Famous Friendships in Children’s Literature

Everyone knows you can’t get good at grammar without friendship. Children’s literature has some great models of friendship at its finest.

In growing-up order, here are five such examples of best friends through the ages.

Frog and Toad

“We will skip through the meadows and run through the woods and swim in the river. In the evenings we will sit right here on this front porch and count the stars.”

—Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Are Friends

Friendship can take effort, especially if you’re dealing with a hibernating amphibian. Frog’s trying to get his pal out of hibernation, and all Toad can say is “Blah.” But Frog proves the importance of patience and gentle encouragement—and in this case, a slight bend of the truth, since it takes telling Toad it’s a month later than it really is to coax his buddy out of bed.

Toad may be a little curmudgeonly. But in the end, the fun of frolicking together makes it all worth it.

George and Martha

“And why didn’t you tell me that you hate my split pea soup?” “I didn’t want to hurt your feelings,” said George. “That’s silly,” said Martha. “Friends should always tell each other the truth.”

—James Marshall, “Split Pea Soup,” in George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends

Nothing says friendship like pouring soup in your shoes to avoid telling your bestie you’re not a fan of her cooking. But even though sparing friends’ feelings is important, so is telling the truth. The two happy hippos, George and Martha, give their fair share of friendship lessons—from honesty to hot air balloons to plain old togetherness. And luckily for them, they usually get a healthy portion of chocolate chip cookies to keep their friendship sweet.

The BFG and Sophie

“You stay where you is in my pocket, huggybee,” he said. “We is doing this lovely bit of buckswashling together.”

—Roald Dahl, The BFG

There’s plenty of adventure to be had between friends—even if your version of buckswashling with your best buds doesn’t involve jumping across oceans or trapping a pack of giants. Sophie starts out a spunky but lonesome orphan, and has the good luck to get kidnapped by the Big Friendly Giant. The friendship that blossoms isn’t just about sharing adventures: it also shows the importance of caring for one another—even if you can’t fit into your friend’s pocket.

Charlotte and Wilbur

Wilbur blushed. “But I’m not terrific, Charlotte. I’m just about average for a pig.” “You’re terrific as far as I’m concerned,” replied Charlotte, sweetly, “and that’s what counts. You’re my best friend, and I think you’re sensational. Now stop arguing and go get some sleep!”

—E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web Friendship means thinking the best of your friends and telling them so—in a spiderweb or just in words. And it sometimes means a bit of bossiness to go along with those much-needed confidence boosts. After all, as a piglet, Wilbur was a little lonely and more than a little runty. But Charlotte’s extremely literate web-spinning skills (she must be a fan of Grammarly) win the attention of all the humans around and Wilbur’s continued involvement with this mortal coil. From the barn where Wilbur goes for a daily manure roll and Charlotte spins pig-related messages that give Spiderman a run for his arachnid money, they develop an intelligent, slightly zany, and very cute friendship.

Lyra and Roger

“We better rescue him, Pantalaimon,” she said. He answered in his rook voice from the chimney. “It’ll be dangerous,” he said. “Course! I know that.”

—Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Nothing says friendship like risking your neck to help a buddy in trouble. Sure, in most cases your friend won’t have been kidnapped by a mysterious international organization set on luring you into the mix, but hey, there’s always hoping.

Lyra is a girl with a mind of her own in a world that looks similar to but not exactly like ours. Her first partner in crime from the university city where she runs wild as a young ’un is Roger (the one who needs rescuing), but the friendships in The Golden Compass get deeper—and weirder—the further you read. Among the friends Lyra makes are a hot air balloonist, a polar bear warrior, a pack of gypsies, witches, and daemons—kind of like human souls who can take animal form. The friends in this story are fiercely loyal and willing to face danger for the people they care about—even if it means leaving their whole world behind.

These are only five of the many fabulous friendships in children’s literature. They may seem too good to be true, but these sets of pals face conflict, quarrels, and less-than-tasty food, just as the rest of us do. Except, to be fair, they do it in a more literary way.

Which set is most like the friendships you cherish? Take the quiz below to find out!

Literary Friend Quiz

Bear minimum vs. bare minimum

ESL TIP: This play on words intentionally misspells the phrase “bare minimum” as “bear minimum,” which, from the picture of this bear, looks to be quite relaxing.

Comparative and Superlative Adjectives: Rules and Examples

Adjectives can compare two things or more than two things. When we make these comparisons, we use comparative and superlative forms of adjectives.

