Grammar 5 Usage Notes Personal vs personnel Personal

Grammar #5 Usage Notes

Personal vs. personnel Personal Her – private or individual journal contains her personal thoughts. My personal property is in my backpack. An alumna of Sacred Heart gave us a personal tour. Personnel The A – the people employed by an organization or business company president was fair to his personnel. good leader tries to boost the self-esteem of all personnel.

Possessive pronouns before gerund phrases Remember – a gerund is a verb form ending in –ing that acts like a noun. You cannot use a subject or object pronoun before a gerund or gerund phrase. You must use a possessive pronoun (My, your, his, her, their, etc. ) Their coming to my birthday party was a nice surprise. I didn’t like his being rude to the teacher.

Set vs. sat Set needs an object Please set the table. Allison set her test on top of the stack. Sat does not need an object The test sat on top of the stack. Janie sat on the red chair.

Act vs. behave To act = to do something Mark acted quickly when the fire bell rang. When the solution became clear, Margaret acted. Whenever you have the impulse to serve, please act on it. To behave = to conduct oneself in a particular way Mark behaves responsibly during fire drills. Stella behaves kindly when she helps the younger students.

Being that/being as = nonstandard Being that Jim is an A student, he should be able to help you. Replace “being that” or “being as” with Because or Since… Because Jim is an A student, he should be able to help you. Since Jim is an A student, he should be able to help you.