tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4128361124543941878.post942521129063771708..comments2023-10-19T05:28:26.795-07:00Comments on Chasing Distractions: Grammar 101 - sure vs. surelyChasing Distractionshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16429695689129529916noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4128361124543941878.post-82259527403568074862009-11-27T13:26:42.410-08:002009-11-27T13:26:42.410-08:00Thanks Charles. Did I update that correctly?Thanks Charles. Did I update that correctly?Chasing Distractionshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16429695689129529916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4128361124543941878.post-73166693583094039112009-11-25T14:31:18.498-08:002009-11-25T14:31:18.498-08:00Good for you to pay more attention to things like ...Good for you to pay more attention to things like grammar, diction, and usage. Such things are not--or at least shouldn't be--the arbitrary commandments of people with a stick you know where, but rather aids to clarity and precision in written communication.<br /><br />Forgive me for pointing out, however, that in your discussion of using different words to avoid the use of the stilted-sounding "surely" you used the construction "substituted with," which isn't standard usage. <br /><br />Substitute can only take the preposition "for", as in this example: "Joe didn't have all the ingredients the recipe called for, and substituted olive oil for butter, with bad results for his cinnamon rolls."<br /><br />You could recast the sentence this way: "Joe didn't have all the ingredients the recipe called for, and replaced the butter with olive oil, etc." Or, alternatively, "Since Joe didn't have all the ingredients, the butter was replaced by olive oil."<br /><br />To put it another way, the verb "substitute" doesn't work in both directions. You can say B was substituted for A, but you can't say A was substituted with (or by) B, because A isn't the substitute. In grammatical terms, A is not the object of the verb "substitute." B is the thing that is acted upon by the verb.<br /><br />Does that make sense?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06494208492767243232noreply@blogger.com