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Hello, 
I enjoy reading your column.  I have two questions. Questions: 

1. Why do you drop the "a" in "about"?  Is this British English? 
2. Why do you write "each of these are used" instead of "each of these is used"?  We teach that "each" takes a singular verb.  Is this a new trend in British English?

Diana Ahmadi

Thank you for the question. I am glad you enjoy reading the column. These questions refer to the January 2012 column. I have this column reviewed for comment by several peers as well as a very competent editor who also checks my work. I certainly appreciate their input and advice, but I must take responsibility for any errors in the work myself.

Dropping the "A" in "About"

Traditional Grammatical Explanation 
Your first question refers to a sample sentence describing adjective clauses where I wrote “I’m writing ‘bout the book I read.” As this was a direct quote of authentic writing, I kept the original language of the statement. Traditional prescriptive rules of English recognize a limited number of contractions as being acceptable such as can’t for cannot, isn’t for is not, I’ll for I will, and they’re for they are. In more formal registers of writing, however, these are not generally used. As the register becomes less and less formal, we tend to use more and more contractions to approximate actual speech. Thus in casual spoken English we more often say won’t than will not. Many writers continue this trend and add in additional contractions and other devices to indicate how words might be pronounced in speech. In the case of ‘bout for about, we can see that the weak vowel starting about can be dropped in casual speech and the writer of this sentence chose to approximate this in her writing.

Teaching Tips
One of the challenges learners face is that spoken and written English differ considerably. The field of pragmatics studies how the context of language (where, when, why, how, and to whom we speak or write) affects both the words we use and the way it is understood. We tend to use very different words and structures when speaking and writing. This is especially so when we compare formal informational writing with casual everyday speech. This is important in teaching EFL/ESL as what we need to teach in tourist English, for example, will differ significantly from teaching medical English. Raising students’ awareness of this difference can help them to look for the differences and not to immediately equate spoken and written language. This can be especially true for EFL learners who have only learned English through a textbook. Their first encounter with first-language users of English can sometimes be quite a shock as natural English speech differs considerably from what they may have been taught, which often follows more “correct” formal English. Think of the many alternative ways that we might ask the question “How are you?” such as “What’s up?”, “How’s it going?”, “What’s new?”, “What's cooking?”, and so on.
 
Language Notes
While I think that this is likely an example of writing to express an actual pronunciation of the word about, it does raise the linguistic phenomenon of “clipping.” This is when we reduce words to a shorter version. Examples of this include copter for helicopter or gator for alligator. While many English speakers take a short breath or otherwise express the reduced vowel, or schwa, at the beginning of about, there are speakers who simply pronounce it the same way as bout. If this gains enough traction, it might be possible over time to see about become bout.

“Each” Taking a Singular Verb

Traditional Grammatical Explanation 
Your second question points out an error on my part. In traditional grammar, there is little question that “How would you explain how each of these are used and what the grammatical rules behind them are?” would be considered incorrect (but see below). The head noun of the subject is clearly each, and as you point out this takes a singular verb. This clearly constitutes an oversight. My bad.

Teaching Tips
There are two major ways that language deals with connecting the verb to the person or thing doing the verb. The first is to clearly state the subject, as in languages such as Chinese (wo qu: I go, ni qu: you go, ta qu: he go(es)). The second is to change the verb to indicate the subject, in which case the subject is often (but not always) unnecessary, as in languages such as Spanish (voy (I) go, vas: (you) go, va: (he) goes).

English was historically like Spanish in that the verb changed for all persons. Now the only holdover is the third person –s. As English verbs require a subject, the third person –s is not, strictly speaking, necessary to understand what is happening. Thus, “He go to school every day” does not present any comprehension issues. Indeed, some dialects of English have already dropped the third person –s. It is no wonder that this causes trouble for learners. Indeed, research indicates that the third person –s is one of the last morphemes to become regular and accurate for learners of English.

Still, having problems with the third person –s can have a significant negative impact on how students’ language is perceived. It is therefore worth helping students to overcome this. One approach is simply to raise awareness. Review the rule with students. Then have students reread their written work with an emphasis on verb agreement. I have found that having students write for half an hour and then asking them to go back and check every single verb for its agreement helps students to realize that even though this is a simple rule that they probably learned in their first year of English, many of them still find it a challenge even at advanced levels.

With regards to head nouns, it is important that students are able to identify which noun is performing the verb. Especially in academic writing, where prepositional phrases and other modifiers are very common, it can take some practice to identify the head noun. Helping students tease apart this head noun can be helpful.

Language Notes
While I accept that this is a grammatical error from a traditional point of view, it is fascinating how easy this error is to make. A brief Google search of the phrase “each of these are” brings up, literally, millions of results. Although some of them are part of longer phrases with a plural head noun such as “Examples of each of these are shown in the figures,” many of them are not as in “Each of these are mutually interconnected.” This makes me feel a little better as it seems to be a common issue among first-language writers, even though I really should know better. Indeed, there is an argument that this usage is not an error, but rather a correct interpretation because in this case, each has the meaning of both taken together rather than looking at each individually.  This goes some way to explaining why so many first language users use an each of these phrase as a plural, even if it may be frowned on in traditional grammar.

Last Month’s Brain Teaser

Look at these two sentences. How would you explain the difference between them to students?

1. Do you want some more coffee?
2. Did you want some more coffee?

The first correct answer I received was from Dharmendra Sheth, who wrote:

"Do you want some more coffee?" This sentence is a normal question making an impersonal inquiry.

"Did you want some more coffee?" This sentence indicates a polite offer. To indicate politeness, we often use the past forms to talk about the present.

Dharmendra Sheth
Surat, Gujarat,
India

Thank you, Dhamendra. You have struck the heart of the issue. We often use the past tense as a way of expressing politeness. Indeed, there are a number of grammarians who now describe the past tense as the remote form, because it is not necessarily tied to a chronological time, even if it usually is. This is because it creates a sense of distance. Usually, that is a temporal distance, but it could be a distance for other reasons, including a social distance which is interpreted as politeness. Thus “Did you want some coffee?” is generally interpreted as being slightly more polite than “Do you want some more coffee?” In a similar vein, “Can you help me?” is more direct and thus less polite than “Could you help me?”

This Month’s Brain Teaser

Look at these three sentences. What common grammatical challenge for learners do they have in common and illustrate? (Hint: It is a holdover from Old English.)  How might you present this in class?

1. ChildrenNow is a national organization for people who care about children and want to ensure that they are the top public policy priority.
2. While sitting on Brighton beach (England) back in 2005 with my new girlfriend Verity I suddenly thought the view of our feet pointing out to sea would make a nice photo.
3. The distinctions between the two geese have led to confusion and debate among ornithologists.

The first correct answer will be published in the next column of Grammatically Speaking.

Please e-mail your responses to GrammaticallySpeaking@tesol.org.

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Examples cited in this column are authentic examples of language use and are not the author’s creations.