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UP the Wazoo

I hope you enjoy this. Thanks to Peter H. for sending it.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is “UP.” It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP, why are the officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report?

We call UP our friends
and we use it to brighten UP a room,
and polish UP the silver.
We warm UP the leftovers
and clean UP the kitchen.
We lock UP the house
and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.
People stir up trouble,
line UP for tickets,
work UP an appetite,
and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing
but to be dressed UP is special.

And this up is confusing:
A drain must be opened UP
because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning
but we close it UP at night.
We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP,
look the word UP in the dictionary.
In a desk-sized dictionary,
it takes UP almost 1/4 of the page
and can add UP to about thirty definitions.

If you are UP to it,
you might try building UP a list
of the many ways UP is used.
It will take UP a lot of your time,
but if you don’t give UP,
you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain,
we say it is clouding UP.
When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
When it rains, it wets UP the earth.

When it doesn’t rain for awhile,
things dry UP.

One could go on and on,
but I’ll wrap it UP,
for now my time is UP, so …

Time to shut UP!

Oh…one more thing:
What is the first thing you do in the morning
and the last thing you do at night?

U P

Posted on Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 2:06 pm

When to Add “ly” at the End of a Word

Do you wonder when to add -ly to a word? For example, should you say, “He speaks slow” or “He speaks slowly”? What about, “He speaks slower than his brother”? Is this correct? Let’s find out.

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They may come before the word they describe: “That is a cute puppy.” Adjectives may also follow the word they describe: “That puppy is cute.”

Adverbs modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs. If an adverb answers how and can have an -ly attached to it, place it there.

Example: She thinks slow/slowly. Slowly answers how she thinks.

Example: We performed bad/badly. Badly answers how we performed.

Example: She thinks fast/fastly. Even though fast answers how she thinks, there is no such word as fastly.

When comparing, don’t drop the –ly. Simply add more or less in front of the adverb.

Example: Answer the questions more quickly/quicker to win the prize.

English grammar has one tricky caveat that seems like an exception to these easy rules: If the verb is one of these four senses—taste, smell, look, feel—don’t ask how. Instead, ask if the sense verb is used actively. If so, attach the -ly. If the sense verb is not used actively, which is more common, don’t attach -ly.

Example: Roses smell sweet/sweetly. Do roses actively smell with noses? No, so no -ly.

Example: The woman looked angry/angrily. Is the woman actively looking with eyes? No, only her appearance is being described.

Example: She feels bad/badly about the news. She is not feeling with fingers so no -ly.

Example: She feels bad/badly since burning her fingers.
In this sentence, she is feeling with fingers so the word is being used actively; therefore, add the -ly.

Pop Quiz

1. I feel bad/badly about telling that secret.
2. Walk slower/more slowly, please.
3. You look sad/sadly about the news.

Answers:
1. bad
2. more slowly
3. sad

Posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

What Does vs. What Do

Should we say, “What does Gloria and I have in common?” or “What do Gloria and I have in common?”

If you turn the question around to place the subjects first, you would say, “Gloria and I does/do have what in common.”

Gloria and I are the subjects so we need a plural verb. Which verb is plural? We would say she does but we would say they do. So do is the plural verb. Therefore, the answer is, “What do Gloria and I have in common?”

Try this example: “What does/do the children look like in their costumes?”

If you turn the question around to place the subjects first, you would say, “The children does/do look like what in their costumes.”

Because children is a plural subject, we again need the plural verb do.

Try this example: “What does/do the coach expect from the team?

Turning the question around, we realize that our subject is coach, which is singular. Therefore, we would say, “What does the coach expect from the team?”

Quiz

1. What does/do she look like without makeup?
2. What does/do you and your husband think of the movie?
3. What does/do the team uniform look like?
4. What does/do the team members think of the new coach?

Answers

1. What does she look like without makeup?
2. What do you and your husband think of the movie?
3. What does the team uniform look like?
4. What do the team members think of the new coach?

Posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 3:10 pm