Hodgepodge

I would like to start off by creating a scenario for you: Imagine a week has gone by since you last bought groceries — you shop at a normal grocery store (not Costco, where you're set for life after just one trip) — and you're wondering what you can throw together for dinner. Looking through the fridge you find some left-over taco meat, half a jar of pasta sauce (better check the expiry date), maybe some questionable vegetables, and some tater tots. On its own, each of these items seems a bit random, but throw them all together and you might get lucky! You'll have either created a masterpiece or be faced with terrible indigestion. This blog will be something like that — a hodgepodge of grammar tidbits all thrown in together. Let's cross our fingers on the outcome.

The first issue I would like to discuss the difference between "fewer" and "less." The word "fewer" is used with count nouns and the word "less" is used with mass nouns (non-count nouns). Count nouns are pretty straight forward, in that they are anything that you can count. Examples are jelly beans, fingers, sheep, etc... Non-count nouns are therefore, the nouns you cannot count. Some examples are clutter or water. Following these rules, most of you will have noticed a common misuse of the word "less" at your grocery store. The express check-outs tend to say "15 items or less," when they should be reading "15 items or fewer."

The second grammar concern I'd like to address is the appropriate usage of "who versus whom." The word "who" is used when referring to the subject of a clause and the word "whom" is used when referring the object of a clause. Another easy trick I have learned for remembering is that if you can substitute the word "he" for "who," then it's correct. And if you can substitute "him" for "whom," then it's correct. Check out the following examples:

Who lives in that tree house?

This is correct because "he" will also work in this sentence.

He lives in that tree house.

 Jack gave his last dollar to whom?

You can see that this is correct because "him" will work in place of "whom."

Jack gave his last dollar to him?

Thirdly, I would like to pose my own question: Does anybody use the word "whelm"? I know it is a word but I don't know whether I've actually ever heard it used before. As I, myself was unsure of the difference between "whelm" and "overwhelm" I would like to provide everyone with an answer I found that I thought gave a very understandable explanation:

Overwhelmed is not really redundant. It is like turned and overturned. Overwhelmed, which is why it is used more frequently, has the connotation of being completely turned over whereas whelmed just means engulfed or overcome by events.

There you go! A little of everything all thrown into one. I hope you enjoyed dinner tonight.