Farther vs. Further

I think some of the hardest words to remember are farther and further.
We are always getting these two mixed up!
So here is how I tell my students to remember them....

FARTHER
Remember FARTHER because it has FAR in it.
FARTHER refers to a measurable distance.

Examples:
*How much farther do we have to go? (measurable distance)

*I can run farther than you. (measurable distance)

*I dont think I can go much farther without stopping for gas. (measurable distance)




FURTHER
Further means to a greater degree or next level.

Examples:
*I want to further my education by getting a masters degree. (greater degree or next level)

*We will not discuss this any further!  (greater degree or next level)




Let me know if you have any FURTHER questions, okay? :)

Is There Such a Thing as I's??

Here's one I keep seeing every where.

So just like in Post #2 below, when we were corrected as youngsters for saying, "Me and Lauren" to "Lauren and I"... we all the sudden thought that everything should end in I.

We apparently thought since we should change everything to "________ and I" that we suddenly didnt know how to show the possessive form of sharing something with the previously mentioned name.

For example:
"Cant wait to hold John and I's baby for the first time in September!"
"Please come to Kelly and I's new apartment!"
"I hope to see you at Dane and I's wedding!"

So....someone tell me. When did "I's" become a word?
Ummm. It didnt.

So here's how ya fix that problem.
Because believe me, you are NOT alone!!
EVERYONE does it.
I promise.

Incorrect: Cant wait to hold John and I's baby for the first time in July!
Correct: Cant wait to hold John's and my baby for the first time in July!
Why---> Whose baby is it afterall? Drop the other name and see if if makes sense separately.
                                 John's baby. My baby. Not I's baby.

Incorrect: Please come to Kelly and I's new apartment!
Correct: Please come to Kelly's and my new apartment!
Why--->Whose apartment is it afterall? Kelly's apartment. My apartment. Not I's apartment.

Incorrect: I hope to see you at Dane and I's wedding!
Correct: I hope to see you at Dane's and my wedding!
Why---> Whose wedding is it? Dane's wedding. My wedding. Not I's wedding.


Is there another way?? That's so confusing and sounds funny to me!
Yes. Lucky for you, there is another way.
You could just say:
---> I cant wait to hold our baby in July. John and I just cant wait.
---> Come to our new apartment! Kelly and I would love to see you!
---> Dane and I hope to see you at our wedding!

That way, you get to comfortably use our and then you also get to use your "_________ and I" that you like to use so much :)


So let's recap:

Don't panic, it's really quite simple.

The grammatical rule is: drop the other person's name and see whether you would use "I" or "my" or "me" if the other person were not named. Then use that word to refer to yourself, even when the other person is added back in to the sentence.

So there's no need to make up words like "I's" just so we feel that we are still in compliance with the made-up grammar rule that "me" should get thrown out and "I" should henceforth always be used :)

Another thing you probably noticed is that the other person should always be said/written first. Pronouns like "I" and "my" should come second (which does follow the me and I rule from earlier...so I'll give you a break on that one!).

Okay, it's past this blog's and my bed time!!

Me versus I

Remember when you were young and you started out a story to your grandmother all excited-like,
"Today, me and Lauren went up to the..."
And your grandmother interupts you, quickly saying, "Lauren and I."

So you stop, look around, wonder what just happened, and continue on... "Yea. So me and Lauren went up to the...."
"Lauren and I" she interupts you again without even looking at you or changing the tone of her voice.
Is she even listening to me? you think.
"Ok, yea whatever, Lauren and I went up to the teacher and asked her if we could be first in the line today and she told me and Lauren that..."
"Lauren and I."
There she goes again!! What is up with this "I" stuff??!!

Does this sound vaguely familiar at all?
Please say yes, because this was the story of my childhood.

I know not every little girl has a grandmother that went to Duke and apparently studied her grammar books like she did her nursing school books....but I did. And my grandmother is probably the single driving source that led me into my English teaching career without ever knowing it. Even I didnt know it at the time.
I didnt even know it until I started teaching, and I realized that all my knowledge and reference points came from little conversations that I had with my grandmother along the way.

