 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussion GroupsEnglish UsageBritish EnglishESL Teaching Learnglish.com Contact UsLink To UsSearch & Site Map |
Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2009as follow vs. as follows.
Hi all, What's differences between as follow and as follows?  Signature.: Hongyi Zhao [ hongyi.zhao AT gmail.com ] Free as in Freedom :. >Hi all, > >What's differences between as follow and as follows? I assume you are referring to the standard phrase for introducing an enumeration, explanation, quotation or the like. The answer to your question is as follows: 1. The form "as follow" is incorrect. 2. The form "as follows" is correct. 3. Use this form with the singular verb even if more than one thing appears in the list that follows the phrase. James (BrE with a distinctly septentrional flavour) >>What's differences between as follow and as follows? > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] >3. Use this form with the singular verb even if more than one >thing appears in the list that follows the phrase. Very good, thanks a lot, I've got it. Regards, Signature.: Hongyi Zhao [ hongyi.zhao AT gmail.com ] Free as in Freedom :. >I assume you are referring to the standard phrase for introducing >an enumeration, explanation, quotation or the like. The answer to [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >3. Use this form with the singular verb even if more than one >thing appears in the list that follows the phrase. Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are grammatical: 1- The questions are following. 2- The questions are as following. What's the diffreneces between the above two sentences and the following one: The questions are as follows. Signature.: Hongyi Zhao [ hongyi.zhao AT gmail.com ] Free as in Freedom :. > Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are > grammatical: [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > The questions are as follows. A. In real contexts, your text may need no sentence of this character. You simply print the questions: or, if you prefer, write: "the questions follow." B. Your choice between follow and follows should obey the general rule of grammar that subjects and verbs must agree in number, i.e. one item follows (singular) but two items follow (plural.) This rule is invariable i.e. allows no exceptions. SignatureDon Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) >> Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are >> grammatical: [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >two items follow (plural.) This rule is invariable i.e. >allows no exceptions. Personally, I use what, to me, is normal grammar. "The question is as follows." "The questions are as follow." However, for the plural, you nearly always see: "The questions are as follows." This has made my wonder if I'm wrong or just too pedantic! SignatureIan >>> Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are >>> grammatical: [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] >"The questions are as follows." >This has made my wonder if I'm wrong or just too pedantic! Well now, ...! OED says: ... as follows: a prefatory formula used to introduce a statement, enumeration, or the like. The const. in as follows is impers., and the verb should always be used in the sing.; for the incorrect pl. see quots. 1776, 1797. 1776 G. CAMPBELL Rhetoric I. II. iv. 495 Analogy as well as usage favour this mode of expression: The conditions of the agreement as follows, and not as follow. A few late writers have inconsiderately adopted this last form through a mistake of the construction. 1797$ GODWIN Enquirer II. xii. §1. 374 The reasons that dissuade us..are as follow SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > OED says: > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > follows,' and not as follow. A few late writers have inconsiderately > adopted this last form through a mistake of the construction. Though other commentators say just the opposite: "He then read the conditions _as follow_."--"The conditions are _as follow_."--_Nutting's Gram._, p. 106. "The principal evidences on which this assertion is ground, are _as follow_."-- _Gurney's Essays_, p. 166. "The Quiescent verbs are _as follow_."--_Pike's Heb. Lex._, p. 184. "The other numbers are duplications of these, and proceed _as follow_."--_Dr. Murray's Hist. of Lang._, Vol. ii, p. 35. "The most eminent of the kennel are bloodhounds, which lead the van, and are _as follow_."--_Steele, Tattler_, No. 62. "His words are _as follow_."--_Spect._, No. 62. "The words are _as follow_."-- _Addison, Spect._, No. 513. "The objections that are raised against it as a tragedy, are _as follow_."--_Gay, Pref. to What d' ye call it.?_ "The particulars are _as follow_."--_Bucke's Gram_., p. 93. "The principal interjections in English are _as follow_."--_Ward's Gram_., p. 81. In all these instances, one may suppose the final clause to mean "as _they here_ follow;"--or supposing _as_ to be a pronoun, one may conceive it to mean, "such_ as follow." But some critical writers, it appears, prefer the singular verb, "_as follows_." Hear Campbell: [expanded version of quote given by OED above] ... Lindley Murray was so much puzzled with Tooke's notion of _as_ and Campbell's doctrine of the _impersonal verb_ [in the above quote], that he has expressly left his pupils to hesitate and doubt, like himself, whether one ought to say "_as follows_" or "as follow," when the preceding noun is plural; or--to furnish an alternative, (if they choose it,) he shows them at last how they may _dodge the question_, by adopting some other phraseology. He begins thus: "_Grammarians_ differ in opinion, respecting the propriety of the following modes of expression: 'The arguments advanced were nearly _as follows_;' 'the positions were, _as appears_, incontrovertible.'"-- _Murray's Gram._, 8vo, p. 146. ... A late writer expresses his decision of the foregoing question thus: "Of all the different opinions on a grammatical subject, which have arisen in the literary world, there scarcely appears one more indefensible than that of supposing _as follows_ to be an impersonal verb, and to be correctly used in such sentences as this, 'The conditions were _as follows_.' Nay, we are told that "A few late writers have adopted this form, 'The conditions were as follow,' _inconsiderately_;" ..."--_Nixon's Parser_, p. 145. ... In regard to the point at issue, I shall add but one critical authority more: "'The circumstances were _as follows_.' Several grammarians and critics have approved this phraseology: I am inclined, however with those who prefer '_as follow_.'"