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Some nouns, by virtue of ending in a “plural” -s form, are mistakenly taken to be plurals even though they should be treated as singular and take a singular verb (eg, measles, mumps, mathematics, politics, genetics). (See , Plurals, False Singulars.) ...Less

A few plural nouns are used so often in the singular that they are often paired with a singular verb.The agenda has been set for our next meeting.Frequently treated erroneously in this way are the plurals bacteria, criteria, phenomena, and memoranda. The distinction between singular and plural, however, should be retained; when the singular is intended, use bacterium, criterion, phenomenon, and memorandum.Also, many now consider acceptable the use of data as a singular. In this usage, data is thought of as a collective noun and, when considered as a unit rather than as the individual items of data that compose ...Less

Homonyms are words that sound alike but are spelled differently and have different meanings. They are easily confused, and computer spell-check programs are unable to differentiate them. Common examples include affect/effect, accept/except, altar/alter, assistance/assistants, cite/site/sight, council/counsel, its/it's, patience/patients, peace/piece, peak/peek/pique, pleural/plural, principal/principle, and your/you're. (See also , Correct and Preferred Usage, Correct and Preferred Usage of Common Words and Phrases.) ...Less

Some language is best avoided in material written for a professional or academic audience.Idioms are fixed expressions that cannot be understood literally (kick the bucket, on a roll, put up with, pay attention). In addition, some may have multiple meanings that can be understood only in context (pass out, stand for). Idioms are not governed by any rules and each stands on its own. Be wary of using idioms, particularly for audiences that include readers whose first language is not English.Colloquialisms (or casualisms) are characteristic of informal, casual communication (ain't, anyways, cold turkey, flat line, OK, shell-shocked, tax hike).Slang includes ...Less

Indefinite pronouns refer to nonspecific persons or things. Most indefinite pronouns express the idea of quantity and share properties of collective nouns (see , Subject-Verb Agreement, Collective Nouns).Some indefinite pronouns (eg, each, either, neither, one, no one, everyone, someone, anybody, nobody, somebody) always take singular verbs; some (eg, several, few, both, many) always take the plural; and some (eg, some, any, none, all, and most) may take either the singular or the plural, depending on the referents. In the last case, usually the best choice is to use the singular verb when the pronoun refers to a singular word and ...Less

Plural nouns take plural verbs and singular nouns take singular verbs, even if a phrase ending in a plural noun follows a singular subject or if a phrase ending in a singular noun follows a plural subject.A review of all patients with grade 3 tumors was undertaken in the university hospital. [The subject in this sentence is review. Ignore all modifying prepositional phrases that follow a noun when determining verb agreement.]Sometimes the simplest solution is to rewrite it as 2 separate sentences:If the intervening phrase is introduced by with, together with, as well as, along with, in addition to, or ...Less

Parallel construction is also important in lists, whether run in or set off by bullets or some other device (see Enumerations in , Punctuation, Comma, Semicolon, Colon, Semicolon, and , Numbers and Percentages, Enumerations).After completing this CME exercise, readers should be able to • identify the causal mechanism of the disease;• describe the most common symptoms;• understand the limitations of pharmacologic treatment. ...Less

Misplaced modifiers result from failure to make clear what is being modified. Illogical or ambiguous placement of a word or phrase can usually be avoided by placing the modifying word or phrase appropriately close to the word it modifies.Likewise, sometimes it is necessary for clarity to place an adverb within a verb phrase. Note the shift in meaning when the adverb is moved outside of the verb phrase.He had just called me. He had called just me.Use of the word only as a modifier poses particular problems. It must be placed immediately before the word or phrase it modifies for ...Less

A modifier describes another word or word group. Words, phrases (groups of words without a subject or predicate, usually introduced by a preposition or conjunction), and clauses (groups of words with a subject and verb within a compound or complex sentence) may all be modifiers. An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun. An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a clause. Clauses or phrases may serve as adjectives or adverbs.Misplaced modifiers result from failure to make clear what is being modified. Illogical or ambiguous placement of a word or phrase can usually be avoided by placing ...Less