And here we are.
I know the difference between Me and I because of her.
Not because of my school grammar books in elementary, middle, high school and college.
Because of Nana.
So I'll share it with you :)

How do you know when to use Me or I?

Here's why my grandmother spent countless hours correcting my sentences when I excitedly told her a story....

Example: Lauren and me went up to the teacher to ask her a question.

The reason my grandmother told me to change the "me" to "I" is because if you were to remove "Lauren" from the sentence, then you would be saying, Me went up to the teacher to ask her a question.
Obviously, that is incorrect.

RULE: So basically, the rule is that you use "me" or "I" with a pronoun or noun just as you would if you would say it alone.

Incorrect: My sisters and me went shopping on Saturday.
Think: Did "me" go shopping or did "I" go shopping?
Correct: My sisters and I went shopping on Saturday.

Incorrect: Derek and me had dinner at The Pig Friday night.
Think: Did "me" have dinner or did "I" have dinner?
Correct: Derek and I had dinner at The Pig Friday night.

Okay, so do I ALWAYS use "I" and not "Me" ???

No. For some crazy reason everyone thinks that if they use "I" instead of me, it will make them sound more educated. Well in some cases it does. But in other cases, you SHOULD be saying "me" instead of "I", in which case you just tried to sound educated...butchya didnt at all. OUCH!

So let's fix that problem, mmkay?

Incorrect: My dad drove Lauren and I to the movies.
Think: Did dad drive "I" to the movies or did he drive "me" to the movies?
Correct: My dad drove Lauren and me to the movies.

Incorrect: My mom bought this dress for Emily and I to share.
Think: did mom buy this dress for "I" or for "me"?
Correct: My mom bought this dress for Emily and me share.

So remember, use whichever word would be correct if it were standing alone without other other noun/pronoun.

Now go put this into practice!!

Well... this blog and I will see you later!
Or should it be.... me will see you later.... hmmmm..... :)

Where Does that Apostrophe Thing Go, btw?

One of my all time favorite lines from one of my students is this:

Student: Mrs. McKee, I just dont get how to do that P word thingy.
Me: What P word?
Student: You know... Pa.
Poh-Pah.
Poh-post-rah.
Poh-pastra-fee.
I dont know!?
That P word, you know!
Me: Ummm... Apostrophe?
Student: YES! Papostrophe! That's it!
Me: (shaking my head) Wow....

So let's go over JUST how to use that papostrophe, shall we?

How to use apostrophe -s:
--'S is used to show SINGULAR POSSESSION only. GOT IT?
And Singular Possession can ONLY be shown one way.
You add -'s to the end of all singular words.

Example: The dog's bone.

Example: Colton's birthday.

Example: Haley's house.

Okay, that's easy. You all remember that one, right?

But for some reason everyone starts freaking out when singular words end in "s".
Like, actress. What do you do with actress? It ends in "s".....?

Well, it's singular so that means you follow the SINGULAR POSSESSION rule always.
And what do we do to words that are SINGULAR and need to show ownership/possession over something?
You got it! Just add "apostrophe -s", of course!

Example: The actress's script. (one actress has a script)

Example: Thomas's golf clubs. (there is one Thomas and he has golf clubs)

Example: Sanders's birthday party. (there is one Sanders and it's his party)

Example: Mr. Jones's dogs. (there is one Mr. Jones and he has dogs)

Now let's take it up a notch.



What do I do to show PLURAL POSSESSION?
The first step in showing plural possession is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make it PLURAL first.
Do not forget that.
That's the key ingredient to making your plural possessives correct.
Because think about it, do all plural words end in "s"?? No!

Example: Child ---> Children
Example: Woman---->Women

So let's try some.
When a plural word DOES end in "s" then you need to show possession to the plural word by adding a lonesome little apostrophe at the end after the "s".

