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That's impossible
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Say my friend John and I have shared ownership of a set of books. How would you write about our books?
This question was inspired by one of you! We're inviting you to share your editing challenges here, and we'll answer your questions in this newsletter. Now let's see how you did on last week's quiz... Most of you got it right, which means you must be pretty good at identifying the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood is one of three moods in the English language. There’s the indicative mood, which is used to express facts or opinions. The imperative mood is for giving orders or instructions. And we use the subjunctive to express a hypothetical, an impossible scenario, a wish or a contrary-to-fact statement. And while "was" is usually the verb you use with the first- and third-person singular, you use "were" regardless of the subject in the subjunctive mood. Even if you know that rule, though, using the subjunctive mood can still be tricky. "If" can be a good indicator of the subjunctive mood, but it doesn't always work. The reason "were" is correct in our quiz is because the temperature is the temperature — it's not possible that it's different at that moment. Read more in our full lesson here, or download our grammar guide for lessons on the subjunctive mood, subjects and objects, collective nouns and dangling modifiers. Here's a friendly reminder to anyone who got the email this week that they were accepted into our beta program but hasn't confirmed participation yet: Let us know soon, because the program is filling up fast. We're overwhelmed by the response. Thank you! ❤ Team Stylebot
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Hone your writing skills and never use "hone in" again. Get writing tips, have fun with words and learn something new in a one-minute read each week by signing up for Stylebot’s newsletter.
Your understanding of the finer points of the English language often reveals itself in your use of mundane words like was and were. That's why we have a *couple* of quizzes that cover trickier rules about these verbs. Before we break down last week's quiz, though, we wanted to remind you that today is the last day to apply to be part of Stylebot's beta-testing program. This is your chance to shape our next product to fit your needs. Apply here now. OK, so how did you do on last week's quiz?...
Were you wondering what the "1/2" meant in today's subject line, or was it obvious to you? We're back to quizzing you this week, and it's part one of two on was vs. were. The couple _______ married for 50 years before they renewed their vows. was were Thank you to everyone who shared editing challenges with us. We're using them to inspire our quiz questions. You can share yours here. And don't forget: If you want to join our beta-testing program to get a sneak peek of the new product we're...
Spoiler alert: There were no wrong answers to last week's quiz, but there's still a writing lesson to be had. We asked, "When you go back to work on Monday, how will you write time?" Technically, we were simply inquiring about what you would write. But there were still answer choices that contained incorrect options. Here's how you responded: It's a tie between 9 a.m. EST and 9 a.m. EDT. While there is definitely more than one way to write time, our style guide advises using "9 a.m." Most of...