Discussion Groups / English Usage / April 2008

I disagree. "...of life" sounds wrong; "in life" would be better.

It depends on what you mean.

The first treats the two things as linked reciprocal parts of the one
thing.

The second treats them as two separate things, that could be independent
sources of happiness. But it sounds odd because you are equating two
things to a singular "happiness". Try something like "...are the
greatest joys in life" instead.

1.  As you know by now, English has almost no prescriptive
rules that dictate what word we ought to use.
2.  Many of your questions are among those discussed at
length in the classic literature on usage, e.g. Fowler's
Modern English Usage and the Chicago Manual of Style.
You would enjoy both these items.

In the second example, you are separating the loving into two different
things.  It can be done, if that is your wish.  However, my sense is
that you should then itemize "happiness" to "happinesses".

We do indicate some things as "joys", you know, if you need a shorter
word.  There was a Brando film "The Inn of the 6th Happiness".  I never
did hear what all the particular happinesses were--a specific kind of
sexual giving?  Or maybe purchasing? Or enjoying?  I think it bored me
silly, so maybe it was where a lot of starving people sat around making
other people happy who would come and feed them, or bathe, etc.

I can recall a discussion in catechism class.  God loves the poor, the
sick, the dying and gives them to us so we can earn our way into heaven
by good works, although we all need to be reminded that good works alone
don't cut it.