Real life is defined in the Oxford Dictionary of English as ‘Life as it is lived in reality, involving unwelcome as well as welcome experiences, as distinct from a fictional or idealised world.’
In this treatise, I hope to establish that just as life is clustered with uncertainties and inconsistencies, the rules that guide the English language are also not always straightforward. It is, therefore, important that language users master the exceptions to aspects of grammar. The rest of this article will discuss exceptional rules in aspects of English grammar.
To begin with concord, I have heard second-language users of English confidently say ‘I lives here.’ Funnily enough, this is an error committed by persons who assumed they were adhering to the ultimate rule of concord, which includes a singular noun attracting a singular verb, as sentences such as ‘He likes rice’ and ‘Tunde reads a lot’ exemplify. On the contrary, persons who commit this error are unaware of the exceptions to this rule, one of which is that the first person pronoun ‘I’ attracts a plural verb. The only singular verb ‘I’ co-exists with is ‘am.’
Also, the main verb will always be plural, provided that it is preceded by a helping verb, as illustrated below:
She sings well (standard).
She can sings well (non-standard).
She can sing well (standard).
In the furtherance of that, the readership should be aware that uncount or mass nouns (for instance, information) are normally succeeded by singular verbs, as in:
The information have been disclosed (non-standard).
The information has been disclosed (standard).
Did you know, however, that there are some uncountable nouns which can be used alongside singular or plural verbs? Textbook examples are ‘headquarters’ and ‘human resources (a department)’.
His establishment’s headquarters is/are in Munich (standard).
The human resources has/have lived up to expectations (standard).
We also have a situation where some would say ‘God blesses you’, with the conviction that ‘God’ is a singular noun. Whereas ‘God bless you’ is considered an elliptical statement which has its full version as ‘May God bless you.’ Such is the case with a sentence like ‘I suggest he stay here’, which is a subjunctive with the full realisation being ‘I suggest that he should stay here.’
Moving on, there is the established rule that a positive sentence has to attract a negative tag question while a negative sentence attracts a positive question tag, thereby generating the following permissible utterances:
The boy is not here, is he? (standard)
The boy is here, isn’t he? (standard)
As an exception, however, a command which is in the positive form will also attract a positive tag. This is illustrated below:
Get out, won’t you? (Non-standard)
Get out, will you? (standard)
Let’s leave, shan’t we? (non-standard)
Let’s leave, shall we? (standard)
When deployed alongside main verbs, the auxiliary verb ‘have’ and other helping verbs determine the question tags, as in:
She has gone to school, hasn’t she? (standard)
They are eating, aren’t they? (standard)
She did not buy cookies, did she? (standard)
By contrast, when the main verb ‘have’ is used in sentences, it does not determine the tag question.
He has money, hasn’t he? (non-standard)
He has money, doesn’t he? (standard)
In reported speech (not ‘a reported speech’ or ‘reported speeches’!), a known rule is that the form of the verb has to change from what obtains in the direct speech. The present tense changes to the past tense, and the past tense changes to the past participle, as the examples below show:
‘Ade is happy’, said Kunle (direct speech).
Kunle said that Ade was (not ‘is’) happy (indirect speech).
Mary said, ‘Ade ate rice’ (direct speech).
Mary said that Ade had eaten rice (indirect speech).
This rule, nevertheless, does not apply to present tense statements which represent proverbs, truisms or eternal truths:
‘Sugar is sweet’, said the teacher (direct speech).
The teacher said that sugar was sweet (non-standard; indirect speech).
The teacher said that sugar is sweet (standard; indirect speech).
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Also, direct speech (not ‘a direct speech’ or ‘direct speeches’!) in the past tense, which has not changed since it was last experienced, will also remain in the past, instead of being rendered in the past perfect:
‘The house was too close to the main road’, lamented Esther (direct speech).
Esther lamented that the house had been too close to the main road (non-standard; indirect speech).
Esther lamented that the house was too close to the main road (standard; direct speech).
Shall we proceed to the realm of adjectives, ladies and gentlemen? It is an established fact that gradable adjectives (for instance, ‘beautiful’) which have comparative and superlative forms are usually modified with intensifiers like ‘extremely’ and ‘very’, whereas non-gradable adjectives (for example, ‘vital’) are deployed alongside intensifiers like ‘absolutely’ and ‘completely’ thus:
She is very beautiful (standard).
Your contributions are absolutely vital to the success of the project (standard).
Nonetheless, it is not out of place to make ‘beautiful’ appear as though it is not measurable and portray ‘vital’ as though it is gradable. In other words:
She is absolutely beautiful (standard).
Your contributions are very vital to the success of the project (standard).
Scholars have established that rules with exceptions save the world from having to treat every situation peculiarly. This piece has buttressed this claim by touching on the main rules of different topics in English grammar and bringing the readership’s attention to their exceptions. Readers are, thus, enjoined to understand that just as life experiences are not always straightforward, grammatical rules also have exceptions across topics.
