Author Archives: Don Cram

Gerunds, verbs used as nouns, take the possessive instead of the direct object. Not, “They saw him gaining admission,” but “They saw his gaining admission.”

I came across this pair of words while reading C.S. Lewis this morning. Both, of course, derive from words for “heart.” I don’t think I’ve ever come across “enhearten” before, but I like it very much. My spell checker does … Continue reading →

You may hear one of our cousins from across the pond use the curious formation of a permissible kind of double negative: “I am not unaware of the situation.” It means the same thing as “I am aware of the … Continue reading →