Comparatives

One way to describe nouns (people, objects, animals, etc.) is by comparing them to something else. When comparing two things, you’re likely to use adjectives like smaller, bigger, taller, more interesting, and less expensive. Notice the ‑er ending, and the words more and less. A mistake that both native speakers and non-native speakers make is using incorrectly formed comparative adjectives. See the sentences below for an illustration of this common error:

His cat is more large than my dog.

His cat is larger than my dog.

So what makes the first example wrong and the second right? There are a few rules that explain this:

• For adjectives that are just one syllable, add -er to the end (this explains the above example).
• For two-syllable adjectives not ending in -y and for all three-or-more-syllable adjectives, use the form “more + adjective.”
• For two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, change the -y to -i and add -er.

These simple rules make it easy to tell when you should add -er or -ier and when you should use “more + adjective.”

Here are a few more examples:

This house is more exciting than ever.

This house is excitinger than ever.

Mike is funnier than Isaac.

Mike is more funny than Isaac.

Notice the spelling change for adjectives ending in ‑y: the comparative ends in ‑ier.

This book is boringer than the last one.

This book is more boring than the last one.

Advertising pressures women to be more thin.

Advertising pressures women to be thinner.

Superlatives

When comparing more than two things, you’ll likely use words and phrases like smallest, biggest, tallest, most interesting, and least interesting. Notice the ‑est ending and the words most and least. Make sure you use the proper ending or superlative adjective when forming these superlatives. The examples below illustrate the correct form:

Martha is the elder of the four sisters.

If there were only two sisters, we could use the comparative elder here. Because there are four sisters, we need a superlative.

Martha is the eldest of the four sisters.

Here are a couple of other examples:

I think his last book is his least interesting; his third book was the most interesting.

That must be the weirdest play ever written.

Remember that adjectives ending in ‑y change their spelling when ‑est is added. To form these superlatives, change the y to an i before adding the -est ending, as illustrated below:

That is the sleepyest puppy of the litter.

That is the sleepiest puppy of the litter.

Forming Comparative and Superlatives of Irregular Adjectives

It’s important to note that there are irregular adjectives (and adverbs) that you have to memorize because they don’t follow the rules above. They are:

Adjective/Adverb	Comparative	Superlative
good/well	better	best
bad/badly	worse	worst
far	farther, further	the farthest, the furthest
little	less	least

Here are some examples of these irregular words as comparatives and superlatives in context:

Today I had the best time touring the city.

I went farther than my friend when we walked around the park.

You dance better than I do.

You bought the least attractive pair of moccasins at the thrift store.

He can run the farthest of his classmates, but that’s only once around the track.

I do badly in math, but at least I’m not the worst.

Comparative and Superlative of “Handsome”

Besides the irregular words in the table above, one other unclear comparative/superlative choice is handsomer/more handsome and handsomest/most handsome. The rules call for handsomer and handsomest, but usage has changed over time. Modern speakers prefer more handsome to handsomer, and there is an even split between handsomest and most handsome. Preferred usage typically follows what native speakers say, and the trend seems to be moving toward the simpler construction of more + adjective and the most + adjective.

Did your writing skip a grade?

Today we celebrate some of the most important people in our society—teachers!

On National Teacher’s Day, it’s customary for younger students to bring their teachers apples or more modern gifts. Of course, the best way to thank teachers is by using the information they’ve taught us. As is evident from the show Are You Smarter than a 5^th Grader?, we are still occasionally missing the mark.

In honor of National Teacher’s Day this year, let’s revisit some of the most important writing lessons we learned in elementary school.

Pronoun agreement

The basic rule here is that pronouns must agree in number with the noun to which they refer.

Sometimes sticking with this rule is easy because the pronoun and the noun are close together in the sentence and the usage is clear: Jane forgot her lunchbox. But sometimes, things aren’t so simple. Indefinite pronouns like neither, anyone, or all sometimes tempt us to use a plural when we should use a singular.

Let’s look at an example: “Neither of the girls remembered her lunchbox.”

It’s tempting to use the pronoun their instead of her, because the closest noun is girls. But the true antecedent is actually the indefinite pronoun neither, which should be treated as a singular whenever possible.

At times, it’s not possible to treat neither as a singular. For example: “Neither Jane nor David remembered their lunchboxes.” In this case, you can’t use the singular his or her because neither pronoun applies to both Jane and David. Some writers will use the plural pronoun they in sentences like this, but many readers still consider it an error. It’s often better to rewrite the sentence to avoid the awkward wording: “Jane and David both forgot their lunchboxes.”

