Author: Kirk

“Give the money to us!” vs. “Give us the money!”

Prepositions, Pronouns, Versus

I have been contemplating these two imperative constructions for the past several days.

Question:
Are both constructions correct?

Explanation:
The verb “Give” in either construction is the imperative verb.

The phrase “the money” in either construction is the direct object.

The pronoun “us” in either construction is the indirect object.

In other words, the speaker of the sentence is telling the listener to take an action (“Give”) with a direct object (“the money”) on behalf of an indirect object (“us”).

So you might wonder why the preposition “to” is required in one construction and is NOT required in the other construction.

According to the discussion about the dative case in English at Wikipedia, the indirect object of an action does not have to be expressed with a preposition such as “to” or “for”.

In other words, the objective pronoun “us” may immediately follow the main verb and be used in a dative manner, as long as that verb has a direct object, too.

So the preposition “to” in “Give to us the money!” is optional in current English usage.

This gives [to] us the answer to the original question.

Answer:
Yes, both constructions, along with “Give to us the money!”, are correct.

“You are wright, Edward.”

Adjectives, Misspellings, Nouns

I saw this in a comment on someone’s blog.

Problem:
The commenter used a noun where an adjective was required.

Explanation:
The comment appeared below a blog post about three places to shop for Google Android applications.

The commenter wrote “You are wright, Edward.” and was indicating agreement with what another commenter — named Edward — had written.

The word “wright” — spelled W-R-I-G-H-T — is a noun that means someone who repairs or constructs something. For example, a “playwright” is someone who constructs theatrical plays.

The commenter should have used the adjective “right” — spelled R-I-G-H-T — which has many definitions, one of which is correct in opinion.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “you are right” — using R-I-G-H-T — 6,500,000 matches
  • “you are wright” — using W-R-I-G-H-T — 4,320 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 1,505-to-1, which is superb.

Solution:
“You are right, Edward.”

“Republicans and Democrats reach across the isle …”

Misspellings, Nouns

I saw an expression that went something like this recently.

Problem:
The word “isle” — spelled I-S-L-E — is the wrong noun here.

Explanation:
I saw this expression in a comment attached to someone’s blog post about a technology and the impact of the two leading U.S. presidential candidates on that technology.

The comment submitter knew the expression “reaching across the aisle” by sound, where the noun “aisle” refers to the virtual or physical aisle that separates Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress, and where “reaching across” refers to coming to common agreement on a legislative bill or proposal.

However, the comment submitter apparently did not know that this “aisle” is spelled A-I-S-L-E.

The comment submitter’s misspelling paints a humorous picture: Democrats and Republicans reaching across an isle, or island, instead of reaching across an aisle, or walkway.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (with the quotation marks, to avoid variations) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “reach across the aisle” — with A-I-S-L-E — 165,000 matches
  • “reaching across the aisle” — with A-I-S-L-E — 111,000 matches
  • “reach across the isle” — with I-S-L-E — 4,110 matches
  • “reaching across the isle” — with I-S-L-E — 10,500 matches

The counts for the two correct spellings sum to about 276,000 matches. The counts for the two incorrect spellings sum to about 14,610 matches.

This tells me that Web authors have favored the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 18.9-to-1, which is mediocre.

Solution:
“Republicans and Democrats reach across the aisle …”