Example: The actresses' scripts.  (there are multiples actresses and their scripts. It's plural and ends with an "s" so just add an apostrophe)
Example: The dogs' water bowls. (there are multiple dogs--it's plural and ends in "s" so just add an apostrophe at the end
Example: The teams' games were cancelled. (there are multiple teams playing multiple games--it's plural and ends in "s" so just add an apostrophe at the end).

Ok, so that was easy enough, right?

What do I do when a plural word doesn't end in "s"??
Well let's go back to the whole "make it plural first" before you do anything with the apostrophe rule.

Like I said before, not all plural words end in "s". 
Like children, women, people etc.
Well these are actually very simple to figure out.
Since they dont end in "s" and adding just a plain old "s" wouldnt make these words real words (i.e.--there is no such thing as childrens or womens or peoples. Remember, these words are plural WITHOUT the added "s") all we need to do is add an -apostrophe s.

Children is plural.
But we want to show possession.
So if multiple children have their books, then it is:
--->The children's books. (there is no such thing as childrens'---children is plural without an "s")

And if multiple women belong to a club, then it is:
--->The women's club.  (there is no such thing as womens'---women is plural without an "s)


What about FIRST and LAST NAMES??
This, honestly, is probably the trickiest of all the Apostrophe Rules.
We dont want to mess up people's names, right?

Let's start with FIRST NAMES.

Easy:
Julie own's a purse, so it's Julie's purse.
But Thomas own golf clubs, so they're Thomas's golf clubs. (dont freak out just b/c it ends in "s" remember?)

What NOT to do.
Like I said before, people freak out when a name/word ends in "s" and they dont know what to do with the apostrophe.

Always remember that putting an apostrophe ALONE at the end of the word, means it is PLURAL.
It will ALWAYS mean it is plural.
Always.

So it is not Thomas' golf clubs.
That would mean there is MORE THAN ONE THOMAS.
And there simply isnt.

Example: When Charles Dickens write a book, it becomes:
Charles Dickens's book. (there is only Charles Dickens and he wrote the book).
--->Too often, I see it incorrectly written as: Charles Dickens' or Charles Dicken's.
--->Here's the problem: Dickens' means there is more than one of him.
--->Dicken's means his last name is Dicken.
Get it?!

Okay, so how do I make LAST NAMES PLURAL POSESSIVE?
Like I said before, names are tricky because you dont want to mispell them and you dont want to thrown in apostrophe where an apostrophe doesnt go.
So let's take this slow, because lots of people get thrown off when we go into this one.

A singular Mrs. McKee is exactly that: Mrs. McKee

When showing possession it becomes: Mrs. McKee's dog.
--->there is one of me and I have a dog

If you receive a Christmas card from us, it becomes: Love, The McKees
--->You simply just add an "s" because there is no possession, you simply make it plural.

If you wanted to talk about our house that we share it becomes: The McKees' home.
--->Remember the first step!! You make McKee plural by adding an "s".
--->Now that there is an "s" on the end of our name, you simply add an apostrophe to the end to show that it is our home. If it was "McKee's home" then that would mean there is only one of us in ownership.

What about a name that ends in "s" already?

One of Mr. Jones is exactly that: Mr. Jones

If you want to go to his pool: Mr. Jones's pool.
---> There is one Mr. Jones and it is his pool

If you got a Christmas card from their family: Love, The Joneses
----> You make a last name that already ends in "s" plural by adding "-es"

If you wanted to go to their house: The Joneses' house.
--->Multiple Joneses live there remember, so once you make it plural, then show possession by adding an apostrophe to the end!



To cap it all off in review, let's take a look at this chart:
Singular        Singular Possessive     Plural         Plural Possessive
Child ---->     Child's    ---->          Children---->    Children's 
Woman          Woman's               Women            Women's
Person            Person's                People              People's
Boy                Boy's                     Boys                Boys'
Dog                Dog's                     Dogs                Dogs'
Actress           Actress's                Actresses          Actresses'
McKee           McKee's                  McKees            McKees'
Jones              Jones's                 Joneses            Joneses'


Ok, now that I have absolutely filled your brain with Apostrophe Rules, does that makes sense now?