The Grammar Police - "Like" and "As"
Oct. 25th, 2011 04:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mary_j_59This was meant to be an inspirational post about the creative process, but I have a nasty cold/sinus thing, so I don't quite have the energy for that. It also occurred to me that my blog doesn't have a theme. Maybe I can be the grammar police! On the other hand, perhaps not - ;)
However, if you're of my generation, you may remember a certain cigarette ad. It featured a picture of a handsome cowboy with a cigarette in his mouth. The caption read: Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should. My English teachers at the time told us children, "That's wrong". But they didn't tell us why.
Well, here's why, as far as I can tell. "Like" and "As" (or, as if) are both used to point out similarities in the two clauses they connect. In the sentence above (which actually isn't a brilliant example; I can see why my teachers didn't try to break it down for us), the first clause is "Winston tastes good. The second is "a cigarette should".
The first clause is a complete sentence. It contains a subject (Winston) which is doing something (tasting good). The second clause - well, as I said, it's a bit confusing, because it's certainly not a complete sentence. A cigarette should what?
But - does this clause have a subject and verb? Yes, it does. There's an implied verb, too, and an implied adjective as well - a cigarette should taste good. If you write it out that way, with the implied verb and adjective, do you have a complete sentence? Yes, you do!
You can ignore all this when you're drafting happily away. But, when you're rereading, and you spot one of those pesky sentences with a "like" or "as" in the middle, try this. Read out the second clause. Does it contain a noun and a verb, and could it easily be a complete sentence? If the answer is "yes", then the word you need in the middle of your sentence is "as". If not - if what you've got at the end of your sentence is a noun clause - use "like". See? It's easy!
At least, it's easy most of the time. Sometimes, though, the second clause is complex. It may have a verb in it but still require "like". To take a famous example, "He looked like something the cat dragged in and forgot to lick." When you separate out that second clause, what do you have? "Something the cat dragged in and forgot to lick." This isn't a complete sentence, and couldn't easily be made into one. All those verbs ("dragged in" ,"forgot", "lick") are just describing the noun - "something". So the sentence is correct as it stands.
Here are a couple more examples.
1. He leaned forward with his arms outstretched, like one of the runners on the Greek vase.
2. He leaned forward with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath as if he had just finished running a marathon.
It seems to me that young writers frequently use "like" when they ought to use "as", "as if", or "such as". It's one of those mistakes that makes me grit my teeth and stop reading - at least momentarily. I find it particularly jarring in historical scenes, because this is a mistake I have simply never seen in any book published before the 1990s. In dialogue, of course, it's okay. People may very well talk that way. But it's really, really jarring in narration - even first-person narration.
When I think about it, I can understand the temptation to avoid "as". That's a tricky little word. Do you use "as", "such as", or "as if"? But just using "like" everywhere isn't the solution. My two cents!
*Note: when you're looking at clauses, it's important to answer both these questions. Does the second clause contain a noun and a verb? And could it easily be a complete sentence? If the answers to both are "yes", you need to use some variant of "as'. I hope a more experienced grammar policeman or woman will be able to tell us all when to use what variant. )
However, if you're of my generation, you may remember a certain cigarette ad. It featured a picture of a handsome cowboy with a cigarette in his mouth. The caption read: Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should. My English teachers at the time told us children, "That's wrong". But they didn't tell us why.
Well, here's why, as far as I can tell. "Like" and "As" (or, as if) are both used to point out similarities in the two clauses they connect. In the sentence above (which actually isn't a brilliant example; I can see why my teachers didn't try to break it down for us), the first clause is "Winston tastes good. The second is "a cigarette should".
The first clause is a complete sentence. It contains a subject (Winston) which is doing something (tasting good). The second clause - well, as I said, it's a bit confusing, because it's certainly not a complete sentence. A cigarette should what?
But - does this clause have a subject and verb? Yes, it does. There's an implied verb, too, and an implied adjective as well - a cigarette should taste good. If you write it out that way, with the implied verb and adjective, do you have a complete sentence? Yes, you do!
You can ignore all this when you're drafting happily away. But, when you're rereading, and you spot one of those pesky sentences with a "like" or "as" in the middle, try this. Read out the second clause. Does it contain a noun and a verb, and could it easily be a complete sentence? If the answer is "yes", then the word you need in the middle of your sentence is "as". If not - if what you've got at the end of your sentence is a noun clause - use "like". See? It's easy!
At least, it's easy most of the time. Sometimes, though, the second clause is complex. It may have a verb in it but still require "like". To take a famous example, "He looked like something the cat dragged in and forgot to lick." When you separate out that second clause, what do you have? "Something the cat dragged in and forgot to lick." This isn't a complete sentence, and couldn't easily be made into one. All those verbs ("dragged in" ,"forgot", "lick") are just describing the noun - "something". So the sentence is correct as it stands.
Here are a couple more examples.
1. He leaned forward with his arms outstretched, like one of the runners on the Greek vase.
2. He leaned forward with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath as if he had just finished running a marathon.
It seems to me that young writers frequently use "like" when they ought to use "as", "as if", or "such as". It's one of those mistakes that makes me grit my teeth and stop reading - at least momentarily. I find it particularly jarring in historical scenes, because this is a mistake I have simply never seen in any book published before the 1990s. In dialogue, of course, it's okay. People may very well talk that way. But it's really, really jarring in narration - even first-person narration.
When I think about it, I can understand the temptation to avoid "as". That's a tricky little word. Do you use "as", "such as", or "as if"? But just using "like" everywhere isn't the solution. My two cents!
*Note: when you're looking at clauses, it's important to answer both these questions. Does the second clause contain a noun and a verb? And could it easily be a complete sentence? If the answers to both are "yes", you need to use some variant of "as'. I hope a more experienced grammar policeman or woman will be able to tell us all when to use what variant. )
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-29 10:29 am (UTC)My latest pet peeve has been with the E-mails coming from my son-in-law. Now, mind you, he has plenty of things to worry about without one of them being grammar. But every time he writes about his mother and me as the two grandma's, I cringe. There's that pesky apostrophe that doesn't belong there. So I've been rolling my eyes as I try to ignore it. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 12:08 am (UTC)http://www.apostrophecatastrophes.com/
Hope you and yours are having a lovely autumn. There is STILL snow on the ground here!
no subject
Date: 2011-10-31 09:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 12:11 am (UTC)