Grammar Lesson of the Day

1. You cannot be sadden to hear of someone's passing. Sadden is a transitive verb infinitive meaning "to make sad." I sadden you, you sadden me, we sadden each other, it saddens us/me/you, they sadden us/me/you. If you insist on putting one of the forms of "to be" in front of it (am, is, are, was, were, etc) then you must change it to saddened. "I am saddened to hear of his passing." However, in the intransitive verb form of sadden, I can say "I sadden at the news of his passing." Note that I had to remove both the direct object and the "am" from the sentence.

2. "John, you really have picked my interest," OR, "John, you really have peaked my interest." In the first example, John has chosen your interest. That makes him quite a dictator. In the second example, the verb "peaked" is used in an unusual way because peaked is a verb that is commonly done by inanimate objects, like "the line on the charts peaked at 45." However, assuming that John really has peaked my interest, this means that he has caused my interest to reach its limit and now, it is waning. The correct word is piqued, from a French word meaning "to irritate, arouse, or stimulate."

3. I've said it before; I'll say it again. Your, you're, their, they're, there, to, too, and two all have specific times and places to be used. Your cat has wandered over to where you're sitting. Their cat has wandered over there, to where they're sitting. The two dogs have wandered to that place too.

4. Who and whom. Putting "whom" in a sentence does not automatically guarantee you will look smart. You have to put it in the right place or you just sound stupid and pretentious. "Who" is used as the subject of a sentence. A question is an interrogative sentence. So, "Who ate all the cake?" and "Whoever ate all the cake is in trouble" are both correct. "Whom" is used as an object of a verb or preposition. "I will award whomever finds the cake-eater," and "To whom shall I award this cake-eater-finder prize?" are correct. Just because you want to place who/whom in the latter part of a sentence does not mean it is correct to choose "whom." To say, "John discovered it was the dog whom ate the cake" is incorrect because "whom" is doing the action of the verb "ate." To make it simple, take "who" or "whom" out and replace it with "he" or "him." If "he" works, then use "who." If "him" works, then use "whom."

5. "Maybe" means "perhaps." "May be" means "might exist." "Apart" means "separated" and "a part" means "something incomplete that is joined to a whole." "A lot" means "much." "Alot" is a mythological creature that looks like a cross between a yak, a bear and a pug.

I think that's all for now.