--_Crombie, on Etym. and Synt._, p. 388 Goold Brown, _The Grammar of English Grammars_, 1851 SignatureEvan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------ HP Laboratories |Sorry, captain. Convenient 1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |technobabble levels are dangerously Palo Alto, CA 94304 |low. kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com (650)857-7572 http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ >>> Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are >>> grammatical: [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] >"The questions are as follows." >This has made my wonder if I'm wrong or just too pedantic! According to Kenneth G. Wilson you are not being pedantic, just precious, if that's any consolation. He writes in "The Columbia Guide to Standard American English": "Whether the preceding matter is plural or not, _as follows_ is always singular: _The reasons for these decisions are as follows._ To use _as follow_ instead is sufficiently precious sounding to make your reader break stride: dont do it." In construction like these, as happens so often in English, the singular subject of the verb is understood. James (BrE with a distinctly septentrional flavour) >>>> Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are >>>> grammatical: [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] >In construction like these, as happens so often in English, the >singular subject of the verb is understood. But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or "wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? SignatureIan >>>>> Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are >>>>> grammatical: [quoted text clipped - 39 lines] >But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or >"wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? "Wrong" sounds so culpable. "Innocently misled" would be better. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >>But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or >>"wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? > >"Wrong" sounds so culpable. "Innocently misled" would be better. If ever a word needed a hyphen, "misled" is it. I never fail to read it initially as "mizzeld". SignatureIan >>>But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or >>>"wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] >If ever a word needed a hyphen, "misled" is it. I never fail to read it >initially as "mizzeld". You are not alone. There are occasional references to this misreading in this ng. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) >>>> But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or >>>> "wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > There are occasional references to this misreading in this ng. Not recently (maybe because it's a long time since we heard from Peter Moylan), I think, and I forget what we call them (the general misapprehension, not the specific one for misled (which I also share: I was certain that a verb misle existed until well into adulthood)). Is a mishy-phen, or is that something different? In a text I was proof-reading yesterday I saw a lovely one. The writer had written "lovestruck", but the printer had rendered this at the end of a line as loves- truck rather than as love- struck I was wondering what a love truck might be -- something that might interest Rey, perhaps. Signatureathel >>>>> But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or >>>>> "wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > >Is a mishy-phen, or is that something different? I think that is a misp-laced hyphen. >In a text I was proof-reading yesterday I saw a lovely one. The writer >had written "lovestruck", but the printer had rendered this at the end [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >I was wondering what a love truck might be -- something that might >interest Rey, perhaps. SignaturePeter Duncanson, UK (in alt.usage.english) > >>>>> But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might be) or > >>>>> "wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > > I think that is a misp-laced hyphen. "Misled" has given its name to the entire species (much as "eggcorn" has done). The mispronunciation that results from misperceiving the morphemes that make up a word is known as a "misle," pronounced "mizzle," plural "misles." We had some threads on the topic here in AUE some years back. My memory tells me that Fowler described "as follows" as an ellipsis for something like "as the case follows." Unfortunately, I can't find anything to confirm this. Regardless, his position, which Burchfield retains, is that "as follows" is the only correct phrasing regardless of the grammatical number of any of its neighbors. Burchfield describes the phrase as "cataphoretic" (and how can you argue with that?) He also suggests that it's a shortening of "as it follows." That's inconsistent with my memory of what Fowler said, but since I can't prove what Fowler said I should probably have stopped at least a sentence or two earlier. I agree that "as follow" used as an introductory phrase is precious. It's also, IMO, wrong. SignatureBob Lieblich Big on followership [...]> >> In a text I was proof-reading yesterday I saw a lovely one. The >> writer had written "lovestruck", but the printer had rendered this [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] >> I was wondering what a love truck might be -- something that might >> interest Rey, perhaps. Or Ron Draney, if it's a sub-genre of truckerbilly music. Ah'm a little overweight An' muh log-book's outadate, But Smokey's outta sight An' ah'm gonna see muh baby tonight! SignatureMike. >>> But which is worse? "Wrong and pedantic" (which I thought I might >>> be) or "wrong and precious" (which is what I would appear to be)? [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > If ever a word needed a hyphen, "misled" is it. I never fail to read > it initially as "mizzeld". And some of us take every opportunity to pronounce it that way in conversation. But the joke is pretty threadbare by now. The hyphen would, of course, have your readers wondering which mis had led you. And what, if not a miswritten miss or ms, it might /be/. The social stigma attaching to wrong preciosity is easier to bear than the one nailed on wrong pedantry. One could always pretend one's apparent preciosity was merely ironic, or the fault of one's parents or somebody; but being pedantic and mistaken exposes one to derision with nowhere to hide. SignatureMike. [previous question and answer] > Furthermore, consider the following two sentences, which is/are > grammatical: > 1- The questions are following. > 2- The questions are as following. Neither version is correct. You can write "The questions are the following.", followed by the list of questions. > What's the diffreneces between the above two sentences and the > following one: ("What are the differences..." or "What is the difference...") > The questions are as follows. There is no practical difference between your last example and the corrected example I suggested above. Both are correct, and either one can be used to introduce a list of questions. I would use a colon after the second ("The questions are as follows:") and either a colon or a period after "The questions are the following". |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2012 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.