Author: Diane Faulkner

Hanger or Hangar?

~ Diane Faulkner

Hanger and hangar are homonyms. They sound exactly alike. They cannot, however, be used interchangeably.

If you are a person who hangs things, you are a hanger, much like if you paint things you are a painter. A writer writes. A singer sings.

A hanger is also a thing that hangs clothes.

A hangar is the name of a place where you can park your plane (or spaceship as the case may be). The word comes from the French word for “shed.”

The way I was taught to remember which word to use was to think that “plane” has an “a” in it and “hangar” has an “a” at the end part.

Both “clothes” and “hanger” have an “e” in the end part.

Hang, Hanged & Hung

~ Diane Faulkner
Photo by Mae Mu on Unsplash

I came across a newer Western the other day where someone talked about someone getting hanged. I had to rewind to make sure I heard that right. Yep, the cowpoke said, “hanged.”

The reason I rewound was that “hanged” was the wrong word to use in that instance.

People are hung. Everything else is hanged.

There are two past tense forms of to hang–hanged and hung. The reason is Old English had a couple of different words that merged into the one we have today, which of course, is confusing.

The way I learned to know which word was correct was to think of the ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas story where the narrator says, “The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.” Stockings are things, not people, so they were hung.

If someone committed murder or horse theft in the Old West, they were hanged.

Incorrect: Dale was hung for stealing his neighbor’s horse.

Correct: Dale was hanged for stealing his neighbor’s horse.

Incorrect: Andy and I hanged Christmas lights.

Correct: And and I hung Chrismas lights.

Whether or Whether or Not?

~ Diane Faulkner ~ Leave a comment

As an editor, one of my duties is to tighten someone’s writing, to get rid of extraneous fluff that adds nothing more than word count.

Though I could make an extensive list…I’ll confine myself to just this one pet peeve: Whether or not.

Do you really need the or not after whether? In most instances, no. The or not is just fluff begging to be edited out.

Take a look at this:

I didn’t know whether or not you would come home tonight.

What am I really concerned about here? Whether you would come home at all is what I’m concerned about, so the or not is extraneous. So, the correct form would be:

I didn’t know whether you would come home tonight.

In the next example, whether you come home or whether you don’t come home is equally important. You have a task to complete either way.

Text me whether or not you are going to come home tonight.

Had I said: Text me whether you are coming home tonight, I would only expect a text if you were coming home, not if you weren’t.

Do you see the difference?

 

 

Gray or Grey?

~ Diane Faulkner ~ Leave a comment

I was teaching an ESL* class not too long ago, and we came upon a word that confused people. The word was “gray.”

Some folks, especially those who liked to drink Earl Grey tea, insisted that grey was the correct spelling. And in some countries, it is. In fact, grey is the preferred spelling for our cousins across the pond (and north of the border).

But, as I tactfully told everyone, we’re in America now. In America, the correct spelling is gray. Just look on any Crayola crayon if you don’t believe me.

My high school refresher grammar teacher, Alfrava Latham, had a great trick to help those of us who read a lot of English classics remember which spelling is correct.

Gray has an A in it; America starts with an A.

Grey has an E in it; England starts with an E.

My class understood quickly. I hope you do, too.

*ESL is the acronym for English as a second language.

 

Double That

~ Diane Faulkner ~ Leave a comment

Nothing takes me out of the flow of a story faster than an ill-constructed sentence. When I was reading the other evening, I came across a sentence with a double that in it. Now, even though double thats often are correct, especially when spoken, they are usually very awkward when read. I have had more than one English teacher in my past pound into my head that writing a sentence with a double that construction was just plain lazy writing and a rewrite was in order.

I think the problem is the word that can be so many different parts of speech.

  • That can be a conjunction: It’s a matter of opinion that pitchers should ice their arms after every baseball game. (Correct.)
  • That can be an adjective: Bring that pitcher some ice for his arm! (Correct.)
  • It’s a matter of opinion that that pitcher actually needs to ice his arm after the baseball game. (Correct, but ill-constructed.)
  • It’s a matter of opinion pitchers need to ice their arms after every baseball game. (Correct, but better.)

Now, that can also be an adverb and a pronoun, so be careful when constructing your sentences. When in doubt, read your sentence aloud. See if you even need that in the sentence.

More examples:

  • That as a demonstrative pronoun (not following a noun) — Who gave you that?
  • That as a relative pronoun (forms the subject, object, or complement or a relative clause) — Baseball’s a game that my mother taught me.
  • That as an adverb (before an adverb or adjective) — I can’t wait that long.
  • That as a determiner (followed by a noun) — Give me that bat.