“Me” vs. “I”

We were all trained not to say things like “Jill and me went to the store.” We know the correct usage is “Jill and I went to the store.” The problem here is that we tend to overuse “I” instead of “me” in places where we don’t need to.

Have you ever heard something like, “Please save a seat for both Jack and I”? Does this sound correct to you? If so, you might be one of the frequent offenders. Here’s a quick and easy trick to make sure you always get this right. All you have to do is look at the noun (in this case, “Jack”) and the pronoun (“I” or “me”) individually. Try temporarily removing each one from the sentence.

“Please save a seat for Jack.” “Please save a seat for … ”—what sounds right here? Yep, it’s “me.” So the correct usage above is “Please save a seat for both Jack and me.”

For a more complete but still simple explanation, check out the eLearn English Language website.

That vs. Which

These two words may both be used to introduce an independent clause. The rule comes down to whether the clause is essential to the sentence. If it’s essential, use “that;” if it’s nonessential, use “which.” When you use “which,” it should always make sense to set off the clause with commas. When you use “that,” it should seem awkward to add a comma because the clause is essential.

For example: “I organized all of the books that were in the blue box.”

If you tried to use “which,” remember that “which” requires a comma: “I organized all of the books, which were in the blue box.” The sentence no longer says what it said to start, right? We’ve changed the meaning, so “which” is incorrect.

Another example: “I went to my first class, which was a good decision because we had a pop quiz.” Here, the comma makes sense, so “which” makes sense. You get the picture.

In this article on Lit Reactor, the author gives 20 examples of common mistakes that we all need to start getting right, including “That vs. Which.”

In looking at your writing, do you find that you missed a grade?

If not, thank a teacher.

What is the official language of the U.S.?

This poll is part of a series that Grammarly is running aimed at better understanding how the public feels about writing, language learning, and grammar.

Please take the poll and share your thoughts in the comments. We can’t wait to hear from you!

If you are interested in more, check out last week’s poll.

What do you think about gender-neutral pronouns? Take our weekly poll!

Gender-neutral pronouns are nouns that stand in for one’s name but do not reflect the sex of the referenced person. In contrast, he, she, him, her, his, hers, etc. are gendered pronouns, reflecting the sex of the referenced person. Many gender activists and even some linguists argue that plural gender-neutral pronouns — like they, them, their — are not acceptable substitutes for the unwieldy ‘his or her’, ‘he or she’ and ‘himself or herself’ constructions. There have been some attempts to create gender-neutral pronouns. But do we need them? Tell us what you think in the comments!

Do you want more polls? You can take last week’s poll.

 

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Speak Like a Scientist: 4 Words to Try Using Differently

Scientific writing is known for its precision and accuracy. Other forms of written and spoken communication, however, are often filled with confusing and ambiguous vocabulary. Here are four words we’ve poached from the scientific world that should be adopted in non-scientific communication.

Abstract In scientific writing, an abstract summarizes the key points of a presentation or paper. Written scientific research is often lengthy, so an abstract serves as a way to let the reader know what he or she is getting into up front. Most people use the word “abstract” to describe art or theoretical concepts. But if you use its scientific meaning, whether you’re writing a long email or a detailed list of directions, you can create an abstract that summarizes the key points.

Volume In our everyday lives, we often talk about volume in terms of noise. In science, volume is the amount of space occupied by an object measured in three dimensions, expressed in cubic units. Try using “volume” as a more specific way of talking about how much space is available for or taken up by an object.

Hypothesis In the scientific world, a hypothesis is a supposition made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation. In our everyday conversation, the word “hypothesis” can often be substituted for the word “idea.” For example, if you’re planning a bake sale and you base your sales projections on how many cookies and cupcakes you sold last year, you might say you have “an idea” of how much money you’ll make this year. Since your idea is based on evidence from the year before, it’s actually a hypothesis.

Conductor A train conductor, a symphony conductor…we know conductors as people who orchestrate actions. In the scientific world, a conductor is a material or an object that conducts heat, electricity, light, or sound. For example, the cord between your lamp and the wall is a conductor of electricity. (Interestingly, the plastic or rubber casing around the wire acts as an insulator and the internal metal wiring is the strict conductor.) Once you know what a conductor is, you’ll start seeing them everywhere! Use this word from the science world to identify the conductors around you — even in a literary sense!

What other scientific words should be adopted for everyday use? Share your suggestions in the comments!