by Sentenceworks
Nouns
Nouns are, as the song says, “a person, place or thing”. The use of nouns is fairly obvious, and it’s unusual to make actual mistakes with nouns (the mistakes are often with the words around the nouns).Noun Strings
A long string of nouns, one after the other, makes for difficult reading. This happens frequently in cases where technical jargon is used. Clearly identify any noun strings. Remove unnecessary nouns, or change some of the nouns to verbs or adjectives.
Incorrect: The company is considering branching into electromagnetic radiation assistive astronomical technology.
The sentence would be less confusing if written: “The company is considering branching into an astronomical technology which would aid in the study of electromagnetic radiation.”
Incorrect: The neighbourhood could certainly support a facility which caters to black lesbian women writers.
Correct: The neighbourhood could certainly support a facility which caters to African-American lesbians who enjoy writing.
Nouns With Adjectives and Adverbs
Adverbs should not be used to modify nouns. Adjectives should be used to describe the nouns. Adverbs frequently end in “ly”.
Incorrect: That man is the most sanctimoniously person I have ever met.
The adverb, “sanctimoniously”, is meant to modify the noun, “man”. The adjective, “sanctimonious” , should be used, instead.
Incorrect: While waiting for his life to unfold, Martin was an anxiously person; this changed after he met his wife.
The adverb, “anxiously”, is describing “Martin”, which is a noun. The adjective, “anxious”, should be used rather than the adverb.
Correct: The dress was an ugly dress, perhaps the ugliest ever to exist.
Despite ending in “ly”, the word “ugly” is an adjective, and is modifying the noun, “dress”.
Pronoun-Noun Agreement: These/Those
The demonstrative pronouns, “these” and “those”, are plural pronouns, and should refer to plural nouns. Mistakes frequently occur in situations where many things are put into one group, such as “a pair of shoes”, or “a bag of marbles”. In such cases, the pronoun should agree with the “pair”, or the “bag”. Mistakes can also occur when an accent or dialect makes “this” and “these” sound similar; while this can be charming to hear, it is considered incorrect in formal writing.
Incorrect: Please move these box of books to the other table.
The pronoun should refer to the box, not the books; “this” or “that” should be used instead of “these”.
Incorrect: What is all these noise?
Even though there may be several sources of noise, the verb, “is” tells the reader that the sentence should be in the singular. The sentence should be written: What is all this noise?