Answer to todays Grammar Challenge about the sentence, One ought not immediately disregard what they dont understand. ***** As often happens here, I intend one issue, but someone brings up another issue that I end up having to research. Im not complaining. Its a nice way to learn stuff. What I intended was the disagreement between THEY and its antecedent ONE. THEY is plural and ONE is singular, but thats not really the problem. In fact, I dont want to get into the current argument for the singular use of THEY/THEIR./THEIRS. The real problem here is that the writer started with the formal generic pronoun ONE, then switched to THEY. Even if the sentence read One ought not immediately disregard what he or she doesnt thoroughly understand, it would still be a problem. The number agreement is solved, but if you start with ONE, you should stick with it to avoid confusion. So, the correction, like many of you suggested, is: One ought not immediately disregard what one doesnt understand. Now, to the other, unintended issue. Should I have included TO with the verb OUGHT? The simple answer is...not necessarily. In the positive form, the modal verb OUGHT is normally followed by an infinitive: We ought to surrender our toaster. She ought to shave her beard. Greg really ought to take up the tuba. But my sources, including the OED and Fowlers, note that the TO is often omitted in negative constructions (where NOT is added): We ought not [to] surrender our toaster. She ought not [to] shave her beard. Greg really ought not [to] take up the tuba. Its optional. I prefer this sentence without the TO.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 21:24:14 +0000
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