine this by applying what's known as the consecutive adjective rule. There are lots of rules about certain kinds of adjectives, such as always putting size adjectives before age adjectives (e.g., "little old lady").

In this case the test is to place and between the two words. If it works, use a comma; if it doesn't, omit the comma. Obviously and doesn't work in this example, so the comma is not needed.

The other test is to reverse the two words and see if the new order makes sense. If it doesn't work, the comma is not needed.

Example Four: On a more cerebral level than comma usage is this sentence: "Back in 1936, while running the Reds, a story broke that he [MacPhail] had punched a Cincinnati detective…."

Correction: Did you catch the problem? It's the second phrase, while running the Reds. Because of its placement, it must modify the subject, which immediately follows. Obviously this isn't logical, as the subject is story, which can't run a baseball club.

A rewrite would solve the problem: "While MacPhail was running the Reds, a story broke…."

Example Four: "But Walter O'Malley, who never smelled a dollar he didn't like, sniffed countless millions of them awaiting in southern California."

Correction: Southern should be capped because Southern California is a specific region of the country, just as West Coast and East Coast are capitalized. When direction is indicated, as in "They live south of Los Angeles," no caps are needed.

• It’s New Year’s Resolutions time, and of course The Grammar Doctor has a few suggestions, some of which come to my mind because of questions people have asked me over the last few months. If you’re one of them, at least you’ll be anonymous.
  

• If you don’t know the meaning of a word, or you can’t distinguish the meanings of two closely related words, your first and most reliable source of information is the dictionary (especially if you’re a native speaker of English). I don’t know how many times people have e-mailed me to ask about definitions. All I do is open my dictionary and copy the meanings word for word. Surely all of you are up to that yourself!
  

• Learn to distinguish between it’s and its. (You’ll be glad to know that there is not a word spelled its’.) It’s means “it is.” In every other situation, use “its.” It’s that simple. (Note the previous sentence.)
  

• Distinguish between onto and on to. Onto means “on top of”; on to is generally used in situations in which on follows a verb and is part of an English idiom. 
  

  • Onto example: She got onto the bicycle and took off in a hurry. (Onto clearly means “on top of.”)
    

  • On to example: After a bad start, he went on to become an excellent employee. (Went on suggests “continuing’; there is no possibility of a meaning suggesting “on top of.”
    

• Avoid falling into the trap of writing sentences with series that are not parallel in structure. Parallel structure means that all items in a series or list of bullets have the same grammatical form.
  

  • Incorrect example: The triplets were born just a month prematurely, had no major developmental problems, and always enjoying each other’s company.
    

  • Explanation: The first two items each begin with a complete verb. The key word in the third item is a verb form, enjoying, which cannot be the main verb in a sentence. As in this case, the offending item is usually the last one.

This month marks a return to one of my favorite topics: spelling. “Groan,” you say. “My spell checker takes care of that for me.” Of course you know that’s not true for all words, but that isn’t my focus, anyway. 

Last Christmas I received a book on spelling (that’s what you’d expect The Grammar Doctor to wish for and receive). One of the most startling facts in the book was the statement that 85 percent of English words (probably excluding obscure technical and scientific terms) follow very predictable rules. 

Those rules are what I’ve focused on for years, and I’ve used them as well as some reliable patterns to tutor a woman from Germany who is eager to improve her spelling of English words. She’s a good speller in her native tongue, but English drives her nuts.  

Let’s focus on patterns rather than rules this month; next time I’ll revisit some common rules.

One pattern (and it’s almost 100 percent reliable) that I’ve learned by teaching my German friend has to do with whether words should end in “ch” or “tch.” Since the “t” is silent, it’s impossible to make a decision based on pronunciation. 

Here’s the pattern: if a word has a double vowel preceding the “ch” sound, no “t” is needed. If there’s a single vowel, the word is spelled with a “tch.” Who knows why? 

Examples with double vowels: reach, coach, beech, beach, pooch, touch, slouch, each 

Examples with single vowels: hitch, fetch, crotch, snitch, hatch, itch, notch, stretch, witch, botch, patch, latch, retch (exception: much) 

A pattern that I identified in my youth involves words ending in “le” that have a particular sequence of letters: zero to three consonants at the beginning, a single vowel, two consonants (whether the same letter repeated or two different letters), and then “le” at the end. 

Examples: straggle, bungle, fizzle, marble, single, bubble, peddle, waffle, pickle, sparkle, apple, giggle, little, mumble, whistle, hurdle, gargle, purple 

The spelling issues are twofold: one, whether to use one consonant or two when the same one is repeated, as in baffle; two, whether the word should end in “le” or “el.” 

The answer to puzzle one is that the consonant is repeated when the vowel is short, as it is in all the examples above. Compare them to words with long vowels, such as cradle, bugle, title, noble, and rifle. All of these have a single consonant before “le.”

Regarding the second issue (“le” or “el”), the answer is that “le” dominates. Exceptions: nickel and duffel. 

However, words with double “m,”” n,” “r,” and “s” have a separate rule: they end in “el.” Examples: pummel, channel, barrel, and tassel. Exception: hassle